The MLS Thread

[leviramsey]

MLS: "Sepp doesn't know what he's talking about"

MLS is about to align its calendar with Europe’s? That’s news to Major League Soccer; at least, according to league President and Deputy Commissioner Mark Abbott.

In the middle of a wide-ranging media session Tuesday in Portland, Abbott denied by recent claims from FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who said on Monday that MLS would soon adopt what’s often referred to as the “international calendar” – the late-summer-to-spring season footprint that’s used by most leagues around the world.

Asked about Blatter’s assertions, Abbott said Major League Soccer, which plays from March through early December, could not make the change at this time, reiterating a view expressed by league commissioner Don Garber in December.

“I saw the comments, we didn’t have a chance to talk to [blatter] about those,” Abbott explained, “What I’ll say today is what Don (Garber) said last year, which is we looked at it last fall. We concluded that, at this point in time, it is not a change that we could make.”

Note: could, not would. A change in schedule could happen at some point, but there are no plans to sync up with Europe any time soon.

“We don’t rule it out for some point in the future,” Abbott said, “but there’s not an imminent plan to change to the international calendar.”

Blatter, speaking yesterday in Canada ahead of the Women’s U-20 World Cup, said “[MLS] has taken the decision … to adapt the FIFA calendar,” a claim that contradicted Garber’s statements in December at MLS Cup. There, the league commissioner said a schedule change was something MLS would “continue to look at it … to see if we can do this in the future,” but was “not something we are going to do in the short-term.”

In that short-term, Major League Soccer is focused on other things, like getting the league up to 24 teams by 2020. If it is a goal, changing schedules remains a long-term one.

I posted my long-standing proposal for how MLS should be structured:

 

It’s doable if MLS basically schedules so every team has an 8-10 game road trip at some point. Houston/Dallas/Miami would have theirs in the summer. The northern clubs would have theirs in the winter.

The issue then becomes where these fit in relative to the schedule. Starting with an 8 game road trip leaves the distinct possibility that a club will be totally cut adrift by their home opener.

I’ve long said, however, that MLS should go to a split season format.

The first part of the season would be split into divisions (of maximum size 10 and minimum size 6) spanning the country. Single table, home and away, promotion and relegation. Winner of the top (MLS Premier?) division gets the supporters shield.

The second part is split into geographic conferences. Points earned from the first part carry over into the second part (with 1.5 points per “missing” game awarded to clubs from smaller divisions; since a 10 team premier division would play 18 games while a 6 team lower division would play 10 games, that would mean a 12 point bonus for a team from 6 team division and a 6 point bonus for a team from an 8 team division). A coefficient system similar to UEFA’s would be used to award MLS Cup berths to the conferences (the berths would be known prior to the start of the second part; they could even take premier division results into account).

After the second part, the top teams from the various conferences enter into the MLS Cup.

I’d have the hierarchy of honors for determining qualification for CONCACAF Champions League be (n is the number of conferences)

1. MLS Cup winner (I think it’s important to have the biggest prize be the last awarded)

2. Supporters Shield winner

3. US Open Cup winner

4-(n+3). Conference winners, ordered by coefficient

n+4. MLS Cup runner-up

n+5. Supporters Shield runner-up

n+6. US Open Cup runner-up

and so forth…

(draft order would be without the Open Cup being taken into account)

There’s a certain similarity to college football and basketball. The first part of the season is mostly non-conference games, then you have your conference regional rivalry games, then you have a tournament which pits the best teams from the conferences against each other.

Conferences could be unbalanced, because there’d be no wild-card system; a strong conference gets extra berths. Nearly every game in the season would be meaningful. Maybe you also have the draft, instead of being based on reverse order of finish, start from halfway between the number of MLS Cup playoff spots and the number of teams (so once you constructed a single MLS table, if there were 10 MLS Cup teams and 24 clubs, the draft order would be 18-19-20-21-22-23-24-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1), which would make tanking exceptionally difficult (simply trying to lose would not help you).

