HOT TAKE: I don't care about the US Open Cup at all, and I'm fine with MLS being out of it - or trying, since it sounds like US Soccer is pushing back now.
MUCH MORE NUANCED TAKE: all I keep hearing about in defense of MLS staying involved in USOC is "it's the oldest cup competition in American soccer!", as if that made the tournament act…
HOT TAKE: I don't care about the US Open Cup at all, and I'm fine with MLS being out of it - or trying, since it sounds like US Soccer is pushing back now.
MUCH MORE NUANCED TAKE: all I keep hearing about in defense of MLS staying involved in USOC is "it's the oldest cup competition in American soccer!", as if that made the tournament actually be of any quality at all. MLS being what it is now - a highly moneyed league relative to the rest of the American league structure - means that MLS had two choices: foot the bill to revamp the whole tournament to its liking/bring the lower leagues up to a higher standard, or bail on it entirely.
I can almost guarantee that the reason the Leagues Cup (which I also hate!) was created was to give MLS a more prosperous in-season tournament that avoided the inconvenience of MLS teams having to travel to Bremerton to play Kitsap Pumas at a high school, or whatever.
The fact is, with only a few exceptions, the lower leagues in the US just don't have the facilities to provide the kind of environment - broadcast, in-stadium, however you want to define that term - that it wants to provide for its players and fans. So MLS took what they saw to be the more profitable route, and chose to focus on the Leagues Cup.
And honestly, I'm OK with that - just not the "focus on the Leagues Cup" part, because that tournament is also kinda dumb. I'm just not one who believes that the US version of soccer has to exactly replicate the way the "big leagues" do it. We're already different - unbalanced schedule, playoffs, etc; given that, why should the decision to withdraw from a tournament that most MLS teams, in the last few seasons (even the four-time-winner Sounders!), started sending B squads to anyway be a big deal? What's the loss there?
If the US had a competitively viable lower league or two (and please don't confuse that with me wanting pro/rel, because I don't, for a lot of reasons), I'd probably feel differently. But the dropoff - in both talent and in facilities - is so steep between MLS and USL (again, with a few exceptions) that it's just not a tournament I can really take all that seriously.
Maybe I'm the outlier in that line of thinking, and I'm OK with that; I've just never seen the USOC as anything more than a small footnote, and I'm not losing a lot of sleep over it (potentially) not being a thing for MLS any more.
I guess I'd counter that by simply saying that I like the opportunity to see lower division American teams on the pitch, and think it's healthy to mix it up a little. Might bring visibility to USL teams / athletes and with that more funding, etc.
"Might bring visibility to USL teams / athletes and with that more funding, etc."
MLS has been in USOC for 27 years now, and that hasn't happened yet. And more relevantly, it hasn't happened in the last 5-8 years as MLS has gotten a lot bigger/more prominent. There's no reason to think that will start now.
"I like the opportunity to see lower division American teams on the pitch"
Cal FC sure seemed to enjoy it that one time /zing
But seriously, yeah, it's kind of fun to see the small clubs I guess, but for every Cal FC, there's a Fredric Piquionne (the very definition of "hey remember that guy?") four goal game against Wilmington. Not even a blip on either team's radar 10 years later. Is that level of play worth the schedule congestion and injury risk? I'm skeptical.
I would imagine that competitions like that would with time inspire more people to support more teams and just be better for the sport as a whole.
I personally love cup games. Last years Leagues Cup games were phenomenal - even if we crashed out against Tigres and Monterrey the atmosphere was brilliant.
But, it's a good point about too many matches not being the best thing for the athletes and maybe it's better to have less than more games all in all.
As in Europe with the "Super League" rearing it's ugly head once again :/
HOT TAKE: I don't care about the US Open Cup at all, and I'm fine with MLS being out of it - or trying, since it sounds like US Soccer is pushing back now.
MUCH MORE NUANCED TAKE: all I keep hearing about in defense of MLS staying involved in USOC is "it's the oldest cup competition in American soccer!", as if that made the tournament actually be of any quality at all. MLS being what it is now - a highly moneyed league relative to the rest of the American league structure - means that MLS had two choices: foot the bill to revamp the whole tournament to its liking/bring the lower leagues up to a higher standard, or bail on it entirely.
I can almost guarantee that the reason the Leagues Cup (which I also hate!) was created was to give MLS a more prosperous in-season tournament that avoided the inconvenience of MLS teams having to travel to Bremerton to play Kitsap Pumas at a high school, or whatever.
The fact is, with only a few exceptions, the lower leagues in the US just don't have the facilities to provide the kind of environment - broadcast, in-stadium, however you want to define that term - that it wants to provide for its players and fans. So MLS took what they saw to be the more profitable route, and chose to focus on the Leagues Cup.
And honestly, I'm OK with that - just not the "focus on the Leagues Cup" part, because that tournament is also kinda dumb. I'm just not one who believes that the US version of soccer has to exactly replicate the way the "big leagues" do it. We're already different - unbalanced schedule, playoffs, etc; given that, why should the decision to withdraw from a tournament that most MLS teams, in the last few seasons (even the four-time-winner Sounders!), started sending B squads to anyway be a big deal? What's the loss there?
If the US had a competitively viable lower league or two (and please don't confuse that with me wanting pro/rel, because I don't, for a lot of reasons), I'd probably feel differently. But the dropoff - in both talent and in facilities - is so steep between MLS and USL (again, with a few exceptions) that it's just not a tournament I can really take all that seriously.
Maybe I'm the outlier in that line of thinking, and I'm OK with that; I've just never seen the USOC as anything more than a small footnote, and I'm not losing a lot of sleep over it (potentially) not being a thing for MLS any more.
I guess I'd counter that by simply saying that I like the opportunity to see lower division American teams on the pitch, and think it's healthy to mix it up a little. Might bring visibility to USL teams / athletes and with that more funding, etc.
"Might bring visibility to USL teams / athletes and with that more funding, etc."
MLS has been in USOC for 27 years now, and that hasn't happened yet. And more relevantly, it hasn't happened in the last 5-8 years as MLS has gotten a lot bigger/more prominent. There's no reason to think that will start now.
"I like the opportunity to see lower division American teams on the pitch"
Cal FC sure seemed to enjoy it that one time /zing
But seriously, yeah, it's kind of fun to see the small clubs I guess, but for every Cal FC, there's a Fredric Piquionne (the very definition of "hey remember that guy?") four goal game against Wilmington. Not even a blip on either team's radar 10 years later. Is that level of play worth the schedule congestion and injury risk? I'm skeptical.
I would imagine that competitions like that would with time inspire more people to support more teams and just be better for the sport as a whole.
I personally love cup games. Last years Leagues Cup games were phenomenal - even if we crashed out against Tigres and Monterrey the atmosphere was brilliant.
But, it's a good point about too many matches not being the best thing for the athletes and maybe it's better to have less than more games all in all.
As in Europe with the "Super League" rearing it's ugly head once again :/