This is an exciting year in MLS for many reasons.
There is a new team in Toronto FC. There are new stadiums popping up everywhere. David Beckham is coming. So are Juan Pablo Angel and Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Claudio Reyna is back in the United States, and Freddy Adu plays for RSL.
For these and many other reasons, the league is in a very exciting place right now. Perhaps the most intriguing of all the changes in the league are the new "Game First" initiatives.
The new initiatives mean a lot more to the players than they probably does to anyone else. For many, many years, players have felt that everything except the game was important to the league. The league took a lot of time to work on the infrastructure of the league, to ensure that it would be a long lasting entity, and now that the league is comfortably here to stay, the upper echelon of the league has decided that it is time to pay more attention to the quality on the field.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Game First initiatives is the addition of the involvement of MLS in developing youth teams.
The league has charged each team with starting a developmental program for youth players to identify and develop players for its professional team. Each team has a designated area that is its "territory." RSL has Utah, a few surrounding states, and Arizona. This is a relatively small population when you consider that the Galaxy and Chivas have an area of 75 miles around The Home Depot Center. I've heard it said that 40 percent of the league's players are from a 75 mile radius around The Home Depot Center.
Real Salt Lake head coach John Ellinger asked me to coach one of the youth teams in the Arizona area. We had spoken some months ago, and the team and league are just now coming to fruition. I am going to coach RSL's Arizona U-17 team, which will compete in the Rocky Mountain Division of the Super Y-League. This will be a regional summer competition. In time, MLS would like to see this develop into a league where the youth teams of all the MLS teams could play in a competition where they would play against each other.
In theory this is fantastic, but logistically there are challenges. I am in favor of anything that gets the best players together to play against the best players from somewhere else. That is an important component to developing players; putting them in those situations, and having the correct demands and corrections being made is how these good players are going to be ready for higher level soccer.
It is going to be difficult to get this league into an already crowded soccer calendar. Kids play for very long stretches as it is, so it is important that the additional games don't stretch out the soccer year for an extended period. Initially, it is unlikely that this league won't take additional time, but as it evolves, that will have to be a consideration.
While you would think that everyone would be in favor of this developmental process, there are a few skeptics, as there always seem to be. In Phoenix, Ellinger and RSL general manager Steve Pastorino came and held a press conference Thursday with most of the coaching directors in the area. Most were supportive of the inititative, acknowledging the potential benefits for their kids. Some were not, citing myriad reasons why there was no apparent benefit for their kids. Fair enough. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.
RSL remains undeterred however, and are pushing ahead with this plan. I am excited because it allows me the ability to help develop some talented young men into good, thinking soccer players. The thinkers are the ones that go as far as their talent can take them. The talented ones who can't "think the game" rarely have careers as long as the ones who really develop a good understanding.
Of course, not everyone will want to or have the ability to be a professional soccer player. Whatever their goals are, be it college, professional, or otherwise, this opportunity offers them a chance to be exposed to professional soccer as they might not otherwise have had the opportunity. It also allows them access to me, which, for better or for worse, offers them the ability to spend some time with someone who has been as far as the process can take you in this country. I relish the opportunity to share some of the insight that I have been fortunate enough to gain over a very long playing career.
Robin Fraser, a five-time MLS Best XI selection and two-time MLS Defender of the Year, ended his 10-year MLS career and 16-year professional career after the 2005 season as a member of the Columbus Crew, and now continues his second season with RSL as the team's color television analyst on KSL and FSN Utah. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Fraser amassed 27 caps for the U.S. National Team and was drafted fourth overall by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the inaugural MLS draft.
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