Best products from r/MLS

In case you haven't read it yet, Scorecasting speaks to this problem, as well as a number of others. I.e. applying economic theory and statistical analysis to a lot of common-sense notions in sports.

MLS is in a bit of an odd position -- partly because of its rigid economics, partly because of its age, and partly because of its still small footprint in the US sports landscape.

In particular, there is little correlation between salary and on-field success, although this is a lot harder to quantify than the linked analysis implies.

One question Scorecasting tries to address is the importance of the 'star' player -- think of it as a proxy for a DP. The conclusion is that in a game with a lot of players (e.g. NFL), a single star is rarely enough to make a team.

Obviously there are exceptions -- the Colts without Peyton Manning are terrible, for example. On the other hand, Joe Gibbs' Redskins won three Super Bowls with three different QBs, none of whom are hall-of-famers.

In contrast, an NBA team more or less needs a star player to even attempt to be competitive. One player has a much bigger impact among five starters than among 22 (plus special teams).

I think one can quantify what a DP means to a team, but one has to do it in a different way. For example: what's the difference in goal differential one can expect per game from a top-flight DP?

Or to put it another way, what is the plot of expected goal differential per game vs salary for a DP?

I don't know how realistic a calculation this would be, but I bet you could arrive at some numbers -- e.g. Beckham is worth +0.5, Henry is worth +0.3, Marquez is worth -0.2 (a DP with a minus rating is terrible).

All the same, there's this fact: a correlation between salary spending and consistent on-field results is only strong in unconstrained leagues. And always with caveats, exceptions, and outliers.

The Yankees are a consistently competitive team, and are consistently the highest spenders. On the other hand, the Orioles are consistently among the highest spenders and have been a terrible team for over a decade.

Man U are consistently among the highest spenders in the EPL, and are the most consistently successful team; Liverpool are also regularly near the top of the spend table and, let's face it, have seen a lot better days.

All the same, these are unconstrained leagues. If you look at the NFL (in a CBA year), there is not much of a relationship between spending and success. The Cowboys are consistently at the top of the spend scale, but when have they last won a Super Bowl? When have they last been in one?

The salary cap in MLS is even more extreme. And one could argue that weakness at one position is not balanced out by strength at another -- e.g. if your right center back is terrible, you'll give up more goals than your DP attacking mid will create for you.

Or in other words: Do DPs matter? Yes. Are they important? Yes. How important are they? I don't know.

But I do think it's possible to quantify what a DP should be worth at a given salary in terms of extra goals per game, and therefore possible to quantify whether that DP is living up to expectations.

But as for drawing up the specific equations, I'll leave that to someone else.

tl;dr: If you like thinking about this kind of questions, read Scorecasting. And throw Soccernomics on your list as well. And as a side-note: I love this forum for having discussions like this one. Keep it up.

There are a multitude of factors here, but a very big one is just the ownership group approaching everything in the correct way. The sounders pulled huge numbers even back in the 70s, but had largely fallen off the radar for most people just due to a lack of any kind of marketing at all. You would have never known a USL sounders game was happening unless you went out of your way to scour the USL site or called the box office.

There is a fantastic book that covers some of the outreach steps that the ownership group took to engage the community and simply make sure that people knew about the Sounders again.

Beyond the ownership group, here are a few of the factors:

• History of high-attendance in the last top league (70's NAS)
  
• Less competition with European leagues on the west coast due to time zones. (Even amazing games at 7am are still games at 7am)
  
• Centrally located and accessible stadium
  
• Loss of the Sonics freed up entertainment dollars for some
  
• 8 years of shitty baseball from the Mariners had freed up entertainment dollars for some
  
• Generational timing. Kids that grew up watching NASL sounders were at the right age to have families of their own to bring to MLS sounders
  
• Early success. The quick successes of the team both in league play and USOC cause the crowd to build and solidify rather than lose interest
  
  Any new team entering the league just has to recreate these things and, with a little luck, they'll have the same type of success. :P

Bloody Confused!: A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer -- The book for the novice soccer fan. It explains how one can get caught up in the sport even if they deride it or have no history with it. Amazon: After covering the American sports scene for fifteen years, Chuck Culpepper suffered from a profound case of Common Sportswriter Malaise. He was fed up with self-righteous proclamations, steroid scandals, and the deluge of in-your-face PR that saturated the NFL, the NBA, and MLB. Then in 2006, he moved to London and discovered a new and baffling world—the renowned Premiership soccer league. Culpepper pledged his loyalty to Portsmouth, a gutsy, small-market team at the bottom of the standings. As he puts it, “It was like childhood, with beer.”

