RSS
ATOM
advertisement
Monday MLS Breakdown: SuperLiga Finds Its Place
SuperLiga spent the first two years of its existence trying to figure out its future. As the third edition of the tournament kicked off this weekend, the tournament has found its place as an engaging secondary competition. Kyle McCarthy explains where it fits into the MLS calendar before delving into the truncated Week Fourteen schedule.
Jun 22, 2009 11:09:30 AM
By Kyle McCarthy
SuperLiga spent the first two years of its existence trying to figure out what it was and what it could be.
The SuperLiga premise is simple. Pair four MLS teams with four Mexican teams in a round-robin tournament based exclusively in the United States, add a dash of national rivalry, sprinkle in some latent distaste and watch the rancor and cash intake increase substantially. The matches tended towards the wide open and the ridiculous in the first two editions, which enticed neutral fans into sampling the entertaining fare without quelling the snide remarks from diehard supporters about why the competition existed at all.
The original intent worked fine and well enough until the CONCACAF Champions League emerged last year and added another group-stage competition to the already somewhat crowded MLS calendar. The region-wide tournament dropped straight in at the top end of the totem pole with an alluring berth in the Club World Cup as the final reward.
MLS removed its top teams from the SuperLiga pool to place more emphasis on the Champions League this season and reduce the fixture load. Although SuperLiga's future was never in doubt for financial and public relations reasons, the tournament needed to reinvent itself north of the Rio Grande in order to remain more than a somewhat distracting sideshow heading into year three.
Clarity arrived in time for this year's edition, at least from an American perspective. For MLS clubs, SuperLiga transformed into the American version of the Europa League (nee UEFA Cup) without those harrowing midweek trips to Belarus. MLS fixed the problem posed by the schedule congestion simply: Qualify the top clubs not already involved in the Champions League for SuperLiga, alter the league schedule to give them two weekends off from league play to accommodate the group stage and hand them the spotlight in the American summer border war.
Other obstacles also needed to dissipate to ensure a smooth transition. The schedule needed to be tweaked to avoid holding the group stages in late July and tuckering the MLS teams out just in time for the business end of the league campaign. The bonus structure needed to be fixed after players quite correctly carped and moaned last season about taking home 15 percent of a much-hyped $1 million grand prize for the winners.
Those fixes were easy enough – the group stages are now in June and the winning players now take home 30 percent of the total kitty, according to a recent Boston Globe report – to satisfy the parties involved.
The benefits from this secondary competition are myriad, perhaps making the competition more alluring to MLS clubs than the still-nascent Champions League. A MLS club raises its profile in Mexico – the games are nationally televised on both sides of the border – when it participates. Its players are exposed to a different style of soccer that tests their skills and prepares them for Champions League play.
The intensity of the matches – particularly those cross-border slugfests – accelerates the development too. Extra dates in soccer-specific and team-controlled stadiums help the bottom line and cut down on international travel. It's a win-win situation that doesn't include an expensive and humbling trip to Central America.
Altering the tournament to make it more amenable to MLS teams could lead to even more emphasis on the competition in the future. As MLS continues to expand over the next few years, success will prove more elusive at the pinnacle of the American game. Success in SuperLiga or the U.S. Open Cup could be enough to mollify expectant fan bases or, at the very least, present the appearance of a winning organization if MLS Cup or the Supporters Shield is a bridge too far.
The admittedly rosy picture on the MLS side of SuperLiga looks decidedly darker on the Mexican side of ledger. It's hard to see how the competition makes sense for Mexican clubs as presently comprised.
The positives – American brand expansion and a rigorous, well-heeled preseason schedule ahead of the beginning of the 2009 Apertura kick-off on July 24 – are outweighed by a series of negatives – the shame caused by losing to American teams, the higher probability of those losses occurring when the Mexican-based players are out-of-shape and out-of-season, the meager relevance back home and the peculiar timing in proximity to the Mexican League draft – in the grand scheme of things.
From the MLS perspective, the reasons behind Mexican participation simply don't matter so long as the FMF ensures its clubs will participate in some form or another.
Mexican clubs have shown their indifference through their level of participation in this year's tournament. Two qualifiers (Chivas and UNAM) opted out of the tournament. Three of the four Mexican teams who accepted bids heavily relied on reserve and youth team players as group play opened this weekend. Tigres even sent its first team players to play a friendly against Universidad de Guadalajara on Saturday night while playing its reserves against Chivas USA.
