Mancini Makes Promising Start

December 29, 2009 Kartik Krishnaiyer 1 comment

Let me be upfront and honest. I do not like  British managers being replaced with foreign ones. I also do not like players from the British Isles being replaced by players from the continent, Africa or North America. Call me a traditionalist, but I believe the fabric and character of English football has been hurt by a foreign invasion. Not that I am against all foreign players, but I do support the 6 + 5 rule and believe it could ultimately help the English game.

All of this having been said, I am an admirer of football tactics and a supporter of Manchester City Football Club. That puts me in the awkward position of understanding that the sacking of a Welsh manager and replacement by an Italian manager was probably the best move the club could have made from a footballing perspective.

Continue Reading at Manc City Blog

Categories: Uncategorized

Is Second Division Soccer Neccesary in the USA?

December 26, 2009 Kartik Krishnaiyer 52 comments

Let me preface this article by stating I do not subscribe to the view that I am about to write about. But enough MLS fans have expressed concern to me about what they consider a piddly minor league dispute potentially affecting the good work of MLS and the USSF since 1996 that I felt it was only fair to air some of these views.

Here are some of these thoughts:

“USL is a waste of time and space. Anything USL does, MLS and the USSF can do better. The USSF has academy teams spread throughout the country and promotes the national team as a brand name that is the “home” team everywhere.”

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“USL’s death would be a good thing for American soccer. It would allow the MLS brand to spread itself into places like Minnesota, North Carolina, Atlanta and also get back into Florida. It is MLS that promotes the sport with clever marketing, a real TV contract, and Sportscenter highlights/good TV audience and brand recognition and USL that no one knows are cares about.”
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“After so much time has been invested in MLS, and it has done so much good work for American soccer, this new NASL threatens everything. The USSF must reject the NASL and take USL out of the business of professional soccer. If you do not have enough fan support to join MLS, support the closest MLS team. With 18 teams around the country and more coming, teams are now close enough to everyone to support. “
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“The teams from USL-1 and USL-2 can either be moved to MLS or replaced with amatuer teams playing in the area. USL’s youth system is obselete now that the USSF has its own development academy club team system and even if this dispute is resolved, the USSF should step in and shut USL down, forcing the youth teams to join the USSF system and the pro teams to either join MLS or drop down to the amatuer ranks. That would be the best solution for the American game and growing the brand. Fans in cities that previously had USL teams can support as new amateur team, growing that side of the game or pick the closest MLS team to support.”
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“With MLS achieving so much success the last few months, you and other soccer writers have focused on a dispute between minor league teams in minor league cities. It is a disservice to soccer in this country and quite honestly, MLS is what matters, and is our league. Most soccer fans have never heard of Carolina Railhawks or Miami FC and do not care. American Soccer is MLS, and these teams should either play by the rules or be shut down. “
Comments taken from various message boards and emails to me since the beginning of the USL/TOA dispute.
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I’ve editorialized in the past that too many american soccer fans have confused what is good for MLS as a business as being good for American soccer. One such example is when a USL team, Puerto Rico faced an MLS team Toronto FC in the CONCACAF Champions League, but so many US fans openly backed a team from Canada with less than half the number of American players that the USL team had.
The above listed comments rub me the wrong way, but they do represent a significant segment of American fandom. This group does not care about soccer beyond the MLS level, and often times shows a contempt for discussion of anything else in American soccer (unless it is the national team).
One more note. The closest Mexican League team (Atlante) is less than half the distance from me in south Florida, than the closest MLS team is from me (DC United.) So the comments that state that MLS teams are close to everyone are slightly bizarre.

Categories: United Soccer Leagues

SPA Daily: 2009 International Awards

December 23, 2009 Kartik Krishnaiyer 1 comment

On the Wednesday version of Set Piece Analysts’ daily podcast, SPAs Jeff Kassouf, Johnathan Starling, Kartik Krishnaiyer and Richard Farley hand out their end-of-year awards for the international world, following-up on Tuesday’s club pod by walking through 2009’s best players, coaches, leagues, stories, memories.

Set Piece Analysts’ daily podcast features the site’s best talent talking about all the news in the football world. You can get it via iTunes, from the site’s archive, in the Flash player (top and to the right) or from the inline player below.

Don’t forget you can get in touch with the show either in the comments below, at podcast@setpieceanalysts.com or on our individual Twitter accounts that can be found on the left hand side of the page. While your at it don’t forget to follow Set Piece Analyst on Twitter at twitter.com/spanalysts.

SPA Daily: 2009 International Awards

Categories: Podcast

It’s time for Texas to have its own pro Soccer league

December 22, 2009 mitchhoward18 10 comments

Phil Rawlins, team owner of the Austin Aztex, take note. 

As one of the only stable entities left in USL and someone who has the rare affiliation with a professional team outside the United States (Stoke City), Rawlins is someone who carries clout at a time when professional Soccer is at one of its most unsettling moments.  A players strike is looming for one league and the other two (USL Div. 1 and the NASL) leagues are trying to figure out whether they will play a 2010 schedule.  (USL Div. 2 will play 2010 with what appears to be only 6 teams, all from the Eastern part of the U.S.) 

It’s the perfect time for the 7 PDL teams from Texas to seek one more team ownership for San Antonio and come together to form their own league.  They should ensure their success by complimenting their men’s teams with a women’s league.  Thus, eight teams because 16 teams.  Both the men’s and women’s teams of each city/area can use the same team colors and can travel together to give fans a doubleheader for all regular season games. 

