How to deal with the CCL and Superliga

With the Don's latest state of the league comments about the importance of the Concacaf Champions League (CCL) and the extra load that it puts on teams that do well in the MLS standings, I've been thinking about what the league could do. Let's start out with the commissioner's problem description:

We need to prove that we can be among the best teams in the region, and that means beating Mexico. It certainly means beating teams from smaller countries that don't have our resources. What we've got to look at, clearly it is almost a disincentive for clubs when they finish in the top four [in MLS] and they play right now in so many different tournaments and competitions. We are trying to mix that up between Champions League, SuperLiga and the U.S. Open Cup.

I've seen a lot of comments on blogs that suggest rewarding the teams that get into the CCL or Superliga either monetarily or with some kind of roster exemptions. I think that's a bad model to follow, because it increases the disparity between the haves and the have-nots in the league.

A better model would be to find a way to get every team extra playing opportunities and increase all of the teams roster sizes and salary caps. In fact, we might already have all the pieces in place (or at least in recent memory). What about something like this (for US teams only ... the Canadians have their own system in place):

CCL is handled per the current system; MLS Cup Winner, Supports Shield Winner, US Open Cup Winner, and the next highest finisher in the MLS Championship playoffs get to go. The first two get right into the main tourney, while the last two go into the play-in round.

The next four finishers in the MLS playoffs go to the Superliga. This tournament should be expanded to include other Concacaf teams that don't qualify for the CCL. It would become sort of an analog to the Euoropa League.

Bring back the Reserve League, sort of, for the rest of the teams. What about a third tier tournament that takes in all of the MLS teams (including the Canadian ones) not involved in the CCL or Superliga. Mix in some invited USL (and whatever the new breakaway 2nd division league becomes) and maybe a couple of non-US/Canadian teams.

With a three-tiered system like this, all of the teams would play the extra games needed to level the playing field. It would provide an opportunity for every team to get the extra player development that non-league games provide. Every team would have similar loads in terms of games/playing time throughout the year. Best of all, there are more opportunities for us fans to catch a game.

BYU Game Tonight (4/10/2009)

In a third tune-up match of the pre-season, the BYU Cougars will be hosting the Weber State at the Stadium at South Field.

This should be a great chance to warm up for a big weekend of soccer, even if the weather is a bit chilly.

TFC @ RSL -- the TLA cup on July 28th

I’ve been giving a lot of attention to the Cougars recently, and I’ll probably do one or two season wrap up posts about them now that their season is over, but now my attention is turning more toward RSL and the rest of MLS. Grabbing my immediate attention, RSL will face visiting Toronto FC in a battle of turf based, recent expansion teams this Monday.

RSL didn’t do too well against Santos in its last friendly, but has a chance to redeem themseves tonight against Saprissa. Their league record has been pretty good of late though, and their defense has been outstanding. With Fabian Espindola returning to the lineup tonight, I think we can look for some offensive spark to be added to the mix.

Toronto hasn’t looked good in league, tournament, or friendly play. They’ve not won a game since mid-June, and have dropped games (including the Canadian championship) to USL teams. I’m sure that pride and passion will be at the fore for TFC when they play in Salt Lake City.

RSL has a chance to pad their Western Conference lead with a win at home, and I think that’s what we’ll see. I think Rimando will extend his unscored upon streak, and that RSL will put a couple of balls into the back of the net, call it a 0-2 final.

RSL will probably need the full three points to stay on top since LA should beat FC Dallas. I don’t think Colorado or Houston will be taking any points from their games this week though, so (hopefuly) we’ll start to see some separation in the west.

Vancouver Whitecaps Residency @ BYU

I wasn’t able to watch the game live Friday night, but I did record the BYU-TV broadcast to watch on Saturday. I really wanted to see how the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency program looked. I’ve got to say that it’s an impressive program.

For the most part, Vancouver owned the field last night—coming away with a 2-0 win. While the whole team looked good Randy Edwini-Bonsu stood out, with both great speed and nice control. At one point he turned on the jets and made up about 20 yards overtaking a BYU midfielder in front of him.

I’m interested in seeing which other teams (USL or MLS) might start up another PDL level residency program. I don’t know that we’ll see anything for another year or two. If the Whitecaps can capture a couple of solid players I think we’ll see more teams picking up the idea.

While BYU didn’t manage to put anything into the back of the net, they did have some dangerous looking moments. Steve Francis and Zack DeFrancis both had good looks at the goal but weren’t able to convert. Bryan Black started in goal and looked pretty good, his size and positioning worked out pretty well.