Perhaps those three teams wanted to avoid what happened to the only Mexican side that played its first team regulars: Santos Laguna lost to a battered New England side 4-2 on a sopping wet night outside Boston. Hungry reserve team players won't substantively hurt the competition on the field, but persistently diminished rosters could cause public relations problems regarding the sanctity of the competition in the future.
With the competition already underway for this year, the future can wait and the confusing reasons behind Mexican participation can rest comfortably on a back burner. Carving out a meaningful identity in the face of an increasingly crowded MLS calendar is enough work for one edition of the tournament.
Week Fourteen – Questions, Thoughts, and Answers
Monday MLS Breakdown Player of the Week – Omar Cummings, FW, Colorado
While Cummings benefited from hospitable defending by visiting D.C. United, the Jamaican forward bagged a brace and set up a third as the Rapids stormed to a 3-0 victory over United on Saturday night. Like more than a few teams this season, United simply couldn't deal with Cummings' pace all night long.
What was he thinking? Jeremy Hall, DF, New York and Jamison Olave, DF, Real Salt Lake (tie)
Hall didn't need to go deep into his own corner to retrieve an aimless ball that surely would have trickled out over the end line harmlessly. Instead, he ignored the cries to leave it and collected the ball. The canny Fredy Montero pressured the ball, stripped Hall and calmly tucked the gift into the far corner to snatch a demoralizing equalizer right before the break in Seattle's 1-1 draw in New York on Saturday night.
“It's hard,” Hall said. “I feel like a baseball pitcher that just gave up a walk-off. I cost us points and I feel terrible.”
Olave shares the award after picking up his second yellow card during the second half of RSL's 1-1 draw in Houston by jumping in front of Brian Ching's attempted throw-in.
“I've got to look at the video, but if it's as bad as I think it is, I'm going to be very, very unhappy because it's been addressed with him already that we can't afford to do that,” RSL coach Jason Kreis said after the game.
Eleven observations to start the week:
1. In the Friday MLS Forecast, I wrote that Los Angeles coach Bruce Arena needed to find a way to get Gregg Berhalter out of one-versus-one situations. The Galaxy's 2-1 loss against San Jose in Oakland proved once again why Berhalter can't be trusted when isolated. Pablo Campos showed how Berhalter struggles to deal with a quick first step at this point in his career by skinning the former U.S. national team veteran and forcing him to concede a needless penalty after just six minutes.
2. Did Cam Weaver's departure for Houston and Frank Yallop's open lamenting of Cornell Glen's availability due to a visa issue light a spark under Campos? The erratic Brazilian created and scored a penalty kick and assisted on Ryan Johnson's scrappy second.
3. “He's a great little player,” New York goalkeeper Danny Cepero said in describing Montero. “He's crafty, good on the ball, he'll get a shot off wherever he can. He'll take a half chance and turn it into a full chance. You have to constantly be aware.” Particularly if you're the Red Bulls. The Colombian marksman has scored three of his seven MLS goals against New York this season.
4. “We should have found a goal somewhere at the end,” Cepero, the quite quotable and quite in-form Red Bulls goalkeeper said. “But at the same time, you can't be depressed at a tie. Especially when you are losing games day in and day out.”
5. Pablo Ricchetti's 17th minute own goal in FC Dallas' 2-1 win over Columbus provided a fitting resolution to a corner kick that never should have happened.
Gino Padula lumped a ball down the left wing with Ricchetti the only player in sight. With the sideline next to him, Ricchetti let the ball turn him towards the end line and he managed to scuff his clearance over the end line.
Guillermo Barros Schelotto's resulting service set up a powerful Eric Brunner header that deflected off Ricchetti's shoulder an into the net. These are exactly the type of needless goals FCD can't afford to concede as it languishes near the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
6. Eric Avila bailed Ricchetti out and changed the complexion of the match completely after arriving on 76 minutes. Within four minutes, he bagged his first MLS goal with a delightfully curled finish to the far post. Minutes later, he cut inside from the left wing and played a tidy little throughball to David Ferreira to set up the winning penalty kick. Maybe that extra bit of ingenuity is why Schellas Hyndman has handed him 25 appearances since taking over last summer.
7. There's a time and place for optimal awareness, Chad Marshall, and the 86th minute of a 1-1 game is it. Reigning Defender of the Year and potential American Gold Cup representative Marshall will look at the tape and think he could have done more to prevent the match winner. Ferreira made a nice little run across Marshall into space on the left side of the penalty area.
