What is the best direction for American soccer to Proceed? Should we inflate salaries in MLS or encourage our best players to develop overseas in the World Class Leagues?

Clwyd’s thoughts on American soccer.

U.S. Soccer seems to be committed to MLS. Is/should the fate the National team be synonymous with quality of talent in MLS? Personally I am glad that some players are making the most of opportunities to play in Europe. So far we don’t seem to have developed or otherwise acquired a truly extraordinary star. We may not see it depending only on MLS. Many players have begun going to Europe since I first wrote this page. I am glad to see that.

I was grateful to Bruce Arena for what he did in developing the national team. In the balance he put up a winning team not wedded to traditional ideas like score early and pack it in for the rest of the game. We saw several years of Bob Bradley. I gave him a passing grade. He seemed to strike the right tone considering the place soccer holds in the U.S. sports scene. He was positive and never seemed desperate. He never shared it with me if he was.

Jurgen Klinsman impressed everyone for a while. I felt uncertain about all the dual citizenship players now wearing our shirts. I was not opposed to it on an individual basis but I don’t know if it would win any more fans among U.S. fans. I hope we would evolve a less parochial mindset but at first the phrase “Americans of Convenience” came to mind. In truth I have not heard of anything bad. This type of thing has a long history. In the early years of national play Italy had quite a few Brazilians of Italian ancestry. Spain has one guy at this writing, Diego Costa. The U.S. women’s team has a player, Sydney Leroux, who is of Canadian origin. She even played for various under 21 Canadian teams. Guess the jury is still out on this,

If you have had any opportunity, in person or by broadcast to see English Premier League or the top Italian, Spanish, French or German League you can’t help but notice the difference in overall play. I believe that the best team in MLS would be relegated after the first year, assuming they had a shot at the Premier League anyway. However, I am impressed with the improvement in MLS play since I first created this page, several years ago now. Fox Soccer and ESPN market the game well enough here and in Canada. There are more choices if you are Spanish speaking or want to go the Pay-Per-View route. We get a fairly steady diet of North American, mostly U.S., talent on display.

Wonder how the next coach will perform.