Category: Sidewinder Insider

Sidewinder Insider deals primarily with lower division soccer, but any association football news is fair game.

USL thriving on the field, at the box office

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

Major League Soccer is top dog when it comes to the hierarchy of the sport in North America, but the United Soccer League has grown into a worthy member of the pack.

The USL, which serves as pro soccer’s primary second division in the United States and Canada, has doubled in size since 2014 and is adding three new teams (Nashville, Fresno and Las Vegas) in 2018.

Birmingham and Austin are set to join in 2019.

Once those expansion clubs are in the fold, the USL will feature 35 teams, and currently 22 USL squads have direct affiliations with MLS. All but one MLS franchise (Minnesota United FC) has a “feeder club” in the United Soccer League.

“We work with MLS and their clubs to evaluate their affiliation models to see what makes sense for the USL and what makes sense for MLS, and it’s not a one size fits all situation,” USL president Jake Edwards said during a conference call earlier today. “I think right now after a few years, on an annual basis they have to evaluate from a business point of view and technical point of view how those partnerships work.”

Farm club status notwithstanding, the USL had its most successful season this year.

“The 2017 season had been incredibly successful – not just for the league, but for all of our clubs,” Edwards said. “We surpassed 2 million fans in total attendance, setting a record for a second division league in North America.”

USL attendance in 2017 averaged 5,700 fans per game, a 23 percent increase over 2016. And several teams put up crowd numbers that would make an MLS franchise proud.

“Since 2011, total league attendance has grown at an annual rate of 36 percent,” Edwards said. “This season nine of the top 10-attended professional soccer markets outside of MLS were, in fact, from the USL. Of those, seven USL clubs drew more than 100,000 fans to their games this season.”

FC Cincinnati averaged 21,199 fans per match as the city continues to make a strong push to gain entry into MLS, while Sacramento Republic saw an average of 11,569 fans click the turnstiles for home matches.

Seven other teams averaged more than 5,000 fans per match.

In all, per game averages showed a marked increase over the 2016 average of 3,439.

“This significant increase is the result of several factors,” Edwards said. “It certainly includes the improved quality of play on the field, increased exposure we’ve received through USL Productions and new media partnerships, and a significant investment made by our first-class ownership through infrastructure and stadiums, and the fan experience.”

Edwards says that more than half of the league’s teams play in soccer-specific stadiums, with a league goal of having all of its franchises housed in stadiums designed primarily for soccer by 2020.

The USL was created as USL Pro in 2011, and formerly featured first and second divisions under the umbrella of United Soccer Leagues. A merger with the MLS Reserve League in 2013 led to one unified second division league.

“We’ll continue to attract top quality players for an even more competitive season (going forward),” Edwards said. “Our overall goal is to be one of the top Division 2 professional soccer leagues in the world.”

The 2017 USL Cup championship will be played Monday at 9 p.m. when Louisville City FC hosts Swope Park (Kansas City) Rangers.

ESPNU will televise the match.

ACC again stands tall in men’s soccer

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

The Atlantic Coast Conference has long claimed elite status in basketball, and football moved to the top of the heap last season.

But men’s soccer?

Yeah, the ACC is pretty much all good, all the time.

In advance of Selection Monday, when the 2017 NCAA Tournament field will be announced, the league has the No. 1-ranked team in Wake Forest, three teams in the top six (Clemson is No. 5 and North Carolina, No. 6), and seven squads in the top 25.

The conference’s RPI is even more impressive.

North Carolina, Wake and Duke hold down the top three spots while Clemson, Louisville and Notre Dame lock down positions five through seven.

Wake Forest finished as national runner-up last season, falling to Stanford on penalty kicks as the Cardinal claimed its second consecutive national championship.

“The ACC is hands down the best soccer conference in America,” Demon Deacons coach Bobby Muuss said.

The semifinals of the ACC Tournament are set for Wednesday when No. 6-seed Virginia host No. 7 Notre Dame, and No. 1 Wake Forest plays No. 5 Clemson at home.

The first three rounds of the tourney are held at the campus of the higher seed. The ACC Championship Game will be played at noon on Sunday at MUSC Health Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina.

Regardless of how the conference tourney plays out, the road to the national championship will be cluttered with reps from the ACC.

On Tuesday the league announced its annual awards, and Muuss claimed his third consecutive ACC Coach of the Year honor.

Wake Forest’s Jon Bakero is the conference’s offensive player of the year while teammate Kevin Politz is the defensive player of the year.

North Carolina State’s Manny Perez was named freshman of the year.

“Without a doubt, Jon is the top offensive player in the entire NCAA this year,” Muuss said. “He makes our offense go and can beat you in so many different ways. Not only is he an elite goal-scorer, but he has become a great facilitator and opens things up for the rest of the team.

“Kevin has deserved this award each of the last three seasons and we’re elated that he was finally rewarded in his senior season.”

