I'm drawing a blank on DoF.And if anyone believed that Kreis had a guiding hand in roster construction, maybe look at this talk. They're clearly *all in* on the DoF model.
Apologies - Director of Football.I'm drawing a blank on DoF.
Sounds like it would have been pretty fun to go to.The Times had a good intro/explanation for it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/s...to-brooklyn-at-blazercon.html?ref=sports&_r=0
Think of it as comic-con for soccer nerds and in its first year it's already been taken over by corporate marketing (just like ComicCon in San Diego).
BlazerCon is a con (as in Comicon, for example) run by the Men in Blazers show. They're two Englishmen who live in New York and do a half hour TV show on NBCSN on Monday night at (usually) 11pm after EPL weekends (so not on today). They're usually pretty hilarious. They also do a podcast as well. Worth checking out if you're into English football at all.Excuse my ignorance, but what is this whole thread about? I don't understand what blazercon is. I can't be the only one here who is clueless.
I've seen some rerun episodes of there show before. Their tiny room for filming bothers me for some reason. I'm sure if I understood their English lingo a bit more I'd find them to be more funny. (English isn't my native tongue so I don't really understand their sense of humor.)BlazerCon is a con (as in Comicon, for example) run by the Men in Blazers show. They're two Englishmen who live in New York and do a half hour TV show on NBCSN on Monday night at (usually) 11pm after EPL weekends (so not on today). They're usually pretty hilarious. They also do a podcast as well. Worth checking out if you're into English football at all.
I was at this talk and came away horribly disappointed. It's clear that Soriano barely respects the American player as a soccer player. The dismissive response to the "$100K player" question showed exactly the roster construction issues that have been beaten to death here - they legitimately think that they can win with three Euro studs and nothing else.
The man preached patience and acknowledged that the playoffs weren't a good target, but then dismissed what he saw last year as reprehensible. Unless there was something absurd going on behind the scenes, there's a huge intellectual disconnect there.
And the comments on coaching in the US -- while I agree that youth coaching needs to improve here to a degree, dismissing American talent as "courageous but not much else" is both insulting and regressive. It tells me we can't expect a damn thing out of the SuperDraft until they wise up.
Most of the programs that beat our asses last year were built on the talent of the exact players that he dismissed, so I'm not sure he really has much room to be claiming that a 17 year old MCFC loanee has that much talent than the average MLS veteran.
And if anyone believed that Kreis had a guiding hand in roster construction, maybe look at this talk. They're clearly *all in* on the DoF model. Unfortunate that they chose Reyna instead of a guy like Lagerway.
This is why I've been relatively quiet so far on Mr. Soriano's talk. I keep thinking I'm missing something. I need to read the referenced Times article.there's a huge intellectual disconnect there.
I just can't see this working. Let's say you live somewhere in Europe and you are a soccer fan. (A) You are a fan of a big club that is close to home and playing top level talent. (B) You are a fan of a little club - bottom table, 2nd or 3rd division. You already have your Cinderella. (C) You are both of the above.That ending and your comment raises a question I have contemplated about the growth of MLS.
I think the clear path to further strengthen the league in the US has been/is to appeal to roots-level fans. That change by most clubs has proved a catalyst to get from sideshow to actual professional league status domestically. But to take the next step to develop tv revenues, what is the optimal way forward? Do you go after US sports tv audiences who are fringe or Euro soccer fans or do you go after building the global audience? If the former, how do you get there? If the latter, do you forfeit the former and forego traditional afternoon and evening start times for earlier starts that suit Euro time zones better?
Why do I posit these as in opposition to one another? Well, moving to time slots more friendly to Euro audiences will make league games face more challenges to grow the domestic audience. Nonetheless, I think MLS now has a core fan base that is loyal and committed. I'd actually guess that MLS has a better pro rata adherence rate than any other US league. I think you rely on that core loyalty to maintain the status quo domestically and focus on putting your best games in European audience friendly time slots. Hire the best local PR guys you can get in those markets and get the league a bigger presence in the biggest respective sports news outlets. Get good stories out, fund some "Hard Knocks" type productions.