The question then becomes what to make of the timing. MLS should avoid playing in June (playing during the World Cup looks small time) and either July or December, depending on the rest of the calendar. Basically the idea is that even in the playoffs, there would be no games in July or August in Houston/Dallas/Miami/Phoenix/Vegas/Atlanta, and no games in December or January in Boston/Montreal/Toronto/Rochester/Chicago/Cleveland/Minnesota/Colorado/Salt Lake, including MLS Cup games.

So if the season corresponded to a calendar year, the MLS Cup Final would be around Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December. The first (“division-based”) part would be from January to May, which is about 21-22 weeks for 10, 14, or 18 games, which would allow for enough bye weeks for the northern teams to basically have “Winter Training” camps in Florida in January. For the second part, the northern conferences would start play right away in July, while conferences with southern teams would either adjust the schedule or, if all southern, be smaller (maybe 6 or 8 (with a lot of midweek games)) and not start till September, with both finishing up around Halloween. MLS Cup playoffs would be in November.

On a more European calendar, the MLS Cup Final would be Memorial Day weekend. The first part would run from August to December. The second part could run from January to April, and it would be the northern conferences that would be compressed.

With 24 teams, MLS would be

10 team Premier Division

8 team Second Division

6 team Third Division

For a calendar-year schedule

Northern Conference (18 games from July-October)

New England

Montreal

Toronto

NYCFC

NYRB

Philadelphia

Columbus

Chicago

Kansas City

DC

Southern Conference (10 games from September-1st weekend in November)

Dallas

Houston

Miami

Orlando

Atlanta

Charlotte/Raleigh/Nashville/????

Western Conference (14 games from July-1st weekend in November)

Colorado

Salt Lake

Galaxy

Chivas

San Jose

Portland

Seattle

Vancouver

(if on an August-May schedule, then I guess you move DC, Philadelphia to the Southern Conference)

(EDIT to add Vancouver)

Edited August 6, 2014 by leviramsey

[leviramsey]

Liam Ridgewell has been called up for the MLS All-Stars against Bayern Munich.

[maqroll]

Most leagues don't have to play in 20F cold with mountains of snow everywhere. I think the schedule works fine as is. Plus it let's players get loaned out to European clubs in January, which is good for the league.

[maqroll]

MLS All-Stars 2-Bayern Munich 1

 

I couldn't be bothered to watch it though...

[Czechlad]

MLS All-Stars 2-Bayern Munich 1

 

I couldn't be bothered to watch it though...

I did for the most part. 3 incredible goals. Honestly you all should watch the highlights.

[Czechlad]

Landon Donovan announces his retirement at the end of the 2014 season

[maqroll]

 

MLS All-Stars 2-Bayern Munich 1

 

I couldn't be bothered to watch it though...

I did for the most part. 3 incredible goals. Honestly you all should watch the highlights.

 

Ok, gonna do that now

[maqroll]

Good goals

[heid3ster]

Pep refused to shake Caleb Porter's hand after the game after a couple of rough tackles. Get over yourself, Pep.

[Zatman]

though it I think Guardiola has too much of a high opinion of himself. If was Mourinho doing that he would be lambasted by the media

[tommybread]

The number 2 ranked player for the 2015 draft when to my rival school. Was highly rated for the 2014 draft too but decided not to sign. Name is Cyle Larin, never played for the Canadian under age teams and wasn't rated as one of the best few at the school. Was fast as **** though and a nightmare to play against. Their whole teams was amazing but trying to track his runs was killer, I remember taking his legs out a few times as I simply couldn't keep up with his pace.

[AVFCforever1991]

He has all the attributes to become a great striker, hope he fulfils his potential because Canada are in desperate need of some new talent  

 

We need you Cyle Larin!!

[tommybread]

You're Canadian?

