Eric Wynalda is still fighting the good fight, the former USMNT striker, coach, pundit, and U.S. Soccer Presidential candidate continues to have a love for the game despite some hits he has taken along the way.
In his playing days Wynalda was fire on the pitch, from explosive goals to an explosive temper, he always played with a fire in his belly. By his own admission he bit off more than he could chew at times when he was a pundit, as the powers that be tried to silence his voice.
Eric Wynalda also knows that there are deep and dark issues in US Soccer, mostly managed by Major League Soccer, and which has caused him to even be blacklisted from visiting and chatting with the new USMNT stars.
In a sit down interview with Bolavip, the former all-time leading scorer for the USMNT talked about the recent events that saw MLS pull out of the US Open Cup, how MLS for a long time has been trying to bring all aspect of the sport “in house” and how Jay Berhalter continues to influence a lot of decisions in the MLS- US Soccer pyramid.
Bolavip: What are your thoughts on the recent news that MLS is pulling out of the US Open Cup?
Eric Wynalda: Arrogant is the number one word that comes to mind. I think what I realized in my time as a player, commentator, or as a coach is that since Don Garber arrived, he has changed the business model dramatically.
It’s not about soccer, it never was, it was about building stadiums, it was about these land/ real estate deals which make sense to an owner and not to the soccer community, players, or fans.
(Garber) is not somebody who understands competition, but rather has a direct line or business plan that does not really include anybody else.
It’s either you work for us, or we isolate you and we destroy you, and that’s what it is in this particular case. The teams that play in MLS are the only teams that exist is incredibly short sided and sad.
BV: By excluding themselves from the US Open Cup, isn’t it only hurting themselves in the end? When Messi played against FC Cincinnati, TyC Sports in Argentina bought the rights to the US Open Cup, sent a reporter, did a pregame, a post-game, this is one of the most passionate soccer countries in the world, but they dedicated 48 hours of coverage for an American cup game. Isn’t that what MLS craves, worldwide recognition or exposure?
EW: It’s not actually, they did an Apple deal, the whole premise of Apple is to sign players, the league is going to sign Luis Suarez so people from Uruguay will subscribe to Apple TV in Uruguay.
(Note Apple TV is not available in Uruguay but many Uruguayans use VPN connections to watch Apple TV).
Same thing across the world, they are hoping to get some big names that would make Apple more accessible to people from multiple countries. That’s what the business plan is.
When somebody came in from the outside (TyC Sports) and said, “I want to buy the rights (to the US Open Cup), I want to put this on television, I want to tell Messi’s story in the United States”, that must have scared the hell out of Don Garber. That’s the last thing in the world that he needs.
BV: Sebastián Salazar came out recently and was really critical of MLS pulling out of the US Open Cup, even suggesting that division 1 status be pulled. How important is it that many conventional and online media personalities spoke out about this?
EW: Well, I really don’t put a lot of weight into what Sebastián Salazar has to say, am not a fan of his, I do think there is an ongoing lawsuit with the NASL with USSF because basically the USSF set standards that was a criteria where the objective was to build stadiums to achieve division 1 status, those criteria were almost unreachable unless you were an MLS franchise.
So, places like Louisville or Tampa Bay, some of the smaller teams, (US Soccer) opposed ways to figure out ways to be more inclusive and figure out ways to help those clubs do their business better and maybe create revenue streams that would allow them to build their business. This decision (pulling out of Open Cup) essentially is meant to prevent them from continuing to build their business.
Division 1 status is not based on merit at all, it’s based only on the environment or what the stadium looks like, those are the only things Don Garber cares about is what the stadium looks like.
What the perception of the reality is rather than there is a team in the USL that is better than your product… We celebrate stadiums not clubs. That’s the way this works.
BV: Isn’t this going against MLS original mission statement to promote soccer in the United States? Isn’t MLS isolating itself from not only their own country, but also creating these paper competitions (Leagues Cup, Campeones Cup), isolating itself from being relevant to the outside world?
EW: That’s what a franchise system is, it’s the same reason why there are 32 Football teams, 30 NBA teams, 30 MLB teams, and eventually there will be 32 MLS teams, once you’re in the club and the bubble is closed that’s it.
The only thing you can do is to wait for one of those franchises to fail and move it to somewhere else where you believe it can make it more successful.
We’ve seen that happen in MLS when San Jose moved to Houston and am sure it will happen again. San Diego is coming in with a $500 million price tag, which sets another precedent which (MLS) will have to continue to go after a big number in order to pay everybody else.
I know what that’s called, everybody else knows what that’s called. am not going to go on record to call it what it is. When you’re relying on Peter to pay Paul, we know what that business model is. It’s going to get to 32 and then that bubble will burst.
Then some ownership groups will be asking, “where’s the money?”, “when do I get paid back for my investment?”, and that will be the moment when Don Garber grabs his parachute and jumps out of the plane and doesn’t care if the plane crashes.
BV: In the end this is a business, and there have been many owners in MLS that helped saved the league from folding, many who have built stadiums and poured millions into their teams, are we entering a time where those owners are asking, “Hey were is our ROI? It’s time to make money from this soccer thing?”
EW: Actually, it will be the new owners, they are far more into this than the older owners, the ones who started MLS, they got their money back. If you look at Colorado and from Stan Kroenke’s viewpoint, he must say, “Why do I have to put more into this? I broke even, I did my part, I have no intention of making this any better than I’ve done.”
Colorado is one of those franchises that could end up like the Indianapolis Colts, they get moved in the middle of the night and everyone gets the memo the next day.
