By Jason Davis - WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 5, 2014) US Soccer Players - One of the more consistent beliefs about the NFL is the “copycat” nature of the league. Any and every new (or rediscovered) strategy that shows any sign of success won’t last long before it’s copied, on a wide scale, across the NFL’s 32 teams. Whether it’s an offensive wrinkle like the read option or “Wildcat” or a defensive scheme like the zone blitz, it rarely takes long for NFL coaches to repurpose trends for their own benefit.

With that example in mind, it’s worth wondering if MLS is, like the NFL, a league of copycats. Both league models promote parity as a means to spread player wealth. When the margins between making the playoffs (and any at shot a championship) and not are so thin, it would make sense to see the same phenomenon in soccer that pervades its football cousin. What works for winners like LA, Sporting, or even the Houston Dynamo could be ripe for the picking among teams striving to match their success.

But MLS is subject to a host of influences absent in American football, not just because the sports themselves are so different on the field, but because the landscape soccer inhabits is more expansive.

Current ESPN soccer analyst and former MLS GM Alexi Lalas points to two different phenomenon at play when it comes to any “copycat” element in MLS. The first is that Major League Soccer takes it on-field cues from a game played the world over. The NFL on the other hand, exists in a virtual bubble.

“MLS is very reactionary within the league. But a lot of times MLS will mirror what’s going on in the bigger game,” the three-time MLS general manager explained. “The whole concept of having a number ten, a guy that runs the show—an Etcheverry-type, a Mauricio Cienfuegos-type—which was part of MLS was in the beginning, which also mirrored what was happening around the world, most teams don’t even try that anymore.

“Going away from having that strict attacking creative center midfielder that everything flowed through, that happened in the early days of MLS and in many places around the world at that time, as the game has evolved internationally that’s changed and in MLS it has gone away.”

The second applies to player signings. On the surface, the trend of bringing in several players from of one particular point of origin (like the recent influx of Colombians and Argentines) looks like copycat behavior. It is, to a point. However, it’s also a function of MLS teams maximizing their buying power by mining

“When a ‘mine’ produces, people are going to run to that area,” said Lalas. “That certainly has happened. Colombia also had a mass exodus. The league wasn’t doing well. There was a recognition that you could get the quality and that you could afford the quality. When that ‘mine’ starts to produces, but it produces in a way that MLS can see the value as a league, you’re going to have a lot of teams going down there.”

Soccer tactics are subjective. Play is fluid. This makes pinning down any real attempts to copy tactics in MLS difficult to identify. Unlike the very specialized world of the NFL with its constant resets and static starting places, soccer’s interchangeable positions and non-stop play preclude the same sort of obvious examples. There is no soccer version of the “Wildcat”. What does exist is a tendency toward the tougher-to-identify tactical shifts that eventually appear throughout the high levels of the professional game.

Lalas used the demise of the true number ten as one example. He also pointed to the disappearance of the three-man backline and the sweeper. Just over a decade ago, the LA Galaxy played a three-man backline and won a championship. Now, the setup is so unique that it’s big news when Gregg Berhalter ponders using it in Columbus.

The move to lone striker systems sweeping the soccer world is on its way here and will only become a standard tactic with time. As clubs move to populate their rosters with players suited to the latest tactical thinking, MLS will include more teams following those trends.

What all of this really means is that MLS is a copycat league, though in a much different sense than its NFL cousin. Rather than teams within the competition liberally borrowing from each other in an effort to match on-field success, MLS clubs are much more likely to take their cues from the outside soccer world.

It often takes some time. MLS clubs are notoriously committed to a stylistic tradition derived from English influence. Still, the league changes based on what happens abroad. Even what appears to be clear copycat behavior—a run on Colombians or Argentines, for example—is more a function of what is happening in those countries than it is a result of MLS teams jumping on a trend. Value as dictated by dysfunction is often Major League Soccer’s best friend.

It’s actually off the field where MLS teams are most susceptible to copycat behavior among each other. The very nature of the sport makes copying a successful style of play difficult. For a nation of teams attempting to make a mark in communities resistant to their message, there’s no shame borrowing ideas from others to sell tickets or improve local profile. What works in Kansas City might not work in San Jose, but there’s no harm in trying to tweak a successful promotion to your ends.

Parity makes the margins between MLS clubs is small enough that the idea of taking what works for the most successful and grabbing it for oneself makes sense, just as it does in the NFL. Soccer’s vagaries and the simple fact that Major League Soccer is just one small part of a global community for which the NFL has no analogue makes it much more complicated.

Is MLS a copycat League? Yes and no.

Jason Davis is the founder of MatchFitUSA.com and the co-host of The Best Soccer Show. Contact him: matchfitusa@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter:http://twitter.com/davisjsn.

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