3rd Degree

wow, this is a beancounter’s brain fart

this would be a terrible idea. how would some of the younger players get games. they could go months without playing and it would effectively kill their development.

also, the draft would not be important anymore. with 24 spots the college kids would basically have no shot at making a team.

I wouldn’t miss the reserve division. It always seemed strange that MLS was trying to be both the major and minor league in the states. Let the USL provide the latter function.
I wouldn’t mind teams putting together their own reserve friendlies amongst geographically close MLS reserves and USL (maybe even college) first teams. Could be more cost effective, and in some ways more interesting.

I think this will only increase the influx in foreign players because teams will only be worried about the now instead of the future…I guess in the long run it will help out the academies, but college soccer will have no significance, kids will be signed when they are younger and younger….

Sounds like a good way to kick off talks with the Players Union.

Does MLS work with USL at all? Maybe if the removed the reserve league they could somehow help out the USL league.

ahhhh. ding, ding, ding! players union negotiation tactic.

I don’t see it as a problem these players would simply go to USL or PDL to play.

Only if the MLS wants to keep going down the path as a joke league

I don’t know exactly how, but it seems like MLS could partner a LITTLE bit with the USL…

why would the USL partner with MLS?

The USL clubs are doing better that MLS teams head-to-head and in CONCACAF. USL teams are consistently making the US Open Cup Final and challenging MLS teams playing full-sided players. and MLS is starting to steal its franchises (Seattle) and looking at Vancouver. What happeneded to the Utah team after RSL came in?

USL would never do that at this rate.

Not sure what the right place for this topic but I felt the overall quality of the league took a step back this year. Along with its maturation. The performance against other club teams in central and south america has been an utter embarassment. USL outperformed the MLS in many ways.

I’m against anything that diminishes a developing young player’s chance at making the team. The life blood of this league is the new/young player like Dax, Franklin(Gals), Rogers (Crew), Shea, Avila, etc. It will not help us, as a league, to bring in journeyman players from other countries and not work with potential young US talent.

Perhaps what is needed is that each MLS team have a PDL team as part of its youth development process. Then Dallas FC PDL can play HOuston PDL, and other PDL teams in the area.

The long and the short of it is that there are just some things professional sport teams need to do and developing young players and provide a pool of talent for future years is one of them. No one said it was inexpensive to own and operate a pro team in any sport. If you can’t afford to fund what it takes to fully participate of sport ownership, sell out to some one who is willing to invest.

This whole thing smells of marginal owners trying to get by on the cheap.

I don’t think this has to be to the detriment of player development. Dax, Franklin(Gals), Rogers (Crew), Shea, Avila were all GA and would make roster out of the even if there were 4 less spots. Give me some examples of players that went from one of the last 4 on a roster to regular starter. Dello-Russo is best success story I’ve seen that fits that description, and do you honestly think FCD will ever rely on him as a mainstay of the roster, or collect a good sized transfer fee for him?

The reserve division isn’t much of a respected competition, and I think fringe players would better off under a different structure, like a regional competition. You get FCD and Houston reserves to compete against the PDL Mid South division:
Austin Aztex U23s
Baton Rouge Capitals
DFW Tornados
El Paso Patriots
Houston Leones
Laredo Heat
Mississippi Brilla
New Orleans Shell Shockers
That could make for an interesting competition.

twotone: I don’t know what happened to the Utah team, though I’d guess they went under in the shadow of RSL. And I see your point about Seattle, too. But it’s a big country (or two, including Canada, as both USL & MSL do).

And you referred to wrt CONCACAF Champions League & US Open Cup, good points there, too. But USL includes more than USL-1. I’m thinking specifically of the PDL, which has tons more teams that are already similar to the MLS reserves in age, talent, etc.

USL & MLS already “compete” as top-level leagues, why should they also both have developmental/reserve-level leagues? There just have to be some synergies (pardon my buzzword language) to be had by cooperation.

ccart5 - not sure if you know it, but there are already PDL teams in both Dallas & Houston (the Tornados and the Leones, respectively).

promotion and relegation would fix the focus of the league. Since that is unlikely, we should push high potentials to a USL 1 team that we have a deal with …ala Lambo

Kevin,
FCD is already looking toward that sort of thing with Burse. Youth development is different. That’s why FCD should get their reserve team signed up for the regional PDL group, like the cRapids already have. No coincidence they won the reserve league this year.