 

His school was unbelievably good. Cyle, Keven Aleman (was at Real Valladolid but just signed for Herediano in Costa Rica. Never played for the school team though), Alex Halis, Chris Nanco (both underage Canadian internationals and both at Syracuse now), and litte Osorio (in Uruguay at Nacional). Have to say Brampton is undoubtedly the best town in Canada at footballer.

[AVFCforever1991]

Yeah, born in Canada, raised in Britain. Moved over here when I was 3 months old, but I still try and follow the Canadian football team as much as possible. And hopefully we should have a good spine of a team in a few years with, Doneil Henry in defence, Osorio midfield (Toronto) and Larin up top.. 

Edited August 8, 2014 by AVFCforever1991

[maqroll]

I think Canada will be a team to be reckoned with in CONCACAF in the not too distant future.

[Vive_La_Villa]

You're Canadian?

His school was unbelievably good. Cyle, Keven Aleman (was at Real Valladolid but just signed for Herediano in Costa Rica. Never played for the school team though), Alex Halis, Chris Nanco (both underage Canadian internationals and both at Syracuse now), and litte Osorio (in Uruguay at Nacional). Have to say Brampton is undoubtedly the best town in Canada at footballer.

I saw a soccer centre in Brampton so went down to check it out and show them how it's done.

Unfortunately it was closed.

[tommybread]

 

You're Canadian?

His school was unbelievably good. Cyle, Keven Aleman (was at Real Valladolid but just signed for Herediano in Costa Rica. Never played for the school team though), Alex Halis, Chris Nanco (both underage Canadian internationals and both at Syracuse now), and litte Osorio (in Uruguay at Nacional). Have to say Brampton is undoubtedly the best town in Canada at footballer.

I saw a soccer centre in Brampton so went down to check it out and show them how it's done.

Unfortunately it was closed.

 

The one on Sandalwood and Dixie? It is only used during the winter for 6-aside. Are you from around Brampton?

[Czechlad]

I think Canada will be a team to be reckoned with in CONCACAF in the not too distant future.

I just don't see it. Maybe if all the half decent canadians decided to represent Canada instead of another nation, then Canada might be decent. At the moment, I think USA's D team would probably still beat Canada in a competitive match. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

You're Canadian?

His school was unbelievably good. Cyle, Keven Aleman (was at Real Valladolid but just signed for Herediano in Costa Rica. Never played for the school team though), Alex Halis, Chris Nanco (both underage Canadian internationals and both at Syracuse now), and litte Osorio (in Uruguay at Nacional). Have to say Brampton is undoubtedly the best town in Canada at footballer.

I saw a soccer centre in Brampton so went down to check it out and show them how it's done.

Unfortunately it was closed.

The one on Sandalwood and Dixie? It is only used during the winter for 6-aside. Are you from around Brampton?

Yeah I think that's the one. Why is it only used in Winter?

My in-laws live there so went a couple of years back. Nice place.

Is that where you are?

[tommybread]

 

 

 

You're Canadian?

His school was unbelievably good. Cyle, Keven Aleman (was at Real Valladolid but just signed for Herediano in Costa Rica. Never played for the school team though), Alex Halis, Chris Nanco (both underage Canadian internationals and both at Syracuse now), and litte Osorio (in Uruguay at Nacional). Have to say Brampton is undoubtedly the best town in Canada at footballer.

I saw a soccer centre in Brampton so went down to check it out and show them how it's done.

Unfortunately it was closed.

The one on Sandalwood and Dixie? It is only used during the winter for 6-aside. Are you from around Brampton?

Yeah I think that's the one. Why is it only used in Winter?

My in-laws live there so went a couple of years back. Nice place.

Is that where you are?

 

In the summer we just play outdoors. They are only small 6-aside pitches so not many people would play it over full 11-aside pitches outside during the summer. I think they turn some of the pitches into basketball courts during the summer actually.

 

Yeah I live quite close to that soccer centre.