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29
Fri, Mar

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It's been a very interesting week for MLS. Everyone continues to push and prepare for the play-offs as the end of the regular season edges ever closer. DC United added another Open Cup to what is already the best-decorated trophy cabinet in the league.
Yet, despite all of this, the week will be remembered for the disappointments of MLS not being represented in the group stages of the inaugural Concacaf Champions League. Chivas USA drew at home with the Panamanian outfit Tauro FC 1-1, losing 3-1 on aggregate. But the real headlines were written in New England with the Revs going down 4-0 at home to one of the Trinidad and Tobago representatives, Joe Public FC.

In a game that held special interest for me I really wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't seen Joe Public play for some time, and being in Europe last week, could only read the reports of their first-leg win in T&T.

I sat in utter disbelief from the first minute to the last as Joe Public stamped their authority on the game in a manner I don't think anyone could've reasonably expected. Joe Public were as well organised as I've seen any team from the Caribbean, and more attack-minded than anyone would've anticipated. Simply - Joe Public were the better team, a whole lot better.

The Joe Public head coach, Keith Griffith, was encouraged by Steve Nicol's interview at the end of the first leg. After the game in which New England were defeated 2-1 but grabbed that all important away-goal, Nicol said his team were tired, they had been playing too many games and traveling far too much. Griffith decided right there and then to attack the Revs from the opening whistle in the second leg. It worked a treat. Joe Public were one up in the 17th minute. Two up on the stroke of half-time. The game was well and truly over as a contest three minutes after the break. New England's humiliation and Gregory Richardson's hat-trick were complete nine minutes from time.

A couple of weeks ago I spoke of players trying to find something positive to build on when the chips were down - the New England players, staff and faithful will be trying to do exactly that this week. They'll rightly point to the fact that the Revs have been slipping desperately of late as the squad has been decimated by injuries. All four of their first-choice strikers were out against Joe Public, and it showed. The absence of Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston and centre-half Michael Parkhurst especially hurt. Regardless, this result and performance has highlighted all the negatives we have been harping on about over the last few months. Given the differences in history and size but similarity of function of the TT Pro League and MLS, the critics will have a field day with this one.

The TT Pro League is seven years old compared to the 13 years of MLS. There are only 10 teams (Joe Public currently lie in sixth place) to MLS's 14. They play a strict league table format in T&T. The biggest discrepancy, however, comes in the salaries: there's no need for a salary cap there. The 20 or so full-time professionals at Joe Public, added together, earn in the region of $200,000, 10% of the much-maligned MLS salary cap.

Bearing in mind that Joe Public were up against the twice beaten finalists and Super Liga holders, this shouldn't have happened. Even as I look around the pitch at the individual match-ups I am left a little bewildered. I only say 'a little' as I know most of the Joe Public players and how good they can be.

Bewildered nonetheless given that 35-year-old Arnold Dwarika dominated Shalrie Joseph in midfield when only Houston's Dwayne DeRosario has even come close to matching him this season. Kerry Baptiste had a field day in both legs up against New England left-back Chris Tierney. Given New England's lack of firepower it's hardly surprising that the Joe Public back four were hardly troubled. At the same time, though, New England's makeshift central defensive pairing, Amaechi Igwe and Gabriel Badilla, showed a horrendous mix of naivety and incompetence against the pace and finishing of Richardson. Khano Smith tried a few long-range efforts, Jay Heaps got sent off, Matt Reiss, who I remain a big fan of, had a day to forget. Nobody else even bothered to show up for the Revs.

It was a game that did a lot for Trinidad and Tobago football, and at the same time said a lot about MLS.

Still, both leagues were formed with the same purpose of preparing footballers for the international stage. With two World Cup qualifiers being played over the next six days (indeed the US and T&T meet next Wednesday), a lot may be forgotten by this time next week.

Regardless of the international results, the non-qualification of any MLS team for the Concacaf Champions League group stages should have alarm bells ringing through the halls of MLS headquarters in New York. Surely it is time to rethink and to restructure much of the league: from the salary cap to the fixture congestion suffered by the league's more successful teams, the splitting into zones or conferences, and the league not breaking for internationals. Sustainability remains the priority, expansion is inevitable and welcome, but neither should compromise the overall success of the league. Success is won on the pitch after all.