USA Manager Travel Guide
The History...
Managing in America is tricky, not only do the fans want their team winning; they demand to see style and crave entertainment. Soccer, as it is affectionately known, is well and truly taking off in America and nothing has reflected this more than the rise of the USA national team.
In 2002 the USA reached the World Cup Quarter Final's, their best performance since the very first World Cup in 1930 where they reached the Semis (though numerous football historians have claimed that many of the 1930's USA squad were 'ringers' from other nations).
The Quarter Finals appearance in 2002 ended a spell of 72 years in which the only time USA had qualified past the First Round of a World Cup was when they reached the Second Round in 1994, the year they played host.
Already qualified for Germany 2006, the USA national team carried an air of confidence into the competition, having won the Gold Cup in both 2002 and 2005. But eventually finished bottom of their group without winning a game.
In terms of club football, the MLS is relatively young, formed in 1993 as part of an agreement with FIFA that allowed the World Cup to be staged in USA, Americans had to wait until 1996 before the first league season commenced.
Since it formation Washington based club, DC United have dominated the roll-of-honour having one the championship four times in it's first nine seasons, with no other club having won it twice.
Some of the more famous faces to have graced the MLS with their presence are German legend Lothar Matthaus; ex-Barcelona and European Football of The Year 1994 Hristo Stoitchkov; and the charismatic Scot Mo Johnston, who helped Kansas City Wizards (or Kan City Wiz as they were simply known at the time) to a MLS Cup win in 2000.
FM.net Career Challenge - Take Salt Lake City to MLS and Champions Cup glory.
Ones to Watch...
As with all national leagues MLS is made up of mostly homegrown talent. However, foreigners do come to play here for a number of different reasons. Firstly there are the young starlets from countries surrounding the USA such as Canada, Jamaica, Guatemala and the Caribbean. These players are spotted and quickly snapped up by MLS teams to compete in a league rapidly growing in standard and competitiveness. This means it's always worth scouting around your neighbouring nations for the next big thing.
Next up, there are the European veteran players; they come across to the states with the promise of first team football, hero status and, depending on where they decide to play of course, a great climate. Older players from anywhere in the world may be opt in a move to the USA ahead of dropping down a division within their own country so it's worth keeping tabs on some old-war-horses.
Of course any player is worth bidding for but these are, and in the past have been, the two real sources of foreign influx into MLS. Add to this trying to find the next young star American star to follow in the footsteps of Cobi Jones, Tim Howard or Kasey Keller and you have a very vibrant transfer market, here's a few ideas to start.
THE BEST MLS PLAYERS
Taylor Twellman (New England)
Landon Donovan (Los Angeles)
Robert Scarlett (Salt Lake)
Freddy Adu (DC United)
HOME-GROWN
Tim Ward (MetroStars)
Eddie Gaven (MetroStars)
Ricardo Clark (Colorado)
Chad Barrett (Chicago)
EUROPEAN VETERANS
Frank De Boer (Al Rayyan)
Enrico Chiesa (Siena)
Iulian Filipescu (Zurich)
Paolo Cannavaro (Parma)
CENTRAL AMERICAN STARLETS
Emile Lopez (Chivas - Guadalajara)
Francisco Guillermo Ochoa (Club de Futbol America)
Juan Ramos (Tauro)
Jorge Quiros (Saprissa)
The League...
MLS, contested between April and October, consists of twelve teams divided into two conferences The Eastern and Western; surprisingly... each conference contains six teams - surprisingly...
Teams in the Eastern conference then play each other four times in the league phase of the season (20 games, two home, two away), and they also play each team in the Western Conference twice (12 games, once home, once away). If that sounds complicated there's a screenshot below, which will hopefully help!
As the screenshot indicates, the top four teams in each Conference progress to the Conference Semi Finals. This effectively means it takes 192 games to eliminate the first four teams, and we thought the old first group stage of The Champions League was a waste of games.
From here it's all fairly simple, each Conference competes its two-legged Semi Final's before the one-legged Conference Final, and then finally, you've guessed it, The National Final to decide the MLS Cup Champions.
The Finalists of The MLS Final will be entered for the Champions Cup, in which they compete in an eight teamed knockout tournament against teams from Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama and Belize. All round of this are competed over two legs between March and May.
The US Cup works on a simple knockout format played over seven rounds. The bottom two teams in each of the MLS Conferences enter this in the Third Round with the rest entering in the Fourth. Easy!
Add to this some fairly fun all-star and East against West games, and that's a MLS season.
Managing in America is tricky, not only do the fans want their team winning; they demand to see style and crave entertainment. Soccer, as it is affectionately known, is well and truly taking off in America and nothing has reflected this more than the rise of the USA national team.
