In this podcast, Kevin Walker and Kartik Krishnaiyer discuss the sale of USL and upcoming CONCACAF qualifiers with a focus on the US and Mexico.
In conjunction with Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer, MLS Talk and the Kartik Report present the USL at a Crossroad series.
Part one is here
Some excerpts from our article with commentary:
In 1986 the professional soccer landscape in the US looked bleak. The last of the North American Soccer League (NASL) teams, that looked so promising for a few brief years in the late 70’s, were all gone.
The collapse of the NASL was the “end” it appeared for the sport. After the NASL collapsed, despite playing youth soccer, I didn’t follow the game again until 1988 and that was because of the APSL.
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As a Rowdies executive, Marcos also grew the Tampa Bay Youth Soccer Association to a statewide level as the Florida Youth Soccer Association and was responsible for the first modern cooperative agreement between an American club and a top foreign club: an affiliate arrangement between the Rowdies and Sao Paulo of Brazil.
This work benefited me personally. A unified Florida youth structure which I played in as well as the opportunity to see Sao Paulo and Ipswich Town (then managed by Bobby Robson) come to Fort Lauderdale as part of this agreement. As great as the NASL was, seeing perhaps the top teams from abroad come to the US, thanks to Marcos made a lasting impression that remains today.
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In April 1999, the USL announced Umbro had purchased another 30% of the USL, bringing their portion of ownership to 60%, while Signal Apparel and Riddell Sports each held 15%. Marcos retained 10%.
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Several USL teams even built soccer specific stadiums, yet they have failed to receive the recognition from many in the American soccer community that MLS sides have for their SSS building program.
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In 1999, Blackbaud Stadium, the first modern SSS in the United States, was built for the Charleston Battery. The facility, modeled after lower league grounds from England has been phenomenally successful. Columbus Crew of MLS built a soccer specific stadium that opened a few weeks after Blackbaud.
We felt it was important to correct the rampant mis-information about Crew Stadium being the oldest SSS in the country. Firstly, a SSS was built in the old ASL days but even if you consider that “ancient” history, the football press in the United States continues to cite Crew Stadium as the first SSS. Perhaps it can be called “the first SSS to seat over 20,000,” but it was not the first SSS in this modern era.
Having visited Blackbaud, it is probably more of a traditional football ground than almost anything built in MLS until Toyota Park opened in 2005. The Charleston stadium was actually modeled after football grounds in England, unlike many MLS stadiums which seem to be modled after High School (American Football) Stadiums.
Toyota Park, and Dick’s Spoting Good’s Park are proper grounds, but some of the other SSS passed off by MLS, ESPN and others in the soccer press as revolutionary, are really not.
This having been said, MLS must be applauded for developing its own grounds, regardless of the look and feel and developing strong streams of revenue which is league controlled. Many USL clubs have failed to follow the examples of MLS , Charleston and Rochester in this regard.
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images Europe)
Manchester City FC has become the most vilified football club in the British Isles despite last collecting a piece of silverware in 1976. For those of us who have suffered through multiple relegation campaigns and other events that those outside the UK who “picked” the likes Arsenal or Manchester United to support would not understand, I give no apologies for City’s recent spending spree.
Those fans never had to suffer through a campaign in the third flight, when a fan like myself based in the United States was reduced to surfing the internet and message boards to find results and then finally got to see my team by going to a pub to watch the playoff final versus Gillingham. Those fans never had to sweat relegation each and every year in the Premier League until big money came our way. Those fans have never experienced the grind of second division football and the mental toll it even puts on fans from afar.
City’s league and cup start has been perfect while the performances have been far from from outstanding. But, City has taken maximum points thus far, and has an international break to look forward to for many of the club’s top players before returning to action on September 12th.
My post match thoughts are at the Manchester City Blog.
Thomas Rongen, longtime Florida resident and US U-20 National Team coach, named a squad for the upcoming World Cup full for familiar faces to Floridians. Anthony Wallace of St Petersburg who is a veteran of the US U-20 setup will be on the backline along with current Miami FC central defender Gale.
Sean Johnson, the current goalkeeper for the University of Central Florida men’s side was named to the squad as was the dynamic attacking presence of Tony Taylor from Jacksonville University. Taylor recently spent some time training with Miami FC of USL-1, and he looked ready for the World Cup according to a team official.
