MLS: A League in Need of Better Strikers?

By: Daryl | November 17th, 2009

Major League Soccer announced the league’s Best XI yesterday, as voted for by media, players, coaches and GMs. Here’s what they came up with:

GOALKEEPER (1): Zach Thornton (Chivas USA)

DEFENDERS (3): Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Wilman Conde (Chicago Fire), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew)

MIDFIELDERS (5): Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Shalrie Joseph (New England Revolution), Freddie Ljungberg (Seattle Sounders FC)

FORWARDS (2): Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas)

That’s not a bad looking midfield at all, especially when you consider the midfielders who didn’t make the cut. Guys like David Beckham and Cuauhtémoc Blanco. I’m not arguing for their inclusion. Just noting that five other players outperformed that pair on merit, and suggesting maybe that indicates MLS possesses an impressive depth of quality in midfielders.

The same thing can not be said about MLS strikers however, and I’m thinking maybe that’s a problem

Jeff Cunningham and Conor Casey take the two forward spots on this Best XI mostly because they finished #1 and #2 in the MLS Golden Boot race with 17 and 16 goals respectively. Can’t argue with that. But while both are decent enough forwards, even the biggest FC Dallas or Colorado Rapids fans would have to admit that both players are somewhat limited. As an MLS supporter (of the league in general) that worries me.

There’s the old American sports phrase: “Offense sells tickets, Defense wins championships”. Which is as true for soccer as it is for any other sport. MLS is in the business of not just selling tickets, but also selling soccer to the American and Canadian public. For that, they’re going to need some superstar strikers.

It’s absolutely not fair, but strikers are usually the guys that get the glory and the headlines. In essence they play a big part in selling the league to the public. When a striker goes on a scoring run, that right there is exciting. Think Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba in England, or David Villa and Diego Forlan in Spain. Or any other consistently good forwards from any of the other big leagues that MLS would love to be.

For whatever reason, MLS has not been host to a really prolific forward in recent years. Juan Pablo Angel looked the man for a while there, but his goal tally has dropped with each successive season and each year he’s aged. Jaime Moreno is the MLS all time leading scorer with 131 goals, but he’s 35 now and slowing down. Taylor Twellman may be the most lethal active player, the most natural goalscorer who’s not at retirement age, but his past two seasons of been decimated by a variety of injuries.

Even some of the guys who should have lit up the scoring charts suffered from patchy form. Step forward Eddie Johnson.

Maybe what MLS needs is some younger hotshots? Jozy Altidore would no doubt have been banging goals in has he not been snapped up by Villarreal at the tender age of 18. Seattle’s Colombian forward Fredy (with one “d”) Montero finished third in the Golden Boot rankings, and is only 22, but he’s on loan from Deportivo Cali and it’s still not clear whether he’ll be back in MLS for 2010.

So it’s a Catch-22 for the league, because any youngster that gets a decent goal tally – like Altidore or Montero – attracts attention from abroad and can end up departing. Which may be part of the reason why so-so players like Cunningham and Casey lead the way.

Perhaps the only realistic antidote to this relative goalscoring mediocrity is the Designated Player. We’ve yet to see a bona fide superstar striker – a Thierry Henry or a Ronaldo (the World Cup winning one, not the other one) – sign with an MLS team as a DP and score MLS goals for fun. Can you imagine the buzz such a thing would generate? No reason why that can’t happen in the near future, and MLS will have taken yet another step forward once it does.

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Category: MLS

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Diane

Don't forget that the players listed are a league wide starting XI, in fairness to any strikers here or heading here, the salary cap, NCAA draft system, etc, also have an impact on who's serving the ball, or moving it around into danger, and there's nothing close to league wide consistency there either. As it is, its too easy to isolate one player -- part of poor Angel's problem -- if the rest of the team isn't as much of a threat.

Ronaldo (the real one) might be the only retiree who might not be bothered by those problems. Sometimes I just can't figure out where he conjures the ball from -- or where defenders thought he was lurking before he strikes it.
morpheus11

I will agree like everyone else that it will require larger salaries to keep/get bonafide strikers in the MLS. But, I would also like to argue that goal scorers sell tickets not strikers. Donovan doesn't play in the midfield much he is usually 1 of 2 players up top. Same goes for Blanco. So even if the MLS isn't able to keep the bonafide strikers, e.g. Altidore, they can still sell tickets by keeping midfielders that score lots of goals, e.g. Donovan. Just think of how many goals Donovan would have scored if he hadn't missed all that time playing for the USMNT.

There is another reason for the MLS to not play games during international games.
Dave Martinez

Elliot really does hit the nail on the head though. If they are young and good, they are going somewhere that will a) monetarily compensate them and b) develop them so that they can become c) expensive commodities which will make them d) millionaires. If there is no structure to award AND nurture the youngsters moving up the ranks, then MLS will never be able to secure a long term relationship with a proven at home striker (they even budged on the DP for Donovan for this reason).

Aged European based strikers with a bit left in the tank and no World Cup aspirations will be finding their way here until that changes. And that is also not a bad thing either.

Once MLS is financially capable of giving an entire roster opportunities, then you will see the league turn into a monster. But in its 14th year, it is still baby stepping.
laurie

And a good straight-up striker as a DP might do the trick. (Henry! Now! Please!) What that might do -- having one players score something like 45 goals -- is open up the league's eyes to how they really need to up the salary cap so the other teams can pay the talent what it's worth.
Tommy Wong

Good strikers go to play in Europe. It doesn't matter where they're from or how old they are, strikers are exports. The best MLS can do is to try and get older aging strikers to come to play in the USA (i.e. Juan Pablo Angel). They tried to lure Ronaldo, and Bobo Vieri, etc etc. The MLS isn't the only league that suffers from this problem either. Most good strikers move on, plain and simple. Until the USA's youth programs and academies start to cultivate youngsters into strikers, instead of run-of-the-mill, by-the-book midfielders it will continue to be like this.
laurie

The Montero thing was widely reported around the time of the USOC final, but according to the Sigi Schmid and the Sounders FO it is not true. Montero is still (apparently) at least partially owned by Deportivo Cali and his contract status for next year is up in the air.
Kartik

Elliot is correct. Daryl was not.
Cameron

I was under the impression that the MLS bought out Fredy's contract and stake from Deportivo Cali
Elliott

Until MLS opens up the purse strings, any forward who gets a 10 plus goal tally is going to Europe for a salary increase - just look at Chris Rolfe, Kenny Cooper, and Joseph Ngwenya. I'm not saying it will work out for them - but the bump in salary is massive, even in Scandinavia