This Is American Soccer, US Soccer, MNT, WNT, and MLS - Tackling the subject of Soccer in the US, and worldwide.

PROTECT YOURSELF EDITION

DaMarcus Beasley is possibly out for months after surgery; the Olympic Squad was announced; as was the World Cup qualifying draw; the crap-shoot that is the NCAA tournament is underway; MLS Hot stove is piping after the expansion draft; Beckham is still Beckham Down Under; Benny Feilhaber will get a chance to impress a new coach; the Guardian did a full feature on Dempsey which you read four years ago, but it’s nice to see the British press show some love.

There was plenty of news to go around - unmanned drones to spy on soccer hooligans anyone? - but this week was light on reading beyond the headlines. While it’s given me some time to work on a few larger projects you’ll see here in the coming weeks, there was one topic I couldn’t just note and move on from.

After causing a stir by allowing several players to be grandfathered under new designated player rules, the MLS raised the salary cap 4 percent to $2.25 million per club. More stirring of the sports talk pot. Is the increase enough?

First, no matter how much money you throw at the elite players they aren’t immediately going to run to MLS, a league whose best players still want out no matter the cash offerings. It’s short-sighted to think the emigration is just because they can make more money in Europe. It may even be the biggest factor, but its not the only one, especially for a hyper competitive athlete.

Given the state of the play and players presently on the field in MLS and the financial situation in the front offices, not to mention the fact that plenty of teams have yet to spend cash with the Designated Player Rule that was supposed to incite spending, raising the salary cap substantially at this time will simply push MLS closer to a situation of haves and have-nots. No matter the cap limits, there will be owners who use every penny in the face of economic loss and others who pinch them. Send the cap into orbit now and it could get NASL ugly.

When thinking about these financial subjects you have to keep in mind the fact that this is a league where teams are arguing over whether teams should be allowed to fly in private jets to games. That is the conversation we’re dealing with right now.

While it’s a case of better safe than sorry for me, I have to admit 4 percent is begging for an adjective like ‘measly’. Maybe 10, 20 percent would be the fair number. We’re not talking about a ridiculous amount of money here. It should probably go up enough so that a team could add a new, solid player, which is at least a few hundred thousand.

At some point, it has to get to a place where the level of play and pay will stop guys like Kamani Hill - young guys who have potential but who are already talking about MLS as a down-the-road thing - from going to European leagues where they barely play. Success in either situation probably depends as much on the player as his role, but we can argue another time about whether it is better for a young player to get 90 minutes in MLS or rely on practice and reserve games in Europe.

It would also be nice to have some extra change to take on those South American recruiting trips with hopes of snagging some young players before Europe gets their grubby mitts on them. But getting to that point will take some time (and well-connected, local scouts).

Slowly but surely the league will grow by signing those players Don Garber recently hailed as “this new community we are going after, they are affordable, they are passionate players and they want to be here,” speaking of those countries lying to the South.

The commish doesn’t mention it specifically, but I think he would agree that real MLS growth, which you could argue is just beginning, will depend on a buy low, sell high philosophy with its players. Think Dempsey last year and Altidore next year. They entered MLS with little fanfare (and a small price) and left or will leave with great fanfare (and increasingly large transfer fees).

Players who don’t fit that mold: Aging superstars. Those guys are brought in and paid for by the marketing department. Which is fine, bring ‘em on; they’re the stop-gaps filling holes for a few years until the youth can do the job. i.e. they are not the future; never will be.

Players who fall between the low purchase price and high sale price are the players MLS keeps, their core employees. Over the years that low purchase price and high sale value should move up in unison, creating a range or window of salaries within the entire scope of the global market (from leagues like USL on the bottom of that market and EPL, La Liga on the top).

As this window increases, it’s center - the monetary worth of the average MLS player - increases, which should correlate into an improvement in the overall or average talent level of the league. Or in other words, better players will be coming to and staying in MLS.

As with a player, so it with a league. The question boils down to the age-old parental concern. How hard do you push in order to get the best return?

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Changing gears, excitement is already bubbling for 2010?

I’ve

already

got

my

soundtrack

set.

And lastly, I was kind of wondering if I was early with my post last week - I just thought those last two games were such a perfect microchosm of the year - but other year-in-review pieces are beginning to come in. This one in particular reminded me of something. I think because the professional beat writers who have blogs get so much of my attention, I forget about Jeff Carlisle sometimes. He doesn’t break much news, but he’s one of the best at breaking down games and players. You only need one of those pieces after a game, and his is usually what I reach for first. That’s the reason he was one of the first writers I wanted to talk to back in the day.

Now that the off season is upon us, I’ll come forth with more lengthy soccer media sit downs in the coming weeks. In the meantime, let me know if there is a particular writer or broadcast journalist you’d like to hear from.

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top banner photo: U.S. Men’s National Team on tourist safari in South Africa. credit: US Soccer