The Great Lakes Not-So-Classic
The Great Lakes region is a sporting hotbed, and this year saw the resurrection of the Great Lakes Classic between Detroit and Cleveland in pre-season NFL football. But what if there was a trophy to recognize the best Great Lakes team in MLS?
The Bizarre Economics of MLS
The salary cap structure in Major League Soccer is unique in world football. Entry-level players regularly play alongside high-profile signings making nearly 100 times their salary, with both players often actually overpaid relative to their quality.
The mid-season DP
Toronto FC have been public in their desire for a big-name striker next season, with recent reports suggesting that Italian Alberto Gilardino has supplanted Jermain Defoe at the top of the club’s list. There’s one hitch – both players are likely to stay in Europe until after the World Cup this summer, and looking at the history of big-money Designated Players, that doesn’t bode well for Toronto FC’s 2014 season.
The strange roster rules of MLS
It’s a strange situation for North American players in Major League Soccer, with the league’s domestic player rules fundamentally unbalanced. Dejan Jakovic and Kyle Porter take up a precious international slot at D.C. United (teammate Dwayne De Rosario has a green card), but if they returned to a Canadian club they’d be competing against Americans as a domestic.
The unattached XI
The season is over in most of Europe, and a host of Canadian and American players are among those that have been released in the past few weeks. Along with a few MLS veterans who are still without a club in 2013, there are enough quality free agents to form an XI of players that should be on the radar of Canada’s pro teams during the business end of the season.
Montreal is a soccer city
As much as it pains me to say it, Toronto can take a page from the way Montreal handles their MLS team. Both have a soccer-hungry fanbase, their own stadium and are willing to spend money, so why the widening gap between the sides? This Wednesday, the Impact could win their 8th Voyageurs Cup (update – and they did). It’s time to acknowledge Montreal as Canada’s leading soccer city.
Major Ligue Soccer 