Everyone agrees. Montreal is all but set for MLS in 2012. Maybe ever 2011 if you are to believe Team 990’s Noel Butler, who made the suggestion on It’s Called Football that it’s still possible that the Impact will make the jump in two years.
Garber is saying 2012 in an effort to pressure the Quebec government to commit the funds for the stadium expansion. As soon as the funding is in place, Garber announces that he’s fast tracking the team’s entry. That’s the thinking anyway.
It’s all very exciting for Canadian football. Having three Canuck teams in the highest profile league in northern North America has to be a good thing, no, a great thing, for us long suffering Voyageur types.
I wonder, however, if a 2011 entry is the best thing for Montreal fans. Although the kneejerk reaction among non-Toronto Canadian fans will always be to dismiss the possibility of Toronto success, you cannot ignore the fact that the Reds will have a five year head start on The Whitecaps and any other team that comes into MLS in 2011 With five years of collecting the best Canadian talent willing to play in MLS Toronto could, ironically, increase its advantage over Montreal and Vancouver during the first couple years of those city’s MLS play. Add to that the fact that Vancouver will be chasing domestic talent as well – and has the advantage of its academy system (Montreal is the only one of the three Canadian fully pro teams that doesn’t have an academy) and it’s hard not to see the Impact struggling.
The dream of having Canadians count as domestics league-wide in MLS is spurious, at best. Although there will be some changes in the amount of internationals that the new teams will be allowed, the new Canadian teams will need to tap into the domestic market to be competitive. As the third team in, Montreal will already be at a disadvantage. Having to fight with Vancouver will probably just make both teams weaker.
As for the argument that Montreal will be able to rely on its current USL domestic talent to be competitive in MLS, I’ll simply point this out. Of Seattle’s current roster only six players remain from the USL. Only one plays any significant amount of minutes, Sébastien Le Toux.
Unless the international restrictions are lifted totally (which seems unlikely) it might be best for Montreal to not only wait to 2012, but maybe even 2013.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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16 comments:
Just because TFC calls their "farm team" an academy does not make it one.... By the way the Trois-Rivieres Attak just beat them 1-0...
I think you are also severely discounting the "Quebecois" and Montreal strong sense of identity that players from this province have the following are all extremely talented players that would all love to play for the Impact in MLS on a natural grass surface:
Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault
Olivier-Lacoste-Lebuis
Andre Hainault
Patrice Bernier
Olivier Ocean
and even Ali Gerba
Not to mention Alex Surprenant and Pierre Rudolph Mayard who are already developping nicely.
The Impact will do just fine....
2013? and languish in USL for all that time, and continueally play team from nowhere USA??? no thanks. Get in ASAP....
I'm not sure waiting would help any.
Montreal hasn't got an academy system because of their management, not because they can't afford it or they need more time to set one up, so sitting around until 2013 isn't going to help them. Meanwhile, is the pool of available MLS-level Canadian talent really going to expand that much?
I think the problem of Canadian content is a bit overblown. If, say, Gage and Edwini-Bonsu make it for Vancouver, they pluck a designated player off the Julian De Guzman tree, and they get a couple Josh Wagenaar/Josh Simpson/talented player in a lower foreign league types, that's five of a starting eleven right there. There's enough Will Johnsons and Dejan Jakovics in MLS to fill holes, too.
It's going to be an issue, no doubt, but not enough of one to delay MLS and its associated revenues and exposure for two years.
Thing is, if Montreal suffers for a few years with sub-par Canadians, those players will eventually learn and develop into something better. Player development through Canadian pro team won't be achieved by signing the deRos and deGuzmans of the world, but by taking fringe Canadians and whipping them into shape because that's the only option.
Waiting in USL one more year and let Vancouver have a first round of player picking alone? I don't think that's a good option. The sooner Montreal is in, the sooner Montreal will be up to speed. There will always be NY to occupy the last rank anyways.
Player development won't be achieved by Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto losing twenty-five games a year because they want to develop from within at the cost of bringing in talented, veteran help.
I think that the new teams have to be willing to do what Toronto did and bring in a name (an anonymous commenter above mentioned Olivier Occean for the MLS Impact which I love, and I'm sure the Caps could snag an Iain Hume type).
Other than the Whitecaps system, youth development needs a lot of work in Canada across the board. It's one thing to have a competitive youth team. It's another to have a pool of them so the best can rise to the top.
If you asked any 10 year old kid in the country how he can become a professional soccer player, he'd be hard pressed to give you the answer. Compare that to Hockey where it's terribly obvious. When the football route gets more clear, that's when we start turning out more players.
@Lord Bob -
When it comes to Hume teams are caught in a catch 22 -- to get him you'd have to pay DP wages and he's not good enough to be a DP (even though he's be an above average player that MLS could land).
Here is a Van City DP rumour that I'm pulling out of my ass - Rob Friend. He'd be perfect if you ask me. I bet he'd score 20 goals in MLS.
@3:11
Yep.
@ the Montreal guys.
I see both sides here. I just wanted to put this argument out there. I do think it's going to be a challenge for both Canadian teams to compete (without changes to the MLS roster rules).
Well, in 2011 Iain Hume will be 27, and his last contracts were signed partially on promise that hasn't fully materialized. Come 2011, I think he could pretty easily be a well-paid non-DP, De Rosario style.
@11:59
TFC Academy is a sub-18 team. The attack have seven players older than 18, including several in their 20s.
Boys versus men (and why one is an academy and the other a farm team).
TFC also runs a sub 16 team. There are rumours that a significant investment will be made to the program this year. Be as flippant as you want but there is little doubt that the Impact trail both Toronto and especially Vancouver in this department.
@ Lord Bob -
Don't get me wrong; I'd love to see Hume in MLS (although he is from Brampton, so I would think he'd rather wear red).
Hume is exactly the type of player the league needs to start keeping (the tier just below world class). If you build a base on those $500,000/year players you are really getting somewhere.
I don't think TFC would need him at that De Rosario salary, even come 2011, or I'd agree with you. Vancouver, on the other hand, could really use the help.
Montreal only have to go pick some players from
Puerto Rico from the USL and will finish in the top 3 in the MLS ,lol
Seriously that will never happen in the first years , but you never know , but hey who cares the first couple of years where we end up as long as we are in , all the 3 Canadian teams , and what ever happens happens , and lets hope we never have to play Puerto Rico in the Concacaf lol
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