http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/05/22/two_faces_of_the_mls_makes_for.htmlTwo faces of the MLS makes for great viewing
The MLS has some good players gracing its pitches, some potentially very good players, but too often they fail to make the grade elsewhere
Shaka Hislop
May 22, 2008 2:11 PM
It's only five minutes into the game. "Hey, Zidayn!" calls the guy in the Red Sox baseball cap, in a particularly literal of pronunciation of Zidane's name. He's shouting at the guy in the France shirt, who's standing in front of him with his girlfriend and her friend discussing I don't know what for far too long.
Maybe it's the spiralling cost of petrol, or maybe it was how much New England might miss their striker Taylor Twellman as the Revolution take on the Western Conference's bottom team, the San Jose Earthquakes. Both teams are managed by two of US soccer's more proven coaches in Steve Nicol and Frank Yallop. As the game develops, it's clear, San Jose aren't a good team. At all. In fact I'd rate them as the worst team I've seen since the league started looking north of LA for an expansion city. But it is their first year back in the league - they're the MLS's Derby.
The Revs are missing Twellman, their goalscoring talisman, but you wouldn't know it. Shalrie Joseph is moving around the pitch well for a guy who's 10 feet tall. Well, he certainly looks it from here.
A football person said to me earlier in the week that Shalrie would make a decent Championship player in England, but "he's too one-paced". But he reminds me so much of Patrick Vieira, who is also very one-paced by today's standards, and no one would ever say he wasn't good enough for anyone or anywhere. I know I'm treading dangerous ground comparing Joseph to Vieira, and I know that I'm talking about a player playing in the MLS. But what is also impressing me more and more about Shalrie is that he truly understands the game. He has as good an understanding of the game as anyone outside of LA.
Here's the thing - the MLS has some good players gracing its pitches every week, some potentially very good players - just ask Fulham. Too often though they fail to make the grade elsewhere. The reason for that is that they simply aren't tested enough in the MLS. There are far too many well-below-average players in the league. This may be Shalrie's only shortcoming, through no fault of his own. He, like the other really good players in this league, can only develop so much here.
The defending is unbelievably naive, enough to make you pull your hair out. There has been some talk of teams or the league using more of their designated player spots for defenders. A double-edged sword if you ask me. If you get decent defenders in without any decent support around them, they only end up looking worse. Ask Abel Xavier. I do feel sorry for him. Though Xavier pulling his own hair out certainly would be a sight.
Much is made of the salary cap, and the rules that apply, or don't apply as the case may be. I know this is a constant bone of contention with managers all over the league. Especially when the league dictates so much to everyone outside of LA and NY. This problem though I think has less to do with the salary cap than it has to the introductory salary for fresh out of college pros. I am convinced that there are some very good players coming out of college every year, better players than make it into the league. If you graduated with some kind of degree, would you take the extreme-long-shot route of eventual European recognition, or find a decent nine-to-five with a starting salary four times that offered by the MLS? It's a heavily loaded dice.
But it's the same all over the league - there are some good players, even a few very good ones. Even at San Jose. Ronnie O'Brien, the ex-Juventus playmaker, is a player of real quality, but far too moody to play in a struggling team. San Jose are certainly that and will be for at least another couple of seasons. Ronnie was substituted at half-time, by which point they were already losing 2-0. It finished that way.
Even David Beckham can be caught scratching his head in disbelief one minute then scratching his head in amazement the next. His LA team thumped FC Dallas 5-1 to leave Steve Morrow scratching his head wondering which way it is to Walsall (the Daily Star said that not me, believe it at your peril - by the way, more on the sacked Morrow next week). The gamut runs from Christian Gomez and table-topping Colorado (who extended their lead in the West by beating Real Salt Lake 2-0), to the confidence-less and badly-misfiring DC United, who, unsurprisingly, lost again. This time a 3-1 defeat came against the West's best regular season team last year, Chivas, who've conceded as many goals as anyone in the league thus far.
So, although the table has started to take a very faint look of normalcy - with Houston third in the West after winning again this weekend, 2-1 on the road to the Chicago Fire) - the league continues to boast of parity (table-topping Columbus drew with an improving Toronto 0-0 in the East and New York needed a late wonder strike to draw with Kansas) and it's clear each of the 14 teams have players of genuine quality on offer with, at times, the football to match.
The two-hour journey north to watch games live in New England is well worth it. Even with, as Zidayn probably pointed out, the price of gas today.
Shaka Hislop will blog on guardian.co.uk every week during the MLS season. For more from Shaka, as well as up-to-the minute news and analysis of the beautiful game, go to ESPNsoccernet.com