Texas may be the only state that could be successful with its own pro Soccer league.  The only other ones with a chance to accomplish it would be Florida or California.  But, a close look at each state’s current infrastructure puts Texas out in front.  Though youth Soccer is strong in Florida and California, it may be strongest in Texas. 

Also, quite a few of these Mid South PDL teams have been around a while and have lots of fans who support them from year to year. 

Laredo is a big competitor every year for the PDL title, winning it once.  The El Paso Patriots have an enormous history as far as Soccer teams go in the U.S.  They were founded in 1989, made the U.S. Open Cup final in 1995 and have been playing in a soccer-specific stadium since 2005.  And, the West Texas United (from Midland, Texas) seem solid as they made a big splash in their inaugural season of 2009, making the playoffs. 

There are two Texas mottos that seem to always stand out.  ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ and ‘Everything’s Bigger in Texas.’  Do these mottos hold true for Soccer too? 

For these 7 owners, it’s time to take a deeper look at the possiblity of forming an all Texas pro Soccer league. 

It seems, that if they only want to be part of the USL’s base, than they are selling themselves short when it comes to the bottom line of making money.  Starting their own league and pulling their resources together without the middle man would create more possible revenue from new franchises and all other marketing efforts.

Alejandro Bedoya Called into US Camp

Former Weston Fury Youth player and St Thomas Aquinas Alumnus Alejandro Bedoya has finally been called into the US National Team. He will be attending the January camp at the Home Depot Center which ends with a friendly versus Honduras.

For more on Bedoya, including his youth and professional career, check out this article I wrote earlier this year for MLS Talk.

Categories: US National Team

USL/TOA/NASL Update

December 22, 2009 Kartik Krishnaiyer 41 comments

The gag order placed by the USSF on parties involved in the dispute between USL and several of its (former?) clubs  has precluded fans of the clubs and reporters from gathering much information the past few days.This gag order was necessary given the poisoned waters of the rhetorical war that had ensued between all parties.

I am told by a source close to the situation that the USSF has been working diligently to foster a compromise that will work in the best interests of all the affected clubs. The source reveals that Dan Flynn, the Secretary General of US Soccer has done a remarkable job of attempting to build a consensus based solution to the extremely tricky situation. Flynn, I have been told has shown remarkable leadership the past several weeks.

Our source maintains that all plans currently being considered, would permit every current second division club scheduled to play in 2010, to play somewhere, be it in USL or a newly sanctioned NASL. It is possible that only one second division will play in 2010, but that every team planning to play in 2010 will be permitted to play regardless of the league they play in. So rumors that some teams would be dropped based on which league gets sanctioned can now cease.

With this small piece of information revealed, I certainly hope supporters of the affected clubs will have a Merry Christmas knowing whether it is the USL or NASL, to plan on a 2010 season. I have received a few emails from supporters of various clubs concerned that they will not have live soccer in 2010. Based on what I have learned, I believe fans can be assured their teams will play in 2010, even if we don’t know which league they will compete in, just yet.

Categories: Uncategorized

SPA Daily Podcast: Yearly Club Awards.

On the Tuesday version of Set Piece Analysts’ daily podcast, SPAs Jeff Kassouf, Johnathan Starling, Kartik Krishnaiyer and Richard Farley hand out their end-of-year awards for the club world, walking through 2009’s beat players, coaches, leagues, stories, memories and more, a prelude to Wednesday’s morning’s podcast, where the crew will do the same for the international game.

Set Piece Analysts’ daily podcast features the site’s best talent talking about all the news in the football world. You can get it via iTunes, from the site’s archive, in the Flash player (top and to the right) or from the inline player below.

Don’t forget you can get in touch with the show either in the comments below, at podcast@setpieceanalysts.com or on our individual Twitter accounts that can be found on the left hand side of the page. While your at it don’t forget to follow Set Piece Analyst on Twitter at twitter.com/spanalysts.

Check out the show here.

Categories: Podcast

The Hughes Sacking at Set Piece Analysts

Mark Hughes was sacked hours after Manchester City’s 4-3 victory over Sunderland Saturday. Read my thoughts on the sacking and hiring of Roberto Martinez at Set Piece Analysts.

Also check out this excellent piece for SPA by Richard Farley, and my piece on Roberto Mancini’s challenges ahead.

Categories: Uncategorized

Manchester City 4:3 Sunderland- Post Match Thoughts

In a match that represented a microcosm of City’s season thus far, Craig Bellamy and Roque Santa Cruz, the two players in the side who had previously played for Mark Hughes stepped up to try and save the embattled manager. But is it enough?

With Roberto Mancini who won two Serie A titles as a manager at Eastlands today (Mancini’s Inter were awarded a third title after the fact) the press is active with speculation about Hughes future.

Continue Reading at Manchester City Blog

Categories: Manchester City

Hughes Should Stay

Mark Hughes time at Manchester City has not been smooth by any stretch of the imagination. The side is currently underachieving after the manager asked his critic to judge him based on this season’s results.

Yet, City’s Arab owners need to be cautious in pulling the trigger. Hughes understands British football and the Premier League better than any manager currently available on the open market. Bringing in a continental manager who will have difficulty with English players is a recipe for disaster and could send City closer to the relegation zone than to the top four.

From a tactical standpoint, Sparky is trying to get the Blues to play with style, but has been forced to mold several disparate parts together. City has overspent on the attack, while neglecting the defense. The sale of longtime skipper Richard Dunne and the unwillingness to buy former City defender Sylvan Distain speaks loudly to the priorities of City’s board.

Continue Reading at Manchester City Blog

Categories: Uncategorized