FM08 MLS thread

massive apologies if one already exists, i looked and searched for one and couldn't see it. i've started one for the craic but i'm struggling with some of the logistics, so i thought i'd start a help/discussion thread.

i've gone houston, signed mika aaritalo and its hit me with a salary cap so i've only got a small squad, drafted two players in who are ineligible, i understand its my own ignorance but can anyone tell me what the rule is with this? cheers.

massive apologies if one already exists, i looked and searched for one and couldn't see it. i've started one for the craic but i'm struggling with some of the logistics, so i thought i'd start a help/discussion thread.

i've gone houston, signed mika aaritalo and its hit me with a salary cap so i've only got a small squad, drafted two players in who are ineligible, i understand its my own ignorance but can anyone tell me what the rule is with this? cheers.

Glad to see a thread for this as MLS is one of my favourite leagues to manage in FM08.

Since you don't understand a lot of how it works I tracked down last year's MLS thread which has a lot of explanations as to how drafting, etc works. I'd recommend reading everything there as it will seriously help you out. To the best of my knowledge none of what's written there has changed, although there are a couple new things for this season:

* Inclusion of Toronto FC - Interestingly listed as a Canadian team playing in MLS. This means that all Americans (without a Canadian passport) are listed as either Senior or Youth internationals...making it an extra challenge I must say...considering the ratio of good American prospects to good Canadian prospects surely places the favour with the American sides. Haven't tried managing as them yet but I may yet give it a go.

* The Designated Player rule - this has been implemented but not quite in the same way it works in RL. For a start, the wages seem more reasonably controlled (in contrast to how much Beckham is earning for instance) and varies from team to team, and you cannot trade away your right to have a DP in your team as in RL. This is why New York Red Bulls in reality have two Designated Players (Claudio Reyna and Juan Pablo Angel) as they traded with Chivas USA, who got a player out of it in exchange for the slot.

The Designated Player has replaced the 'indispensable' option when offering a contract. The wage difference in 'important first team player' and 'designated player' has, from what I've seen, been quite hefty, at least it was at Houston Dynamo. I was able to offer as much as £30,000 a week to a player as my DP whereas the highest I could offer to an important first team member was only around £7,000.

*Remember* to be careful when you choose your DP. True, getting rid of a player is easy in MLS. Just waive them and you're done (I do notice that the 'bug' of a player never leaving your team if you waive him and several teams come in for him hasn't been fixed) but with careful choosing, you could get someone quite spectacular in your team (ala Beckham or Angel) who will raise the overall standard of your squad.

*Other things of note about the MLS*

* Something that seems to happen an awful lot in MLS is that when a player's contract expires he will either sit there for many months on a rolling contract, be traded away or be released. Managing outside of the MLS, this is excellent (if you're running the MLS in your game) as many excellent freebies come up. Landon Donovan was released on a free at the end of his LA contract in my game and I came close to getting him for my Aberdeen side only for Barcelona to swoop at the last minute.

What I have found is that when a player's contract expires and he isn't interested in signing a new one it is much easier to trade these players into your team. And once they arrive they're more amenable to signing a new contract. This method worked for me signing Eddie Johnson at least.

* Keeping your squad down to the right numbers is quite the challenge, especially since unless you manually do the maths (which I've tried and gotten wrong in the past) you don't always know how many SIs (senior internationals), YIs (youth internationals), players on senior contracts and players on developmental contracts you have until a couple weeks before the final squad lists need to be submitted. This means that you can go on a signing spree in the close season, have the absolutely perfect team put together, then you find out that you can't register half of them. You're then pretty much stuck with them as you can't 'offer player to clubs' in the MLS and chances are, the other clubs in MLS will be in a similar situation and won't want to take the young Colombian starlet you signed for $2m and now can't play.

I generally try to keep a 'reasonable' number of players around until the first two drafts (Superdraft and Supplemental) are over, then send out players on loan who aren't going to play but have a future, waive/trade those who don't, and most importantly try to get as many good young Americans (ideally those on Rising Star contracts) as I can in my team. This way you're less likely to have half a squad you can't register. Also keeping the numbers down means that when the waivers draft comes along you can quite often pick up some real gems for nothing, whereas if you've already filled your alloted number of senior players you can't sign anyone from the waivers draft who will be unwilling to sign a developmental contract. It's very much a system of cheques and balances in MLS, but it's very rewarding when you get it right.

* Finally I'd like to stress the importance of developmental contracts. If, once your squad is together pretty nicely and you have some leftover YI slots, I'd go looking at the unattached players in the player search and see who is willing to come to you on a developmental contract. This is another way of boosting your squad without going over your squad limits.

Whew! Long post, but I hope that helps you and anyone else who wants to try the MLS. Like I said it's one of my favourite leagues in FM because of how different it is, and can prove to be a nice change to the European big leagues.