The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer -- Be warned this book can be mistaken as a blunt object. One of the most global histories I've ever read. If you like information about how world soccer got to where it is now, I highly recommend this book. Amazon: In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.

Long-Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer -- Amazon: From the league’s formation in 1993 to the David Beckham era, this book reveals all the action on and off the pitch: the politics, the lawsuits, the management of its teams, and the savvy business deals that helped MLS rebound. It also revels in the big personalities of its stars, the grace of its utility players, and the obstacles the league faces in meeting its long-range goals.

Corner Offices & Corner Kicks -- Amazon: The Bethlehem Steel soccer team of 1907-30 and the New York Cosmos of 1971-85 were very much alike in a number of ways beyond their status as the two greatest soccer teams the United States has ever produced. The most important way that they are alike is that both were owned by major corporations, which is the exception in professional sports, and both experienced the benefits and the pitfalls of corporate ownership. Here are the stories of these two teams, and in particular the roller-coaster rides that their ownership situations sent them on.

My list would have to include

The Ball is Round this is an amazing history of the sport. It is a very big book but very good.

The Numbers Game This has been one of my favorite soccer reads and I am surprised at how little people talk about it.

This love is not for cowards Truly an amazing story.

Amung the Thugs a fun and alarming tale of holgainism. Something I am very glad has not developed around the sport in the USA.

also if your not already receiving them you should subscribe to
Howler Magazine and
Eight by Eight


I hope this list gets you started. I have more on my list but have not got around to them.

The story behind that dates back to before the Nordecke section was formed. Each of the three groups were in different parts of the stadium: HSH was in the old north end, La Turbina was much smaller and was in the NE corner sometimes and Crew Union was in 103 on the east endline.

When the stage was built prior to the 2008 season the groups met and decided it would be worth a shot to stand together in the NE corner of the stadium. There's a whole chapter on Crew supporters in Steve Sirk's book about the 2008 season that has a lot more history including old groups like The Contractors, NorthEnders and V-Army.

To expand on the three groups, as Metelteeth said:

Crew Supporters Union Oldest group of the bunch having been the remains of what was once V-Army. Also tends to be more young professional, but has a wide range of ages overall. Does a lot of fundraising for MidOhio Foodbank as part of it's not-for-profit status. Hosts large tailgates prematch. Known for throwing large parties like the Crew-Newcastle Supporters party last week.

La Turbina Amarilla (The Yellow Turbine) is largely latino. Mostly El Salvadorians and Mexicans with a healthy dose of other nationalities including a growing number of caucasians who just enjoy the drumming aspect of the group.

Hudson Street Hooligans Have a private club/bar owned by original members of the group where members go pre and post match. The "edgiest" of the three groups. Draws a lot of it's membership from Ohio State students.

There have been speed bumps here and there, but for the most part the groups get along well on match days. The largest chunk of the Nordecke is possibly independents who don't have a group affiliation.

This is a little bit of a Sounders-centric recommendation, but I think every MLS fan would enjoy reading Authentic Masterpiece. It's the story of how the Sounders launched in MLS, and it's just a fantastic success story about soccer in America. I really recommend it.

i've ordered Herr Pep and Boquita. really pumped to read those. on the internet, Marti Perarnau has interesting guides to various European leagues.

the best soccer book of ALL time though is by Eduardo Galeano, El futbol a sol y sombra, also known as Soccer in Sun and Shadow.

