#360USA: Why low-key cast list is good and bad for MLS

Steve Brenner 11:13 02/11/2015
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  • City of fallen angels: Steven Gerrard was unable to inspire the LA Galaxy past Seattle.

    It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Steven Gerrard.

    When the Liverpool legend signalled his intentions to leave Anfield and head for Los Angeles, the Hollywood scriptwriters sharpened their pens.

    With reigning MLS MVP Robbie Keane, who had brilliantly led Bruce Arena’s team to a third title in four years last December, already in place it all looked like a match made in football heaven.

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    Former Barcelona and Spurs forward Giovani dos Santos’ similarly mid-season arrival inflated the Galaxy wage-bill to $19.5 million (the second-largest in MLS history) and increased expectations.

    Three victories quickly followed.

    But they peaked too early. Only one more win was achieved and following a stormy, defensively shambolic play-off defeat to Seattle last week, the dream of Gerrard’s box office arrival instantly sparking another trophy was destroyed.

    Looking at the Galaxy’s recent results, it was no surprise. A woeful end of season run of just one triumph in eight saw them finish fifth. So instead of ensuring home advantage and a bye for the first round, they were forced to travel to reach the semi-finals. 

    Seattle are certainly no pushovers. Yet the team with the largest payroll in MLS were still expected to advance. The fact they didn’t has potential positive and negative ramifications for a league desperate to show the world their razor-tight rules and regulations serve to enhance the product on the pitch.

    Of course, an end of season showdown between their most world renowned players – Keane, Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Villa , Andrea Pirlo and Kaka – is a marketing man’s dream.

    Their involvement would have made global headlines. But all are now enjoying extended breaks yet their absence won’t worry commissioner Don Garber (below) adversely.

    The attempt to make MLS an elite global league isn’t centered on packing rosters with golden oldies like Lampard, Pirlo and Gerrard.

    Having America labelled as the place to head for in search of one last payday grates those in power.

    Arena, to his credit, questioned the Galaxy’ transfer policy when picking over the wreckage of the nightmare in Seattle.

    “It was, at time, a little bit awkward,” he said. “I don’t think you do anything in the very short term. When you make those investments, it should be over a couple of years not a couple of months.”

    Garber, who would prefer to pump money into academies rather than bring in expensive goal-line technology, hasn’t placed such faith in development for that to be the answer.

    Instead, he will look at teams like the New York Red Bulls who lost Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill last summer only to keep their financial powder dry and build frugally and intelligently.

    The same can be said of FC Dallas. American sport prides itself in a system which produces talent primed and ready for service at the end of university.

    Yet in soccer, while the best European players are already in club academies from a very early age, the process which works so well for the NBA and NFL doesn’t necessarily translate well.

    Garber, along with all the franchise owners who have a vested interest in the sport’s development, wants a USA national team boosted by the fruits of the various MLS academy systems seriously pushing for the World Cup by 2022.

    That seems beyond fanciful. Yet with Gerrard and the injury-affected Lampard’s failure to make immediate, seismic impacts – the former Liverpool captain made 13 starts, scoring twice – Garber will look to homegrown players and lesser lights to prove their worth.

    All the franchises – LA, NYCFC and Orlando – who made the most eye-catching purchases have been locked out of the post-season party. 

    Tellingly, teams with the lowest payrolls – Red Bulls, Dallas and DC United – occupied three of the top four spots when taking both the Eastern and Western Conferences into the equation.

    This midweek’s round of eliminators produced some superb drama and the denouement to the campaign will be interesting. Didier Drogba is still around as Montreal take on Columbus Crew.

    But, rightly or wrongly, without the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Pirlo and Kaka , the product becomes a harder sell globally and even more difficult to persuade non-believers that MLS really is worthy of the attention.

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