THE MLS CALENDER- IT WOULD NOT BE WISE TO CHANGE IT!
Sepp Blatter is a fool.
Yeah, breaking news, right?
A few years back, Blatter made himself loads of friends in the feminist community when he suggested that female footballers would be better off wearing kits with more sex appeal. If Blatter had his way, something like Brandi Chastain’s sports bra would become standard issue.
Well, good ol' Sepp is back to his ridiculous shenanigans.
He recently said if MLS wishes to compete with its European counterparts and attract world-class superstars, the league needs to adopt a standard August-to-May schedule.
This idea seems harmless enough on the surface, but anybody who is even remotely familiar with winter weather patterns in MLS cities can tell you that this is a terrible idea.
Sure, players in Houston, Dallas, San Jose and Los Angeles would be able to take the pitch without missing a beat. Those cities enjoy December temperatures that are usually hovering around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
There's a reason we send our elderly down South in the winter.
But take a look at a city like Chicago or Toronto. This is where Blatter's plan runs into serious problems.
In Chicago, the average high during the month of December is 35 degrees Fahrenheit. That's usually coupled with roughly nine inches of snow and strong winds, a fun mixture for every football match.
Compare Chicago to the English city of Newcastle. Even though Newcastle is located fairly far to the north, it enjoys temperatures during December that are downright balmy compared to the northern portion of American. Newcastle's average low temperature in December is still three degrees higher than the average high for Chicago.
Things get even worse in Toronto. Toronto's average December temperature hovers around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, below freezing. How well do you think any footballer would perform if they were forced to play on a pitch that's covered in ice?
The teams in New York and New England wouldn't fare much better. If you're a fan of the New England Revolution, are you going to want to go to a match when the streets look like this?
Holding such a large portion of the season during the winter months would cripple MLS attendance figures, rendering any potential superstar signings completely irrelevant, if they were to happen at all.
If I'm a European football star, the threat of playing matches in over a foot of snow is going to outweigh the allure of playing in a league that schedules matches around summer international fixtures.
Every major European league already plays an August-to-May schedule, so why leave that for the same schedule coupled with noticeably crappier weather?
It's beyond me.
Most cities in the northern regions of America don't dig themselves out from winter until late March or early April. That's why early-season MLS matches tend to have fairly low attendance. Naturally, it would be a great idea to take those low attendance numbers and replicate them for three or four months during the season.
Yeah! Having terrible attendance figures for half a season each year would be a great thing for a league that's still trying to grow! (Can you tell that I'm really excited by this idea?)
Putting MLS matches during the fall and winter months would have another unfortunate effect: It would put MLS in direct competition with the favorite league of blue-collared Americans everywhere, the NFL.
You can go ahead and ask the USFL how well that works out.
Thankfully, Don Garber and the powers that be in MLS are ignoring Blatter's pleas...for now. Garber is smart enough to realize that making such a major change in this stage of the MLS' development would cripple the league. He recognizes that a few international conflicts is a small price to pay to ensure the survival of a still-growing league.
Blatter seems incapable of such lucidity.
You may notice that there are a few other leagues around the world that operate during the summer, and Blatter says nothing. The Russian season runs from March to November to avoid the same cold that halted Napoleon in his tracks. The FAI League of Ireland follows roughly the same schedule.
Ditto for the Tippeligaen and the Allsvenskan.
Seems a little hypocritical that Blatter would only pick on MLS.
If he's serious about wanting the MLS to attract a better class of player, then he should be suggesting loan deals for players in the youth ranks at European clubs, or abolishing the salary cap.
Sepp needs to realize that a schedule that works in Spain, England or Italy just isn't going to work in a massive country like the US. There's too much variation in the climate to allow for winter success.
And Garber needs to realize that Blatter is a fool, and continue taking his suggestions with a grain of salt.
The Language of Soccer welcomes Joe Guarr to the machine.
Joe is a recent graduate of Michigan State University and is always on the ball when it comes to the MLS and what's happening. Stay tuned for more from Joe and we are delighted to have his contributions posted on our site.
To see more of Joe's material click here
The Crew is on the Rise- Don't Call it a Comeback
Maybe the aging veterans on Columbus' roster were just waiting for the weather to warm up.
The Columbus Crew spent the early part of the 2009 MLS season enduring the worst start ever by a defending MLS champion. They didn't take home all three points until their eighth match of the season.
Their record was an ugly 0-5-2, and they looked more like an overmatched team of eight-year old kids than the defending champs.
But their recent revival has surprised quite a few people, but that shouldn't be the case. Despite a horrifically slow start, the road to the 2009 MLS Cup still has to go through the defending champions.
Is it any coincidence that Columbus' first victory coincided with Frankie Hejduk's return to the lineup? Injuries kept Hejduk out of the lineup until May 9, and the Crew sorely missed his calming, veteran presence in their lineup.
A back-line with Hejduk would not concede four goals to Real Salt Lake, and they would certainly do a better job of holding leads.
Hejduk has stabilized a defense that was fairly shaky in the early part of the season. Gone are the foolish mistakes, and they've been replaced by a very talented right back who can also get forward and aid in the attack.
The rest of MLS would do well to prepare for an onslaught from Columbus in the coming months. Yes, they've been on a hot streak in the last month or so, but they aren't playing anywhere near their best.
Yes, a team that is rapidly closing on the top of the standings is in poor form.
Just take a look at the offense. Last season's MVP, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, finished the year with 20 assists despite being injured for a lengthy spell just before the playoffs. This season? He's registered just a single assist in 17 appearances.
Most fans will point to the fact that Schelotto has scored 10 goals to make up for his lack of assists, but to me that signifies a problem. Last season he only scored seven times in 31 appearances.
Such a lopsided goals-to-assists ratio in 2009 suggests that nobody else on the Columbus roster has stepped up to provide offense. Schelotto is shouldering nearly the entire load.
Schelotto's teammates are still dragging their feet on the offensive end. Alejandro Moreno is second on the club in goals scored, and he's only hit the back of the net three times.
Eddie Gaven, Chad Marshall and Emmanuel Ekpo have two apiece. After that? A few guys with a single goal.
Robbie Rogers scored eight times last season, and is still searching for his first of 2009. Crew fans will be hoping that a taste of international duty in the Gold Cup will provide a spark in the second half.
When the rest of the Crew returns to form—and trust me, that will happen—Columbus should find themselves perched atop the East for the second season running.
