El Chupa Rants: MLS Parity, Marketshare, and Strippers

By El Chupa

As promised, here is an account of parity in the MLS this season, and my thoughts about why the MLS can go suck it.
To begin, allow El Chupa to rant. Great job MLS! You've raised the least common denominator in the league to the point where only one or two teams truly suck, but most teams are all pretty much the same. Plus, they all pretty much have the same chance of getting into the Playoffs and most of them WILL get into the playoffs. What incentive is there, then, for a team to acquire first rate talent and coaching? NONE! Parity, when it is a result of each team struggling mightily to be better than the others is one thing; parity when it is a result of an entire league rigged to reward mediocrity is something else: it's called Major League Soccer.

As the chart above indicates, through last weekend's games, 11 teams have earned 31 pts or more. The top two teams in each conference plus the next best six teams regardless of conference make the playoffs. The word on the street is that the current minimum number to qualify for the playoffs is 33. As the numbers suggest, 11 of the 15 teams in the league currently still have a shot at the playoffs. Let's think about this for a minute, shall we?

First, the playoff system is a joke. It's driven solely by the interest in generating revenue not the logic of sport and certainly not the logic of the beautiful game. Explain to me why over HALF of the teams in the league should qualify for the playoffs? Such a system insures that average and even mediocre teams get "rewarded" by additional games. Further, the EPL has no playoff system, La Liga has no playoff system, the Bundesliga has no playoff system. Why? Because it makes no freaking sense, that's why. In the MLS, after 30 games, including home and away against every other team in the league, it's clear who's the best team in the league in any given year: the team with the most points! Duh!

But it gets worse, the third column of the chart (PAA) indicates how many points above the league average (Points Above Average) each team has earned thus far. Notice that the top four have each achieved a respectable number of PAA. But notice also that seven teams are only within one or two points of the league average. No bell curve for MLS, we want everyone to be the same: average! Yay! We have the most mediocre league in the world! A bad call here (and there a lot of them in the MLS), an unlucky bounce there, and practically the entire league would be the same.

But it gets still worse. Look at the last column in the chart or points earned per game. Notice anything? How about the fact that a full 13 teams are within one point, or one draw, of each other. Read it two ways. One, the chart clearly shows that regardless of how many games each team has played (the more games, the more potential PTS, remember, so this column makes up for the fact that not every team has played the same number of games) virtually every team earns about the same number of PTS/GM as every other; indeed, the difference among 11 of the teams is negligible. Two, this means that when these teams play each other, each team has pretty much the same chance of coming away with 1 to 3 PTS as every other team. Look at the win-loss ratio. The average number of wins is 8, the average number of losses is 8. Most teams are within 1 or at most 2 W/L of the average. If the team was comprised of 15 Man Us, or 15 Barcas, it would be one thing. But we've got a league of 13 teams who would get carved apart by Portsmouth, currently at the bottom of the standings in the EPL, and two who are so awful they might get carved apart by the teams in USL 1.

The bottom line of course is, does parity equal good football? We think not. Unlike our friends at MLS.Talk, we think parity is bullshit and a symptom of just how far the MLS has its head up its ass. Allow El Chupa to rant a bit further.

The MLS has got to quit marketing to American Sports Fans and start marketing more to American SOCCER Fans. We don't drink Bud Light, we don't want cheerleaders at the games, we don't want two conferences which completely distort how the teams really compare to one another. We don't want a bullshit playoff where lame-ass teams who are incapable of playing exciting, creative, beautiful football get rewarded with more TV time and more TV revenue. Hey, MLS! You're losing TV marketshare to the European leagues. Hey, MLS! You're losing TV marketshare to the South American leagues. Why? Because we know better you twits! Why should I watch some dismal game between two mediocre MLS teams when I can watch a much better match from Europe or S.A. on FSC, GOL, Setanta, or their Spanish-language sister stations?

We want a single freaking table! We want relegation to the USL! We want at most four teams in the playoffs if we have to have a playoff just to keep the league afloat. And for the love of God, microbrews, and country, get rid of the Crewzers! High School and certainly College cheerleaders are actual athletes; professional cheerleaders are strippers without poles and far too many clothes on. Give me a break.

Crew to Texas for USL Showdown

The Crew take on USL side Austin Aztex FC this Saturday at a time when the second division USL has been challenging the MLS on every front and making a strong case that a European-style relegation and promotion system could work in the U.S.

