ENGLISH FOOTBALL FAN REACTS TO THE MLS AND THE PLAY OFFS 🏆

[@kentgrady9226]

I've always found the British definition of "non-competitive" a bit perplexing. You seem to define it as and confine it to a system of promotion and relegation - full stop. To an American mindset, competition means that a championship is potentially available to as many teams as possible. In our view, most European leagues fall far short of that mark. Even the English league, which is by far the most balanced in Europe, contains only 3-4 teams which have a legitimate shot at a league trophy. Second bit - the Supporters Shield is an important leg of the American treble. It is awarded to the points leader after the scheduled slate of fixtures ("regular season" in our vernacular, "the league season" in yours). Third, most American purists (I'm amongst them) *want* promotion and relegation in our pyramid. There are over 100 full time professional football clubs in the US, and another 30 or so in Canada. There are furthermore dozens of semi professional and high level amateur clubs. In other words, we could easily support a proper pro/rel system. There are historical, financial, and cultural reasons for the absence of promotion and relegation in our pyramid. Any implementation of the practice would not look like the standard European model. It would probably be composite/coefficient. Or, it may be a competition between top lower division finishers versus the bottom MLS finishers. I think a four team, home and away format would be great. Top two teams play in MLS. Bottom two play in the USL Championship. It's a long way off, whatever form it may take. I'd love to be wrong.

[@nickb2049]

I personally don't want pro/rel because it is the biggest reason why European leagues are so noncompetitive. The longer a team is in the top division the more money it gets, meaning the better players it can buy and keep it at the top and it just becomes a feedback loop.

[@abnrgrtr]

Yeah Josh, the country is huge, that's one of the reasons it's so difficult to win on the road in this league. You mentioned 7 hours drive, we have trips that are four or more hours FLYING and spanning three different time zones. Very difficult traveling, especially during schedule compression times when you may have three games in 8 days and have crisscrossed the country. And the geography pretty much prevents you having a calendar equivalent to Europe. There's no way you can play games in the northern cities in the dead of winter, especially somewhere like Minnesota where it can go well below zero Fahrenheit with many feet of snow. Would it be better for the league in some ways? No doubt. Unfortunately it's really just not possible.

[@cliffrusso1159]

It's going to be 30 teams in 2025 when San Diego FC joins MLS.

[@oza1302]

My rule of thumb when discussing the time period of the league, relegation, etc. is that MLS is not going to be like your typical Euro League. It’s just that simple. The threat of having a NY or LA team relegated is too financially risky. Especially during its fledgling stage (90’s into the 2000’s). Also, and more importantly, this is done in the context of the American Sports landscape. It’s saturated with NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, College Football, Olympics every two years, golf, etc. Trying to get a foothold in this landscape by going full European in terms of when the season is played, relegation, etc may be a bit too much to bite off. This can change in a generation’s time but I can’t be too upset with these decisions. I’ve been around since season one and, as I’ve seen the league grow, I have my preferences (mostly higher salaries and a “simpler” playoff system) but can’t fault the brain trust for most of these decisions. MLS’s challenges is unique and apart from anything any other football/soccer league in the world faces. Slapping a “do it like Europe” or, conversely, “do it like the NFL” solution on it is not paying enough attention to the challenges and nuances. My two cents. Thanks man. Appreciate your videos.

[@loganleroy8622]

Everything is about playoffs in the United States. We don't care about consistency, we care about can you win when it matters the most? When the pressure is the highest, can you perform? Because really, if you can't win when the pressure is the greatest, what's the point? The point of the regular season is to set yourself up in the most favorable spot on the bracket. The playoffs have also been expanded now to 18 teams; that's 9 from each conference. Because of that most teams don't get eliminated from playoff contention until the final month. There's no such thing as a mid-table team that's just coasting the final 6 weeks of the season like the EPL has. If you look at the final day of the regular season 21 out of the 29 teams were fighting for something, either getting into the playoffs, staying above the drop, or securing an extra game at home. In the Western Conference for example, teams holding spots #7-11 were all eligible to either make the playoffs or be eliminated on the final day. Only 8 times has the MLS Cup winner also won the Supporter's Shield. That's only 28.6% of the time. There has been 1 team that has won the Treble. It's far more difficult to do in the MLS because the team's across the league are much closer to each other in ability.

[@BuckeyeJay420]

I went 20 years without caring about the mls and it took a small team from Wales to get me to care about the Columbus crew

[@BuckeyeJay420]

But I would love to see a relegations promotion system set up that would b awesome. That is what has drawn me into the Wrexham community is being able to watch them rise

[@gracielynn9623]

@@BuckeyeJay420 the lower leagues are just too financially unstable for a relegated MLS team. Every year whatever MLS team will get relegated would instantly fold. Teams that get promoted wouldn’t be able to afford to make the jump, teams that get relegated would take too much losses, and be in leagues that are themselves entirely unstable. it’s not only the fact that most Americans probably wouldn’t buy into it and it’s not a risk the MLS wants to take but it’s also for preserving the clubs themselves. The only ones that might survive a fall would be LA or New York teams. And even then that would be a huge financial hit for the league. Also, on a sidenote, Josh covers wrexham on his main channel. He does play-by-play commentary for almost every wrexham game, or as many as he possibly can. He blogs others that he can visit live.

[@spainishheron]

how did that happen ? lol

[@sdot5389]

The distances are the key reasons why this league will continue to expand to 40 teams and then split into two where travel is minimized (or virtually eliminated) between east and west until the final cup match.

