ESPN Network:
ESPN.com
ESPN Deportes
Fantasy Games
|
|
|
| Friday, September 14, 2001 24:18 EST |
Will MLS finally get a marquee Mexican player?
By Jeff Bradley
[ESPN The Magazine]
They're so close, yet so far away. We're talking about all those great Mexican players Major League Soccer has coveted since Year One. They're so close on the map, yet so far away when it comes to the money they earn make in Mexico compared to the States.
|
THE FIRST XI
|
|
Week 1 developments:
11. Adin Brown is among the elite keepers in MLS.
10. Mario Gori would make coffee nervous.
9. The standings make a lot more sense now.
8. DirecTV doesn't care about soccer fans.
7. Dallas and Chicago have the best rivalry in the league.
6. New England is still a team under construction.
5. We can't judge Colorado until the Rapids can field a real team.
4. Raymond James Stadium recently hosted a monster truck show.
3. Hristo Stoitchkov is not fat and out of shape.
2. The MetroStars are still undefeated.
1. We don't miss the shootout yet.
|
It's been one big tease, really. Everyone knows a big-time Mexican star would put a lot of fans in the seats in Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago and San Jose. But everyone also knows a big-time Mexican star would throw the MLS pay structure out of whack. To put it plainly, a half a million bucks gets you a lot more in El Salvador, Costa Rica and Eastern Europe than it gets you in Mexico, where even role players will cost you a million.
So, aside from Jorge Campos, Missael Espinoza and Carlos Hermosillo, the only Mexicans who've made their way to MLS have been bit players like Daniel Guzman, David Patino, Tote Castanedo, Zico and Damian. That's why, currently, there's not a single Mexican in MLS. Well, that's about to change, according to the league.
Now at the top of Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis' to-do list is to sign a "significant" Mexican player and to get him to the Los Angeles Galaxy as soon as possible. Names like Manuel Abundis, Francisco Palencia and Luis Hernandez are the latest to be throw into the mixer. The league sounds like it's prepared to spend more than it's ever spent on a player in the past, which could mean somewhere around $3 million.
Your next question may be, "Why do the Galaxy deserve that type of allocation?" The answer is, "they don't," but will once they trade for San Jose's Eddie Lewis allocation. What would be in the deal for San Jose? One can only guess the trade talks will start with a player like Clint Mathis and include at least one more promising young player. Because Lewis was sold for so much (almost $2 million), that allocation is worth more. Of course, we're not ruling out the possibility that it plays out differently and L.A. gets the allocation in exchange for draft picks and a scrub. As you know, in MLS rules are subject to change and alteration.
This is really important
Since MLS commissioner Don Garber came out and said recently that the No. 1 issue for the future of his league is Stadiums, we'd like to weigh in here with what we believe to be the second and third most important issues. Are you ready?
No. 2: Stadiums
No. 3: Stadiums
We all know, until MLS gets into smaller buildings and improves its in-stadium and on-television atmosphere, the league's going to have colossal image problems. Meanwhile, the whole State of MLS gets distorted. Good crowds look measly. Exciting games look boring. And a league that says it's growing looks like a league that's really dying.
Take two of the four MLS openers as examples. Chicago and Dallas at the Cotton Bowl and Colorado and Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl. Both were exciting games played before crowds (12, 000 in Dallas and 24,000 in L.A.) that were on the high side of the four-year norm for those teams.
In fact, we could make a good argument that if each team was playing in a venue suited and sized for its soccer fan base, both of those games would have been played before near-capacity crowds. Instead those games were played before tens of thousands of empty seats and/or colorful tarps that covered up empty seats.
On the positive side of this story, Phil Anschutz has announced that he is committed to building a 25,000-seat stadium for the Galaxy, and Stuart Subotnick and the MetroStars are inching closer to a 30,000-seater in downtown Newark or at the Meadowlands.
On the negative side is word out of Chicago that the Fire are thinking just as hard about partnering with the Bears on a new Soldier Field project as they are about building their own soccer stadium. The Bears deal would not only put the Fire in a massive, multi-sport stadium in 2003, but in Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park for the next two years.
Obviously, we know financial issues rule every decision in sports, and it's hard to justify building a stadium for an MLS team and its paltry 20 home dates. But the last thing any soccer fan wants to hear these days is that his team is moving into some colossal, sky-boxed-to-the-max, mega-stadium that will be "downsized" for intimacy.
We've been down that road before, and it's ugly.
Two more? Or too late?
Another story that scares us as much as MLS teams creating new stadium partnerships with NFL franchises is the league's expansion plans. Isn't it already too late to be talking about new teams joining the league next year? Shouldn't those front offices be in place, making impressions in their markets, selling tickets, getting organized?
Well, there's nothing in place, yet talk persists that as soon as next season you could be looking at new MLS teams in Houston and New York (or, if you believe everything you hear, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Rochester or Charlotte).
Realistically, the only places where MLS could expand in 2001 are to Long Island's Mitchell Field Complex, which could be expanded from 12,000 to 20,000 in two months, and Houston's Robertson Stadium, which is a 25,000-capacity building in the process of being renovated. But if that announcement isn't made soon, all bets are off, and all those other cities will be back in the fray, looking to join MLS in 2002 or 2003.
Not even close to Mutiny
Nothing gets a team feeling good about itself like a lopsided victory in its home opener. So in Tampa Bay, the Mutiny are the closest team in the league right now, coming off their 5-1 waxing of Columbus at Raymond James Stadium. "It's because we finally have some continuity," says coach Tim Hankinson. "We have guys who were together for the second half of last season, and now they're totally committed to fight for one another."
