All-American MLS team? Not in Today's world

I read other soccer websites out there to get news and ideas for my posts. The other day I was reading http://www.yanks-abroad.com/ and came across and article by one of their contributors, Brent Latham, where he spoke about the new Philly MLS franchise and came up with an interesting proposition. You should definitely check it out but in short, Latham basically speaks of the merits of building a purely, in this case, American team in the mold of Chivas de Guadalajara in Mexico and Athletic Bilbao in Spain.

I have to say that it is an interesting idea for a franchise but it is not one that could work in the current MLS set up. Sure, the fans in Philadelphia will embrace the team and having an all-American roster of players could turn them into "America's Team," but soccer is a business and winning as fast as possible is necessary to not only build a fan base, but to hold on to them. Look at the pressure that is beginning to mount in Toronto as the teams failure on the field is starting to drive away potential season ticket holders. The same thing could happen in Seattle if the Sounders aren't able to consistently win as time goes on. Philadelphia will be starting out in 2010 with a brand new stadium in Chester and a strong fan base led by the Sons of Ben. There will be pressure on this team to win immediately from the fans and from the ownership, which has put up a large sum of money to get the ball rolling.

Because of these pressures, the Philadelphia Union will not have the liberty of only picking American players and they demonstrated this during the recent Expansion draft by taking Alejandro Moreno, Shavar Thomas and Sebastian Le Toux. Teams like Chivas and Bilbao are old clubs with many years of tradition and they have established their identities over long periods of time and in vastly different sporting landscapes than the current situation in American Sports. With the amount of money that is being invested in sports (even MLS, where it takes about $40 million to start a franchise) winning is a necessity, unless you are the Los Angeles Clippers where winning is more like a disease than a necessity.

The lack of patience also puts a premium on fielding the best possible team as soon as possible. In a lot of instances that means selecting a foreign player with a few years of professional experience rather than choosing a young American player coming fresh out of college. Until MLS develops a solid academy system that feeds the senior team Mr. Latham's thoughts on fielding an all-American MLS team will have to remain a pipe dream.