The Crew center back reacted too slowly and then made the grave mistake of putting a hand on Ferreira once he gained that step of separation. The diminutive playmaker didn't need a second invitation to flop to the ground to set up the winning penalty and condemn the Crew to its first loss in ten matches.
8. It certainly appears that Brian Ching is now healthy after that hamstring injury after drawing a penalty and thumping home a header to equalize in the 89th minute of Houston's 1-1 home draw with Real Salt Lake.
9. RSL striker Fabian Espindola deserved the charitable bounce off Bobby Boswell that led to his first goal of the season to open the scoring in that game. Espindola, after all, laid off the initial ball for Chris Wingert to serve into the box deep in the left corner and then continued his run into the box to find his way on to the end of Yura Movsisyan's clever little back heel.
That's the type of sneaky yet persistent run youth coaches across the country should show to their strikers to add a bit of cleverness to their play in and around the box.
10. Colorado's victory over an off-the-pace D.C. – the visiting Eastern Conference leaders had played an exacting 3-3 draw in Seattle on Wednesday and struggled despite making several changes – extended the Rapids' unbeaten streak over United in suburban Denver to ten matches (8-0-2).
11. “You go through a season and you have games like this,” United midfielder Ben Olsen told The Washington Post. “We knew it was going to be a big test from the start, coming off a real emotional game and the travel. You don't want to make excuses, and hopefully those were the causes and this isn't going to be a trend.” Olsen, incidentally, played 64 minutes after missing the past five weeks with a hamstring injury.
Kyle McCarthy writes the Monday MLS Breakdown and frequently writes opinion pieces during the week for Goal.com. He also covers the New England Revolution for the Boston Herald and MLSnet.com. Contact him with your questions or comments at kyle.mccarthy@goal.com and follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kylejmccarthy
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page!
SuperLiga spent the first two years of its existence trying to figure out what it was and what it could be.
The SuperLiga premise is simple. Pair four MLS teams with four Mexican teams in a round-robin tournament based exclusively in the United States, add a dash of national rivalry, sprinkle in some latent distaste and watch the rancor and cash intake increase substantially. The matches tended towards the wide open and the ridiculous in the first two editions, which enticed neutral fans into sampling the entertaining fare without quelling the snide remarks from diehard supporters about why the competition existed at all.
The original intent worked fine and well enough until the CONCACAF Champions League emerged last year and added another group-stage competition to the already somewhat crowded MLS calendar. The region-wide tournament dropped straight in at the top end of the totem pole with an alluring berth in the Club World Cup as the final reward.
MLS removed its top teams from the SuperLiga pool to place more emphasis on the Champions League this season and reduce the fixture load. Although SuperLiga's future was never in doubt for financial and public relations reasons, the tournament needed to reinvent itself north of the Rio Grande in order to remain more than a somewhat distracting sideshow heading into year three.
Clarity arrived in time for this year's edition, at least from an American perspective. For MLS clubs, SuperLiga transformed into the American version of the Europa League (nee UEFA Cup) without those harrowing midweek trips to Belarus. MLS fixed the problem posed by the schedule congestion simply: Qualify the top clubs not already involved in the Champions League for SuperLiga, alter the league schedule to give them two weekends off from league play to accommodate the group stage and hand them the spotlight in the American summer border war.
Other obstacles also needed to dissipate to ensure a smooth transition. The schedule needed to be tweaked to avoid holding the group stages in late July and tuckering the MLS teams out just in time for the business end of the league campaign. The bonus structure needed to be fixed after players quite correctly carped and moaned last season about taking home 15 percent of a much-hyped $1 million grand prize for the winners.
Those fixes were easy enough – the group stages are now in June and the winning players now take home 30 percent of the total kitty, according to a recent Boston Globe report – to satisfy the parties involved.
The benefits from this secondary competition are myriad, perhaps making the competition more alluring to MLS clubs than the still-nascent Champions League. A MLS club raises its profile in Mexico – the games are nationally televised on both sides of the border – when it participates. Its players are exposed to a different style of soccer that tests their skills and prepares them for Champions League play.
The intensity of the matches – particularly those cross-border slugfests – accelerates the development too. Extra dates in soccer-specific and team-controlled stadiums help the bottom line and cut down on international travel. It's a win-win situation that doesn't include an expensive and humbling trip to Central America.