Five years ago I was in a meeting, what was interesting to me back then, I was running for US Soccer president at the time, when the idea of the US Open Cup came up and enhancing the property came up, and finding money, Riccardo Silva (owner of Miami FC and AC Milan) was ready to go, he wanted to raise $100 million to make an insertion that would give the competition the kind of exposure it needed with television rights and move the meter there.
In that meeting Jay Berhalter, who was at that time a part of US Soccer, put himself in that conversation and said, “your lucky MLS is even a part of that”, meaning the US Open Cup. Which didn’t strike me until I thought about it later, by saying am lucky MLS teams are even in the US Open Cup, when pushed on it and when we said, “isn’t this an opportunity to grow the game, it’s US Soccer, wouldn’t MLS want to take part in that growth?” (Berhalter)’s next response was “am not MLS.”
Well let me remind everybody Jay Berhalter is now MLS, he was then a part of US Soccer, he now works for Major League Soccer, so we really got to start pointing the finger or throwing darts at the people who make the final decisions, some are really horrible decisions like this one, it’s not all Don Garber, Jay Berhalter is the mastermind behind this, he is the mastermind behind a lot of things.
That’s what we have to remember. He does work for MLS now, he is the one pulling the strings, and he never wanted MLS to be involved (with the US Open Cup) in his time in US Soccer and now in his position in Major League Soccer.
Let’s make sure the real names are exposed.
BV: So in the end this all comes down to the end of the contract between MLS/SUM and USSF?
EW: It all comes down to, regardless of Don Garber or Jay Berhalter, who have offices next to each other in MLS, both of those individuals sit/sat on the board of US Soccer, and our current president (of US Soccer) who is not going to make a decision. Cindy Parlow Cone is not making decisions at all for US Soccer, it’s not like she is doing anything.
Matt Crocker was brought in by Jay Berhalter, who doesn’t work for US Soccer. Mike Ford, the man responsible for finding our next USMNT coach, ask yourself where his office is, right next to Jay Berhalter which is right next to Don Garber.
When these decisions were made and Matt Crocker was brought in to do absolutely nothing, he was brought in by Jay Berhalter, who is still the puppet master in this entire operation, and his brother happens to be our national team coach.
BV: What do you make of Jesse Marsch’s comments about the USMNT? It’s one thing if a pundit says it, but a coach who is realistically in the running for the position, was that ethical?
EW: You’re talking to the wrong person; I worked for ESPN and Fox and was almost fired numerous times for stating my opinion on things. My only goal as a pundit was to progress, and if you are the national team coach be it Bruce Arena or Bob Bradley you have to know there will be criticism.
I watched all our national team coaches fight the media and fight with me about my opinions, being critical is not the be all and end all of our relationship. If I think that’s a bad sub, well to me that’s a bad sub.
In my time with Fox, I was brought into a room numerous times and told “you must stop being critical of the US, they are our partners, and in that agreement we do not criticize each other.”
Then my job is impossible, if I really believe that’s not the right course of action, I have to say that, and I was almost fired a couple of times.
I am currently not allowed to speak to the national team, not because the national team coach doesn’t want to talk to me, it’s because their PR director has put me on a blacklist. It is what it is.
Am just trying to help but they don’t want help.
BV: The Copa America is right around the corner, it’s a huge tournament for the USMNT and their future plans in 2026, what is a success for this team, given everything that is going on around them in MLS, at US Soccer. Am sure the players know all that is going on.
EW: Of course, they do, playing for the national team is not easy, it’s an immense responsibility, it’s an honor, and people would argue in the past, this is the best team we ever had, the most talented, because of where they are playing.
I think the perception of the American player has changed greatly, over the last couple of decades, and that comes from some of our goalkeepers, Clint Dempsey, John Harkes, Tab Ramos, Michael Bradley. These are guys who did well in Europe. Some guys like Jozy Altidore didn’t.
I think the point is the Tab Ramos’ of the world or the John Harkes’ of the world and the guys who didn’t play for the best teams were as good or better than the players today.
Tab Ramos in his best days would walk into this team and it wouldn’t even be a contest. For someone to say to me that they think Yunus Musah or Pulisic or an Aaronson are so much better than Tab Ramos are out of their minds.
A lot of these people think soccer started in 2002 and we just have to deal with that. To go back to the original question in our case, we did it backwards we had a great World Cup in 1994, then we did very well in the US Cup in 1995, before going to Copa America in 1995 and beating Chile, the first US team to beat a South American team in South American soil, Argentina, and then eliminating Mexico only to lose to Brazil in the semifinals by a small margin.
Hey, we in two tournaments (94 and 95) were eliminated by Brazil, the current world champions at the time only for in 1997 to defeat them in the Gold Cup, the USMNT first official win over Brazil. Then we were a shell of ourselves by 1998, I think we learned a lot of lessons in France 98. How you can get it really really wrong.
What am saying is the team can build off of this Copa America experience and take it to the World Cup. And continue to learn how to win, have they had a signature win yet? No. In my opinion, no, in my time we were beating Russia, Argentina, England, Mexico a bunch of times, Poland, there were a lot of games that we could hang our hat on and say, “That’s a step in the right direction”.
I really don’t know if we have a signature win yet (currently). So going all the way back Jesse Marsch isn’t wrong he’s just pointing out the obvious. If you’re going to say something on TV, you better back it up with a stat.
- Interview adjusted for time and context
** Later this week Bolavip will showcase an article about Cal FC’s US Open Cup run and how Eric believes MLS and US Soccer didn’t do much to help his team’s cause.
