MLS 20 YEARS ON
When the NASL’S successor launched in 1996, nobody knew if a professional football league could be sustained in the US – but it lasted. Lampard, Gerrard, Kaka & Co. tell FFT why it works
Kyle Beckerman had only just begun his career in Major League Soccer when it seemed like the entire league would go under. “We went down to 10 teams in 2002,” the 33-year-old Real Salt Lake and USA international midfielder explains to FFT. “We just didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Beckerman’s team, the Miami Fusion, was contracted – which is US sports-speak for wiped out of existence. Most of the MLS teams remaining had the same owner, Phil Anschutz, who was almost single-handedly keeping the entire division afloat.
Things could easily have gone the way of the North American Soccer League, which collapsed in 1984 after 18 years.
Now Anschutz owns only LA Galaxy. There are 19 other clubs in MLS, all with individual and diverse ownership, and with more expansion around the corner – David Beckham’s new Miami franchise is one of four being earmarked to join the league – MLS appears to be a success story as it marks its 20th birthday.
“It’s very good and very impressive,” says Kaka, now in his second year with Orlando City, who launched in front of a 62,510 sellout crowd last season. “The numbers we had last season? It’s a lot.”
Orlando’s average attendance last term was 33,000, while the league’s average attendance of 21,500 has risen from fewer than 14,000 back in 2000.
But unless mere survival equals success, there’s more for MLS to aspire to as it looks to progress over the next two decades. . Some of the league’s weaknesses can’t be helped, such as the sheer size of the USA and Canada. “The most difficult thing has been the travel,” says ex-reading Reading and Wolves striker Kevin Doyle, now with Colorado Rapids. “You’re away from your family for three days. That’s tough.”
LA Galaxy’s Steven Gerrard, who will be playing with Ashley Cole and Nigel de Jong in the new campaign, tells FFT: “When I turned up here, I didn’t know there was humidity in Houston and I didn’t know there was altitude in Salt Lake.”Lake
The fact that some of the stadiums still use artificial turf remains an issue for many players.players
“I can’t stand turf,” laments Sporting Kansas City midfielder Benny Feilhaber. “It could be the best turf you can come up with,with but it’s still a different sport than on grass.”
There are still areas that can be improved,improve then, but the potential for further progress is clearly there.
“This league tends to be very strong physically,” Andrea Pirlo explains to FFT, having joined New York City FC in 2015. “If they can improve tactically, then this league will definitely grow.”
“The culture is different,” adds his fellow Italian,Italian Sebastian
Giovinco, the league’s MVP last season with Toronto. “Here, the culture is to improve; in Europe, the mentality is to win.”
MLS may have been regarded by some as a retirement league but Giovinco’s arrival from Juventus in his prime, at 29, has defied that stereotype, while LA Galaxy’s Giovani dos Santos is only 26. “MLS is winning the respect of people around the world,” Giovani says. “There’s maybe a little less tactics and technique, but that’s getting better every year.”
Maurice Edu, back in MLS after stints abroad with Rangers and Stoke, sees clubs investing in their future more than ever.
“A couple of teams had academy cademy sides when I started in MLS, and now they all do,” explains 29-year-old Edu. “I wish that I could have had that available to me back when I was a kid.”
Improvements tend to benefit MLS as a whole. Club owners collaborate on rule changes, including gradual salary cap increases that help keep even the small teams competitive.
Any new owner with massive amounts of cash isn’t permitted to splash it around with abandon, preventing the dramatic transformations that can create super-clubs overnight elsewhere. Most squads
have just a smattering of foreign stars signed under a designated player mandate, nicknamed ‘The Beckham Rule’ in honour of the most famous recruit brought in by that provision.
“What MLS is doing is good to grow the league,” New York City FC’S former Barcelona and Atletico Madrid striker David Villa tells FFT, commenting on the arrival of more foreign players and the increased competition across the league league. “All the teams have an equal chance of winning the MLS Cup,” he adds. Villa’s team-mate team-mate, the former Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard Lampard, has relished that aspect, too. “I love the level playing field in the MLS,” Lampard explains. “It’s competitive. You can see teams winning the MLS Cup that you didn’t expect to win.” Portland Timbers, whose star names don’t extend much beyond defender Liam Ridgewell, proved that point by triumphing in 2015.
The darkest days of the league are now in the past. With more teams, fans and star signings than ever before, the next 20 years look bright for MLS.