Some years ago many experts said that the future of football was in Africa.
The emergence of players such as George Weah, Didier Drogba, Emmanuel Adebayor and Samuel Eto’o, in addition to great sporting results achieved by African national teams (Nigeria taking Olympic gold at Atlanta ’96, the seventh placing of Senegal in the 2002 World Cup 2002) seems to confirm this idea.
But we can not ignore the fact that the African continent as a whole still lacks a football infrastructure that supports the aspirations of these great players. None of the African leagues is among the most important in the world.
Perhaps the biggest problem that African national teams have faced throughout history is the leakage of players who choose to represent European teams, where the prospects of winning the World Cup are much higher.
Given these facts, maybe we should consider seeking the future of the sport in other destinations – specifically, in the USA.
With a highly professional league that is growing every year, an infrastructure worthy of the best European tournaments and many major players playing there, the land of Uncle Sam is shown to the world as the possible heir to the sceptre of football.
I don’t mean that at the next World Cup, the Yankee team will rise with the trophy. But I can assure you that in the coming years the United States will be among the most important teams in the world.
Let’s review a little of the history. Until the early ’90s soccer didn’t have a noticeable impact, except in the ’70s when Pele arrived to play for the New York Cosmos. But that passion for football did not last long.
The interest in soccer waned to the point that FIFA, in the year before the 1994 World Cup, demanded that the United States organise a new professional football league if they wanted to be the host of the competition.
The MLS (Major League Soccer), which had its first season in 1996, amended its rules in order to ‘Americanise’ the game. But over the years, these modifications were neglected and the league opted for the standard FIFA rules.
Gone are those days where playing against the United States represented little more than a practice for the big national teams.
Now American players not only have a presence in many European leagues, but foreign stars like Nesta, Beckham, Di Vaio, Keane, Cahill and Henry have chosen to pursue careers in the MLS, giving young players the opportunity to gain the experience of facing great figures.
Perhaps there are those who still consider the MLS as an ‘elephant graveyard’ where the big players see their careers die but this, far from being a negative, is something that has promoted the league.
Football is still not the most important sport in the country but its popularity grows with every goal scored.
The USA is currently the most important team in CONCACAF, relegating Mexico who were the best team in the northern hemisphere of America for several decades.
Maybe it’s just a crazy idea, but the USA and their league may be the mirror in which Australia should look.
AWOL
Guest
What's your point, America has 250 million people OBVIOUSLY they're going to have higher attendances regardless of the level a sport is played at. I've been to 3rd division ice hockey games with 5000 people watching!
Joe
Guest
This is the reality of where MLS sits, where a team like TFC buys the 6th leading scorer in Brazil, with DEFOE and Michael Bradley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naassenes/http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2014/01/08/michael-bradley-transfer-rumor-toronto-major-league-soccer-latest-news-roma/
Joe
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This is the reality of where MLS sits, where a team like TFC buys the 6th leading scorer in Brazil, with DEFOE and Michael Bradley. prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2014/01/08/michael-bradley-transfer-rumor-toronto-major-league-soccer-latest-news-roma/
Joe
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let me educate, Lack of time slots & Flex scheduleing hurt MLS RATINGS. The apparent randomness of the MLS national television schedule, is why Television ratings are low. The first three ESPN2 broadcasts this season aired on Sundays at 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and 1 p.m. in March. Then the next sunday, games aired 10 p.m., 3 p.m. and 12 p.m ,in March. Now the NBA games come on Tues-Thur on TNT. And Monday, Wedsday and Sunday on ESPN. All the same time. Also late time slots has also hurt the league. Why? because the east coast have the biggest population in the entire US,yet time zone favor the west coast with MLS late scheduling. Representatives of both ESPN and NBCSN last week suggested that a flex-scheduling concept could help MLS, allowing it to feature prime matches as the season progresses. MLS traditionally has set its full national broadcast schedule at the start of the season, and those games slated for national broadcast are generally unchanged as the year progresses. So having games on let is not good for TV ratings. By MLS moving to the south East, and by MLS adding time slots and flex scheduling, TV ratings will improve. Still Unimas a Spanish channel is out draing English channels. http://www.lagconfidential.com/2013/3/27/4154022/on-unimas-and-the-continually-growing-hispanic-soccer-market SlickAs picked one game, and made that his arguement, without understanding how the TV market works. Since SlickAs pick one game, so can I. THIS IS FROM SOCCER AMERICA 0.8 NBC: Swansea City-Man. United (English Premier League) 0.7 NBC: Philadelphia Union-New York Red Bulls (MLS) for NYRB. If any one understands this area is me. While the team is called NY Red Bulls, the team actually plays in NJ, not NY. A place with no public transportation , and very hard to get to for NY yorkers. Which is another NY City team, funded by the Yankees and Man City, is joining MLS. The team will play in the hurt of NY, the Bronx. The us has the third highest attendance in the US for its games, and sits top team in Attendance among soccer leagues. That includs Brazil, which gets less then 12,000 for their games. And SlickAs last time I check, Brazil is a soccer nation.
Jorji Costava - The Guru's Guru
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USA, population 320 million with 80 million immigrants from latino nations. Australia, population 22 million, hardly any new migrants from "soccer" nations. Because we watch a lot of American films and tv does that naturally mean we will mirror what they do? Not a chance. Australian soccer is doing well, America is completely different. We are similar in ways to Canada, USA, not at all.
