I have been supportive of Major League Soccer in the past. I’ve gone on record advocating the general direction that MLS has taken. I stand by those statements. The league is headed in the right direction in most of the areas that matter. League wide attendance is up, the league is breaking into the big television networks, and many of the recent ex-MLS players like Geoff Cameron and Roger Espinoza have been quite successful on the world stage.
Yet MLS is doing a very poor job in one very important area: fostering the league’s hardcore fans.
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The Cascadia Cup trademark issue is still unresolved, and although it appears positive progress has been made to ensure the Cascadia Cup remains with its rightful owners, the supporters, it was a very clear move by the league that shows it values short term dollars and cents rather than long term club stability and common sense.
The current league rules continue to be a tangled web of puzzling rules and blurry contract regulations. The Discovery List procedures made headlines in Vancouver when the rumour starting surfacing about Nigel Reo-Coker wishing to sign in MLS.
When it became clear he was favouring the Whitecaps, it was learned that the Portland Timbers had his discovery rights. It is absolutely ludicrous that MLS clubs are able to "discover" a 28 year old player who has played 120 games for West Ham United, over 100 for Aston Villa and received international honours.
This is not to criticize Portland, as it has recently come to light that Vancouver seems to have a discovery claim for the bright young prospect of Ji-Sung Park. As a result of this ridiculous rule, Vancouver was forced to give Portland two second round draft picks. While Reo-Coker has shown he’s well worth the two picks, it is an asset wasted for a rule which hardly serves a purpose.
The often mocked Allocation Money is another head scratcher. Allocation is seemingly like monopoly money that can be applied against player salaries to "buy down" the cost of their salary to fit under the salary cap and can be traded between clubs. In theory, allocation money is a clever way of ensuring parity and allowing clubs to increase the quality of their roster without increasing the salary cap. The problem is that no one other than the club knows how much allocation money is distributed.
Sprinkle in a little bit of guaranteed, semi-guaranteed, and non-guaranteed contracts, and a dash of unpublished contract lengths, and you’ve effectively eliminated the ability of the common fan of playing armchair manager.
I understand that the league must protect its clubs and ensure parity, but one of the reasons that the NFL is so big in North America is the inclusion of fans in fantasy leagues. MLS is eliminating a massive subset of fans who are more intrigued by the statistics, values, and predictive elements of the sport than they are by final outcome of any one match.
Two more MLS oddities have reared their ugly heads this past week that continue to be sticking points.
On June 15th, in the game versus New England Revolution, Whitecaps youngster Kekuta Manneh appeared to have made contact with Revs keeper Bobby Shuttleworth after he was sprinting for a ball played on the far edge of the six yard box. Shuttleworth smothered the ball and Kekuta may of clipped Shuttleworth with the toe of his boot.
From some angles it appeared there was no contact, but from others it appeared there was a slight touch from youngsters boot. Shuttleworth made a meal of it and writhed in agony as if he was stepped on by a sumo wrestler in metal spiked golf shoes, but it was clear that there was no intent on the young Gambian’s part.
Yet, days later, the MLS Disciplinary Committee <a href="http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/06/18/mls-disciplinary-committee-fines-suspends-three-players-and-colorado-rapids-" target="_blank"><u>"unanimously considered the challenge to be an unequivocal red card offense that endangered the safety of his opponent."</u></a>
The only sane conclusion I can come to is that the committee decided that Kekuta failed to do everything in his power to avoid contact. Okay. Fine. Perhaps he could have done more to leap out of the way when he saw a keeper coming head first for a ball.
Then what on earth is the MLS' independent review panel doing <a href="http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/06/05/independent-review-panel-rescinds-red-card-suspension-seattles-obafemi-marti" target="_blank"><u>rescinding Obafemi Martins’ red card for essentially the same thing</u></a>; a player inadvertently clipping an opposing player in the head after a battle for the ball.
Now, I understand that the Disciplinary Committee and the independent panel reviewing contested red cards is different, but they are both extensions of the League and you’d hope they’d have the same opinion on what "reckless" means and what types of actions "endanger the safety" of players.
Then, in the 39th minute of the Whitecaps match versus Chivas USA, Carlos Alvarez rose to challenge Johnny Leveron for a header. Leveron was favourite to reach it, and he did, but Alvarez arrived with his left elbow high and caught Leveron with God’s razorblade and sprung a considerable leak. Leveron required bandages to finish the half and arrived after halftime sporting three new stitches over his eye.
I don’t think Alvarez meant to injure Leveron. And he was given a yellow card on the play, meaning the official did not deem it to be a play endangering the safety of another player. Similar to the Kekuta Manneh play. However, Carlos Alvarez was suspended only a month ago for intentionally kicking a ball towards a fallen opponent’s face.
So, if I’m the League and I’m tasked with handing out suspensions for plays which may endanger the safety of the players, should I be more concerned with a player who only a month ago was suspended for a reckless act who needlessly flailed his arms in the air for a header he was least likely to win causing three stitches over the eye of the opponent, or a guy who clipped a player after he made a run for a through ball to the touchline and was beaten to it by a sprawling keeper in a play where the only damage done was to Bobby Shuttleworth’s honour?
Meanwhile, there was a couple fantastic football matches played. In what was very astutely described by AFTN Editor Michael McColl as a <i>"game that had a little bit of everything,"</i> the Whitecaps topped New England 4-3 before a midweek handling of Chivas USA by a score of 3-1.
In the middle of the two, Kenny Miller, the second hottest striker in the league behind Camilo, had both his tallies versus the Revs nominated for goal of the week.
And shame on me, I actually voted. I’m not sure why, as there was a Portland Timber also nominated. It’s become a bit of joke, really, as any time Timber Joey saws off a slab for a clever finish, it’s almost a sure lock for "goal of the week". No better an example than last week, when Kenny Miller’s fantastic individual effort (including a header to himself and a less-favoured left footed finish) and his even better dipping half volley from 20 yards out over two defenders and the keeper was beaten out by an impressive but rather pedestrian turn-and-shoot inside the box goal by Oregon sweetheart Darlington Nagbe.
This is the same Darlington Nagbe who beat out Eric Hassli’s now world renowned wonder goal in Seattle with a very tidy two touch volley which, on it’s own, was worthy of many plaudits, but was light years behind Eric Hassli on every metric that matters.
It’s a little thing, I know, but the MLS is a league which is not only a multinational sports league, but also its own marketing department, advertising agency, and journalism outlet. I’ve already completely lost interest in the "goal of the week" competition as it’s hardly meaningful in any manner in its current format.
The league would be wise to take notice of some of its other bizarre practices before some of its most hardcore become disinterested in the whole kit and caboodle.
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