Altering the tournament to make it more amenable to MLS teams could lead to even more emphasis on the competition in the future. As MLS continues to expand over the next few years, success will prove more elusive at the pinnacle of the American game. Success in SuperLiga or the U.S. Open Cup could be enough to mollify expectant fan bases or, at the very least, present the appearance of a winning organization if MLS Cup or the Supporters Shield is a bridge too far.
The admittedly rosy picture on the MLS side of SuperLiga looks decidedly darker on the Mexican side of ledger. It's hard to see how the competition makes sense for Mexican clubs as presently comprised.
The positives – American brand expansion and a rigorous, well-heeled preseason schedule ahead of the beginning of the 2009 Apertura kick-off on July 24 – are outweighed by a series of negatives – the shame caused by losing to American teams, the higher probability of those losses occurring when the Mexican-based players are out-of-shape and out-of-season, the meager relevance back home and the peculiar timing in proximity to the Mexican League draft – in the grand scheme of things.
From the MLS perspective, the reasons behind Mexican participation simply don't matter so long as the FMF ensures its clubs will participate in some form or another.
Mexican clubs have shown their indifference through their level of participation in this year's tournament. Two qualifiers (Chivas and UNAM) opted out of the tournament. Three of the four Mexican teams who accepted bids heavily relied on reserve and youth team players as group play opened this weekend. Tigres even sent its first team players to play a friendly against Universidad de Guadalajara on Saturday night while playing its reserves against Chivas USA.
Perhaps those three teams wanted to avoid what happened to the only Mexican side that played its first team regulars: Santos Laguna lost to a battered New England side 4-2 on a sopping wet night outside Boston. Hungry reserve team players won't substantively hurt the competition on the field, but persistently diminished rosters could cause public relations problems regarding the sanctity of the competition in the future.
With the competition already underway for this year, the future can wait and the confusing reasons behind Mexican participation can rest comfortably on a back burner. Carving out a meaningful identity in the face of an increasingly crowded MLS calendar is enough work for one edition of the tournament.
Week Fourteen – Questions, Thoughts, and Answers
Monday MLS Breakdown Player of the Week – Omar Cummings, FW, Colorado
While Cummings benefited from hospitable defending by visiting D.C. United, the Jamaican forward bagged a brace and set up a third as the Rapids stormed to a 3-0 victory over United on Saturday night. Like more than a few teams this season, United simply couldn't deal with Cummings' pace all night long.
What was he thinking? Jeremy Hall, DF, New York and Jamison Olave, DF, Real Salt Lake (tie)
Hall didn't need to go deep into his own corner to retrieve an aimless ball that surely would have trickled out over the end line harmlessly. Instead, he ignored the cries to leave it and collected the ball. The canny Fredy Montero pressured the ball, stripped Hall and calmly tucked the gift into the far corner to snatch a demoralizing equalizer right before the break in Seattle's 1-1 draw in New York on Saturday night.
“It's hard,” Hall said. “I feel like a baseball pitcher that just gave up a walk-off. I cost us points and I feel terrible.”
Olave shares the award after picking up his second yellow card during the second half of RSL's 1-1 draw in Houston by jumping in front of Brian Ching's attempted throw-in.
“I've got to look at the video, but if it's as bad as I think it is, I'm going to be very, very unhappy because it's been addressed with him already that we can't afford to do that,” RSL coach Jason Kreis said after the game.
Eleven observations to start the week:
1. In the Friday MLS Forecast, I wrote that Los Angeles coach Bruce Arena needed to find a way to get Gregg Berhalter out of one-versus-one situations. The Galaxy's 2-1 loss against San Jose in Oakland proved once again why Berhalter can't be trusted when isolated. Pablo Campos showed how Berhalter struggles to deal with a quick first step at this point in his career by skinning the former U.S. national team veteran and forcing him to concede a needless penalty after just six minutes.
2. Did Cam Weaver's departure for Houston and Frank Yallop's open lamenting of Cornell Glen's availability due to a visa issue light a spark under Campos? The erratic Brazilian created and scored a penalty kick and assisted on Ryan Johnson's scrappy second.
3. “He's a great little player,” New York goalkeeper Danny Cepero said in describing Montero. “He's crafty, good on the ball, he'll get a shot off wherever he can. He'll take a half chance and turn it into a full chance. You have to constantly be aware.” Particularly if you're the Red Bulls. The Colombian marksman has scored three of his seven MLS goals against New York this season.