USL teams posted strong ticket sales in 2008, their non-single entity ownership system and lack of $40 million ransom for expansion are giving owners and teams the flexibility to be creative -- particularly in these tough economic times -- and most importantly, they are kicking ass on the field.

Take the CONCACAF Champions League tournament: Two out of the three non-Mexican North American sides in the quarterfinals were USL teams, Montreal Impact and Puerto Rico Islanders. Houston Dynamo, the only MLS team to make it out of group play were manhandled by Atlante of Mexico and promptly sent packing. Montreal made an exciting showing, beating Santos Laguna 2-0 before 65,000 at home in the first leg before blowing it on the away trip. And Puerto Rico Islanders remain the only non-Mexican side in the tournament, preparing to face off against Santos Laguna in the semi-finals under the steadfast leadership of former Crew keeper Bill Gaudette.

Not to mention the Islanders beat the reigning MLS champs 2-0 last month.

So the Crew, coming off a 4-game pre-season winning streak that saw them handily take care of Everton and Liverpool reserves, would do well to not overlook Aztex. This last game of the pre-season campaign will be the Crew’s most challenging.

The Aztex are an exciting new expansion team preparing for their first season in USL. They bring a combination of several interesting qualities.

First, Aztex start with a ready-made fan base in the considerable Texas Latino soccer community. The name alone is a clear marketing tool, aimed at firing up Mexican nationalist pride by conjuring the fabled Mexico City stadium that has been the graveyard of U.S. men’s national team dreams for going on three decades.

Aztecs also bring a distinctly English flavour to their game. They have a unique farm-team like affiliation with EPL side Stoke City, which includes player exchanges, talent scouting and the sharing of coaching knowledge. (They are owned by British-born, Austin businessman Phil Rawlins, who also owns a share of Stoke City).

Their English manager, Adrian Heath, had an impressive career in English football that spanned nearly 20 years. Himself a childhood Stoke supporter, he started his playing career at the club in 1979 making 95 appearances. He later joined Everton and became the club’s top scorer in his first full season, scoring 18 in all competitions in the 1983–84 season. Aztex also have an unusually high number of English players for a U.S. squad.

And while Aztex have no record to examine, much of their roster is filled with players from the U-23 team the club has fielded in the Premier Development League (PDL). The results there this past year were impressive: Mid-South Division Champions with a record of 10-5-1; Coach Wolfgang Suhnholz, Coach of the Year; Miguel Gallardo, Goalkeeper of the Year; Beto Papandrea, Defender of the Year.

In their only two pre-season matches Aztex have looked impressive while posting mixed results. March 1, they went down 2-0 at home to New England Revolution, but March 7 they led Houston Dynamo twice in the first half before running out of steam in the second, ending in a 2-2 draw.

Players to watch:

Eddie Johnson: No not that Eddie Johnson of Fulham and USMNT fame. This Eddie Johnson is a 24-year-old Englishman who just signed with Aztex after a career in England that started promising but never lived up to its billing. The 6-2, 180 lb forward is a serious scoring threat, particularly from the air.

Gifton Noel-Williams: A veteran English striker, Noel-Williams recorded several caps with the English national team at various stages early on in his career. At 16 years old he began his professional career playing at Watford. Two seasons later Noel-Williams led Watford in scoring as the team was promoted to the Premiership. He scored 33 goals for Watford before moving to Stoke City in 2003. While at Stoke, the 6’3” striker led The Potters in scoring two consecutive seasons (2003-05), where he found the net a total of 23 times. He continued his career at Burnley before moving to Spain to play for Real Murcia and most recently Elche.

Miguel Gallardo: The Mexican-born goal keeper was 2008 PDL Goalkeeper of the Year and Southern Conference All-Star. In 2008 for Aztex U-23, Gallardo conceded only eight goals and led the league with nine shutouts.

Beto Papandrea: At 32, Papandrea is the veteran of the defense. The University of Texas-Austin grad earned 2008 PDL Defender of the Year.

Zach Pope: An Austin native and Duke standout, Pope is a diminutive but very quick defender in the mold of a Frankie Hejduk. He was originally drafted by Chicago Fire in the 2008 Superdraft but later released.

The game is 7:30 p.m. Central Time (9:30 Eastern), Saturday, March 14, at Aztex Nelson Stadium in Austin.

El Luchador predicts a physical game, Crew 3-1 Aztex.

Columbus Till I Die.