Good luck!

im about to do this aswell, have gone with la not just because of beckham but because i know like 2 players.

perfect timing.

im currently in the process of starting as a mls team, but just thinking of which one to choose.

also need a guide to the basic rules.

thanks alwo.

I started as the galaxy a few months ago, Beckham is great in the middle, and donovan scores for fun. Defence is abit fragile though. Also managed to get clint mathis in a trade who is proving to be a great signing.

I'm playing as TFC and am looking to bring in a new striker, and some midfield players. I'm not totally sure what is available from within the MLS, and would welcome suggestions. Also, has anybody signed any half decent players from Europe? I'm currently trolling around League 1 in England to pick up some more experienced players, but few want to move to Canada.

Just finished 3 seasons with the Red Bulls, but could never work this out. What is a discovery player? I was never able to offer anyone this contract. Have even checked offical MLS web page.

I found it best to get rid of all the high earners and bring in good young players as the wage cap was the hardest part, Which went down every year. I dont know if this was my board being tight or the league rules as we started to dominate.

Find of the season Cicero £500k, second season from Fluminese.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mark Robbie:

Just finished 3 seasons with the Red Bulls, but could never work this out. What is a discovery player? I was never able to offer anyone this contract. Have even checked offical MLS web page.

I found it best to get rid of all the high earners and bring in good young players as the wage cap was the hardest part, Which went down every year. I dont know if this was my board being tight or the league rules as we started to dominate.

Find of the season Cicero £500k, second season from Fluminese. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The discovery rule isn't in effect in FM if I remember rightly. I don't even know what it is myself.

And...as far as I was aware, the wage cap is supposed to go UP periodically to reflect the fact that it does this in RL. This could be a bug.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I'm playing as TFC and am looking to bring in a new striker, and some midfield players. I'm not totally sure what is available from within the MLS, and would welcome suggestions. Also, has anybody signed any half decent players from Europe? I'm currently trolling around League 1 in England to pick up some more experienced players, but few want to move to Canada. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

There are a few decent strikers in MLS available. If you've ran other CONCACAF nations check out the Guatemalan national team for a guy called José Manuel Mendoza, who was immense in FM07. I'm not sure if he'll be in the game if you haven't loaded the players from Guatemala though.

At Toronto though you should have Jeff Cunningham, who is a good goalscorer. Danny Dichio is also the best striker in the squad if I remember rightly from the squad report.

From within the MLS however, Brian Ching is a solid goalscorer also, and you might be able to pick up Eddie Johnson if you offer the world to whichever side he's at. Jozy Altidore is another great prospect. You should also have a young Canadian guy in your reserves (don't recall his name) and he turns out to be pretty good.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by oldmanken:

I'm playing as TFC and am looking to bring in a new striker, and some midfield players. I'm not totally sure what is available from within the MLS, and would welcome suggestions. Also, has anybody signed any half decent players from Europe? I'm currently trolling around League 1 in England to pick up some more experienced players, but few want to move to Canada. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I got clint mathis in a trade at the start of the 1st seasons and he is working out very nicely for me.

I got Clint Mathis but I have yet to get him scoring.

Beckerman and Atiba Harris are great players in thsi game. Both a winning tackles and scoring goals.

Just started a game with Toronto FC any tips?

I have been playing MLS for 3 seasons with Toronto FC. I found that when the 3rd season started, the number of international players allowed on my team dropped from 10 to 8. Unfortunately, I had to drop some good players. I also don't have any feeder clubs to send my players to.

In response to others, I bought Cicero, too. He was awesome for the 15 games that I had him. I think that I paid like 300k and had him on 115k/year salary. Unfortunately, Marseille came knocking and I cashed in(3.5 mil + 25% next sale). I enjoy finding players for like 50k and not paying any of them more than 20k/year.

Some of my better purchases (w/ medium database):

Dalvan, Fredys Arrieta (both strikers, scoring 15 goals in 23 games)

Torres (DC, u20 Columbia). He is my only decent defender.

not so greats:

Mauricio (BRA), Fabinho (BRA), C. Hinestroza (COL). Mostly, they are casualties of the maximum number of foreigners allowed.

It is really tough finding non-senior international Canadian players. Here are some of my better players (many of which are already on the team):

Miguel Canizalez(AML) -- he has been player of the week many times

Mirnes Biscevic(MC)

David Guzman

S. Lumley(DRC)

C. Nunez (DMC)

I enjoy talking about the difficulties managing FM08 in the MLS, but there aren't too many others who have to deal with it.

Adam Braz

how do you sign a player to a DP slot? or is it like automatic or something?

The reason that Toronto have their International players dropped from 10 to 8 is because when Toronto and 1 other team came into the league they were allowed 10 international players for 5 years to get them started i think and then it goes down to what other teams have. I think that is why but dont quote me on that.

I'm just about to start a game in the MLS with DC United. Has anyone managed them on 08 yet? I did on 07 but this will be the 1st time on this game.