The entire US World Cup Squad can be found below:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Sean Johnson (Central Florida; Lilburn , Ga. ), Josh Lambo (FC Dallas; Middleton , Wis. ), Brian Perk (UCLA; Rancho Santa Margarita , Calif. )
DEFENDERS (6): Gale Agbossoumonde ( Miami FC; Syracuse , N.Y. ), Kyle Davies (FC Dallas; Danville , Calif. ), Aaron Maund (Notre Dame; Dorchester , Mass. ), Ike Opara ( Wake Forest ; Durham , N.C. ), Anthony Wallace (FC Dallas; St. Petersburg , Fla. ), Sheanon Williams (Unattached; Boston , Mass. )
MIDFIELDERS (8): Danny Cruz ( Houston Dynamo; Glendale , Ariz. ), Mikkel Diskerud (Stabak; Oslo , Norway ), Dilly Duka (Rutgers; Montville , N.J. ), Jorge Flores (Chivas USA ; Anaheim , Calif. ), Jared Jeffrey (Club Brugge; Richardson , Texas ), Brian Ownby (Virginia; Glen Allen, Va. ), Dillon Powers (Notre Dame; Plano , Texas ), Michael Stephens (UCLA; Naperville , Ill. )
FORWARDS (4): Sam Garza ( Denver ; Highland Village , Texas ), Peri Marosevic (FC Dallas; Rockford , Ill. ), Brek Shea (FC Dallas; College Station , Texas ), Tony Taylor ( Jacksonville ; Jacksonville , Fla. )
A lot of confusion exists about the sale of the United Soccer Leagues to Nurock Holdings. In my reporting for MLS Talk in cooperation with Inside Minnesota Soccer, the confusion is growing. No clear answers exist and I have quite frankly spent the bulk of the last 24 hours on the phone acquiring information on the issue. For all of the latest check back here or visit the two above referenced sites.
I’ll never forget the day when my father brought his boss to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers home game against the San Diego Soccers. The year was 1982 and the league was the NASL. The Strikers were a good team and would as always end the season fighting in the playoffs. But on this one night, a team that included Nene Cubillias, Ray Hudson, Thomas Rongen and Brian Kidd were badly outclassed and on the wrong end of a 7-1 scoreline.
The APSL Strikers were always one of the better teams in the league, and under Thomas Rongen they had some poor matches but nothing coming close to what happened last night to Miami FC. Even for what was borderline semi-professional soccer, Fort Lauderdale drew 3,000-4,000 for each game. Why? The team was good for the league they were in and they had the right name.
For most of its existence, the Fusion were swimming against the tide. Poor player decisions, bad marketing and a horrible manager in Ivo Wortman. Interestingly enough the same organization that had sacked Cacho Cordoba barely midway through the first MLS season, allowed Wortmann parts of three seasons to work his magic before he was finally shown the door.
Wortmann managed to keep his job even after an embarrassing 6-1 loss at Spartan Stadium against the equally poor San Jose Clash. Somehow, after that match the Fusion recovered and meekly slipped into the MLS playoffs. Not that the club had accomplished anything, because after all they were competing with the likes of the Metrostars under Bora and the Revs under Walter Zenga for that final playoff spot.
The Fusion righted the ship under Ray Hudson, but after the Fusion disappeared, Miami FC owned by Traffic Sports came to town. The hopes were high, because Traffic is massive in Latin America, and for year one they brought the one and only Romario to South Florida. Romario instantly made Miami FC one of the best teams in the USL First Division, but since the team has been a poor compilation of journeymen players, without any real core.
The club has produced some nice talents and passed through some others like Eric Brunner and Josh Saunders. But the bottom line is Miami FC has failed to capture this markets attention and imagination the way the Strikers and even to a certain extent the Fusion have.
Last night, may have been the death knell unless serious changes, or a re-branding effort is undertaken. Miami FC is already a damaged brand, but losing 9-0 makes a damaged brand, one you pull off the store shelves permanently. You don’t fold the company, but you re-brand and market to another audience. Traffic Sports for all their success in other football related ventures is failing with Miami FC.
