not good news. I don't think the progress and growth of an entire league being potentially stopped is good, just so one player can play a couple more weeks in Europe

3/11/2010 4:41:57 PM

no i know it's not good news, the mls is gonna suffer a lot because of this. it's pretty much just good news for donovan

3/11/2010 4:44:17 PM

haha okay, just making sure

3/11/2010 4:52:10 PM

I think it is good news as most of those MLS players make less than a crack whore in the ghetto.

3/12/2010 1:20:22 AM

^Yeh, but what are they going to do? The NASL let the teams run free and pay whatever they wanted. Then the league folded. There isn't enough money in soccer in the USA.

3/12/2010 2:27:13 AM

Are you kidding me?


There's more money than what they're paying the players right now.


If they can afford to pay David Beckham and Landon Donovan millions, they can afford to spread the wealth a little bit more evenly.


There's no excuse for one guy on the team to be making 5 million a year while another guy on his team makes 35k a year in LA.


No fucking excuse at all. I'm not saying everyone should be millionaires, but those players should be making living wages. It's a fucking slap in the face.

3/12/2010 10:30:36 AM

And the league isn't teetering on the edge like some people want to make it out to be. MLS is very close to overall league profitability and will only see more of it after more years of Seattle sellouts, Portland/Vancouver/Philly will all start out with well over 10k season ticket holders, even the shit franchise that is the Red Bulls will have a world class stadium and a healthy amount of season ticket holders. KC is building a new stadium, Houston is on the verge of one, San Jose is working towards one...

If any casual observer can see all those things, then the players definitely know all this shit so why should they lock themselves into a new 5 year CBA where they'll be making peanuts again?

3/12/2010 10:41:28 AM

From an article posted 2007:

Quote :

"Of the 356 players, 91 are making $17,700 or less. That wouldn't even cover the shopping bills for the England WAGs (wives and girlfriends) during last summer's World Cup. Of those low-budget players, 56 are earning just $12,900. That's above the minimum wage, but not by much."

Also, posted back in January about Lee Nguyen, you can see how terrible an MLS contract really is.

Quote :

"TIAS: You wrote on Twitter that the deal MLS offered you just wasn’t worth staying for. Can you go into any more detail as to why that was? Lee Nguyen: It’s a no-brainer really. Basically the offer was the league minimum for 5 years. And it was really the league minimum, no more than that? No more than that. I knew before coming back that I was going to have to take a pay cut, and I didn’t mind that at all. Because it was based on me wanting to come back and show my ability and get my name out there to the fans in the States. But for the league minimum for five years I just couldn’t take it."

http://www.thisisamericansoccer.com/us-mens-national-team/vietnam-star-or-league-minimum/

Who the fuck is going to take a 5 year deal at the league minimum when you are considered an actual talent? This gives MLS all the leverage in letting you out of your shit contract. If you play well and another team shows interest, and MLS doesn't like the transfer fee offered to them, you're stuck playing for a fraction of what you could be getting outside of the league.

Instead like Charlie Davies, Alejandro Bedoya, Anton Peterlin, Cody Arnoux, among others, Nguyen was smart enough to get the hell out of the country. MLS' position on these contracts and salaries is hurting the league. We could be seeing so much upcoming talent if the contracts weren't to be avoided like the plague.

3/12/2010 4:16:51 PM

the salaries in the mls are complete shit. I remember reading about some players on the LA galaxy, like 5 of them were sharing a small, shitty apartment in a bad part of LA because they were getting paid so little. Then to have a player like beckham come on the team and make 500 times what you're making, while you're playing the same amount of games as him, completely sucks for the smaller players.

Reserve and youth players in europe are making more money than some MLS starters. something is wrong with that.

3/12/2010 4:49:05 PM

^^ just a side note to the Nguyen story, he was offered a lot better of a contract initially and he said fuck you to MLS and bombed in Europe and the only reason he was playing anywhere is because he was like a celebrity in Vietnam. So when he tried to come crawling back, MLS said fuck you to him

not to mention, he doesn't deserve a high salary at the moment, considering he hasn't done shit in years. And I'm pretty sure he was recently let go from his Vietnam team because of a poor attitude.


point still stands though, MLS needs to play their players more, especially young guys.

^ did you read The Beckham Experiment? That was mentioned in there... and like Alan Gordon has to coach a girls youth soccer team to pay the bills. He drives across town after Galaxy practice to go coach there and he phones in the rosters to the assistant coach when they're on the road

3/12/2010 4:58:22 PM

ah yea, thats where i read it. I didn't read the whole book, I need to finish it. I mean I think salaries in europe are way too high, but salaries for mls players and coaches are way too low. Stuart Holden's last contract, he was getting paid I think about 30k a year. This is a top MLS player getting paid less than a teacher. Some players get overpaid, like Blanco, but when a USA national team player gets that little, it's hard to believe.

