"Yeah, she's a rebel 'cause she never, ever does what she should. . . " Ooops, I did it again, apparently.
Meaning, it looks like I stirred up controversy again. Here's the audio clip of me asking Don Garber about ways to make MLS clubs more competitive in international competitions. Perhaps because I've seen Copa Libertadores clubs from Mexico increase their rosters every season - that solution made sense to me, and that's what I broached to Garber, who quickly granted that the idea had validity. He emphasized that the league was looking at options, because they want to see results.
I've yet to write my piece on different ideas people are kicking around the league for MLS teams to improve in the CCC, but Ridge Mahoney (who, incidentally, is heard on the audio in a jinx with me, when we say, "Both" to Garber, referring to the fact that DC and Houston struggled to score) reported some of Garber's statements.
Tommy Soehn wasn't happy to hear DC singled out, I guess.
After you listen to the whole context of Garber's answer, let me know if you decide if he was knocking DC or not.
13 comments:
Ha ha ha, good stuff.
First Cannon, now this?
Sheesh Andrea, you should really be more responsible with your reporting! XD
J/K... I was happy to see Cannon go, good keeper, but he was a bit of a head case.
It's funny - you asked a very general question and he singled DC out. I can easily see why that would tick off Soehn. MLS has a paltry salary cap, no support for clubs in international competition (see below), and now the commish wants to pick on a team about it? Really?
Garber talks about needing to 'get better', but at the same time, the league kills Houston & DC by not giving them some sort of break in their schedule. Why didn't the league shuffle around some off dates for those teams to begin with? There's no grand reason why the Red Bulls & San Jose should have early weekends off.
For example, if the league can't figure out how to give Houston a weekend off before they travel to Costa Rica on a Wednesday, the commissioner surely shouldn't be complaining about a lack of performance. Other leagues re-arrange league matches all the time for special competitions. MLS can cry all they want about not being able to rearrange around huge competitions like the World Cup, but they can't think a little more proactively about the Champions Cup? Ridiculous. I like Garber, but he screwed this one up.
It's moments like these that you're reminded why you have a blog.
Raise the effing salary cap.
Thing is, I think Don had a point. It's important for MLS to do better in international competition, and DC going down at home was a disappointment to that attempt. I thought it was a case of, "Look how they did, not very well, and we need to figure out how to help them do better." I know Don knew exactly what I meant - I was tripping over the question slightly trying not to say so bluntly that MLS teams are getting nowhere in the CCC. Raising the salary cap to me doesn't address the issue as much as expanding the rosters. If you have three games in a week how much you're getting paid doesn't affect the weariness.
Ummmm...AC? The Don was referring to DC "going down" at Pachuca, not at home. While they lost the series, DC *did* at least manage to pull out the home leg...which hadn't been played yet when The Don made his remarks...which is likely what really ticked Tom off (as in, "thanks for the vote of confidence, boss man...i can has more $12,900 developmental roster slots now?").
Sorry - I meant Houston getting nowhere at home and DC going down by two away. A better phrase would have been, the "disappointment of the first leg" . But my larger point was this - more than any other team, DC was vocal about saying that international competition matters, that that's what they care about. When they're already down two goals, it makes a comeback difficult. So I saw the point as something like, "DC says this is what they want to do, but they're not doing it, how can we help them?" That's different than singling DC out as a failure.
Ah, that makes more sense. I have to say, if Garber really wants to help out, he'll let teams opt out of the SuperLiga, the way Mexican teams can (and have). MLS rosters simply aren't big enough to deal with fixture congestion.
I have to ask about that - because I'm actually not sure that MLS makes them compete or the teams choose to because it's lucrative for the club.
AC: I totally get what you are saying about expanded rosters, but with the cap structure, you would be cutting out some $80-110K players and replacing them with 20-50K players. Kinda seems like it would hurt them to have to carry more players.
If they doubled the cap and made the minimums double and the maximum doubled, with an 18 man roster you could have a pretty formidable force.
Though I'd like to see the cap tripled (with the same doubling of mins/max sal) and have them add 4 or 5 roster spots (and increase internationals by 1 or 2 more)
Soehn should be more worried about his 'greatest club in MLS' fizzling out once again.
On World Soccer Daily today Craig Waibel said that if MLS wants these teams to do any better in international competitions there needs to be an effort from the top of the league down.
No, you see, when I say clubs competing internationally should be allowed to expand rosters - add extra players to their team once they qualify for those competitions, I mean that those clubs should get a temporary salary raise good only for the acquisition of those expanded roster players.
very simple answer to the issue . . . the amazingly low salary caps have to go. it is sick to think that a team has to count on 2-3 starters that are making less than 35k per season. this is one of those cases where wher the obvious answer is the best, double the cap and people will be surprised at how much it will make a difference
DMH
Post a Comment