 

2017 ACC Men’s Soccer Awards
Coach of the Year: Bobby Muuss, Wake Forest
Offensive Player of the Year: Jon Bakero, Sr., F, Wake Forest
Midfielder of the Year: Cam Lindley, So., M, North Carolina
Defensive Player of the Year: Kevin Politz, Sr., D, Wake Forest
Freshman of the Year: Manny Perez, Fr., M, NC State

2017 All-ACC Men’s Soccer Teams
First Team
Diego Campos, Sr., F, Clemson
Oliver Shannon, Sr., M, Clemson
Tim Kubel, Sr., D, Louisville
Cam Lindley, So., M, North Carolina
Alan Winn, Sr., F, North Carolina
Jon Gallagher, Sr., F, Notre Dame
Jean-Christophe Koffi, Jr., M, Virginia
Marcelo Acuna, Sr., F, Virginia Tech
Ben Lundgaard, Sr., GK, Virginia Tech
Jon Bakero, Sr., F, Wake Forest
Ema Twumasi, So., M, Wake Forest

Second Team
Brian White, Sr., F, Duke
Tate Schmitt, Jr., M, Louisville
Mohamed Thiaw, Sr., F, Louisville
Zach Wright, Sr., F, North Carolina
Manny Perez, Fr., M, NC State
Javi Perez, Jr., M, Pitt
Mo Adams, So., M, Syracuse
Pablo Aguilar, Sr., F, Virginia
Jeff Caldwell, Sr., GK, Virginia
Edward Opoku, Jr., F, Virginia
Kevin Politz, Sr., D, Wake Forest

Third Team
Markus Fjortoft, Gr., D, Duke
Carter Manley, Sr., D, Duke
Will Pulisic, Fr., GK, Duke
Alex Comsia, Jr., D, North Carolina
Mauricio Pineda, So., M, North Carolina
Jeffrey Farina, Sr., F, Notre Dame
Pol Planellas, Sr., M, Pitt
Tajon Buchanan, Fr., F, Syracuse
Sergi Nus, Jr., D, Virginia
Luis Argudo, Sr., M, Wake Forest
Brad Dunwell, Jr., M, Wake Forest

All-Freshman Team
Robbie Robinson, Fr., F, Clemson
Will Pulisic, Fr., GK, Duke
John Nelson, Fr., D, North Carolina
David Loera, Fr., M, NC State
Manny Perez, Fr., M, NC State
Alexander Dexter, Fr., F, Pitt
Edward Kizza, Fr., F, Pitt
Tajon Buchanan, Fr., F, Syracuse
Joe Bell, Fr., M, Virginia
Omir Fernandez, Fr., M, Wake Forest
Brandon Servania, Fr., M, Wake Forest

@ – Two-time honoree, # – Three-time honoree, % – Four-time honoree

 

 

MLS and relegation

In many ways, I count myself as a soccer purist.

Out of Left Field is written by Scott Adamson. It appears weekly and sometimes more frequently if he gets up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Decades before there was a stable domestic league in the United States – and Major League Soccer is now firmly rooted – I was pulling for teams such as Celtic FC and Manchester United, and living for those rare times when a soccer match might pop up on ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

In the era that preceded cable television, the Internet and social media, much of my soccer information came via the library, meaning I wasn’t exactly getting up-to-date reports. It was like a shooting star … by the time news reached me, it was already history.

Still, I learned as much as I could about the Beautiful Game, and accepted something that seems odd to American sports fans – the lack of a postseason tournament in most international football leagues.

If you ended the regular season with the most points, you were the champion – period.

There was never playoff fever because there was never a playoff, but that was just part of a deal. If a club clinched a title with three weeks left in the season, so be it.

And of course, there was relegation.

Just as baseball as a hierarchy, from the Majors down to instructional leagues, soccer has divisions. And teams at the bottom of the top league have to fight to stay there, because there are always teams in the division below it looking to earn promotion.

I’ve always felt this system was brilliant. Some of the most competitive soccer matches I’ve ever seen involve English Premier League clubs battling it out in the twilight of a season in an effort to avoid being demoted to the First Division.

Beyond that, it prevents team owners from holding “fire sales” to unload talent. Stakeholders won’t be happy if you allow your team to drop down a rung, and promotion/relegation serves as motivation.

Jump to the present, where there has been talk of a relegation system in the United States. Guys like me would love nothing better for the bottom two teams in MLS each season to drop down to, say, the United Soccer League, while the top two USL teams move up.

Only problem is, MLS isn’t talking about it. And I’d be stunned if it ever agreed to such a system.

You might remember over the summer MP & Silva, a media rights company, offered MLS a staggering $4 billion for media rights that would extend through the 2023 season.

Had there been no strings attached, it’s likely MLS officials would’ve jumped on the offer.

Ah, but there were, indeed, strings.

The MLS would have to work with USL as well as the North American Soccer League, in the formation of a promotion/ relegation system.

And that was a deal-breaker.

The sports culture in the United States is vastly different than just about everywhere else. And while the EPL and most top-tier international leagues accept relegation as part of the sport, MLS would recoil at the thought of a franchise like the New York Red Bulls or L.A. Galaxy slipping into a lower division, replaced by the Charleston Battery and Rio Grande Valley FC Toros.

MLS has a single entity ownership structure, and its investors never want to see a situation where a major market slips to a minor league.

Personally, I think it would be great. I’d even be fine with the European system in which there were no playoffs at all.

Had that been in effect this year in MLS, Toronto FC would already be taking its victory lap as league champions, and not have to worry about facing Columbus twice to make the MLS Cup.

I suppose there might be a day where relegation comes to professional soccer in the United States, but I wouldn’t count on it. The entire landscape of American pro sports would have to change dramatically.

I think the best we can hope for are stable second and third division leagues, and the United States Soccer Federation still has plenty of work to do to unify the system.