Photo Credit: CONCACAF Champions League Twitter
For forty-five glorious minutes all was well within the world of Major League Soccer. On Wednesday night at about 9:30 Eastern Standard Time the Montreal Impact led Club America 1-0 in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League. This result coupled, with the 1-1 result in Mexico City the week prior, meant that for the first time in nearly fifteen years that the region’s top club will reside in MLS.
Supporters from all 20 teams were excited, cute hash-tags were being made, and certain journalists were making travel plans for Tokyo, Japan.
Then the second half happened. Whether it was the four goals, the wretched defending, or the sudden realization that Montreal is not located within the United States the mood changed. Once again an MLS team failed against a Mexican side in an important CCL match and once again the league and by some reason American soccer were under scrutiny.
It is a line of thinking that almost always ends up with the three following things:
i) blaming Don Garber,
ii) salaries,
iii) quality of play.
Every player (both current and former), journalist, pundit, supporter seems to have an opinion. And that does not even include supporters from other leagues like Liga MX who more often than not take joy in MLS’ failures.
There seems to be something lost in this discussion (aside from some levity:) that perhaps MLS is just not ready to win a major international title. Every MLS supporter likes to point to those two CONCACAF Champions Cup titles won by D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy in 1998 and 2000 as proof of the value of the league. But those titles were off of a failed concept, that the league can rely solely off of aging European and South American stars, not have a Youth Academy system, and have no relationship with the lower divisions of North American soccer.
Yes, MLS had some early success. But the league nearly went bankrupt because of it. To say there was little long-term planning in the beginning would be an understatement. It has taken years for the league to make a U-turn and recognize the need to develop players from within academy systems and to bring in owners and partners who understand the game of soccer. Those years have have slowed the maturation process of this league.
Need further proof? Check out the rosters on Wednesday night. Of the eighteen-man roster that America brought to Montreal, ten came from Mexican youth academies and four directly from their own.
Montreal did have four players who were developed in their Youth Academy on their roster (Maxim Crepeau, Maxim Tissot, Wandrille LeFevre, and Eric Miller) but none of them started, and only Tissot saw minutes. Meanwhile defender Donny Toia and midfielder Calum Mallace were the only youth academy players from the other 19 MLS teams to suit up for the Impact.
Youth academies are not the only litmus test for success in football (ask Arsenal). But they do represent the formation of a long-term plan, something that MLS has only recently realized that it needs. The good news is that in theory over the next five-ten years that with additional resources being made available and with Academy players finally coming of age that the fruits of their labor will finally be seen. But it is going to take time.
Those are not the easiest words for any supporter to hear, that this situation cannot be turned around magically and that maybe MLS isn’t ready to take on the world. That is not necessarily a bad thing nor is it a reason to think that things will not improve. There are a lot of reasons to be hopeful about soccer in the United States and Canada and none of them have to with winning a golden trophy that no one cared about four years ago.
Montreal may not have given MLS supporters what they want, but perhaps it gave them what they needed.
