Zlatan backs up his massive ego.

[patdog]

36 year old striker coming back from a major knee injury signs with LA Galaxy from Man United and takes out a full page ad in the LA Times that just says, Dear Los Angeles, you're welcome. Comes into his first game with 20 minutes left and does this.

Link

He was offside for the 2nd goal, but the 1st one was pretty freaking incredible.

 

[JungRebel]

36 year old striker coming back from a major knee injury signs with LA Galaxy from Man United and takes out a full page ad in the LA Times that just says, Dear Los Angeles, you're welcome. Comes into his first game with 20 minutes left and does this.

Link

He was offside for the 2nd goal, but the 1st one was pretty freaking incredible.

Looks like a Rocket League goal to me.

BTW if anyone wants to play Rocket League with a Diamond 2 player PM me

 

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

He scored 17 goals in 28 appearances in the Premier League last year before he was injured. If he comes back to 80% of what he was and he puts in the effort he'll score for fun in the MLS

 

[Faustdog]

Yeah, that guy has no business in mls right now.

 

[War Machine Dawg]

Or his arrival will help improve the league. That's what I'm hoping, at least. MLS has improved a lot, but obviously still has a long way to go. They've clearly put an emphasis on going away from the "retirement league" direction. Teams are going to either have to step up and stop Zlatan or he'll dominate.

 

[wtw2400]

Atlanta games are fun. I have enjoyed the few I have been to. The league is much better now than it was 20 years ago, but is it where it needs to be? Not fully. But I am still happy with where it is today. I yearn for the day the SEC adds Men's Soccer. That would be my #1 sport at State I would go to.

 

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

Or his arrival will help improve the league. That's what I'm hoping, at least. MLS has improved a lot, but obviously still has a long way to go. They've clearly put an emphasis on going away from the "retirement league" direction. Teams are going to either have to step up and stop Zlatan or he'll dominate.

His arrival will without a doubt improve the league as long as he doesn't treat it like Pirlo did at NYCFC. He still has no business being in the MLS

 

[Philly Dawg]

Pirlo struggled to affect games lacking the technical ability he was used to, AND he was several years older than Zlatan is now. I see no similarities at all between them. Zlatan will be more like Robbie Keane who was on the downward slope of his career but still had something left.

 

[johnson86-1]

He left Manchester United for Galaxy for a $1.5M contract? I would have thought that was chump change for a good professional soccer player.

 

[aTotal360]

Yeah. Pirlo wasn't even that electric of a player when he was in his prime. He was a grinder.

 

[FlotownDawg]

It’s a lot about attitude as well for these Star players coming in from Europe. Robbie Keane really embraced playing in MLS and had some great seasons for the Galaxy. Pirlo and Steven Gerrard never really did and their time in MLS was mostly forgettable.

 

[patdog]

He's 36-years old and coming off a knee injury that's kept him out for a year. Man U has a young star striker in Lukaku, so he wasn't going to be a consistent starter there. At this point in his career, his options were a mid-to-low table club in one of the top leagues or MLS or China.

 

[aTotal360]

I was shocked at the small contract myself, but being in LA will help grow his brand in a new market. I'm sure that will help him recoup some of the money he would have made playing in a mid tier Euro team.

 

[mcdawg22]

I was shocked at the small contract myself, but being in LA will help grow his brand in a new market. I'm sure that will help him recoup some of the money he would have made playing in a mid tier Euro team.

Yeah, his attitude, plus LA marketing. His endorsements will substantial.
A few of his highlights.
http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog/the...-best-quotes-as-manchester-united-release-him

 

[DudyDawg]

Yeah. Pirlo wasn't even that electric of a player when he was in his prime. He was a grinder.

Lol. A grinder??? He is one of the best players in history with a ball at his feet. Could put a ball in the pin of a needle from 60 yards. If you’re looking for a grinder during his prime years, it was his midfield partner Gattuso.

 

[esplanade91]

Atlanta games are fun. I have enjoyed the few I have been to. The league is much better now than it was 20 years ago, but is it where it needs to be? Not fully. But I am still happy with where it is today. I yearn for the day the SEC adds Men's Soccer. That would be my #1 sport at State I would go to.

