Canales Daily: Here Yesterday, Gone Today

By Andrea Canales

One day, there was a little league with annual competition and a year-end trophy that was dedicated to developing players in a sport that more American youngsters play than almost any other. The next day, it was gone.

Four words from Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber did the trick.

". . .eliminating the reserve division,” the MLS head honcho said as part of his league address on November 21.

Reserve leagues around the world are the standard way for teams to get a lot of their younger players (their reserves) competitive game action, as well as provide starters returning from injury some match practice. Standings run independently of the results of the senior team. Reserve league championships can often indicate to fans that a new generation of players is arriving to boost the club in years to come.

When MLS launched the reserve league in 2005, it increased the size of the rosters, allowing each team ten developmental players. One Los Angeles prospect, Herculez Gomez, took advantage of his opportunity with the reserves, parlaying it not only into a chance to start and win the MLS Cup with the Galaxy, but eventually earn playing time with the U.S. national team.

Gomez, now a forward for the Kansas City Wizards, pointed out his good fortune.

"The only reason I got a chance is because [then-coach Steve Sampson] was coming out to every reserve game," said Gomez. "I was a lucky one."

In some ways, the reserve league competition would appeal to many familiar with the European version of the game. There was one single-table for the entire league, with no playoffs. The top team in the standings claimed the title. DC United's reserves claimed the inaugural season, then the Colorado Rapids won the yearly competition twice. The Houston Dynamo Reserves claimed the final title this year.

Yet many MLS clubs, busy trying to make their main teams successful, didn't bother to spend much time and effort with the reserve edition.

"Teams didn't take it too seriously sometimes," Gomez said. "They didn't really care much about the reserve games and would give guys time off and call in all these guest players. You wouldn't know their names and they were suddenly your teammates. It would be difficult. It turned into a Sunday league. It was kind of a joke."

For the ardent fan, reserve games were soccer at a bargain, since almost all the matches were free. That didn't draw crowds, though.

"In the reserve league, you'd play the day after the league game in front of like friends and family, your mom and dad, really," recalled Gomez.

But for clubs that did invest in their reserve teams, there was a tangible pay off.

"[Colorado] took it very seriously," said Gomez, who was traded from the Galaxy to the two-time reserve league winners. "Now a lot of those guys are starters, big-time players like Nick LaBrocca; he got a call up to the national team."

The league, though, has pulled the rug out from under the clubs that did pay close attention to developing a quality reserve program. The developmental players for each team will be cut by over half, to only four. Two senior roster spots have been added to boost the main squads.

"Right now the focus is to be sure we have the best senior roster and be able to have the most competitive teams we can," said Garber.

As someone who was once too familiar with the low pay of developmental players, Gomez was pleased to see that at least a couple of people on each team would be getting a higher wage as part of the senior roster, though he regretted the program that was cut to fund the change.

"I am sad, because I'm one of many players who got their start there," Gomez reflected. "In that aspect, it's a big blow to a lot of players. On the other hand, some will be making more money because they're adding on to the rosters and that's always good."

In a way, the folding of the MLS reserve league may be a boost to other soccer leagues, especially the smaller United Soccer Leagues, as some MLS-caliber players set adrift by the changes in MLS will likely land there.

In the larger sports world, the splash of the reserve league's demise made hardly a ripple. Understandably, MLS would just as soon downplay the fact that less opportunities are available for young players.

The legacy of the MLS reserve league is hard to measure - successes like Gomez or, more recently, Brad Evans, - against the unknown of how many more like them will now not be found. In Houston, the reserve league trophy will remain gathering dust in a case - a poignant reminder that there will be no future winner to claim it again.

Andrea Canales is Chief Editor for Goal.com