Im going to load all players from the CONCACAF nations to help with the amount of players avalible, can anyone recomend any signings from abroad or more importantly from the US, im going to look to bring in young players like Altidore.

Just starting my first game with Columbus Crew, my hometown team (literally, I live less than a quarter of a mile from Crew Stadium).

Anyway, I've played the FM games for years but could never see the sense in playing an MLS game because it seems like anywhere from half to two-thirds of the players brought into the league each year come from the collegiate ranks, and it's impossible to have such players in the database.

For example, guys like Xavier Balc, Marcus Tracy, Andy Iro, Patrick Nyarko, and Julius James to name but a few, should all feature in the draft next month if MLS signs them, and they could be key players for their teams. But there's no way for FM to represent that. I'll just have to wait for WWSM09.

The folks at SI are to be applauded IMO for coming as close to accurately mirroring MLS' peculiarities as possible. But the fact is, I don't want to run a game for a season and come to the combine next January and find all I can get is regens. I'd be ok with it if I was in, say, 2012, on my game, but to have regens with eye-popping attributes on my game 'next season' (i.e. 2008) just seems like a waste of time.

Having said all that, I am going to go ahead with this season anyway, I've already signed FM08 favorite Winston Parks (who oughta be an IRL target for MLS) and the Brazilian Ramalho, who starts the game unattached and is an absolute must. You have to see this guy. I'm also interested in Guatemala's striker Costly, who ironically is available for peanuts from Polish club Belchatow.

I've loaded 13 leagues from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Uruguay, and the USA. I've also loaded all players from Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Jamaica, Venezuela, DR Congo, Ghana, and Honduras. I can't recommend Honduras enough. Tons and tons of good players there. Trouble is, a lot of them will cost you serious money.

Also, to STDAVIO, it's always refreshing to see a real pro getting into the game, so I'm gonna swing a deal with MoJo to bring you to the Crew. I'll appoint you captain and everything else, I'll let you know how it turns out. Cheers and good luck next season.

thanks for the props, forestgreenyank!

In other news, my adventures as Toronto continue. I have failed to land numerous other jobs, but TFC still loves me due to the fact that my salary is 1/3 of the salary cap. I have made it my goal to try to build up the Canadian national team as best I can. I bought a bunch of 4k players from South America, and I loaned them out to my newly acquired feeder club. I want them to get citizenship! Though I am not sure that this will work, it's worth a shot! Plus, I didn't really pay anything for the players.

Hopefully my team will do okay this year despite having a wretched backline. I just hope that those players will keep going on season long loans or else I'll have to cut them next offseason. Hopefully they will develop into the 4-5 star range that is their potential (currently all are 1 star abilities).

update to my Toronto FC challenge:

I have had 2 players change to Canadian citizenship (out of 4 possible), but they aren't really interested in signing a contract extension with me (I have them for 2 more full seasons). In my 3rd season with the team, I finished with 26 points (thanks to a late season formation change 4-3-3). I had something like 4 points through 9 or 10 games to start the season. I finished the league with 62 goals allowed and 26 goals scored. What a ratio!

I was able to loan out 4 of my players to my feeder club for a second season. Three of them refused, and they were released! The board loves me (because of very low salaries & high monthly profits) and they say that I am overachieving! Part of my performance failures were due to having poor coaches scouting ratings (and not understanding how to apply coaches to train specific attributes only). Once I upgraded my coaching staff, I saw why my team was so bad. The best players had 3-4 gold stars and many had only 1 gold star! These were my starters for the first few seasons! Anyway, I hope that more of my players take Canadian citizenship so that I can bring in more new faces.

We need to keep this thred going

is there a point in starting a mls game? from a long term point of view?

I just started a game as LA Galaxy. Is it supposed to be this easy?

I'm halfway through my first season and i'm first in the league by about 15points. I'm also still in the US cup.

I thought the MLS was supposed to be a bit of a challenge.

Anyone else think this league is easy?

how do you offer money, make a transfer offewr w/ wage? I keep trying to transfer some guys to my team but it will only let me offer draft picks

thought id give this a bit of a go (along with my other games,lol)

just wondering if thoses in the know could give me some idea as to maybe how valuable the different draft pick options are to me for instance is a 1st round pick twice as important to me as a second round pick.

also when trying to trade for other players within the mls what sort of offers should i be making for players will a first round draft get me one of there better players and will a 4th round pick get me anything, also is it worth offering a 3rd and 4th round pick before a second round pick (and other conotations such as 2nd and 3rd before a 1st.

of course you dont have to give me exact answers just some rough idea would be great

come on you americans goota be somewhere

Draft picks are useless as the Superdraft system is messed up.

Try to trade them for established MLS players or (better yet) good players on Generation Adidas contracts (I think they have the USY tag).

Starting a game now, I am FC Dallas (Pizza Hut Park swung it for me)