RSL Reserves @ BYU

Last night was a rarity in soccer, a big game in which the final score didn’t really matter. RSL’s reserves beat the BYU Cougars in the Coug’s brand new Stadium at South Field in front of 3110 fans. Beat is probably too soft a word, RSL’s Robbie Findley put the ball past BYU’s Brandon Gillam twice in the stretch of two minutes midway through the first half, at which point RSL seemed to let off the gas. They continued to play very well in the defensive and middle thirds of the fields, but didn’t look like they were trying very hard in the final third. RSL put a third goal on the board minute when Quinney Varela scored in the 90th.

Oft injured Nathan Sturgis started for RSL and took a knock in the opening minutes, and was off the field by the fifth minute. I saw him at halftime with ice on his ankle, but not looking too put out. Hopefully it’s just a ding and doesn’t affect his return to the senior side or his olympic aspirations.

It was also interesting to see Clint Mathis in the midfield for RSL. A Real staffer I was sitting next to said that he was just a friend of Jason Kreis and was playing to keep in shape for the upcoming European season.

Kenny Deuchar and Robbie Findley both started the game. Robbie looked pretty good, but my first up close and personal view of the good Doctor didn’t impress me too much. His touch seemed off, his passes were often weak dribbles, and he put another nice chance over the crossbar. Hopefully he gets past whatever is holding him back, but I’m no longer convinced that he’s the answer for RSL’s front line.

Mattias Mantilla started in the back, and looked good and not-so-good by turns. By the tenth minute of the game, it was obvious that Mantilla was unhappy with the refs. He seemed to be getting awfully close to a card for dissent at several points in the game. His tough challenges also earned the displeasure of the crowd who were booing his every touch by the end of the game. He did come up with several big plays, but also had a couple of gaffes—misjudging a long ball and letting BYU get control in the backfield at one point in the first half, and being undressed by a BYU player (Jordan Cushman?) in the second.

One last RSL observation, it was interesting to see how intent Jason Kreis was even in the closing minutes of the game. Although he was very gracious in his post game comments (see Drew Daniel’s write-up for Kries’ comments), it was obvious he was ‘on task’ during the game.

On the BYU side of the ledger, they put a lot of players out on the field (working through four different keepers for example). I’m sure the experience was good for all of them, and they all seemed to have enjoyed the night. The usual suspects looked good. Jace Green and Zack DeFrancis both looked as though they might score at several points in the game.

The new stadium looks like it will be a great place for BYU mens’ soccer. The crowd was loud and fairly involved in the game. (They even drowned out the small contigent of RSL fans—at least from where I stood.) I don’t envy visiting PDL clubs, this place has the makings of a PDL fortress.

I also really enjoyed sitting with the BYU-International Spanish-speaking commentators. I loved hearing them call the game, and thought it was cool to hang it with them as they interviewed Javier Morales at the half. Javi seemed to enjoy being interviewed in Spanish, and it was nice to be able to follow along with most of the questions and answers.

Oh, and I’d like to thank Robbie Findley for being very friendly and posing for a picture with two of my former scouts who caught up with him right after the game. Moments like those go a long way in community building.

Good Weekend for RSL and BYU

It’s been a good weekend for the teams I follow. Both BYU and RSL won their games, with BYU claiming the season series over Ogden 3-0-1 and RSL climbing into 1st place in the (somewhat weak) west. RSL’s U-17 team also won it’s final round game against DC United’s U-17 team, earning both the SUM U-17 championship and entry into the 2009 Trofeo Quixote U-17 tournament in Madrid, Spain.

BYU and the RSL Reserves will be facing each other on Tuesday night to open BYU’s new ‘Stadium at South Field. This should be a fun game, and I can’t wait to go and see it. (As usual, I’ll be taking my son—not quite as usual, he’ll be on crutches after dislocating his knee.)

One interesting bit is that RSL’s win put them at 1.43 ppg, good enough for first place in the MLS West, while BYU’s 1.64 ppg is only good enough for fourth in the PDL Northwest and leaves them out of the playoffs. The PDL might be a few steps below the MLS in terms of quality, it looks like they’re ahead of them in terms of competition …

US Open Cup 2008: Thoughts after the quarterfinals

Intersting results last night. Crystal Palace Baltimore has to be a huge surprise, even in losing last night they were impressive taking the New England Revolution to penalties—what more could you ask from a USL2 side? I’m also glad to see both USL1 sides moving on (Seattle on PKs over the Kansas City Wizards after a 0-0 tie and Charleston on a 3-1 win over FC Dallas).

I’m not sure how I feel about the USL1 v USL1 and MLS v MLS semi final round. On the one hand, it guarantees an MLS v USL1 final, but it would have been nice to see two usl1 v MLS games in the semis too.

As the semi’s stand, I think we’ll see a very hot DC team beat New England and the MLS-bound Sounders beat Charleston. I’d like to pick Seattle in the final, but I don’t see anyone outside of the Super Liga stopping DC United right now.