Dempsey behind Seattle Sounders' decline

(c) Author's collection

Rumours persist that Seattle Sounders coach Sigi Schmid needs at least an appearance in the MLS Cup Final to retain his job. 

He won’t get it.

Despite boasting – on paper – the best forward line in the seventeen-year history of MLS, the team has almost completely failed to gel and enters the playoffs with form that can only be described as calamitous.

The downturn can be traced to what seemed the Sounders’ zenith, the capture of USMNT talisman Clint Dempsey from Tottenham Hotspur and his presentation to the throng as all-conquering Caesar.  The crowd thrummed as “The Deuce” emerged onto CenturyLink field to his rather overstated rap, all expectant that the best-credentialled outfield player in American soccer would complete Seattle’s reformation from inertia-bound locomotive into filthy, filthy machine.  Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Eddie Johnson and Mauro Rosales?  Heaven help Real Salt Lake and the Galaxy.

Follow the money - and talent - back to MLS

In the August 27^th issue of Sports Illustrated, senior writer Grant Wahl compiled a team of American soccer players playing abroad. Such a mainstream publication – find any dentist in the States who doesn't subscribe – publishing a full-page “lightweight” feature on US soccer is relatively rare and Wahl takes the opportunity to pull the usual names from the regular hats. It's the basic, all-purpose US men's national team.

Assembling fictitious teams is a pleasant exercise in pointlessness. Almost every blogger and journalist has done so – they stimulate discussion, can be used to illustrate a point, attract pageviews like crazy and finally, much of the legwork (ie. research) is already completed meaning a quick turnaround. (Look here and here for some examples on Goal Posts).

For writers, they're our side of an enjoyable pub debate.

However, this team made for an interesting test-case. This is because many of the best US footballers – as with Canada, Australia and several other nations – play in Europe. The Americans, however, are a special breed as the quality of their local game is improving as its popularity increases. No longer does a player have to move to Europe to fulfill their footballing destiny or monetary desires, meaning that in the past half-decade the standard of MLS has taken a quantum leap.

MLS, while of inconsistent quality, can produce scintillating football and as the standard improves, so does local talent. Due to the Impact, Whitecaps and Toronto FC, Canadian football reaps some of the same benefits.

In fact, Major League Soccer has developed the quality of US football to a standard now where players earning a quid locally could quite easily compete with – and, if the conditions were right, perhaps defeat – a team made up of “exports”. This is a major signal that the league is prospering the sport both at a grass-roots and professional level.

While Wahl's team undoubtedly boasts more class than a team drawn solely from MLS, the gap in quality isn't as different as you'd initially expect. A team derived of American players who play only in MLS could be as potent as many European sides:

US MLS XI: (4-3-3) – Rimando (RSL), Beitashour (San Jose), Clark (Houston), O. Gonzalez (LA), Pearce (NY), O. Alonso (Seattle), Donovan (LA), Davis (Houston), E. Johnson (Seattle), Shea (Dallas), Wondolowski (San Jose).

courtesy: zimbio.com

While the team lacks je ne sais quoi, it would certainly be enough to trouble their overseas brethren. Eighteen years removed from the iconic 1994 World Cup – the event that begat Major League Soccer – the spot in general is seeing the results of hard work put in by the USSF/US Soccer.

Teams made up of local players in many of the “second-tier” big football countries such as Korea, Japan or Mexico would rival – if not defeat – their globe-trotting compatriots. These leagues, new and old, are deep enough to compete financially and competition-wise for the country's best players. The result is Keisuke Honda spearheading Japan's wonderful 2010 World Cup and Asian Cup campaigns or a major club like Arsenal signing Park Chu-Young.

The next step up in competition is when the league produces entire teams capable of contesting the CONCACAF Champions League and eventually, competing – if not beating – South American and European clubs at the World Club Championships.

Progress has been slow, but assured. Now the league is reaping the rewards.

Short Pitch: Zakuani hugs the man who broke his leg

In front of a typically vocal northwest crowd on Saturday, Steve Zakuani made a touching return to MLS. He appeared as an eighty-sixth minute substitution and impressed: the first pick in the 2009 draft looked his usual energetic self. Zakuani had missed the past fourteen months after sustaining multiple fractures to his right leg, courtesy a reckless tackle by the Colorado Rapids' Brian Mullen.

His return wasn't special because he further increases depth in a formidable front line, nor because the occasion snapped the team out of a nine-match winless streak. His return was special because when the final whistle shrilled, Zakuani and Mullen searched each other out and hugged, exchanging jerseys in one of the most touching moments in MLS history.

Century Link Field achieved a small claim to fame in 2011 when the crowd set off seismographs during an NFL playoff game. On Saturday, reverberations were felt around the league as first Seattle, then the league offered Zakuani a warm welcome.

Sportsmen are often expected to display a stoic aggression that touches on bluster. Occasionally, decency is lain at the altars of gamesmanship and achievement. However, often the most powerful gestures on sports arenas aren't dripping with machismo but those where a player takes the opportunity to do the right thing. On Saturday, MLS was fortunate to see one of those moments.

MLS: a taste of the Euros

Last night I saw the Seattle Sounders play Sporting Kansas City in a thoroughly enjoyable MLS encounter. It started uneasily,  however, as on a very pleasant Seattle evening we traipsed down to SoDo.

The trip involved me fielding several obvious-but-unhelpful statements from my companions, mutterings like “It's not like the Premier League” or “I'd rather watch the European Championships”.

 When the whistle sounded to end the tie, we'd taken in slice of everything we'd seen over the past two days of the Euros.

 Firstly, defender Paul Ianni scored a goal that reminded me of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's masterful strike for Sweden against France – one legged and using all his martial arts ability to stabilise his upper body while channelling all his power into his striking leg.

 In front of 47,000 singing fans – nearly the same attendance as saw England defeat Ukraine – Sporting Kansas City managed to grab an early goal, before Ianni's set-piece strike levelled the match in the fifteenth minute.

 In the second half, the match first appeared as if Seattle would dominate possession and the match as Sporting KC were pegged back by an impressive Sounders midfield. The ex-Wizards looked most likely to pinch a winning goal by quick ball movement on the counter-attack, which again reminiscent of so many teams throughout Euro 2012.

As if consciously mimicking yesterday's match between the Ukraine and England, a crucial goal (in this case the potential game-winner from Fredy Montero) became more transparent - most of the ball crossed the line, but not all - and we had ourselves a ghost goal.

 There was also plenty o' niggle, as KC persistently fouled a more fleet-footed Sounders attack; the fulminating when Seattle sub Alvaro Fernandez was sent off with a straight red in the ninety-first minute.

I didn't have to temper my companions' expectations when the game finished, just sit back and enjoy my beer as they enthused about our shared spectacle.

 It was a match that had everything that football can provide. The Euros have been fantastic, and it's been great to see the sport receive all the attention such a tournament deserves, but to think of MLS as a poor relation is unfair and patronising. MLS is what it is – a retirement investment, a development league, an enviable top tier. It is many things to many people, and is now creating its own impressive identity because of that multicultural background.