3/12/2010 5:20:20 PM

From the articles I posted it said he was offered a nearly identical contract from the one he was initially offered by MLS as a Generation Adidas, which he shouldn't [and didn't] have taken in the first place.

Quote :

"These players when they return to MLS have to sign with the league and go into a weighted lottery. The kicker is that MLS won’t “reward” these player for passing on them in the first place. Instead MLS offers them the exact same deal they were discussing two or three years before."

My point isn't that Lee Nguyen is a superstar, but that any young player that displays any promise shouldn't be taking a contract worth peanuts that locks you in with no leverage for 5 years. You're better off going to Vietnam as funny as it sounds. Personally, I'd choose Sweden.

http://www.3rddegree.net/2010/01/21/what-happened-with-lee-nguyen/

3/12/2010 5:33:04 PM

But the exact same deal he was offered two or three years ago wasn't the league minimum for five years because we know he was offered a GA deal. I'm not saying it was right or wrong of MLS but they're basically telling him to fuck off because he did the same to them. And to be honest, he threw away his leverage when he turned down the GA deal and went to Europe. Too bad for him.

He's not a good example when you want to talk about not paying young players enough. Holden, yes.. (but he was offered a lot more a couple of times but he knew MLS could fuck him over a transfer like they did with Dempsey and Shalrie Joseph). But GA candidates make a hell of a lot more than the league minimum.

The biggest problem to me is there are no unilateral contracts, it's basically a team option every year for five years. So if you turn out to be good, you're pretty much screwed unless MLS can get a big enough transfer fee for you. They need more incentive-based contracts for young players who want to prove they can play and when they do perform well, they get rewarded. Like an automatic pay raise if you meet certain performance criteria or something, I dunno.


edit: I'm not a know-it-all about MLS or anything, I just wanted to clarify. Because I, like you, was dumbfounded at the situation when I first read about it... but the more I read about it made me feel less and less sorry for him.

[Edited on March 12, 2010 at 6:16 PM. Reason : edit]

3/12/2010 6:06:35 PM

Real Madrid vs. Lyon , 2nd leg was an absolutely textbook example of what can (and usually does) happen when the otherwise-better team doesn't take their chances

gotta feel kinda sorry for Ronaldo...he played more or less perfectly, but he had less support from Real Madrid than he generally got at Man U

I mean, his teammate could've laid the ball off to him for basically a tap-in, but instead elected to take a shot that Ronaldo would have taken and scored, but missed it himself

then that lovely layoff to Kaka, who you would expect to score, let alone hit the target

and of course, that open net early in the first half that Real Madrid missed

Madrid lost this game more than Lyon won it

I kinda think having Ronaldo on the team brings Kaka down...he feels obliged to show that he, too, is one of the best players in the world, and as a result tries to do things that Ronaldo can do, but fails at them

incidentally, I haven't seen too much of Madrid this season, but from what I have seen,

Rooney > Kaka

3/15/2010 3:34:56 PM

Madrid has become one of those movies that has 15 big name stars in it. In theory it should be a good movie, because of all the acting talent, but in reality it sucks. Not that Madrid sucks, but with the roster they have they definitely haven't lived up to the billing they got when Ronaldo came onboard.

3/15/2010 11:12:10 PM

Soccer is different than baseball in that putting all that talent on one team is pretty much guaranteeing ego clashes, even between agreeable players. Think Team USA basketball in the Olympics. No doubt USA has the best players, but it's an extremely delicate balancing act keeping everyone happy and playing at their best. I think Ronaldo is hands down the most talented and skilled player in the world at the moment. He might not be playing the best, but his skill will carry him through rough patches. It's hard for other great skill players like Kaka to try to force themselves to play at that level. Great players tend to play much better when they're comfortable.

3/16/2010 2:10:13 AM

^loser

3/16/2010 2:15:54 AM

^^hes got 22 goals in 23 games...i think he is playing alright, he's just been injured 2 or 3 times this season....and imo, that speaks even more volumes of the player that he can keep scoring either while injured or coming back from injuries. its like you cant slow this guy down when hes on the field.

^look at this little nooblet. n00b your way back to chit chat...go on, move along

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 4:20 AM. Reason : might end up being the greatest player of all time with 4 or 5 more years of this]

3/16/2010 4:17:37 AM

Quote :

"gotta feel kinda sorry for Ronaldo"

pffffft.

3/16/2010 5:58:58 AM

anyone have a feed for the Chelsea - Inter game?

