For soccer fans in the United States, domestic league kick off is nigh (well, barring a potential work stoppage; more on that later this week). The squads have gathered, trained, and with the February friendlies done and dusted, each team’s full complement has had time to gel, the old stalwarts getting to know their clubs’ new, off-season signings. What’s more, the MLS stands to welcome two new faces to the fold this season, Orland City—who snagged one of the league’s top keepers in Donovan Ricketts through the expansion draft—and NYC FC, owned by Manchester City’s wealthy parent corporation, and poised to present the likes of David Villa and Frank Lampard to American audiences as a fully autonomous new franchise.
Or, are they?
On the eve of the January transfer window, Manchester City announced that Frank Lampard—one of NYC FC’s marquee, and designated, players—would extend his ‘loan’ deal at Manchester City through the end of the EPL season. That is to say, he won’t just miss opening day, won’t just miss the curtain-raiser for both the MLS season and the entire NYC FC franchise, he’ll miss the first three months of the season, and arrive without any offseason whatsoever.
That world class players only want to ply their trade in the MLS after giving it a go in the UEFA Champion’s League doesn’t necessarily reflect well on the MLS as a top flight competition, but it’s understandable; who wouldn’t want to spend their prime playing on the world’s biggest stage? That a team in the MLS would willingly let one of their best, and highest paid, players miss nearly 40% of the league’s season is less forgivable.
But herein lies the issue: which team is really making this decision? Frank Lampard himself can hardly be blamed for all of this. He’s continuing to excel in his native country, in arguably the most illustrious league in the world; why rush it?. But what of NYC FC? Don’t they want one of their best midfielders not only present for the season, but present for training camp and friendlies to find his stride with his teammates? How can a potential team captain be ‘sent on loan’ for nearly half the year?
The answer, it would seem, is that NYC FC have been told by their older-sibling Manchester City, essentially: we want him, so deal with it.
The MLS doesn’t need Frank Lampard to be an enjoyable league; he will certainly add star power, but teams like Portland, Seattle, and Salt Lake will continue to sell out their stadiums even if “Fat Frank” remains sequestered in Manchester. Further, NYC FC doesn’t need Frank Lampard to compete within the MLS. They have a strong squad, led by one of Spain’s greatest goal-scorers, David Villa.
But what they do need—both MLS and NYC FC—is credibility.
At a bar in Manhattan, during the Arsenal v. Everton match this past weekend, I had a conversation with another supporter there. “If they’re lucky,” he suggested, “in twenty years, MLS will be as good as the English Championship.” That, I think, is hyperbole. Case in point: during the Emirates Cup in 2011, the Thierry Henry led Red Bulls—in a match in which the announcer made a similar comparison in MLS vs. English lower-division quality—actually defeated Arsenal.
And yet, despite the on-the-field result in which a Champion’s League side fell to the New York Red Bulls (the match was a draw, but the Red Bulls took home the cup on point total), there persists this stereotype that the MLS is worlds, even light years behind every single league in Europe—if not even every single league in England. This, quite simply, is not the case. It may have been an All Star team, but hell, Caleb Porter and the MLS All Stars beat Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich, for the record, are considered by most to play at a slightly higher level than the English Championship.
This was not an isolated incident, and if you want to qualify it by saying that the MLS All Stars are not a normal side, there are a handful of other incidences. For example, five years ago, in Kansas City, Sporting KC defeated Manchester United 2-1. Of course, there are all the caveats about matches being friendly (though Pep Guardiola’s reaction after All Star match, refusing to shake Caleb Porter’s hand, was anything but). Still, these are MLS players, going up against world class teams. And the MLS boys aren’t just competing; often, they’re winning.
Everything about Manchester City’s pawn, NYCFC, devalues this. You’re doing well in the EPL? Great. It doesn’t matter that your contract was elsewhere; it doesn’t matter that NYC FC pretends to autonomy; you’re playing in a ‘real league’ and therefore you shouldn’t go ‘overseas to pasture.’
This is, time and again, what MLS fans hate to hear. It’s not just that their league is a lesser form of European football—any sane MLS supporter will have to admit that the constancy of quality in the EPL, the Bundesliga, or La Liga outstrips their own league—but that even a team within their league would make a move that, essentially, publicly advertises their inferiority is simply unacceptable.
Perhaps in a move to placate the New Yorkers who were suckered into buying season tickets early, Manchester City announced this week that they would deign to let one of their own overseas on loan. 20 year old center half Shay Facey, who has a handful of England youth team caps to his name, will join NYC FC for six months—look folks, he might even play in New York with Lampard! All is well….
While Facey will likely help his team in NYC, the move begs a comparison: Barcelona, and Barcelona B. In La Liga, reserve teams compete in the same league system as full-fledged franchises, with the caveat that they cannot compete in the Copa del Rey, and must remain at least one league level below. For the teams like Barcelona that can afford such a squad, it’s win/win. They sell more tickets to their reserve matches, because they’re essentially still competitive first team matches, and those on the fringes of their squad get first-team match experience as they might were they on loan elsewhere.
Remind you of any transatlantic football club connections?
If you’re a supporter of domestic soccer, living in New York City, you have a choice to make this upcoming season. Do you want to see David Villa, want to see a team backed by oil billions likely of field one of the most formidable squads in the league, regardless of autonomy and ethics? Sign up at Yankee Stadium. Do you want to support grass-roots soccer culture in your back yard? Do you want a strong, autonomous domestic team within a league that is likewise self-sufficient, strong, and not willing to play second (or third or fourth) fiddle? Support the NASL Cosmos as they bide their time, and work, not buy, their way into the MLS—autonomously.