Fulham USA FC
Can we just call that team what it is? Its an American National team abroad, much like Arsenal is/was depending on the day a mini French team in England. I wont go into what this says about England not developing English players because the more Americans abroad at the current time can only help us. Eddie Johnson just signed thru 2011 to play for Fulham, making him the 5th American player to join the club and now we have 11 (I looked it up) in the premiership. Once Benny "he scores against mexico so i will always love him" Feilhaber gets out of Derby, Fulham will have half the americans in the epl... i am getting way into the statistics but thinking back to my sophomore year of HS the JV team for SSHS should have just been called what it was - the LWS somewhat team... i say somewhat cause if we had others from the school join in I am sure we could have put together a decently strong side - but as a UEFA Championship, I digress...
just recently I read something on myfootballclub.co.uk about how the MLS will always be second rank solely due to its playoff structure, and i wont disagree with that but i think the current issue with the mls is the talent issue. the level of play needs to rise, with beckham coming over and more international attention I think that will happen. But i also think having those players go overseas and then come back a little seasoned will help. Once McBride finishes playing overseas, I hope he comes back and helps out with an MLS team, gives a few youngsters some tips and helps them and our country move up the ranks...
thats all on my mind right now... good luck to eddie
1 youth
5 comments:
good post
although i fear he will be lost over there, i hope eddie does well and lives up to the potential he showed in his early games with the us mnt- we really need him to become the go to striker for our squad unless altidore can get it done at so young an age.
it is funny to see them all at fulham- dempsey is playing really well, bocanegra looks good but not quick enough and wow they miss mcbride. all in all fulham is not very good. it will be interesting to see if any of our guys bail when they get demoted.
if trudo had played soccer for sshs he'd be in the mls by now. mean skills.
If Johnson stays healthy and gets playing time, I hope he gets to the level that I think he can, based on what I saw of him here.
As for Fulham being an "American" club: as it sits in 19th place in the EPL, I'm not sure I'd tout its heavy US player representation! I saw some of the Arsenal game, and it clearly showed that Fulham was not a top-club level. (Based on what I recall of its performance last year, I was shocked to see how far it had fallen.) Maybe once McBride returns from injury, the club will rise in the standings or maybe Eddie will jump-start an improvement. But I can't imagine it will help the US if half of its players get relegated in the spring.
As for MLS, I think it will remain second tier because it's not likely in my lifetime to have the money to compete with the top European clubs. We'll get a Beckham and a Blanco (etc.) from time-to-time, but we won't get teams of top quality players because no one has the money to invest in a sport that doesn't have the potential revenue stream that is available in Europe and elsewhere. (We have the money to compete with Central and South America, so we get good players from that region. But the better players even from there are going to want to go to Europe, where there's even more money.)
As for the playoff system, it's hard to foresee a time when there'd be enough clubs playing professionally at a high enough level to create a relegation system in the US. I'd have to know more of why the writer on myfootballclub.co.uk said what he said to be able to respond. I'm not sure a different playoff format would make that much of a difference.
my view is scrap the playoff system altogether and make the regular season be thing while at the same time increase the stature of the US Cup (or whatever our FA Cup is called) and have that be a separate big thing.
It would be interesting to know how much the playoffs are worth to the league in terms of attendance and TV revenue. I have to wonder whether a US version of the FA cup would generate the same level of interest.
my guess is that the playoffs are very big but that is because the regular season has next to no meaning. it would take time to change fans' expectations, but it seems necessary to me for the long term.
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