The USL’s second division moves toward its 2019 launch with its first team announcement, pro-rel on the horizon, women’s soccer, and much more!
Who will be in USL D-3? For starters, Tormenta FC will move up from the PDL. SB Nation’s Orlando City blog has a few other likely choices. A healthy third division is important for the growth of soccer in this country (in addition to a healthy second division – the NASL never was, which is why the league to the “fail then sue” business model), and yes, for the dream of pro/rel to even be a reasonable consideration, much less realistic future.
Speaking of USL and pro/rel, league president Jake Edwards is making some noise about a potential future in it between the two divisions once D3 is launched:
I think it would be very interesting to look at pro-rel between those two divisions. We certainly could do it now and I think there’s an interest to do it among our board. We are going to experiment with precursors, such as maybe some sort of inter-league competition, an inter-league cup. We’re going to look at options like that to see if that works.
To be sensible, we’ve got to get the structure and the quality right first at the Division 3 level. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got the right owners; stadiums that are the right size and the right quality; and we’ve got a number of teams, and maybe a structure, that’s maybe a bit more aligned and mirrored of the second division.
That second paragraph is a major important piece (as I alluded to above), and one that is often overlooked among the zealotry fringe.
Edwards also spoke with Four Four Two, though there’s a lot of overlap between the two pieces.
MLS makes a positive change. I haven’t seen this officially announced anywhere, but evidently teams are allowed to keep 100% of profits for selling homegrown players. My rough translation of the French (by which I mean “Google’s rough translation of the French”):
Better, the Impact will not have to share the transfer money with the league. Until last season, MLS kept 25% of the total sale of a club-trained player. A rule that has obviously changed to reward training clubs, which today change the face of the Garber circuit.
With 100% of the transfer money in their pockets, the Impact will be proactive, with President Saputo having decided to use it to strengthen the squad … to the extent permitted by the league. Indeed, the MLS rules only allow clubs to reinvest a maximum of $ 750,000 (formerly $ 650,000) of the amount of a transfer in the improvement of the first team. This sum then takes the form of a basic monetary allocation (GAM).
An incentive to develop players and sell players will help the league enrich itself and grow.
Piggybacking off that, an interesting take on why German clubs seem so much more willing to play youngsters (including several well-known young Americans):
It used to be that coaches were scared of throwing in new players. Older players got priority and older coaches stayed in the system. An interesting development is that in the meanwhile there is less reliance on older coaches and the older coaches aren’t automatically hired. To the chagrin of the older coaches, who don’t believe that’s good at all.
But young coaches are arriving in their early 30s and late 20s, because those in management have realized that’s the better, the right, the innovative way.
There’s going to be a point in the development of the American soccer culture where the coaches are people who have come up through academies, have been coaches by those who picked up interest in the game when it boomed in the late 80s (and when they came up, the access to high-level coaching was even lower), and I think that inflection point is going to see more of a boom than many realize.
It won’t be like a switch flipping, but it’s certainly an area where college soccer – giving people the ability to remain involved in the sport even if they don’t have professional playing options in the long-term, for example – is going to play a crucial role in developing the next generations.
Obligatory USSF presidential section. In Four Four Two, Beau Dure runs through a comprehensive look at the eight presidential candidates’ performances (word choice intentional by me) at the Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia. He doesn’t make it clear whether his consideration of Wynalda as the front runner is just the vibe he gets from their appearances at the event, or actual discussions with voting delegates (which seems unlikely to me).
The role of Soccer United Marketing has been a hot topic in the presidential race, and SI’s Grant Wahl seems to have gotten some straight answers (at the very least as enlightening as we’re going to get) from MLS commissioner Don Garber. I don’t know that there’s a whole lot in there that Garber hasn’t previously explained – and folks have already made up their minds on whether they want to believe what he says and what the intentions of SUM are.
Advanced stats in soccer. I’m big on advanced statistics (and you’ll find that over time with me here if I haven’t already made it obvious), and Opta is obviously at the forefront in this particular sport. An over-arching stat is difficult in a sport such as this, though, and I’m super-excited to see how it develops.
Opta does provide official stat-keeping for USL, though at least based on last year’s numbers, I’m not sure how much depth they provide. Tons and tons of individual passing, shooting, etc. stats (as you’ve likely seen in my player profiles), but is xG going to be available, for example? I’d love to see the data continue to develop, at the very least.
Whatever’s available, I’m hoping to bring it to the coverage here.
Women’s soccer ups and downs. NWSL club Boston Breakers has folded. If the United States is to remain the hegemon in international women’s soccer, a healthy pro league is important. It provides career opportunities for the outstanding athletes who otherwise wouldn’t be able to devote as much time to their craft in keeping the USWNT globally dominant. With other countries starting to catch up to our emphasis on girls’ youth sports (and in some ways, passing us on the women’s professional side), there are potentially dark times ahead for remaining on top of the global structure.
It’s tough with MLS teams not cracking a profit other than the money that comes through SUM, but I’d like to see every MLS squad own and operate an NWL side – with the full youth structure below it, as well. Soccer has been one of the few sports (tennis is the only other I can think of) that has comparable economic viability for women as for men in the United States. Having twice as many events to fill a soccer-specific stadium in the Summer seems like a good economic opportunity – and of course leads to a closer-knit soccer culture in the places that are fortunate enough to have that chance. I think Nashville SC’s ownership group in particular should get into the NWSL game as quickly as possible (it would be one of my top priorities after establishing an academy structure that services youths of both genders).
All of this is actually a topic I’ve been planning to write an entire post about for a little while, but since it seems I’ve jumped right into it, there’s an interesting exploration of where NCAA women’s soccer (which obviously is part of what set us ahead of the world on the women’s side in the first place) appears to be at a bit of a crossroads itself.
North Carolina Courage draft pick Morgan Reid crafted a story for Players Tribune highlighting the complicated tightrope walk that being a high-level female athlete can entail. Is being considered sexually appealing a good thing (the sports information department at Duke certainly saw ways that was the case), bad thing (that it overshadowed her sporting achievements is probably not positive), irrelevant? It’s something that is so much less a consideration for men.
It’s a combination of a societal topic and one that relates directly to soccer, and there are no easy answers for anyone involved in the discussion. Hopefully, we can progress to a point where stories like this don’t have to be written for people outside of that scrutiny to understand.
Etc. Gregg Berhalter for USMNT manager? … The MLS Draft isn’t going anywhere, though a de-emphasis of it inherently means better things for soccer in our country. … Speedway Soccer Podcast coming your way soon. … I’m with Music City Soccer on the (non-sporting) importance of the Martim Galvão signing. … NSC in the top five USL teams on Twitter. … Linking this story primarily so I can use my Anthony Precourt insult tag. Also because he’s bound and determined to demonstrate on the daily that he’s just a piece of human trash.
Club and Country 