Written by Phillip Bupp at The Comeback
The MLS Cup playoffs will conclude their second legs of their Conference Finals today. As the Portland Timbers lead FC Dallas 3-1 and Columbus Crew SC lead New York Red Bulls 2-0, a casual fan may come across this as something being a bit off.
Where’s Steven Gerrard and Robbie Keane of the LA Galaxy? Where’s Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard and David Villa of NYCFC? Where’s Kaka of Orlando City? Surely these are the best and most popular players in the world, they should have been able to make quick work of the lesser teams and unknown MLS players and waltz to a trophy.
Instead, we have four teams who are on the lower half of the salary table. Teams who concentrate on role players and youth, those players who may not have had the spotlight shine on them yet. While many see this as terrible for MLS in terms of revenue, viewership and marketing, I see this as something MLS can capitalize on. This is the perfect opportunity for those guys to make a name for themselves and for MLS to market these players as the “giant killers” and turn those players into stars for the league. Stars that even casual MLS could get to know and love (for a fraction of the price of a big name DP).
Look at some of the standout players these four teams have who can play and quite honestly, have played better than the majority of the big name DP’s that are getting millions.
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