Hankinson says the biggest change in Tampa since the mid-point of last season is, obviously, getting Carlos Valderrama back in a Mutiny shirt, but also surrounding him with players who work hard and have the ability to keep the ball. "The game is fun for Carlos when a team can possess the ball," Hankinson says. "That's what keeps him in tune, when he has a good feeling that his teammates will be on the same page as he is."
Tampa played a 4-5-1 against the Crew with Steve Ralston and Manny Lagos running the flanks (they were free to change from left to right as they saw fit) and Raul Diaz Arce as a lone front-runner. Hankinson will not break up that unit, even if Senegalese striker Mamadou Diallo is cleared to play this weekend. "We'll be missing Raul in our third game," Hankinson says. "So it will be good for Mamadou to see how Raul plays as the only forward, and then he can hopefully step into that role."
In tight space
D.C. United should be able to start 10 of the 11 players it put on the field in the MLS Cup final when it opens its season against L.A. on Saturday, with the sole exception being the replacement for Roy Lassiter. That striker will be either veteran A.J. Wood or 21-year-old Chris Albright, who is being called "the fastest man in MLS" by some observers.
There won't be more press than fans at the MetroStars-Fusion game at Lockhart Stadium, but it could be close. They're building an auxiliary press area at Lockhart to accommodate the German press on hand for Lothar Matthaeus' MLS debut. Matthaeus is expected to play some version of a "libero," picking and choosing when to attack. When he sits back, fellow Deutscher Thomas Dooley will move up, and vice versa.
|
E-mail exchange with ...
Tony Meola
|
|
JB: How are things looking in KC, Tony?
TM: There is great enthusiasm on our team this season. The few remaining guys from last year want to reverse our misfortune from last season, and the newer players are aware of what happened. I think this team, with all of our changes, is a much better team than last season. We have added some very good soccer players to our roster, and there is no substitute for good players. We should be much better.
JB: How about you, are you totally fit?
TM: I am fully 100%. It was hard to believe last year, when the doctors were telling me that I would be stronger than ever, but almost a year after my operation that's exactly
what I am; stronger than I have been my whole career.
JB: How are the Wizards going to play?
TM: I think we look more like a European team than any other style. We will probably play a 4-4-2, sometimes even something that looks like a 3-4-1-2. We should be pretty solid on both ends of the ball. The key for us will be how healthy we can stay. We know we are an "older" team. It's also important for us to get off to a good start.
JB: Are you still hoping to end your career back East?
TM: Going back East is still a wish of mine in the future. For now, I am committed to the Wizards, and I feel I owe something to Bob Gansler, since he was the coach who gave me my first chance to play at the highest level. I will owe him for a long time.
JB: You and Peter Vermes are back together again. Are you looking for a third tenor?
TM: Hey, in 1996, Charlie Stillitano's self-titled "Three Tenors" were one minute away from going to a Game 3 shootout with D.C. United and maybe going into the second round of the playoffs. I think breaking them up hasn't worked out for the better for New York.
|
Upon getting his room assignment at the Fire's training camp in Bradenton, Fla., Hristo Stoichkov asked who was the youngest of his condo mates. When rookie John Wolyniec said he was the youngest, Stoichkov said, "Then it's your job to wake me up." Then the Bulgarian added with a wink, "And I like to wake up to the smell of fresh coffee."
MLS may find the parity it so desires this year, if only because of the havoc the Olympics could cause during the playoffs. A team like D.C. might be forced to play the first round of the playoffs without Ben Olsen, Albright and, depending on Clive Charles' overage player selections, one or two more starters. Chicago, as well, could be fighting for its life without Josh Wolff, DaMarcus Beasley and perhaps Chris Armas.
Cobi Jones has taken his fair share of shots from critics over the past few years, probably because he's got a "so-cool, SoCal" image, but for his entire, four-year MLS body of work, Jones stands right behind Marco Etcheverry as the best player in league history. And he proved that again on Opening Night, with one of the best goals you'll see in 2000.
John Wilmar Perez, the new maestro in Columbus, was so excited when he took his first look at beautiful Crew Stadium that he called his wife and family in Colombia and told them to plan on being in America for a long time.
Pub talk
The very first "Soccer Saturday" sure would have been so much fun if I could have seen it, but thanks to DirecTV, a lot of soccer junkies like myself got short-changed because DTV's not running the whole package of games this year on its MLS/ESPN Shootout Package (even though it's still $69).
A few angry words. First of all, putting MLS games on a $69 "subscription package" in 1997 was a terrible, greedy idea for a fledgling league. MLS should have been happy that dish-owning soccer fans would be able to get MLS games, just as they could get Italian and English league games, as part of their normal package. It would have served MLS better just to be out there for any dish-owning, channel-surfing person to find.
Second, putting MLS exclusively on soccer-hating DTV for two years while blacking the games out on DISH was an ever bigger diss to soccer fans. That decision forced fans like myself to abandon DISH and go out and get DTV so we could keep up with MLS.
So now, in Year 5, MLS finally gets the package back on soccer-friendly DISH (where it should have been left alone, and non-subscription like it was in 1996), only now those of us who switched to DTV in '97 are left with an "abbreviated schedule." What a joke.
More angry words (not really angry). Now that I've seen them in action, the new Nike uniforms, with the possible exception of the MetroStars, are just as ugly as the old Nike uniforms. It's a miracle these guys didn't screw up Arsenal and Barcelona's kits. My guess is that the good soccer people in Beaverton, Ore., just use MLS as a dumping ground.
Hey everyone knows those new-look logos in ESPN The Magazine's MLS Preview were a joke, right? Well, they were only half a joke The logos were supposed to light a bulb in the MLS offices so they could see that MLS logos -- except D.C. and maybe Chicago and Miami -- don't clearly stand out on the American sports landscape as soccer logos.
I don't like in-stadium music much, but any team that wants to run out to Bouncing Souls' punk version of Ole' has my blessing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