3/16/2010 3:57:05 PM

http://atdhe.net/15188/watch-chelsea-vs-inter-milan

3/16/2010 4:08:58 PM

^THX!

3/16/2010 4:22:57 PM

so how's the game working out? Sounds like Inter's got the advantage from the Guardian commentary, which also includes what I hope is a joke

Quote :

"Delightfully unsubstantiated rumour would have it that CBJT has had a captain's armband tattoed on his upper left bicep, with 'CAPTAIN4EVER' in big bold blue letters," notes Patrick Cullen"

3/16/2010 4:25:07 PM

Inter dominant in possession until the final 3 minutes of the half. Eto'o missed a sitter from 7 yards out.


Plenty of strange Swedish commercials.

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 4:43 PM. Reason : I did not see the JT tattoo]

3/16/2010 4:43:20 PM

Pandev just completely blew a perfect chance right there

3/16/2010 5:02:30 PM

ETOOOOOOOOO

3/16/2010 5:20:49 PM

DOWN GOES CHELSEA
DOWN GOES CHELSEA
DOWN GOES CHELSEA

3/16/2010 5:21:07 PM

Sneijder fucking killing it this match.

Real Madrid would be so much better had they kept him, and not bought Kaka.

3/16/2010 5:23:00 PM

ETOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

3/16/2010 5:25:09 PM

hahaha

Sneijder has been getting some serious love on the internets for his performance today

3/16/2010 5:25:57 PM

he's Inter's best player by far

3/16/2010 5:26:19 PM

ahahaha

lol at the super galacticos and the super billionaires going out in the round of 16.

3/16/2010 5:27:11 PM

I just flipped over to say the same thing about him

He creates so many chances for his team, it's ridiculous

That's the creative midfield play Inter was missing last year with Ibra

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 5:29 PM. Reason : ahahaha lolgba shown red]

3/16/2010 5:28:07 PM

AHAHAHAH GTFO DROGBA

3/16/2010 5:29:21 PM

LOLGBA

3/16/2010 5:29:24 PM

Quote :

"That's three years in a row Drogba's Champions League campaign has ended in disgrace. He was sent off in the final against Manchester United, then gave his "disgrace" routine last year and now he has been sent off."

3/16/2010 5:33:48 PM

^ and he's only had 4 red cards in any competition for Chelsea

sore loser much?

3/16/2010 5:35:55 PM

FUCK TERRY

quit whining to the ref you bitch

3/16/2010 5:38:13 PM

ahahahha die in a house fire John Terry

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 5:39 PM. Reason : what a classless schmuck]

3/16/2010 5:38:59 PM

ahahah Terry pulling a drogba circa last year here. how can chelski fans even like terry with all this shit recently

3/16/2010 5:39:00 PM

is he pulling a Ballack-on-Ovrebo?

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 5:40 PM. Reason : lol, guess so... somebody post the gif]

3/16/2010 5:40:14 PM

I love how Drogba about gets tackled in the box and he gets sent off. They played poor in both legs against Inter and deserved to lose. Carlo better win the Premiership or he will be sacked.

So is the Captain not allowed to question the refs call at the end of the match? I guess Gerrard or Ferdinand have never done that. Where was he being disrespectful, Mikel was starting to get chippy and he pushed him away.

Not like those Italian bastards have never been known to dive.

Some of you assholes need to take your anti-Chelsea blinders off.

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 5:45 PM. Reason : .]

3/16/2010 5:42:13 PM

u mad?

3/16/2010 5:44:40 PM

aahahaha Ribs beat me to it

3/16/2010 5:46:18 PM

hahah yeah you mad. drogba was sent off for stamping on thiago motta's ankle. that was after he threw him down.

terry was griping at the ref the entire time about it until the end of the game then kept doing so. he easily coudlve seen red for his mouth. he then got in the face of i guess the 4th official and yelled at him too on the way out in the tunnel

per gamecast, so the chelsea blinders are off:

Quote :

"John Terry is whingeing at the ref but I don't know why."

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 5:49 PM. Reason : edit]

3/16/2010 5:47:33 PM

^^^ are you a pole smoker

I would say yes

[Edited on March 16, 2010 at 5:48 PM. Reason : ^]

3/16/2010 5:47:58 PM

u really mad

3/16/2010 5:49:25 PM

LOL

it's not easy being a non-United fan on here, especially if it's Chelsea. Putting up with the anti-Chelsea blinders is just a part of being a Chelsea fan though

3/16/2010 5:51:30 PM

i forgot we had a chelsea fan up here. i thought about everyone up here hated them. lol

3/16/2010 5:56:56 PM

yeah well we can't all cheer for Manchester United. To me thats like cheering for UNC and Duke

3/16/2010 6:00:56 PM