4. “We should have found a goal somewhere at the end,” Cepero, the quite quotable and quite in-form Red Bulls goalkeeper said. “But at the same time, you can't be depressed at a tie. Especially when you are losing games day in and day out.”
5. Pablo Ricchetti's 17th minute own goal in FC Dallas' 2-1 win over Columbus provided a fitting resolution to a corner kick that never should have happened.
Gino Padula lumped a ball down the left wing with Ricchetti the only player in sight. With the sideline next to him, Ricchetti let the ball turn him towards the end line and he managed to scuff his clearance over the end line.
Guillermo Barros Schelotto's resulting service set up a powerful Eric Brunner header that deflected off Ricchetti's shoulder an into the net. These are exactly the type of needless goals FCD can't afford to concede as it languishes near the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
6. Eric Avila bailed Ricchetti out and changed the complexion of the match completely after arriving on 76 minutes. Within four minutes, he bagged his first MLS goal with a delightfully curled finish to the far post. Minutes later, he cut inside from the left wing and played a tidy little throughball to David Ferreira to set up the winning penalty kick. Maybe that extra bit of ingenuity is why Schellas Hyndman has handed him 25 appearances since taking over last summer.
7. There's a time and place for optimal awareness, Chad Marshall, and the 86th minute of a 1-1 game is it. Reigning Defender of the Year and potential American Gold Cup representative Marshall will look at the tape and think he could have done more to prevent the match winner. Ferreira made a nice little run across Marshall into space on the left side of the penalty area.
The Crew center back reacted too slowly and then made the grave mistake of putting a hand on Ferreira once he gained that step of separation. The diminutive playmaker didn't need a second invitation to flop to the ground to set up the winning penalty and condemn the Crew to its first loss in ten matches.
8. It certainly appears that Brian Ching is now healthy after that hamstring injury after drawing a penalty and thumping home a header to equalize in the 89th minute of Houston's 1-1 home draw with Real Salt Lake.
9. RSL striker Fabian Espindola deserved the charitable bounce off Bobby Boswell that led to his first goal of the season to open the scoring in that game. Espindola, after all, laid off the initial ball for Chris Wingert to serve into the box deep in the left corner and then continued his run into the box to find his way on to the end of Yura Movsisyan's clever little back heel.
That's the type of sneaky yet persistent run youth coaches across the country should show to their strikers to add a bit of cleverness to their play in and around the box.
10. Colorado's victory over an off-the-pace D.C. – the visiting Eastern Conference leaders had played an exacting 3-3 draw in Seattle on Wednesday and struggled despite making several changes – extended the Rapids' unbeaten streak over United in suburban Denver to ten matches (8-0-2).
11. “You go through a season and you have games like this,” United midfielder Ben Olsen told The Washington Post. “We knew it was going to be a big test from the start, coming off a real emotional game and the travel. You don't want to make excuses, and hopefully those were the causes and this isn't going to be a trend.” Olsen, incidentally, played 64 minutes after missing the past five weeks with a hamstring injury.
Kyle McCarthy writes the Monday MLS Breakdown and frequently writes opinion pieces during the week for Goal.com. He also covers the New England Revolution for the Boston Herald and MLSnet.com. Contact him with your questions or comments at kyle.mccarthy@goal.com and follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kylejmccarthy
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page!
Thank you for your comment!
Please enter your name
Please enter your location
Please share your comment!
9 Comments
Advertisement
Inside Goal.Com
-
LABIDOU: Is MLS falling behind? The league's new younger direction
With high-profile players like Nicolas Anelka and Luca Toni rejecting MLS for other developing leagues, is the league falling behind its competition?
-
ROSANO: Mexican soccer needs to address referee treatment
Nick Rosano argues that Mexico's continued officiating problems may have less to do with referees themselves and more to do with how they are treated by the federation.
-
VERTELNEY: MLS owners take to Twitter to spread their team's word
"Any time you tweet, it's a mini press conference," says Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson.
-
ISOLA: Roma's De Rossi smart to remain with one club for career
De Rossi has a chance to build a lasting legacy at Roma similar to NBA veterans Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant, who have never switched teams.
-
RANKINGS: Torres breaks into the top 10 as Altidore drops out
The Pachuca midfielder is back on form, and with many of the USA's top players struggling, he breaks into the top 10.
Advertisement
Advertisement