USMNT Performance in World Cup Is Validating Quality of MLS

When Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley returned to Major League Soccer this past year after long stints in Europe, many fans of the United States men’s national team immediately assumed the moves would have disastrous consequences for the U.S.’s hopes in the 2014 World Cup.

In addition to Bradley and Dempsey, some of the U.S.’s budding talents, like Matt Besler, Graham Zusi and Omar Gonzalez have made the decision over the past few years to forego European offers and instead re-signed with their respective MLS sides.

Those decisions were questioned as well, with many U.S. fans assuming that staying in MLS would squash their development as players.

For years, most Americans have harbored an inferiority complex about MLS (and the game in general), assuming the only path to success went through development in European leagues, through European styles of play and with European coaches.

That viewpoint is still the belief of m...

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