Published at 05:18, Friday, 02 January 2009

TONY Caig had heard all the jibes about American football being Mickey Mouse when he crossed the Atlantic to join Houston Dynamo.

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But, when he returned home to Cumbria just before Christmas after his first season in Major League Soccer, he encountered kids wandering round Carlisle wearing LA Galaxy shirts.

The new-found fascination for the MLS in Britain says everything about the credibility now being enjoyed by the American game and, of course, the appeal of its most famous import – David Beckham.

The MLS has rolled out the red carpet to British players – and Caig reckons that within the next five years the trickle of talent across the Atlantic will have turned into a steady stream.

Any lingering doubts the former Carlisle United keeper may have felt when Texas became the latest stop-off in a varied career, which has taken him from Brunton Park to Blackpool, Newcastle, Hibs, Charlton, Vancouver Whitecaps and Gretna, were only really dispelled when he walked into the Houston dressing room and found it crammed with winners.

And any preconceived notions that Becks was there only to enhance his celebrity status and collect a mind-boggling $25 million annual salary rather than be taken seriously as a footballer were also erased when the pair came face-to-face when Houston Dynamo and LA Galaxy clashed in May.

Caig was to discover to his cost that even in the autumn of the former England captain’s career, no one bends it like Beckham.

With Houston leading 2-0, Caig was finally beaten late in the game when two beautifully-executed crosses from Beckham were converted by Galaxy striker Landon Donovan. Caig said: “His quality on the ball was what you would expect. He’s been great for the MLS as he’s really raised its profile.

“In Los Angeles, the closer you get to the stadium, the more you can see the Beckham-mania. His face is all over billboards and, when you’re warming up, you know without looking that he’s stepped out on to the pitch because of all the cheering and girls screaming.

“That’s what the MLS wanted when they brought him in, and he has delivered.

“When clubs want to promote games against LA Galaxy, they just throw in that Becks is coming to town and the tickets are snapped up.

“In Britain we all knew what he was – one of the best footballers in the world and the best crosser in the world. America is getting a taste of that.

“He’s proved himself to be a great professional with great qualities who gives everything to the team.

“Until he went over to America, people didn’t talk about the MLS, apart from those involved in it. Now everyone talks about it.”

Yes, there’s the razzmatazz before games that only Americans are capable of with cheerleaders, tickertape and celebrity fans jetting in for front-row seats.

But strip all that away and Caig is convinced the American game is becoming a model of respectability, rather than the laughing stock it once was.

Players are sharper, smarter and more skilled than ever, thanks to the influx of foreign coaches and managers, and also because top-class football is regularly beamed on to American TV, with the Champions League and the Premiership all available on terrestrial screens.

Once it was just one or two top British players who moved to Italy or Spain to join big clubs.

Now it’s commonplace and Caig can see a day when players will regularly hop across the Pond to further their careers and enjoy the lifestyle.

He is now out of contract with Houston, but the sense of belonging he now feels with the American game means he could return before next season kicks off in March.

The opportunity to move Stateside came up in January last year when his six-month stint at doomed Gretna had turned into a disaster.

He’d joined them the previous summer after a season with United Soccer League side Vancouver Whitecaps – a rung below the MLS.

But by the end of January, wages weren’t in the bank as the Borderers hurtled towards administration and finally extinction, with their multi-millionaire owner Brooks Mileson seriously ill.

Caig’s former Vancouver goalkeeping coach Mike Toshack had moved to Houston, and offered Caig a way out of his Raydale Park misery and an opportunity to join the MLS revolution.

The past 12 months have been a whirlwind for the 34-year-old former Brunton babe from Cleator Moor, who etched his name into Cumbrian folklore thanks to 284 games for Carlisle United, a 1995 Division Three championship medal and a heroic performance when he saved two spot kicks in the penalty shoot-out which won the Blues the 1997 Auto Windscreens Shield at Wembley. He was part of a Carlisle team packed with Cumbrians like Darren Edmondson, Rory Delap, Matt Jansen, Jeff Thorpe and Paul Murray, before he was bundled out the door against his wishes by controversial former United owner Michael Knighton in a shock £5,000 transfer deadline day deal with Blackpool in 1999.

But he was the only British player in a cosmopolitan Houston dressing room – something which left him enriched by the experience both personally and professionally.

A typical week could see him and his Houston team-mates play at home on a Saturday, catch a six-hour flight for a midweek game in Mexico, fly home … only to face a seven-hour flight to Toronto the following Saturday.

Trips to South America to face Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica meant being accompanied by armed guards to games, which were usually overshadowed by a hostile, intimidating atmosphere. Caig said: “I’m only going to be a footballer once and I wouldn’t want to get to the end of my career and not regret having seized opportunities.

“If I’m going to coach or manage in the future, I think it’s useful to experience all kinds of things football offers and different cultures.

“I know lads who don’t even want to move away from the North West and yet when I was at Hibs our dressing room had French players, Spaniards, Finns, one from Ecuador.

“And there was me wondering how a Cumbrian would fit into a Scottish dressing room!

“I’ve always wanted to travel and experience different countries.

“Culturally, we are more different to Americans than I could ever have imagined, and the dressing room mentality is totally different.

“To the 28 players in a squad, it’s all about the team and being in it together. The players are so professional. They never complain if they get subbed, they’re never shouting their mouth off in the press if they aren’t getting a game and, if they have issues with a manager, it’s never discussed in the dressing room.

“Salaries are capped and they’re also made public, which makes the dressing room more content. A player can’t go into the manager and demand more money because once the budget is spent, it’s spent, and managers have to account for every last dollar.

“There is, of course, what’s known as the ‘Beckham rule’ where two players can be outside of the wage cap, but their additional wages are paid through sponsorship.

“The American game is definitely losing its Mickey Mouse tag but the next five years will be vital for the MLS. If they can get away from the gimmicky stuff and loosen the salary cap, America will attract more top British players in their twenties.

“I think in five years’ time it will be a serious league that British players will want to force their way into.”

Caig helped Houston win the Western Conference, but they lost their play-off semi-final to New York. Eastern Conference champions Columbus Crew defeated New York in the final to be crowed MLS champions.

Back home with his family, Caig is now considering his options for next season.

He’s open to offers from both English and Scottish clubs, but with the American game having made a major impression on him, he could head back over the Atlantic.

His ties with the US are strengthened as he has business interests there.

Along American goalkeeping coach Mike Toshack and wealthy businessman Rob Hoehn, whose son had been coached by Caig, the trio have set up HP Goalkeeping.

They plan to stage trial matches for young keepers seeking college scholarships or graduates looking for professional clubs in the US or Europe. He hopes to one day import promising keepers to British and European clubs.

He said: “The USA is so big, there could be a 6ft 3in keeper who could jump through the clouds – and no one would see them. This will give them the chance to get quality coaching and the opportunity to get into the professional game.

“I was lucky because there was a structure in place for me at Carlisle – a YTS place, then professional contract and progression into the first-team. It’s not like that in America.

“By the time I was 22, I’d been in the first team for two-and-a-half seasons, played over 100 games and appeared in a Wembley final. In the US, they’re just graduating from college at that age, so we hope to help them develop and catch up.”

Caig still fondly casts an eye over developments at Carlisle and watched them last week against Huddersfield.

Every time he returns, it stirs memories of the decade he spent at Brunton Park. A different time, a very different life.

The HP goalkeeping website is at www.hpgoalkeeping.com

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk