Pacheco asked to take pay cut at Santa Clara for next season

**Cyrus** · 06-28-2012, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by trueviking

thats unbelievable.....600?....thats like a high school crowd....how much can he possibly make?

He is one guy I wouldn't mind in MLS. Second division Portugal should not be on our national team.

I went to a match at Estoril this spring. The attendance was 919, including myself, my dad and my mom. Estoril won the second division (Liga de Honra) and will be playing in the Portuguese top flight next season. There are some very small crowds in Portugal -- it's not all about the Big Three and the palaces that were built for Euro 2004.

**Marc** · 06-28-2012, 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by trueviking

thats unbelievable.....600?....thats like a high school crowd....how much can he possibly make?

He is one guy I wouldn't mind in MLS. Second division Portugal should not be on our national team.

To be fair, it looks like Santa Clara attracted 4k at their high-point in the top flight ten years ago. I think they even came to Toronto for an exhibition around that time. They bottomed out in 2010 at about 400.

But the drop-off in attendance in the Portuguese leagues is astounding. Half the top flight attracts fewer than 5000. Even Maritimo only averaged about 3800. I can't comprehend how the second division maitains a truly professional environment when they're attracting support similar to UK tier six and or a lower-middle PDL. These guys make the old Calgary Mustangs attendances look acceptable.

**CanadianSoccerFan** · 06-28-2012, 11:22 AM

The travel costs have to be steep as well. It's a 2 hour flight to the mainland for every away game.

**CanadaSantos** · 06-28-2012, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by trueviking

thats unbelievable.....600?....thats like a high school crowd....how much can he possibly make?

He is one guy I wouldn't mind in MLS. Second division Portugal should not be on our national team.

No offence but we have players from the third division in Germany, England, second division in Romania etc. So what makes this situation different? In fact unlike some of the other players, Pacheco actually has some first division experience.

**Marc** · 06-28-2012, 01:57 PM

I won't argue on Ricketts but I don't know if comparing Portuguese tier two (avg att 950) and tier three Germany (4500) or England (7500) is a winning argument for you. Attendance isn't everything, but it does indicate the state of the game to a some extent.

Tier two in Portugal should be a stepping stone for our guys. At 28, with five appearances in the top flight and the rest of his career in tier two and regional tier 3, I'm not sure it is proving to be for Pacheco. Pacheco's team was two points from getting relegated to the wilderness of regional non-pro leagues where support is CSL-esque.

We've had guys go into the Portuguese lower leagues and to the best of my recollection the only one who rose up to tier one was Aguiar - a five-year spell bookended by ten years in tier two.

Ten years ago we would have salivated over someone in Pacheco's position. Today, I think we have a bit more depth and possibly better options. I have nothing against Pacheco but if we're calling up guys at this level then maybe we should be giving guys like Saiko a shot first.

**CanadaSantos** · 06-28-2012, 02:31 PM

i agree with most of ur comment (although i don't know why u brought up the attendance, for it has no impact on the quality of the league is) i just didn't get y Pacheco is being looked down based on wat division he's playing, when we have other players in the nt in somewhat similar situations.

I do disagree about the "depth", mainly because if we had depth, we wouldn't be calling these type of players imo, and i think people need to be realistic, yes we are improving quality wise, but we're still in early stages imo and for now we need to call upon these types of players to fill the bench.

I would like a player like Saiko to be called as well , but again i would also rate the Portuguese second division higher then the NASL.