Aaron Davidson, the team President is one of the most creative and innovative minds in the American game. My hope is that he is allowed to make the changes he feels are necessary to right this ship before it takes on any more water. The Blues have scored twice but conceded 24 goals in the last month. This is despite waiving local hero Diego Serna and signing Brazilian World Cup veteran Junior Baiano along with USYNT standout Gale, and Tristan Bowen, once among the most promising young players in MLS. Nelson Pizzaro, a local Broward County product was also signed, but he has yet to show any quality in a match.
For more discussion of Miami FC’s woes tune in to Mad About Futbol’s next podcast.
Also for last night’s postmatch summary, please check out this piece by Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald.
Other thoughts from the Ultras President and Miami Soccer Fan’s Pieter Brown.
Miami Soccer Examiner’s Juan Arango has this sobering look at the team.
Yesterday, Jack Bell of the NY Times wrote a piece on the ongoing sale of the United Soccer League by Nike/UMBRO. He however had some critical details wrong.
Firstly, while USL-1 owners are working with Traffic Sports, the President of Miami FC, Aaron Davidson is also the head of the USL First Division owners association. This means that USL-1 owners will work through Davidson with any potential buyer, be it Traffic Sports, the reported front runner, or any other bidder, which includes groups from both the United States and Europe.
Secondly, MLS I am told did submit a proxy bid via Adidas that was ruled out of bounds. Whether the bid was formally rejected because it was low or not submitted because any bidder is required to keep UMBRO as a USL sponsor is immaterial. The point is MLS had every intention of bidding on the USL. Bell’s story is written in such a way that the it appears MLS looked at USL and felt it was a bad investment.
Thirdly, Romario played for Miami FC three seasons ago, not last season. Bell is competent writer, but missing badly on minor details like this, especially for a veteran journalist (ie not a blogger) is disappointing. Bell typically gets small details right, and produces some outstanding work on the sport. That is why if this was a story that the NY Times was going to cover like a blogger would, they need not have covered it at all.
MLS and the USL had an affiliate agreement that broke down earlier this decade. Chances are whomever wins the bid for USL will not renew that affiliate agreement in the near future.
Here is the video stream of my appearance on the top Canadian footy show, It’s Called Football.
Miami FC has overturned much of its squad in the last several weeks. The Blues have in the last three weeks signed a stater for the US Under 20 World Cup team, a World Cup runner up defender, the first academy graduate in MLS history, and one of the best recent local products. Yet, the team continues to lose games between minutes 75 and 90.
Much like last season, Miami FC has now lost several matches which the team looked solid through 70 or 75 minutes, late. Worse yet, much like last season and the season before, Miami FC will miss the playoffs, baring a completely unexpected collapse by someone ahead of the Blues in the table.
This was the second game for Miami FC since local footballing hero Diego Serna was waived. Serna, who at 35 looked too slow and unmotivated to play at the USL-1 level was replaced by Tristan Bowen, the first graduate of the LA Galaxy Academy.
Miami FC now sits six points back of the final USL-1 playoff spot with only seven matches remaining.
Portland 51
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Carolina 45
Charleston 45
Puerto Rico 41
Rochester 34
Montreal 32
Vancouver 31
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Miami 25
Minnesota 20
Cleveland 16
Austin 15 (-2)
In other news, the Miami Ultras have been accepted as the first Sams Army Brigade.
The Miami FC Blues have earned just one point in the last five matches and now find themselves in a precarious position with regards to the USL-1 playoffs.
Tonight, the Blues travel to Vancouver to face with the Whitecaps in a playoff deciding six pointer. If the Whitecaps win tonight, it is difficult to see the Blues making a run at the clubs first playoff birth since 2006.
Miami FC has made two high profile signings recently: first Gale, the American U-20 defender who is likely to feature prominently for team USA in the upcoming U-20 World Cup.The second big signing was Junior Baiano, whose pedigree includes a world cup runners up medal with Brazil and time spent playing g club football on four continents.
Despite these signings, however the Blues continue to struggle. Tonight’s matchup is literally do or die.
As always we’ll have post match coverage here as will our friends at Mad About Futbol, Miami Soccer Fan, and Football in Miami and Beyond.
