The Football News Thread 2024/25

[Squeak]

So is the anti-USSF thing real or just a windup you keep in the back pocket?

Asking genuinely.

I am anti MLS not anti US Soccer. USL is a far better and fairer league than the bullshit that goes on in MLS. Garber is responsible for that and that bloke is a two faced corrupt wanker IMO. The way he oversaw how Atlanta and Miami came into the league and what they were able to do compared to other new teams was nothing short of corruption.

US Soccer, meanwhile, isn't run very well. We have all seen the issues in NWSL and the abuse that was allowed to happen there. Gulati and Cordeiro stood by and did nothing. They also failed to promote the game and take it forward. They also failed to find common ground between MLS and USL, although most of that was down to Garber and the owners of MLS teams.

The only bright spot has been the USWNT who have battled against all odds over the years to be successful even though they now have internal problems eating away at them. The USMNT is similar.

The we have to look at the youth set up and what it produces. The star player is Pulisic who can be great in a 15 minute burst but then does sod all after. It is a system all about fleecing parents for as much as they can and again MLS teams are the most guilty in that respect. US Soccer and its flagship MLS are extremely poor in promoting the game and developing US players IMO.

That said, away from the money men (and now a few women) there are some fantastic people in the game in the US at all levels. I support those people wholeheartedly but I do not support an administration that puts roadblocks in their way of making soccer in the US better.

 

[Del Woppio]

I've just learned more about The MLS from Sqeak in 3 minutes than I've learned from Al in ten years

 

[Alan]

I’m at least impressed that some of those are legitimate issues that need to be addressed.

Your stance regarding MLS specifically is pretty baffling though and speaks to a misunderstanding of soccer culture in this country and the history of failure therein. USL is not a saintly organization by any means and in fact has benefited greatly from the failures of other leagues. Further, the mismanagement of USL in its many, many forms over the decades is inarguable; go have a look at the number of clubs that have been in the organization and ceased to exist within a decade. It dwarfs the number of failed MLS clubs. Further even than that, USL existed (in organization, if not name) prior to MLS and were doped by Nike money. Their failure to establish a proper, sustainable, professional league allowed MLS to bring the single-entity model to US Soccer.

You may not like Garber or MLS or whatever, but you cannot sit here and pretend USL is some superior product, organized in a superior way, or has had anything like the positive impact on the sport in this country in the way MLS has.

 

[Alan]

I've just learned more about The MLS from Sqeak in 3 minutes than I've learned from Al in ten years

Still working on my Soccerology degree innit

 

[Squeak]

I’m at least impressed that some of those are legitimate issues that need to be addressed.

Your stance regarding MLS specifically is pretty baffling though and speaks to a misunderstanding of soccer culture in this country and the history of failure therein. USL is not a saintly organization by any means and in fact has benefited greatly from the failures of other leagues. Further, the mismanagement of USL in its many, many forms over the decades is inarguable; go have a look at the number of clubs that have been in the organization and ceased to exist within a decade. It dwarfs the number of failed MLS clubs. Further even than that, USL existed (in organization, if not name) prior to MLS and were doped by Nike money. Their failure to establish a proper, sustainable, professional league allowed MLS to bring the single-entity model to US Soccer.

You may not like Garber or MLS or whatever, but you cannot sit here and pretend USL is some superior product, organized in a superior way, or has had anything like the positive impact on the sport in this country in the way MLS has.

There you go again stating I have a misunderstanding of soccer culture in the US. I have been involved in "soccer culture" in the USA since 2011. I have met many of the key players in US Soccer at all levels and had lengthy discussions with many of them. In fact, I should be at the USL conference in Tampa right now but other work commitments mean I have to skip it. Other colleagues are there though and I will get a report on things going on.

Frankly, I was debating whether to engage with you but it is quite clear you are a "right fighter" and don't want to engage in meaningful discussion about where our points of view may differ. I have offered you details of some of my background in regard to soccer in the USA via PM many months ago and you basically ignored me. I got no response and while that is your choice, when I put that together with the type of reply that basically says "you don't understand soccer in the US", then I can only come to the conclusion that you just want to score points.

I most certainly do not know it all about US soccer but I do have access to people who have been in it and around it since the failed earlier attempts and people who know a great deal more than me. And, final point, at no point have I said the quality of play in USL is better than MLS. I have just said it is a fairer league in which teams compete and not the rigged set up we see in MLS and that you appear to deny.

 

[Alan]

You must have an Uncle at Nintendo as well. Maybe he intercepted that DM you supposedly sent me (you didn’t, which is desperately easy to prove).

Don’t get on a high horse when you’ve freely admitted you WUM for fun.

 

[leedswolf]

You must have an Uncle at Nintendo as well.

Link?

 

[Squeak]

You must have an Uncle at Nintendo as well. Maybe he intercepted that DM you supposedly sent me (you didn’t, which is desperately easy to prove).

Don’t get on a high horse when you’ve freely admitted you WUM for fun.

The PM was there for several months. You didn't respond so I eventually took myself out of the conversation. I don't know what happens to PM's when one party leaves the conversation but I assume there is a way to find it.

I'll put you back on ignore now then as clearly you have no interest in talking about football in the US and just want to continue to bait me.