I pray to God that the SEC never supports men's soccer because I hope we become smart enough to abolish college soccer as an entity. We HAVE to start identifying kids earlier via an academy system and letting them go pro as early as 16, whether that's MLS or overseas.

Soccer will continue to be a joke in the US, where a 36 year old with one leg can come in and blow up the stats sheet in his first game (making a paltry $1.5mm/yr by the way), until we start aspiring to have Americans in top leagues.

 

[esplanade91]

The Galaxy already have 2 designated players, so $1.5mm is a max contract. There are rumors that Herbalife and some other LA Galaxy sponsors sweetened the pot on the backend, though. Illegal but I doubt MLS will look into it. They shouldn't.

 

[aTotal360]

Pirlo had 74 goals over his 22 year career (including national play). Zlatan has had that many over 4 year stretches in his career. They are 2 totally different player. Pirlo was fantastic attacking midfielder, but it's crazy to compare him to Ibrahimovic.

 

[DudyDawg]

Pirlo had 74 goals over his 22 year career (including national play). Zlatan has had that many over 4 year stretches in his career. They are 2 totally different player. Pirlo was fantastic attacking midfielder, but it's crazy to compare him to Ibrahimovic.

Pirlo was a deep lying playmaker. It wasn’t his job to score. But he was one of the best passers ever. He was far from a grinder.

 

[Philly Dawg]

Pirlo is the opposite of a grinder. A grinder in the midfield would find things easier going in MLS than a guy like Pirlo. What I was suggesting was that he needed more technically proficient teammates who could anticipate and handle his passes. It didn’t help that he played his home games on a tiny pitch in Yankee Stadium.

 

[coachnorm]

I pray to God that the SEC never supports men's soccer because I hope we become smart enough to abolish college soccer as an entity. We HAVE to start identifying kids earlier via an academy system and letting them go pro as early as 16, whether that's MLS or overseas.

Soccer will continue to be a joke in the US, where a 36 year old with one leg can come in and blow up the stats sheet in his first game (making a paltry $1.5mm/yr by the way), until we start aspiring to have Americans in top leagues.

Soccer as we know it is not college driven, it is academy driven. Teams like Manchester United seek talent worldwide and incorporate it into their academies. The prospects are educated, housed, fed, and athletically developed. Look at Marcus Rashford for example. He played a game for ManU at 18 and got well paid. I watched a Premier League Game last weekend and saw a 17 year old rostered and paid. For your information, Manchester City has established an academy in the New York area as well as pumping money into FCNY. FYI the Manchester City Owner is of royal blood of Dubai or some other country forgot because I get confused between PSG and Manchester City. Both individual owners are singularly wealthier than all NFL Owners combined? International money is headed to America and soccer will follow their blueprint for success, college not in their focus. BTW, Atlanta United split the soccer atom in the Southeast, and Zlatan just blew up Los Angeles.

 

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

I pray to God that the SEC never supports men's soccer because I hope we become smart enough to abolish college soccer as an entity. We HAVE to start identifying kids earlier via an academy system and letting them go pro as early as 16, whether that's MLS or overseas.

Agree

Soccer will continue to be a joke in the US, where a 36 year old with one leg can come in and blow up the stats sheet in his first game (making a paltry $1.5mm/yr by the way), until we start aspiring to have Americans in top leagues.

In the MLS’s defense, both of his goals were world class. No goalie on the planet would have stopped the first one. The second one he flat out beat the keeper to the ball and put it where no one could get it. Not many people can beat a keeper’s hands to the ball using his head, Zlatan can.

 

[esplanade91]

Soccer as we know it is not college driven, it is academy driven. Teams like Manchester United seek talent worldwide and incorporate it into their academies. The prospects are educated, housed, fed, and athletically developed. Look at Marcus Rashford for example. He played a game for ManU at 18 and got well paid. I watched a Premier League Game last weekend and saw a 17 year old rostered and paid. For your information, Manchester City has established an academy in the New York area as well as pumping money into FCNY. FYI the Manchester City Owner is of royal blood of Dubai or some other country forgot because I get confused between PSG and Manchester City. Both individual owners are singularly wealthier than all NFL Owners combined? International money is headed to America and soccer will follow their blueprint for success, college not in their focus. BTW, Atlanta United split the soccer atom in the Southeast, and Zlatan just blew up Los Angeles.