Inverting the Pyramid is Great, How Soccer Explains the World is awesome, and Alex Bellos' book, Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life is also really, really great.

I used to be director of coaching for a small youth soccer organization that included a rec program and education for people in your exact situation. Here's a couple of my recommendations:

• Definitely take the F to help you learn the basics. Don't bother with the E for a couple years unless you're really loving coaching.
  
• Get this book. The biggest take-away is that soccer IS NOT a kicking game. It is a ball control game (and space control for older ages 10+).
  
• Your biggest priority (especially for kids under 10) is to help kids love soccer so much that they want to play outside of structured practice time.
  
• Get size 1 mini balls to use with kids under 7. Size 3 - and heaven forbid size 5 - are just too big for the size of their feet and legs.

I like the documentary (and the book as well), but it's really focused on the Cosmos, and it kind of glosses over the myriad factors which caused the original NASL to collapse, many of which had nothing to do with the Cosmos. Moreover, it doesn't really explain why U.S. Soccer made the decision to go with MLS, and why MLS is set up the way it is.

If you're looking to bone up on American soccer history, and get to why those decisions were made, I can't recommend Dave Wangerin's two books enough. The two in question are:

• Soccer in a Football World
  
• Distant Corners: American Soccer's History of Missed Opportunities and Lost Causes
  
  Those two books are the definitive works on American soccer history. You should, by all means, read Long Range Goals. It's a good book, and the author is very approachable on Twitter, if you have questions.
  
  More to the point: Long Range Goals does a great job of explaining the how of MLS; but if you want the why, as I mentioned above, then you have to read Wangerin, particularly Distant Corners. Read that, and a lot of things make a lot more sense.
  
  Happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Anyone interested in understanding the tactics would do well to read Inverting the Pyramid, a history of soccer tactics. It's an intereting and informative read, and pairs well with your browser and youtube. It's fun to pull up clips (when available) of games and moves the author mentions. For example, when he talks about Kruyf - just find kruyf on youtube and enjoy.
Wonderful combination.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: this love is not for cowards


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|smile.amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
|Spain|www.amazon.es||
|France|www.amazon.fr||
|Germany|www.amazon.de||
|Japan|www.amazon.co.jp||
|Canada|www.amazon.ca||
|Italy|www.amazon.it||
|India|www.amazon.in||
|China|www.amazon.cn||




To help add charity links, please have a look at this thread.

This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

The American Soccer History Archive has a lot of material: http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/

There is a historical overview of American soccer there that might be what you are looking for. There are also year-by-year reports, USMNT World Cup reviews, regional histories, historical player bios, etc. Great site overall.

Roger Allaway is an American soccer historian who regularly writes short but interesting history articles on his blog at bigsoccer: http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/roger-allaway/

Philly Soccer Page has a lot of good articles on US soccer history, including a series on the USMNT in the World Cup: http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/category/soccer-history/soccer-in-the-us/

"Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game" by David Wangerin is a very good book if you're willing to spend some cash (though Google Books probably has a preview): http://www.amazon.com/Soccer-Football-World-Americas-Forgotten/dp/1592138853

Help Jeff recover from this setback by buying his children's books centered on sports stories: 1) Tom Brady and Bill Bellichick; 2) Cavaliers win 2016 NBA title; 3) 2016 Chicago Cubs; and 4) Crimson Tide. Bonus book: NASA sending men to the moon.

Jeff Attinella: Husband, father, sports warrior, 2-time MLS Cup runner-up, Timber, and author.

Don't have much to reply with other than I agree. I'd encourage everyone to read Chapters 5 and 6 (page 151-217) from Soccer In A Football World by David Wangerin for a very digestible (yet somewhat shallow) look at NASL 1.0's successes and failures.


Also, if you like discussions like this, come chat at /r/ussoccerhistory.

If you're interested in a history of how MLS formed here in the US and you're like me and enjoy reading about soccer, I recommend Dure's Long-Range Goals.

this love is not for cowards is maybe a book about things that happen around soccer instead of explicitly about its history or tactics but is still an amazing book to read.

