The Whitecaps are having the best season of their short Major League Soccer (MLS) existence. They’ve won the Amway Canadian Championship, and at publication time are one point back of being the top team in the MLS. All of this without a big name star from Europe.
The MLS has long been dependent on star players from Europe to boost ticket sales and to help market the league. This all started in 2007 when David Beckham transferred from Real Madrid to the LA Galaxy. This immediately launched the MLS into the public consciousness. I hadn’t even known what the MLS was until I found out Beckham was coming over. Not only was he a success financially, he was a success on the pitch as well. The team won the MLS Cup three times with him, and finished top of the league twice. The Galaxy have continued with this trend, signing Giovanni dos Santos and Steven Gerrard this past summer.
“There is still much to be decided in MLS, but the Whitecaps have found success this season with no high priced talent.”
Of course, having a big star from Europe doesn’t guarantee success. Last year Toronto spent lavishly on players such as Jermaine Defoe and Michael Bradley, and still finished far out of a playoff spot. Whitecaps fans are probably never going to see a big signing like this for the franchise, for a couple of reasons. The ownership group doesn’t have the kind of money to spend on high salaries, and the artificial surface at BC Place is a deterrent for almost all European trained players, so much so that Thierry Henry refused to play on it when he was with the New York Red Bulls.
The Whitecaps have achieved success this year without a David Beckham. Under the designated player rule in MLS, teams can sign a player for any salary and not have it count against the salary cap. The ‘Caps have three of them, the maximum allowed under the rule. The highest paid one of them is Pedro Morales, whose $1,410,900 salary is close to six million dollars less than what Kaka of Orlando City makes. Octavio Rivero and Matias Laba both make less than a million. The Whitecaps have found success by buying players from South America and outcasts from the major European leagues such as Morales.
The team’s defence and goaltending has been terrific this year, and not one of their players is designated. Kendall Waston is one of the best centre backs in the league, completely dominant in the air. And David Ousted could very well be named the best goalkeeper in the league at the end of the season.
There is still much to be decided in MLS, but the Whitecaps have found success this season with no high priced talent. Recent MLS championships have been been dominated by LA, winning three of the last four with the likes of Beckham and Robbie Keane. It remains to be seen if this run of success for the Whitecaps can be maintained without the big name players.
