With leagues such as the Premier League, La Liga, and the Serie A, the MLS often gets overlooked in the world of soccer.
However, with the growing popularity of soccer in America and the rise in young, talented players, the MLS looks to become one of the elite leagues in the Western Hemisphere.
The MLS was created in 1996. After the success of the 1994 World Cup, Americans desperately wanted their own soccer league.
The league had a great start; Brian McBride was drafted No. 1 by the Columbus Crew, D.C. United won the inaugural MLS Cup, and over 78,000 fans were in attendance for the first All-Star game between the East and West.
Just over a decade later, the league contains 14 teams, and will be adding two more in the next two years.
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Stars like Landon Donovan and David Beckham from the LA Galaxy, Eddie Johnson from the Kansas City Wizards, Kenny Cooper from FC Dallas, and Cuahtemoc Blanco from the Chicago Fire are bringing excitement to the MLS with their goal scoring antics.
All-Star games are still attracting huge crowds by MLS standards, with this year's game attracting 28,000 fans, and the All-Stars have a perfect 3-0 record in the last three years, beating clubs such as Chelsea, Celtic, and most recently West Ham. United.
While the MLS has had success in recent years, there is still some need for improvement. Many of the clubs still don't have their own stadiums, so they use football stadiums or college stadiums.
Many star players, such as Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Freddy Adu, and most recently Jozy Altidore, have gone to bigger clubs across the pond. The MLS needs to find new young talent, and fast, before they go to other clubs around the world.
The youth program is still fairly new to the MLS. With good decisions, the MLS can start recruiting their own homegrown players.
While the MLS has its own set of problems, the future looks bright for the league. We could be looking at the new elite world league within a few years. But for now, it's just America's elite league.
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3 months ago
"Elite World League within a few years"?
No. You are wrong. Sorry.
3 months ago
Playing top notch European teams' b and c-squads during their pre-season training is not a way to measure the progress of the MLS. Playing the likes of Chelsea, Celtic and West Ham in a meaningful game with each team in their midseason form playing all their regulars would make the MLS backers sing a different tune. That being said, the MLS has improved since its inception and will continue to improve especially with supported youth systems, however, it will long be considered below not only the top flight leagues in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Scotland, the Netherlands, France and Turkey but also leagues in many European countries. When the North American talent base matches the money and hype of the MLS we maybe talking a different story. I write this while preparing to got to my local MLS game today, support the team and enjoy the soccer before me.
3 months ago
There are some good points in here, but I feel that we are 10 years minimum from a competitive league. Let me explain a little. Right now we are closing in on the Mexican league as far as what we can offer players. In fact players from mexico and central american countries are looking to MLS as a stepping stone to bigger things. And while that doesn't seem like such a great thing, it is a huge step. It means people watch MLS and follow it and that is a start. The proposed expansion of MLS to 18 teams by 2012 is also a huge step. If we can get 18 teams throughout the usa and canada in soccer specific stadiums with consistent fan bases by 2013-14 we would be in a great spot to begin looking towards integrating the USL and creating a two-tiered system like almost every other league in the world. I think that is when we would start getting serious competition and having the bright future you speak of.
But we as a league are growing and people are starting to really follow teams here in the states and that is just fantastic to see. I would like to see MLS teams break into a tournament like the Copa Libertadores in the next couple of years. Why not? Mexican teams are involved and we just proved in the Superliga that we can compete with those teams.
All in all i think we are a little further away than you predict but we are well on the way. And if soccer is watched in the states and young kids see the excitement and talent, than many of those young kids playing soccer and being driven around by their mothers in minivans will stick with soccer instead of choosing a different sport because they see basketball and football stars with all the money and glory.
3 months ago
i agree i think the MLS is still about ten years away from becoming a competitive league when compared to european leagues. The first thing they need to do is increse the salary cap to about 5 million instead of the 2.4 it is today which extremly limts any team from having quality depth. When we start to have a reasonable salary cap we will start seeing more more talent younger players coming from around the globe. Surely the owners of these MLS teams many of which own baseball or NFL teams can afford a 5 million salary cap when baseball or the nfl is closed to 50 million. I also feel the mls needs to find citys where soccer will thrive and not another kansas city where the average attendence is near 10000 i think expanding into montreal and vancouver would be a great move as they both have soccer history and attracted big crowds for thier usl games. this would only increase if the MLS came to town all in all they have done good work up until now but mls needs to keep making good buissness deciosns or the league will crumble like the old NASL did.
from 3 months ago
Ok, so apparently my predictions are off a bit. But I did take on the ownership issue in a different article I wrote. Take a look.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/45328-the-mls-needs-improvement
3 months ago
Don`t listen to all those one sided views Thomas.
I`ve watched about as much MLS as I have European soccer. Boring unless you are down to the last four in Champs League. ..(and even so..well ) Italian and Spanish Good but EPL...give me a break.
It`s a four team league.
MLS has some great goals and teams. Beckham went there and instead of overrunning the league looked as ordinary as any other good MLS player.
The only thing I find off a bit is the atmosphere and some strange markings on the fields. Simple little things that seem out of place...but the actual football is as good as any.
USA soccer has made great strides and will continue to make great strides. There was a time where no one even played soccer in Brazil. In just over 50 years we won our first world cup. Now we are the best with the most titles. ...and no EPL team could survive in the Brazilian league ...it would be shameful.
So rock on USA......they talk you down cause they are scared of you turning into another Brazil or Argentina.
from 3 months ago
Thanks for that. The MLS sometimes uses football stadiums for its games. That's why the markings are a bit weird. And yea, I think Brazil and Argentina is a great example of small leagues going global.
3 months ago
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/11611-charles-miller-scotlands-gift-to-brazil
A little Brazilian soccer history.
3 months ago
im sorry i love MLS and espically toronto fc but comparing the epl to brazil and saying brazil is better is just crazy talk as well as saying the MLS is compatable to the epl im srry but the quality gap is massive
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