夜一

原谅我过了好几天忽然来转这篇……

诚心感谢loft主 @夏日玫瑰 GN(*^__^*) ……主要是我一开始没有细看NASL的老大Peterson支持克林西的那篇文字的链接，结果今天看其他报道，起了兴致，于是——

“I love the guy and I support what he is doing,” Peterson tells EOS.  “I think ultimately, he will be successful.”

← ← 头两段只是普通的情况介绍，还没有什么，结果第三段就是这句。

我就不翻译了，这哥们对克林西的信心真的远远超出我的想象。

然后是引用克林西的话，大致意思看起来是他对升降级系统深信不疑，倒不是说一定要MSL是第一级而NASL是第二级什么的，只是希望有个系统能让年轻球员甚至所有球员知道还有更高水平的级别和更低水平的级别。

至于这句：

Both men have a relationship that spans nearly two decades. With that comes a deeper understanding of Klinsmann’s plan for American soccer — one Peterson believes can  take the country to the next level.

说这两只有着时间跨度近二十年的关系……克林西好朋友真多。。。。二十年之前，还是94年吧。。。。

不过其实我觉得这篇文里最值得保存的是下面这段话：

“If you sit down with him and talk to him about what is his plan, he isn’t just talking about getting eleven guys in the right position in the field,” Peterson explains.  “He is talking about how do we educate parents in youth soccer? How do we get more coaches qualified at a higher level? How do we help kids make a decision between going to college and going pro? How do we then get those pros to become as highly competitive as possible? Where are the best places for them to hone their skills and to be good?

说如果你坐下跟克林西讨论他的计划，他不是跟你讨论怎么把11个人安放在球场上正确的位置，而是讨论我们在青少年足球中怎么教育他们的父母，怎么帮助孩子们做决定是上大学还是直接当职业球员，怎么尽可能地让职业球员尽可能地更具竞争力，哪里是最好的锻炼技术的地方等等的。

【↑这思考范围真够广的，服】

以下po全文了，=3=~~~

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EOS sat down with NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson to discuss a variety of different topics across the American soccer landscape. In this first of a three-part series, Peterson discusses his relationship with U.S. Men’s National Team Head Coach and Technical Director, Jurgen Klinsmann.

Just a few weeks ago, American soccer fans were offered a peek into the icy relationship between MLS Commissioner Don Garber and U.S. Men’s National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann.  Through their public discourse, the at-odds leadership of America’s two strongest soccer bodies revealed a clash in ideas and vision.

One tier below the American top flight, those differences in opinion do not exist.  While Garber repeatedly insisted on Klinsmann “getting on board” with both Major League Soccer and the USSF’s “vision” for the future, NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson already finds himself in line with what Klinsmann hopes to achieve.

“I love the guy and I support what he is doing,” Peterson tells EOS.  “I think ultimately, he will be successful.”

That may not be a surprise to anyone who has followed Klinsmann’s message.  The German coach broke with years of tradition, calling up a D2 player in Minnesota United playmaker Miguel Ibarra to the national team just last month.  When questioned about the USSF soccer pyramid, Klinsmann openly aired his support for a promotion/relegation system while expressing hesitance in naming a first division outright.

“I’m a deep believer in a promotion-relegation system,” Klinsmann said prior to the USMNT’s encounter against Ecuador last month. “It’s not up to me to say there should be MLS and the second division should be NASL, and there should be promotion-relegation. I just wish that we had a system in place where all the young players and all the players in general know that there’s a next higher level and there’s a lower level.”

All of that plays nicely into the message Peterson and his cohorts have touted for the better part of two years.  While never saying outright that the NASL sought first division status, Peterson dances around the topic, instead questioning the need for divisions within a static system — a message Klinsmann clearly echoes.

But Peterson’s support of Klinsmann goes much further than simply an ideological understanding of the U.S. soccer pyramid.  Both men have a relationship that spans nearly two decades.  With that comes a deeper understanding of Klinsmann’s plan for American soccer — one Peterson believes can  take the country to the next level.

“If you sit down with him and talk to him about what is his plan, he isn’t just talking about getting eleven guys in the right position in the field,” Peterson explains.  “He is talking about how do we educate parents in youth soccer? How do we get more coaches qualified at a higher level? How do we help kids make a decision between going to college and going pro? How do we then get those pros to become as highly competitive as possible? Where are the best places for them to hone their skills and to be good?

“We have to get beyond being happy that we participated in the World Cup,” Peterson continues.  “We have been doing this a long time! It’s time to sort of take an American stance — how do we win the World Cup?  I am not putting words in his mouth, but I think if you ask Jurgen, he is trying to win the World Cup. Everybody in the sport needs to double down on the work and sacrifice in order to do that.

“It’s a big undertaking and I believe he will make a real run at it.”

The way Peterson sees it, the American soccer community as a whole has contributed to the sport’s growth over the past twenty years, and a similar, unified effort needs to be made to bring the U.S. to the next level of international prominence.