You have to use the assets you have available. The quality isn't there, but the drama and human interest side is. I think stories of underdog, hardworking players making salaries that don't offend the everyman sensibilities could be a compelling penetration strategy for foreign markets even if the quality is a bit lagging for now.
Once that coverage exists overseas, I think it would pull in the fringe US audience, especially the eurosnob element. It's basically a reversing of the marketing of the world cup to a US audience. Sell the spectacle and the drama and the people to draw in an audience that has long been a bit disinterested.
Just some suboptimal ramblings.
Re read the comments at the end regarding MLS. Not very rosy. Well if your a fan of MLS that is. But it's not anything a speaker said its the author of the article.This is why I've been relatively quiet so far on Mr. Soriano's talk. I keep thinking I'm missing something. I need to read the referenced Times article.
UPDATE:
read the Times article.
Didn't find anything particularly ominous in it.
It was an absolutely fantastic time. The talk from the Southampton chair was *delightful*.Sounds like it would have been pretty fun to go to.
You're honestly only getting half the story reading the twitter comments. He was overwhelmingly negative about the US player pool, and repeatedly talked about bringing in foreign talent as this team's chance to turn the corner. The tone was very harsh -- Soriano clearly sees this league as two steps below Belgium right now.Hmm, you were at the talk, so I imagine there must've been a discrepancy between the Twitter transcription and what you heard, because it didn't seem he was being overly disrespectful to US players (coaching, yes). Also not sure I understand the "intellectual disconnect" you pointed out. I think people are still getting hung up on the idea that Kreis was fired on results alone. On the surface, I see no incompatibility between statements like "we must be patient, playoffs were a hard target" and "we need to play better soccer". Maybe you can illustrate that for me furthermore, though.
I think that I've given them quite a few chances to make good. At this point, I'm just about out. I want to see winning soccer, but there are some things I'm seeing here that winning can't cure.Jonathan Tannenwald @thegoalkeeper 4h4 hours agoGreenpoint, Brooklyn
Ferran Soriano on Patrick Vieira at NYCFC: "We have brought maybe our best coach here."
I would agree with this and i'm pretty sure Paddy will bring someone along with him that's not CFG connected and someone who has been there and done that on the world stage like himself.
I honestly think you guys are either worrying too much and you need to trust the way the things are going because it's going to be a bright future because Shiekh Mansour and everyone downwards who he employs and trusts aren't mugs and know exactly what they're doing and you need to give them a chance.
No, I got that the author of the article isn't a fan, but in LitoLand, his opinion doesn't hold anymore value than yours or mine. It's just more noise among the ether.Re read the comments at the end regarding MLS. Not very rosy. Well if your a fan of MLS that is. But it's not anything a speaker said its the author of the article.
I just can't see this working. Let's say you live somewhere in Europe and you are a soccer fan. (A) You are a fan of a big club that is close to home and playing top level talent. (B) You are a fan of a little club - bottom table, 2nd or 3rd division. You already have your Cinderella. (C) You are both of the above.
In any of these situations, why on Earth would you watch an American team?
I'm a soccer fan and I'm obsessed with NYCFC, but only because I'm a New Yorker. I watch European teams because I want to see the game played at a higher talent level. If the Australian league was on TV, I wouldn't watch. I just can't get my brain to follow any path by which a European fan (other than the MCFC fans who follow NYCFC because they feel connected) spends their soccer watching time on MLS when there is generally an abundance at any given time of higher quality, more personally connected soccer for them to watch.
It was an absolutely fantastic time. The talk from the Southampton chair was *delightful*.
The tone was very harsh -- Soriano clearly sees this league as two steps below Belgium right now.
And there were absolutely intellectual disconnects.