[@michaelpeli2429]

This sounds like it would be similar to what MLB used to be like before they had regular season cross-league play between the American and National leagues. It does make sense once they get to 36-40 teams because there would be too many matches to play cross-conference matches. They would really need a supporters shield for both conferences though.

[@michaelpeli2429]

Also, there has been talk of a tiered MLS 1 and MLS 2 once they get to 40 teams, if they go that far.

[@LUCATALKSBALL]

About time KZbin working Eddie video out

[@michaelpeli2429]

Few things. The home field advantage in MLS is one of, if not the best, statistically out of any league. Not so much because of intimidating atmosphere, but the long travel drastically different climates, and even altitudes. Secondly, to the casual N.Amee. sports fan playoffs is the norm, plus it's a big money maker for the leagues and teams. Unfortunately, MLS can't decide if the want the format to be like the other N.Amer. leagues or more European cup type two leg format, which MLS tries to do a bit of both in general and not always well. As for pro/rel, soccer doesn't really have the robust enough number of teams to do a full 3-4 tier pyramid yet. It was only 20 years ago MLS was down to 10 teams and almost folded. Now it's getting better, but the newest team cost $500 mil, so no way are the owners going to risk their investment to possibly go down a tier. Also the TV money isn't big enough to share yet. The best we will probably get is that the MLS franchises never get relagated, but maybe 2-3 ULS teams get invited, with a playoff system between the higher ULS teams, with the previous year's ULS to stay in MLS for another season. Which would still be exciting to watch.

[@ImTheDudeMan471]

The MLS season: In some of those cities, it's as cold and snowy as Siberia in Winter. So the season has to be scheduled appropriately.

[@garywalker2825]

A couple of things...the MLS season starts in Feburary after the NFL season is over. In the early days of MLS there were almost. no soccer only stadiums. They had to share with NFL or major college football staduims which plays from Aug to Dec. Second, the playoff system is modeled on the other major North American leagues. It give the fans something that they can relate to. Finally soccer in the US does not have deep ties to a community like MLB or the NFL. It is culturally more like hockey in Canada

[@ancient6676]

Yo are you going to do a reaction of the highlights of this year's MLS Cup?

[@Zitolos]

Pro rel might become a thing for the USL divisions soon in the next couple of years. And MLS has talked about doing a bundesliga thing with a MLS 2 in the next decade. All speculation at this point though

[@derricka.3206]

That video seems a bit outdated, as it doesn’t include the developmental league MLS Next Pro (3rd division) or the newly revamped Leagues Cup (MLS vs Liga MX). There’s also the Campeones Cup, where the winner of the MLS Cup faces the winner of the Campeón de Campeones (winner between Liga MX’s Clasura and Apetura champions). But personally that last one is just a friendly with a trophy attached. Leagues Cup winner qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is a bit controversial as it’s seen as a cash grab between the two leagues. Mexican fans don’t like that there are no games played in Mexico, and some USA fans hate that MLS is using it to devalue the US Open Cup. US Open Cup is not as big as the MLS Cup, and doesn’t make as much money, but it is rooted in tradition and has been going on for about a century. But since MLS doesn’t control it, they wanted to pull back and just enter their Next Pro teams. Right now there is a compromise of first and second teams, but who knows what will happen in the future. MLS Next Pro is a new league composed to help develop players from youth academies and the reserve squad. A couple independent clubs also participate. Tbh they’re not relevant beyond what I just mentioned about their involvement in the Open Cup, so feel free to ignore.

[@gordieparenteau6555]

The Supporters Shield, as the name suggests, was created by the supporters themselves, not be MLS. Initially, MLS didn't recognize the supporters shield at all in an official capacity. Since the league has moved away from a balanced schedule, the supporters shield has been devalued. Most of your games against your own conference. A dominant team in a weak conference can rack up the points easily, so that renders the whole idea of a "season champion" rather meaningless. And from a business perspective, the MLS puts more emphasis on the MLS Cup because it can more easily commercialize it because the league owns the trophy. MLS does NOT own the supporters shield. The fans themselves do.

[@joemax4535]

few here care about soccer just stick with the big four mlb nhl nba and nfl.

[@cliffrusso1159]

Bro, if few care about soccer here, how come it is the most watched sport in the 18-35 demographic? If you mean few care about MLS, I would agree. Most American soccer fans follow European leagues and the numbers reflect that. Also this guy's channel is primarily a soccer channel. He occasionally reacts to NFL or college football but his main focus is soccer.

[@gracielynn9623]

@@cliffrusso1159 ignore him or her. I see they change their user name, but they’ve literally been commenting this on every single soccer video on every single reaction page since February. Every single one. Without fail. It’s just a troll.

[@VijaySuryaAditya]

Informative vid.

[@AyoJerry]

The MLS is growing rapidly.. to say few care about it is just stupid. They hit the highest average attendance ever this year, and Messi only played 6 games out of 500+ in the season.@@cliffrusso1159

[@cliffrusso1159]

@@AyoJerry MLS is still a niche league. Yes it is growing rapidly but as I said the majority of US soccer fans could care less about MLS. That's why whenever you see a European club play an MLS side, the MAJORITY of people there are supporting the European club. Look at Orlando City vs Arsenal, Charlotte FC vs Chelsea ect from preseason like 2 yrs ago.

[@spainishheron]

You should give credit to @snowmansportsmedia the one who made the video explaining it