Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss Part II
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Anonymous
I so agree. However, Man City plays beautiful soccer now. They are changing English expectations. Pep is sticking to his guns. |
Anonymous
I am not this poster. I am the other MLS-blaster. MY KIDS are the ones that said 'this sucks' at the DC United games. I was busy drinking with the other parents...already knowing I wasn't going to see great soccer on display so I might as well have some fun. That was not me talking. I said nothing about MLS prior. We had season tickets to the Washington Diplomats as a kid, btw. Give kids more credit. The soccer enthusiasts raised on it can spot poor play at a very young age. |
Anonymous
He did come to his own conclusion. He'll watch MLS and laugh more often than not. He's free to watch whatever soccer games he wishes. Like I said, I would love for him to be passionate about DCU, but he doesn't want to go or even watch MLS. I didn't force this on him. All I did was encourage him since he was young to take care of the ball. The rest are his decisions. I can't force him to like something or not to like something. |
Anonymous
You just don't get it. Without a successful domestic league soccer will not be a culturally relevant sport that will be self motivated to compete on the worlds stage. It is really encouraging that your kids also think MLS sucks. You know what also actually sucked, 1960's NFL but it was the best that we had at the time. I'm not telling you to fawn over MLS, I'm not even asking you to like MLS. I'm asking you to support our professional leagues because they will never grow and improve if we don't. |
Anonymous
Dude, in case you missed it I WAS GOING TO PROFESSIONAL US SOCCER GAMES in the 1970s!!! Washington Diplomat season ticket holder. I have Pele's autograph from when he played with the Cosmos. Unlike NFL, the sport has not progressed over the same time period to a sport people want to watch because it isn't even remotely close to International games. Truthfully, the joy back then was getting to see Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Pele and some of the other greats even though they were well past their prime. Get Messi to come to the MLS after retirement and people will start showing up. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Last one got embedded: Man U vs Barca sold out FedEx field last summer. Americans will pay to watch good soccer. |
Anonymous
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Yes they will pay to watch good soccer but how does paying to see a Barca v Man U scrimmage grow our league? MLS salaries need to steadily rise as well as the talent but a strong home league is pretty vital to increasing the cultural capital of Soccer here. There really is no disputing that and it does not conflict with your opinion of the quality of the league.
Our professional league is not that great and neither is our National team and yet nobody sees the correlation. Of course the Premier League has not provided England with a World Cup either. |
Anonymous
Or they'll pay to see brand names of clubs trotting out their second-stringers for preseason soccer in 90-degree weather, and they won't care if it's disjointed crap because the clubs are famous. Look -- at some point, people need to get over themselves. MLS can't please everyone. They brought over David Beckham and Thierry Henry when they were near their primes, and while it was great for a lot of people, others scoffed that MLS is a retirement league. They brought over Sebastian Giovinco IN his prime, and people think he must stink now that he's in MLS. These days, MLS is getting tons of talent from the Americas -- Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc. That's not bad. Some teams are great to watch. Some aren't. D.C., unfortunately, has been in the latter category for some time. But if you think you can hold your nose up and pat yourself on the back because you're aware that Man City and Barcelona are better than D.C. United, just be aware that you're well past the days of being able to command respect just by naming a couple of big names in Europe. |
Anonymous
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^^ I hear your passion, but the point you keep glazing over is that we’ve been turning out shit in men’s soccer since the 70s. Yes- we have Pulisic—but no way could he play with the trash here and give up millions. We don’t have a critical mass of quality players to fill one team vs an entire league. Getting us to come watch MLS is NOT going to make the MLS better quality. It will bring the MLS $ which will get pissed away and not go towards proper development.
AND, most importantly, our DA/youth and colleges are still picking on physicality and a shitty style of play. The majority of our DA players can’t even play with both feet reliably. Our trainers are not qualified and our youth system is broken. We need to fix those before MLS can take off. And despite your nasty attitude—back in the 70s/80s nobody would have come out to watch Ajax, etc. in such great numbers. FIFA being televised now is what has brought change and interest to this country! (And FIFA 18 and women’s World Cup success  ). Virtually no kids were wearing International soccer jerseys in my youth—now you see them everywhere and kids know even the obscure players. So yea thank Man U and Barca for bringing attention to the sport in this country.
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Anonymous
+1 That pp also missed the entire point of even mentioning Barca or Man U initially was that it was to support the point that over 80k people will come to watch good soccer in the DC area, not to demonstrate knowledge of teams. Duh. |
Anonymous
I think there are plenty of fans in Airtricity(Ireland Soccer League) and Allsvenskan(Swedish Soccer League) that watch the Bundesliga(German) and Premier League(UK) for lack of quality in their leagues. There is nothing wrong watching another nation's sports league, and one could argue the Premier League is more South & Western European and South American than it is English, at least for the top 6 clubs. I am with the people that have the opinion that we are limited to a few hours of discretionary sports watching, as oppose to the required happenings of the NFL for office conversation, and would rather watch the matches the have higher potential of being quality matches. There are some real snoozers in La Liga, Seria A, and Bundesliga and some poor lineups that result in poor soccer, but for MLS the overall quality is low, so you will see players miss a pass, receive with the wrong foot or have their lob passes go too wide or simply not executed at all because the players don't know how, the finishing in MLS is also poor. I have watched MLS games, and I do feel like I'm watching a youth soccer game, it's just not to the level of professional standards that we can find on Bein sports or NBC mornings. I choose to not watch MLS, and until the quality level rises, I probably will not look forward and try to schedule my weekends around MLS games. I am looking forward to Dec. 23rd and already made sure that day is free of commitment, I just don't see myself ever being that hyped for an MLS game. |
Anonymous
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PP
None of what said speaks to the point that is being made. MLS will NEVER be the same level as the European counterparts but having MLS be culturally relevant is all that matters. You can enjoy it for what it is and not turn your nose up at it. I mean I’m pretty sure most of your kids soccer games are all crap but you root and you care nonetheless. |
Anonymous
Again, why is that the customer should suck it up and deal with the product MLS is providing? How about if MLS improve their soccer, and then the customers will come. |
Anonymous
Don’t but don’t complain about the league either and don’t complain about our national team when the one small thing you can do is turn a tv channel to a MLS game. You don’t even have to watch, just give it a click. I’m not disputing the league quality versus Europe but you simply fail to acknowledge the simple symbiotic relationship at play here. The more league revenue, the more money clubs can invest in development. The higher salaries that can be payed the more attractive the league is to talent. MLS still has to compete in a brutal landscape of huge leagues and huge clubs. You could buy the Columbus Crew for less than half of Ronaldo’s transfer fee. So no shit MLS lacks the quality of other leagues but being a pompous snob is only widening the gap. Yes, we will fill a stadium to watch to European powerhouses play their second string in a scrimmage but until we can fill a USL stadium we will likely continue to suck on the international stage because culturally it demonstrates we are not as passionate about the sport as successful nations. |