In 2002 the USA reached the World Cup Quarter Final's, their best performance since the very first World Cup in 1930 where they reached the Semis (though numerous football historians have claimed that many of the 1930's USA squad were 'ringers' from other nations).
The Quarter Finals appearance in 2002 ended a spell of 72 years in which the only time USA had qualified past the First Round of a World Cup was when they reached the Second Round in 1994, the year they played host.
Already qualified for Germany 2006, the USA national team carried an air of confidence into the competition, having won the Gold Cup in both 2002 and 2005. But eventually finished bottom of their group without winning a game.
In terms of club football, the MLS is relatively young, formed in 1993 as part of an agreement with FIFA that allowed the World Cup to be staged in USA, Americans had to wait until 1996 before the first league season commenced.
Since it formation Washington based club, DC United have dominated the roll-of-honour having one the championship four times in it's first nine seasons, with no other club having won it twice.
Some of the more famous faces to have graced the MLS with their presence are German legend Lothar Matthaus; ex-Barcelona and European Football of The Year 1994 Hristo Stoitchkov; and the charismatic Scot Mo Johnston, who helped Kansas City Wizards (or Kan City Wiz as they were simply known at the time) to a MLS Cup win in 2000.
FM.net Career Challenge - Take Salt Lake City to MLS and Champions Cup glory.
Ones to Watch...
As with all national leagues MLS is made up of mostly homegrown talent. However, foreigners do come to play here for a number of different reasons. Firstly there are the young starlets from countries surrounding the USA such as Canada, Jamaica, Guatemala and the Caribbean. These players are spotted and quickly snapped up by MLS teams to compete in a league rapidly growing in standard and competitiveness. This means it's always worth scouting around your neighbouring nations for the next big thing.
Next up, there are the European veteran players; they come across to the states with the promise of first team football, hero status and, depending on where they decide to play of course, a great climate. Older players from anywhere in the world may be opt in a move to the USA ahead of dropping down a division within their own country so it's worth keeping tabs on some old-war-horses.
Of course any player is worth bidding for but these are, and in the past have been, the two real sources of foreign influx into MLS. Add to this trying to find the next young star American star to follow in the footsteps of Cobi Jones, Tim Howard or Kasey Keller and you have a very vibrant transfer market, here's a few ideas to start.
THE BEST MLS PLAYERS
Taylor Twellman (New England)
Landon Donovan (Los Angeles)
Robert Scarlett (Salt Lake)
Freddy Adu (DC United)
HOME-GROWN
Tim Ward (MetroStars)
Eddie Gaven (MetroStars)
Ricardo Clark (Colorado)
Chad Barrett (Chicago)
EUROPEAN VETERANS
Frank De Boer (Al Rayyan)
Enrico Chiesa (Siena)
Iulian Filipescu (Zurich)
Paolo Cannavaro (Parma)
CENTRAL AMERICAN STARLETS
Emile Lopez (Chivas - Guadalajara)
Francisco Guillermo Ochoa (Club de Futbol America)
Juan Ramos (Tauro)
Jorge Quiros (Saprissa)
The League...
MLS, contested between April and October, consists of twelve teams divided into two conferences The Eastern and Western; surprisingly... each conference contains six teams - surprisingly...
Teams in the Eastern conference then play each other four times in the league phase of the season (20 games, two home, two away), and they also play each team in the Western Conference twice (12 games, once home, once away). If that sounds complicated there's a screenshot below, which will hopefully help!
As the screenshot indicates, the top four teams in each Conference progress to the Conference Semi Finals. This effectively means it takes 192 games to eliminate the first four teams, and we thought the old first group stage of The Champions League was a waste of games.
From here it's all fairly simple, each Conference competes its two-legged Semi Final's before the one-legged Conference Final, and then finally, you've guessed it, The National Final to decide the MLS Cup Champions.
The Finalists of The MLS Final will be entered for the Champions Cup, in which they compete in an eight teamed knockout tournament against teams from Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama and Belize. All round of this are competed over two legs between March and May.
The US Cup works on a simple knockout format played over seven rounds. The bottom two teams in each of the MLS Conferences enter this in the Third Round with the rest entering in the Fourth. Easy!
Add to this some fairly fun all-star and East against West games, and that's a MLS season.
Sports Interactive Ltd 2006 Commercial reproduction, distribution or transmission of any part or parts of this website or any information contained therein by any means whatsoever without the prior written permission of SI is not permitted. Championship ManagerŪ is the registered trade mark of Eidos Interactive Limited.