I may not know a lot about US football, but I do know that in order to keep talent in the league, the salary wages need to change big time. I have seen the the Galaxy wages list the other day and just could not not stop laughing. Paying Donovan $ 900.000 is as rediculous as paying the average young player $ 100.00 or even less. No wonder talented kids go to Europe where they can earn a 10 TIMES!!!!! higher salary, or 5 TIMES higher wages, even if they are drafted to a club playing in the second Devision.

The wages that are paid in Argentina or Brazil are actually pretty good. Neves i.e. who decided to go with HSV this summer was even offered a higher wage in Brazil than in Germany.

As long as Beckhams earns 5.5 million a year while young players get close to nothing, problems regarding “talent drain” are gonna stay the same.

P.S. Please stop calling football “soccer”. You guys are making a fool out of yourself . If you get confused with American football, just go with “futbol” instead.

He completely and utterly disappears against top competition (hence his previous failure in European club play). If he's the best American player, I weep for American soccer.

As far as this article is concerned I happen to agree that the lack of marque of American players in MLS is a problem. Truthfully a big failure of the MLS was the lack of quality Americans besides Ricky Davis and Perry Van Der Beck. Sure the quality of Americans is improving but when guys like Hunter Freeman and Clarence Goodson feel they can make more money abroad, the league will always be seen as second tier and minor by American fans no matter how many Beckham and Blanco's sign.

Regarding the percentage of MLS players on national teams, the decline is simply an indication that American players are improving and gaining respect worldwide. This is a good development, not a negative. You may have noticed that all those great South American teams are composed of players who mostly play in Europe. That doesn't seem to have hurt their domestic leagues or their national squads. I think we would welcome the day our situation resembles Argentina's, not whine about it. Like most domestic leagues, MLS is never going to compete against European leagues for top players unless god comes down and miracles soccer into the most popular sport in America. Not holding my breath.

As far as MLS vs. USL: I suggest you use all available data for comparison rather than cherry-picking a couple of results from a single tournament. Since MLS was formed, the USL has won the US Open Cup once out of 12 or 13 years. And this is in a tournament that MLS squads rarely take seriously until the finals, while USL sides take it very seriously. Using that information, it's clear that while USL sides can sometimes achieve great results, MLS is much higher quality overall.

Would you use this same approach on English soccer in some year that a Championship squad wins the FA Cup? I doubt it. Like any sport, upsets are rare but they do happen.

In 2004, 2 Costa Rican teams made the final of the CONCACAF tourny. In 2005 their 1 entry in the main tourny made the final. In 2006 2 teams edged MLS teams by 1 goal each. In 2007 the Dynamo edged their 1 entrant (not Saprissa or Alajuense). In 2008 (the spring version), Saprissa made the final and knocked off a Mexican team. Their top 2-3 teams are very good. Historically MLS teams have gone their preseason and have not gotten results. Puerto Rico did well and got a draw there. That's still a sample size of 1.

MLS scouting isn't perfect and the cap limits MLS depth. I'd say take away the top 16 players on any MLS team and there's rarely anyone better than a good USL player. So what? USL has done some good things. But they've also left a trail of debts unpaid (Rochester, Virginia Beach). The PDL is great. Montreal, Portland, and others are building something special. But in the end, other than a scouting ground for MLS and local games for a few midsized US markets, USL doesn't offer that much reason to be paid attention. I've seen each team at least a couple times on FSC but USL is pretty far down my radar compared to UEFA Champions' League, the EPL, La Liga, MLS. Why? Because MLS has former, current, and future USMNT players. Neither MLS or USL are going to match the quality of a good handful of leagues out there. USL deserves respect in several areas but it's rightfully considered mostly irrelevant by anyone not living in a pro USL city.

Nobody sane would argue USL is better than MLS. But what can be argued and should be argued is that the MLS snob fans that act as if USL doesn't exist, which is most MLS fans I interact with are doing themselves and the game a diservice in this country. They are more fans of a league than the game. MLS teams traditionally have second rate scouting operations and I know of several players that ended up in USL because of this and also because of the salary cap in MLS. Thus USL has a lot more quality than a typical irrelevent second division.