“[Alexi] Lalas and Tab [Ramos] and Eric Wynalda and [Landon] Donovan and all of those guys,[Bruce] Arena and [Steve] Sampson and [Bob] Bradley — they all helped build this to what it is today,” he said.  “Now it is time for the next step

“How do we win? In order to win, everybody involved, youth players, youth coaches, national team, U.S. Soccer, MLS, NASL — everybody has to figure out how to contribute to this. The biggest thing that can happen to professional soccer in this country is to win the World Cup. We see how energized the fans get and younger players get when a team makes it out the group stage. Imagine if we can get the whole way?

“We should be competing for the win and Jurgen is a guy I believe can get that done.”

How to get the perpetually feuding arms of American soccer’s pyramid on message remains the biggest obstacle to that goal.  For now, Peterson is content continuing the growth of his league and offering talented options for Klinsmann and the National Team to mull over.

“The point he made, and he made it very clearly, is ‘I am looking for the best players.’ Wherever those players come from, that is where I am going to look,” Peterson said.  “He is a guy that will turn every stone over to find a guy that can help him win a World Cup.

“We believe we have great players. We had 16 other players play for national teams this year. When they called and said they would take Miguel we said great! He is a great person and player. He is a kid that will put that work in and we are very proud of him. It was a proud moment for the league, but again we had 16 other guys go as well and he won’t be the last.

“[Ibarra] has now shown this league is a quality league for players and if you can prove yourself, those guys will find you and call you up.”

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夏日玫瑰:

看完发现美国职业体育联赛都在搞社会主义大锅饭。=_= 成绩最差的队伍不但没惩罚还有首轮选秀权噢。赚的钱所有联赛队伍大家一起平分噢。但是MSL不像欧洲联赛没有死忠粉，球队真被降级了就没人看。没人看电视转播权就滞销，电视转播权滞销了就没法吸引到投资。纽约这边洋基队刚砸了重金要带一只球队起来，你和大老板们说你们新球队如果成绩垫底就要被扫地出门……估计只可能被糊一脸的吧。

但另一方面，NASL（大概相当于乙级联赛）的老大Bill Peterson站出来旗帜鲜明地挺主帅大人了。

宫斗即视感为什么如此强烈……

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Promotion, Relegation and Socialism: Why Pro/Rel Is a Bad Fit for MLS
by Dennis Doyle

Recently, United States Mens National Team manager Jurgen Klinsmann stirred the pot when he openly questioned the competitiveness of MLS.

Speaking to reporters in a press conference, Klinsmann highlighted the lack of a promotion-relegation system as contributing to the lesser competition:

"I'm a deep believer in (the) promotion-relegation system. So it's not up to me to say there should be MLS and the second division should be NASL, and there should be promotion-relegation. I just wish that we had a system in place where all the young players and all the players in general know that there's a next higher level and there's a lower level. If I play a bad season, then the lower level is waiting for me. If I play a very, very good season, then there's the chance to go up and play at one point whatever you describe then as the highest level."

Some critics, including Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News, defended the MLS and accused Klinsmann of "Eurosnobbery."

It's an ironic criticism considering MLS is modeled on the same principles as European socialism. 

American sports leagues—including MLS—employ the opposite of the pro/rel model: Instead of demoting the dregs, they are rewarded with high draft picks. And theresults are often perverse. The NBA wouldn't have a tanking problem if the Sixers had to spend the next season in the D-League.

Pro/rel leagues do not have such a safety net and are therefore more intensely competitive, especially at the bottom. Games between struggling sides have real consequences for the loser.

On the other side of the ledger, teams from the second division—a role most likely played by NASL if MLS adopted pro/rel—can dream about promotion into the big leagues.

Now, which system sounds more American?

Not only does it promote social welfare in the form of high draft picks for the poor, MLS—like the NFL, NBA and NHL—caps salaries and redistributes revenue equally among its 19 teams. Outside of the context of sports, these are principles that make conservative capitalists cringe.

But that's the way American leagues are constructed. The kill-or-be-killedpro/rel system is foreign to the socialist landscape of domestic sports.

The MLS is far too risk-averse for pro/rel. The NYCFC ownership group recently paid a $100 million franchise fee to join MLS. With the league still in its relative infancy, prospective owners would be deterred from making that kind of investment if relegation—and therefore exclusion from the revenue-sharing pool—were a real possibility.

Relegation also presents a risk for television partners who would fear losing a major market—say, New York of Los Angeles—to relegation, therefore driving down the price of MLS broadcast rights and stunting the economic growth of the league.

It makes sense for the MLS to limit risk as the league continues to grow during its incubatory phase. Risk inheres instability, and instability threatens the popularity and development of American soccer.

MLS doesn't have the diehard fan support of European countries, where fans will continue to support teams that have been relegated to lower divisions. As American soccer grows, there will be a reduced need for ensuring stability. Bigger clubs will be able to sustain support through a relegation period, and owners will be less risk-averse as the value of their sports properties increases. Pro/rel may be a foreign concept, but it will be suitable in a thriving MLS.

But now is not the time. Klinsmann may lament the lesser competition under the league's current structure, but right now the league needs growth and stability more than it needs the thrills and intensity of pro/rel.

Simply put, the MLS is not quite ready for the cutthroat capitalism of the European model.