The USL’s most important story in Week 9 didn’t take place on the pitch. Instead, the announcement that the league, its member clubs, and the USLPA had come to a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement took that title.
The terms of the new CBA will chart the course for the USL Championship – and the upcoming USL Premier – for the next half-decade.
Under the new deal, player contracts will cover the full 12 months of the year, up from a baseline of 10 under the prior CBA. Minimum base compensation is increasing by more than 50%; even the newly carved-out entry-level deals will involve compensation numbers above the previous senior minimum. Health insurance options will be offered by every team in the Championship. The league and clubs will pay more for group licensing rights, which will allow the USLPA to continue to fund its operations.
Moreover, Premier’s wage structure has been set well above the level of the Championship, which is a crucial step in assuring that USL Premier meets first-tier standards beyond mere optics.
Group licensing payments for Super League and League One clubs are pending, but the major question regarding term – one described in Backheeled’s reporting last week – has been settled. The deal will last five years, with an option for a sixth should the USL and USLPA come to terms regarding a group healthcare plan. If all goes well, such a plan could lower costs by leveraging a pool of health 20-somethings while also giving the USLPA the platform to seek out increased standards as a collective.
How the USL continues to evolve and improve under the strictures of the new CBA is a question for the future. In the short term, we can turn an eye back to the real attraction: action on the pitch. I’m ranking all 25 clubs in the Championship from top to bottom as always, so let’s dig in.
1. Tampa Bay Rowdies
Trending: No change
Result: 1-0 win v. Indy
I’ve written about Tampa Bay in fairly strict “4-2-2-2” terms this year, but that doesn’t capture their increasingly sophisticated offense. Thanks to the arrival of veteran midfielder Mattheus Oliveira and Dom Casciato’s advanced thinking, the Rowdies are growing harder and harder to stop with each passing week.
Against Indy on Saturday night, Tampa Bay’s off-ball shape looked familiar. Mattheus played slightly narrow off the right against an unabashedly direct Eleven side, but he and fellow winger Russell Cicerone mostly held down positions you’d expect. That picture grew more complex on the ball, where the two could mix it up. At points, both played as No. 10s; at others, Mattheus dropped in like the connective quarterback in a 2-2-1-5 shape featuring Cicerone, MD Myers, and Karsen Henderlong at the tip of a robust attacking line.
Tampa Bay Rowdies
The quality of that front let Casciato tinker further back. Tampa Bay began the Indy game with Sebastian Cruz playing left back and Dion Acoff on the right; after halftime, Charlie Ostrem entered the game on the left to provide a greater crossing threat, let Cruz shift right, and free Cicerone to make even more aggressive runs into the 18-yard box.
