MLS Eyes South Of The Border

Europe’s ageing stars are no longer America’s most wanted.

The fact that there are no big name signings ahead of the new  season does not reveal any MLS weakness. In fact, it demonstrates quite the opposite really, as it suggests the league’s clubs are becoming a lot cannier in their player recruitment.

Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have both gone back to England after short stints in MLS, where neither exactly sparkled last year and their respective sides, Los Angeles Galaxy and New York City, won nothing.

So maybe a lesson has been learned. Ageing stars – particularly ageing Brits, it seems – are not what MLS needs.

And the comparative failure of Lampard and Gerrard stands in stark contrast to the exploits of the less blazoned Nicolas Lodeiro at Seattle Sounders, for example.

For Sounders, 2016 had looked like being yet another barren campaign. For a club with by far the biggest support – last year’s average attendance was an extraordinary 42,636 – the repeated failure to win the title during an eight-year MLS life was not acceptable. Long-time coach Sigi Schmid departed in mid-season, replaced by his assistant Brian Schmetzer.

Just three days after Schmid bowed out, Lodeiro joined Seattle – Schmid had evidently been involved in his signing – and it was the Uruguayan’s commanding midfield play and goal scoring that immediately transformed Sounders into a championship contender. Just four months later they won their first MLS Cup.

The message was clear: forget the big European names, there are better, cheaper players to be found in South America. But this news is hardly new. It could be seen back in 2007 when Real Salt Lake signed the virtually unknown 27-year-old Argentinian play maker Javier Morales and went on to win the 2009 MLS title.