It is 100% driven in the United States. Almost the entire generation being phased out of the USMNT are former student-athletes, with Donovan being the most notable exception. I don't think that's a coincidence and I don't think that the fact that all our up-and-coming stars all circumvented college to go turn pro at 16 or 17 instead of going to Akron or UMass.

Man City has little to do with NYCFC, and even so, MLS academies are spotty at best, only serve urban areas for boys who at 12 (youngest admitted) have probably missed their window in becoming a European-level player, and serve to prop up a dead-on-arrival product at MLS. NYCFC, actually, ranks dead last in the academies... 18 spots behind the other NY based team that in practice also does not have any real affiliation with a European counterpart (I guess we could technically say RB Leipzig is an affiliate? still not accurate).

U.S. Soccer, like the NBA, needs to come out with a scorched earth mentality, disavow the NCAA, and pony up capital investments to establish non-affiliated youth soccer academies ala IMG Academy across the United States. If you're a youth in San Antonio, your options are a 4 hour drive in either direction. TEXAS! We should have like 20 pro's overseas from Texas alone!

Hand-in-hand with getting rid of college soccer, though, is breaking this strange-hold fans have on American products playing in America. It should be a point of pride that a top flight club, even their 2nd team, wants to bring in an American teenager. Only in America is that met with disapproval. To steal Geoff Cameron's talking point, do you think Brazilians were mad that Barcelona bought Neymar from Santos? We're headed in a good direction but MLS's current business model is helping to hold us back. When we move the schedule to align with the rest of the world's, allow pro/rel, get rid of silly salary caps, and stop trying to fight European clubs for U.S. citizens despite their best interests, we might eventually have a shot at a WC title.

EDIT: Zlatan is awesome.

 

[coachnorm]

It is 100% driven in the United States. Almost the entire generation being phased out of the USMNT are former student-athletes, with Donovan being the most notable exception. I don't think that's a coincidence and I don't think that the fact that all our up-and-coming stars all circumvented college to go turn pro at 16 or 17 instead of going to Akron or UMass.

Man City has little to do with NYCFC, and even so, MLS academies are spotty at best, only serve urban areas for boys who at 12 (youngest admitted) have probably missed their window in becoming a European-level player, and serve to prop up a dead-on-arrival product at MLS. NYCFC, actually, ranks dead last in the academies... 18 spots behind the other NY based team that in practice also does not have any real affiliation with a European counterpart (I guess we could technically say RB Leipzig is an affiliate? still not accurate).

U.S. Soccer, like the NBA, needs to come out with a scorched earth mentality, disavow the NCAA, and pony up capital investments to establish non-affiliated youth soccer academies ala IMG Academy across the United States. If you're a youth in San Antonio, your options are a 4 hour drive in either direction. TEXAS! We should have like 20 pro's overseas from Texas alone!

Hand-in-hand with getting rid of college soccer, though, is breaking this strange-hold fans have on American products playing in America. It should be a point of pride that a top flight club, even their 2nd team, wants to bring in an American teenager. Only in America is that met with disapproval. To steal Geoff Cameron's talking point, do you think Brazilians were mad that Barcelona bought Neymar from Santos? We're headed in a good direction but MLS's current business model is helping to hold us back. When we move the schedule to align with the rest of the world's, allow pro/rel, get rid of silly salary caps, and stop trying to fight European clubs for U.S. citizens despite their best interests, we might eventually have a shot at a WC title.

EDIT: Zlatan is awesome.

It is great reading your input and I'm on board with most of it. I would like to emphasize international money into the equation. Wealthy spoiled brats like Sheikh Mansour, the Deputy Prime Minister and in line to replace his father as dictator of UAE owns Manchester City and affiliates which include NYCFC. Mansour has unofficially declared $30 Billion worth, but official international money experts declare his net worth undetermined because he really has some access to over a Trillion Dollars because he is in line to the "THRONE"? I am using this as an example to emphasize big money in soccer that I believe is coming to America. BTW, Los Angeles is buzzing Zlatan and has totally forgotten the Dodgers and Angels?