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http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/April 1, 2014 Salary Information - By Club.pdf
Yes, but you can't even talk about designated players...the EDIT was from a blog post based on 2013 salaries...it's still valid. The minimum is under $50k. The average is under $200k and if you remove the designated players its around $100k...not that that is horrible, its just not the level of the big four...nor do we expect it to be there yet.
I'm just giving updated information, I know you can't talk about DP's in relation to regular players. Although the guys making under $50k are players on Developmental contracts who, for the most part, rarely play outside of Reserve games.
This is nonsense. The intersection of the populations who have the potential (and body types) to play both NBA and MLS (or NFL and MLS) is vanishingly small. Our untapped soccer players aren't in the NBA or NFL - they're tending bar at your local watering hole, working at Home Depot, going to B-school, etc - and all talking about their youth days when they played on a couple of AYSO club teams but didn't bother to stick with it since it didn't seem like there was a realistic career path.
It really comes down to growing up in america playing other sports. We use our hands a lot more in Basketball/Football. Tony Meola always said that he was such a good goalie because he learned how to rebound in basketball and translated that into understanding angles and high pointing balls on the crosses, etc.
Yeah, the mindset is already starting to change a bit with younger players who can now legitmately look at soccer as a career path. Yedlin's story is the leader at that, 4 years ago he was a teenager in the Sounders Academy program that got converted to right back because they had enough midfielders. Last season he got a contract and then got an opportunity to play and showed why he deserves it. Same thing in this World Cup.
To be fair, that's still in Asia. More importantly, "we've never won a game in Europe" is basically meaningless going forward. It's the kind of fake statistic that's made to be broken. It's a small sample size of games played by players who will almost all be retired by the time 2018 rolls around.
Brad Guzan
I have to agree - none of those supporting guys (including Davis in limited opportunities) stepped up, which was really disappointing. I agree with your surprise not to have seen Diskerud. I might've tried him behind Aron with Dempsey on the left.
Costa Rica, certainly. Beyond that, Argentina because I love Messi; Colombia because they've been really good for a while now yet are somehow still under the radar. Belgium, because better them than the other European teams that are left.
While this is true, there is a correlation between difference in timezones and success in world cups. Brazil is the only country to win a tournament not played in it's home hemisphere (1958 Sweden, 2002 Japan/S. Korea) and other than 2010 in South Africa, only CONMEBOL had ever won a tournament hosted outside its confederation (other than those previously mentioned it was all when in CONCACAF with Brazil and Argentina winning in Mexico and Brazil in USA). It's not surprising that UEFA does best in UEFA...which hurts USA, especially when they've always been drawn into a group with 2 or 3 European sides when playing in Europe. Not saying its impossible for USA to get out of the group or win a game on European soil, just that it does swing some of the intangible things towards other teams.
I'm sure if that happens, they'll change the rules to keep the USA out of being seeded...not a bad idea though...being a non-UEFA seeded team, we'd still be likely to get a 2nd UEFA team in our group...
Outside of FIFA seeding the field we will end up with two UEFA teams and an African or South American team every time.