Midfielder
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Joe The MLS is of a higher quality than the A-League ... both nations share a common issue with Football not being ... for want of a better words... the sport the media use and talk about ... we should learn from each other each take what we can from our shared experiences ..
Joe
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@The artist formally known as Dave---- I am not defending MLS, MLS is not perfect, no league is. However I don't like liars, which is what SlickAs is. He doesn't even know about how the youth system works in the us, nor does he no how it works in Canada.
Joe
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@The artist formally known as Dave---- Being an Australian who has lived in the US now for over 6 years, I can say that SlickAs doesn't know what he is talking about. Both America and Australia are using futsal, 12 month academy season......ex, to develop more technical players. I would also like the A-league to do what the MLS and Jleague are during, bring top south Americans to the league. For this to happen the rules need to be change.
The artist formally known as Dave
Guest
Joe, Fair enough mate, you have obviously taken offence to a few comments here and leaped to the defense of the MLS. I was interested in SlickAs's comments because its the first time I've really heard a different view point to the one I usually hear about the MLS. All I ever seem to read about is how it is going from strength to strength and puff pieces (granted I never really go searching for articles about it further than my regular Aussie football web sites). I've never watched an MLS game and don't claim to be able to compare the playing standards. As far as the topic of this article goes though, I do still think we should be looking towards the US and learning from both their successes AND their mistakes, due to it being a new league established in similar circumstances to Australian circumstances.
SlickAs
Guest
Joe said: "actually when the EPL is on, MLS TV ratings are higher. The EPL comes in the Mourning, and the MLS at night" This is plain not true. Big games like Real Salt Lake v Seattle on Friday night prime-time are drawing 177K viewers. You do realise that the A-league gets more viewers even though Australia is a fraction of the size, right? And the EPL ratings figures on NBC are triple and that is before all the other networks carrying it. Just so people understand, Joe comes from the New York Metropolitan area (NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan) which has a population of 20 million, about the same population as the entirety of Australia, and that entire area has one single MLS team that Joe supports enthusiastically and has an average attendance of 19,460. But if you were to wander into any of New Yorks boroughs with all those millions of people, how many do you think follow the Red Bulls as a percentage? When you have 20 million people and the average attendance is 19,460? That is the reality of where MLS sits in the USA. Here is the source on TV ratings: http://www.lagconfidential.com/2013/9/17/4741056/soccer-tv-talk-recent-mls-epl-ratings-on-nbc-sports
Joe
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David Carney has since been released by the Red bulls, and only started because of injury.
Joe
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Football United Resarch Porter ball, then get back to me. The A-league is the worst football I have ever seen, and the players are just as bad. Any one saying any different don't know football.
Football United
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MLS is gash, the majority of teams are playing long ball passing and are more interested in winning second balls of the contest rather than really change things up tactically. Just because there are a few good players in the competition doesn't make the teams good to watch.
ciudadmarron
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David carney sure starred for your red bulls didn't he.
Joe
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THESE ARE THE PLAYERS THE A-LEAGUE NEEDS. ALLOW MORE FOREIGN PLAYERS ON CLUBS AND THE PRODUCT WILL IMPROVE. IF NOT THIS LEAGUE WILL REMAIN HORRIBLE. THIS GUY FINISH AS THE 6TH BEST SCORER IN BRAZIL- AND WILL LIKELY BE PAIRED WITH DEFOE. His name is Gilberto Oliveira Souza Junior. I expect more MLS clubs will make more sigings, as this is when the off season gets fun in MLS. So even TFC and LA are not done putting their rosters together for 2014.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxU8VsMnouc
Joe
Guest
NEW LA Galaxy forward on loan from Fluminese. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKE-1u0fJBM
Joe
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Soft defending? Wait, let me see the MLS HAS SOFT DEFENDING? Have you watch the A-league? di Viao has been during that since serie A. You have many Italian strikers that do the same. He will be caught off sides a tone during the game, but he gets that one chance, and beats the backline. It has nothing to do with soft defenders, it has to do with the player timing his run to perfection. As far as "direct" football, the EPL is known for its fast pace game. Why? because it plays direct football, and one touch, its a blend of both. MLS is a blend of both, while it may not be the EPL, it can play the one touch football and the direct football. Also since when has the A-league been known for sexy football? Players don't even have a first touch, so how are they play one touch football? hahahahaha
SlickAs
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Whereas that Montreal Impact game, 8 goals aside which is unusual, is pretty much the sort of football with direct play, long passes, soft defending and di Viao easily getting behind the off-side trap of napping defenders that is representative of the MLS and part of the reason it is not as good to watch as the A-league. Australians, imagine you had to watch that every week!
Joe
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I've seen plenty of MLS games that good this year. Don't forget I go to a lot of redbulls games.
SlickAs
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Mate, that is far from your regular MLS game (Whitecaps vs Portland). I've been to dozens in Montreal and never seen a game like that. If MLS were always like that I wouldn't bother with watching Europe and honestly I would love it if I could watch real quality in my own town. Here is hoping that one day the dominance of Europe subsides and you can tune into the MLS and see that regularly!