At the risk of having everyone here roll their eyes at me, Among the Thugs by Bill Buford is still one of my favorites. I know a lot of people don't really consider it a soccer book, but it was my first real exposure to the sport beyond YMCA herd soccer, so it holds a bit of a place in my heart.

This excellent book tries to answer that question: http://www.amazon.com/Offside-American-Exceptionalism-Andrei-Markovits/dp/069107447X

The basic idea is that there is only so much space for sports, and as other "major" sports solidified their positions, minor sports like soccer ended up getting pushed to the margins.

Personally, I'd say that the American Soccer League, which persisted on a smaller scale after the Soccer War / Great Depression, lacked ambition and organization and was happy to occupy a minor league role. Starting around 1960, people started to notice soccer again, due to growing internationalization, television, the world cup, etc.

If you are interested in this subject of why soccer failed while other sports succeeded in the US, I'd highly recommend the book Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism. It's very interesting for soccer fans in the US.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/069107447X?pc_redir=1404571777&robot_redir=1

Long Range Goals is also an excellent recap of why MLS is set up the way it is and the US Soccer landscape in the mid 1990s. Then the book summarizes the first several seasons. My favorite parts of the book surrounded the initial birth of the league and the MLS players union lawsuit that reinforced MLS' single-entity structure.

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1597975095

If you are a big picture "how we got here" reader, this is pretty good:

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Range-Goals-Success-League-Soccer/dp/1597975095/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z

I also recommend Inverting the Pyramid which someone else did too.

Though dated (pub date 2001) due to the rise in popularity of soccer in America, as well as the rise of quality in MLS, etc., this was a great read: Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism

I absolutely loved Soccernomics.

Authentic Masterpiece

http://www.amazon.com/Sounders-FC-AUTHENTIC-MASTERPIECE-Franchise/dp/1491068345/ref=la_B003BO2X66_1_1/179-3025554-9777545?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393819269&sr=1-1

MLB 53.9%

NHL 55.7%

NFL 57.3%

NBA 60.5%

MLS 69.1%

Baseball is actually even better. The conclusion of the economists who wrote Scorecasting is that proximity to the crowd is a major factor. NHL has the glass and MLB the nets as well as outfield fans being extremely far away from the umpire. Additionally, MLB has the most scrutinized refs in any sport due to their use of technology. What would explain how the same umpire magically makes more accurate calls when he knows he is being double checked by strikezone technology?

There is a book titled "The Global History of Soccer" that I read a few years ago. It is a great read and talks about some of these issues. It goes through the history of Football in each region and how they are connected. Unfortunately, I don't remember WHY soccer didn't catch on but I remember something about local cultures that were occupied by the british would play to emulate the british soldiers.

> A third group, headed by Chicago marketing executive Jim Paglia, envisioned a league tied to a series of new stadiums constructed adjacent to new shopping malls.

There's a lot more about this group in Beau Dure's Long-Range Goals. Paglia had some pretty radical ideas about changing the rules of soccer, with color-coded uniforms based on positions, larger goals, more points for goals from further away...

This might be a good read for you: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Byers-Soccer-Starts-Home-ebook/dp/B01EHNLM5C

I've heard good things about this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Inverting-The-Pyramid-History-Tactics/dp/1568587384

Not a site, but this book covers some of the history:

Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game
by David Wangerin


http://www.amazon.com/Soccer-Football-World-Americas-Forgotten/dp/1592138853

I believe the match went ahead because it had a national TV time slot on ABC. If they postponed it, they could lose the slot (Source: Long Range Goals)

The article is just plain wrong about the what happened during the Behring years.

Soccer votes did help build the Clink. Mine included. But there is no need to make the situation worse than it was.

Also the article appears heavily lifted from a recent book about the Sounders by local sports radio DJ Mike Gastineau (http://www.amazon.com/Sounders-FC-AUTHENTIC-MASTERPIECE-Franchise/dp/1491068345). There is an entire chapter on the stadium vote and how soccer voters influenced the outcome.