Press-Telegram (Long Beach)

MLS rules make repeating as champions very difficult

- By Josh Gross Correspond­ent

The Los Angeles Football Club team that won the organizati­on's first MLS Cup four months ago would cost an untenable 30% more to field in 2023.

Pitting the promise of a stellar encore performanc­e against the impression that Major League Soccer champs suffer for their success, the league's uniquely American budget rules and regulation­s deem that an array of individual and team performanc­e bonuses, written into standard player contracts at the discretion of the clubs, shall count against the next season's salary cap.

Winning, it seems, can carry a price, which LAFC was willing to pay.

“I think on one extreme you would say you're punished,” said John Thorringto­n, LAFC general manager and co-president. “And to those who are in favor of parity, you're saying it's just a part, a function of one of the league's priorities, which is competitiv­e parity.”

MLS prefers for its labyrinthi­ne salary structure to be described as serving “competitiv­e balance,” said Christina LaBrie, MLS senior vice president of player relations, which means poor performing teams receive additional financial tools to quickly turn things around.

“Going into the next season, there are no rules that disadvanta­ge a champion team,” LaBrie said. “There are rules that redistribu­te some of the allocation, some of the salary budget space, as we call it, to the teams that didn't make the playoffs or the teams at the bottom. This is traditiona­lly within American sports a common concept.”

After missing out on the MLS postseason in 2021, LAFC received more money to sign players or pay down salaries under the cap in 2022 than it did in the wake of its championsh­ip.

At the same time, the rules act as a governor on ambitious clubs by ensuring they can't spend multitudes more than others, as is commonplac­e outside the U.S.

The Designated Player rule and mechanisms, such as targeted allocation money, offer exceptions to the overall cap by providing teams options to spend more.

The difference between parity and balance comes down to semantical­ly fine margins, however the effect on franchises, particular­ly those competing against clubs outside MLS that do not operate under similar restrictio­ns. It all makes LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo feel as if the rules are stacked against them.

“It's just the way this league has been built and it is not ideal if you increase the amount of competitio­ns for a champion in the following season, so I think in the future maybe we need to rethink this,” Cherundolo said. “But the rules are the way they are and we will obviously abide by them and do our best to field a very strong team.”

After capturing two of the three competitio­ns it entered during Cherundolo's debut MLS campaign, this new group will vie for twice as many trophies over the next 10 months, presuming they qualify for the playoffs.

This is why, as LAFC returns to competitio­n Saturday seeking to repeat, which hasn't happened since the Galaxy in 2012, Cherundolo sees the season ahead as “a challenge, but it's also an attest for those organizati­ons that can do it. It means their scouting, their management and their vision is great. But it's work and it's hard.”

The core of last year's championsh­ip team, including the majority of the starting 11, returns without the expansive team sheet supporting them.

In more ways than one, the Black & Gold were fortunate that Welsh forward Gareth Bale retired instead of sticking it out and blowing a superstars­ized hole in LAFC's budget, partly because starters Jose Cifuentes and Diego Palacios did not move to Europe as expected.

This is why the team's leading goal scorer, forward Cristian Arango, was begrudging­ly transferre­d to current Liga MX victors Pachuca, which represents a potential opponent in CONCACAF Champions League and the Leagues Cup on top of their Campeones Cup meeting later in the year.

It is also why LAFC wasn't in the market to retain free agents Sebas Mendez, Cristian Tello, Franco Escobar or Sebastien Ibeagha.

“We are entering a period where our budget is very constraine­d at a time when their value is at their highest having just won an MLS Cup, so it's really difficult,” Thorringto­n acknowledg­ed. “It's not a level playing field in some regards.”

Opponents may have had similar thoughts about LAFC when it was at least two-deep in every position last year, an anomaly that helped them dictate terms on the pitch en route to the MLS Cup-Supporters' Shield double.

The Black & Gold pressed and pressured opponents into mistakes for 90 minutes, creating chances in dangerous areas, while showcasing enough dynamism and quality to build up from the back, through the middle, or along the flanks.

“We wanted to keep everybody — we really loved that group and the success we had together,” Thorringto­n said. “Once we realized that was not possible, we had to prioritize and that's what we did.”

This meant landing their top freeagent target, center back Aaron Long, whom LAFC previously attempted to acquire in trades from the New York Red Bulls, and bringing versatile “players we think can play three times in a week without much issue. So that was part of our intent this year knowing we would have this glut of games,” Thorringto­n said.

“It's never going to be the same team, but this club won the championsh­ip. It's not like it's new that we have a target on our back. It's always been the case. Our players embrace that challenge.”

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