I suppose I didn't need such a knee-jerk headline, but I can make no other conclusion. "....MLS squads have struggled in recent years partly because important games in the regional championship take place during MLS preseason. Most players are not in form that early on. "SuperLiga, by contrast, will take place in July, with all the games scheduled this year for U.S. sites." I usually don't care about CONCACAF, or what they think, but it's not like Costa Rican teams haven't earned consideration on the field. Two semifinalists last year. The last two winners before Club America won last year. "I think this ups the level completely. Usually, when we play a Mexican team, it's a friendly. I'm trying to rest players or try guys out," Yallop said. "Now it's actually competition. I think our players will really enjoy that." Well, that should come as cold comfort to San Jose fans who actually hoped to be champions of North America back in the day. "Los Angeles Galaxy player Pete Vagenas was pleased at the announcement. 'It's always been something that we've watched around the world in admiration, when all the best teams from around the world get together and play each other,' said the midfielder. 'You always wonder who is the champion of North America, and I think this tournament provides that.'" Pete! You've been in the Champions Cup several times! You won it one year! You started in the Final! Your general manager got burned on a goal! (Okay, he had a sweet assist on the first goal.) I mean, why are they bothering? What kind of insult to the fans is this? Why are we for one second supposed to build this up over the Champions Cup? "A $1 million prize has been set for the winning club." .... Oh. ....well, it's still the Giants Cup with a different name.
i'm thinking the Costa Rican clubs will be invited for the full-on SuperLiga in 2008. if they're not, i'll be pissed. that goes for Honduras and El Salvador too. basically, i want any NA club that deserves it, in it. except for Joe Public. they're Jack Warner's club ... and i'd rather see that he gets no dinero from this (although I'm sure he'll find a way).
SuperLiga is not the reincarnation of the CCC. You could invite all the FAs you want and its not like the champion will get anything for it, beside the money (for now). We have bitched and moaned about the pathatic CCC and the two leading associations in CONCACAF, backed by smart people and individuals who have the balls to put their money where their opinions spew from are doing something about it. Maybe this forces CONCACAF to get off their collective fat asses and do something about our regional tourney? Maybe the winner gats a decent look see for the Libertadores? Those would be nice pluses. But if not, I am still happy that MLS has taken the initiative to expose our teams to some level of external competition, make the regular season mean more, start the foundations for some type of alternative to the never-gonna-be promotion/relegation deal. Maybe it's a money grab? Who gives a shit? This is the inaugural edition of this tourney. It will change, it will adapt...let the damn thing breath before declaring it as crap. Yes this edition is an invitational with all game splayed in the US and over a relatively short amount of time. So what?? MLS and FMF have acknowledged this and have promised to establish qualifying protocols for the next edition. Jeez...look if you don't like it, then don't watch it.
My first reaction was this is just another MLS marketiing ploy (and it's buisness so of course it is), but upon further thought I began to see the potiental in this tournament. But, only if it is open to clubs in the region: Jamacia, Costa Rica, Chile, ect. Then I could see it being good exposure of MLS to the region. A quality South American squad has a chance to play in a packed HDC agianst David Becham or in PHP with Edgar Davies. It gives a lot more legitamacy to the league. A good player from said South American club might begin to see himself in a league learning English where Spanish is the second language, earning a good paycheck and using MLS as a steping stone to Europe. Meanwhile our up and comers are getting experience agianst quality foreign styles of play. Seasonal ticket sales are up & the atmosphere in the stadiums improves. The other side is what if a final comes down to a team from Ecuador & Uruguay in the States, what will that attendance be like? How would an empty stadium look on television for a much hyped tournament?
I hate to go technical on you, but this is the North American SuperLiga, Central America is not North America. The Caribbean is not North America. The SuperLiga is not trying to root out the CCC (well at least not directly).
Holy crap, you're right. Central America and the Caribbean are on its own tectonic plate. I just saw that on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tectonic_plates_Caribbean.png We should totally have World Cup spots decided by tectonic plate, actually. The Superliga could point the way forward to a grand, worldwide competition based on continental drift - the championship of the lithosphere. I really don't see why you bother to establish this tournament if the ultimate aim isn't to shaft CONCACAF and get into Copa Libertadores. Which is a fine and noble aim, except MLS hasn't earned it on the field yet.
Guillermo Ochoa, America's keeper isn't too happy about the tournament "En lo personal no veo bien este torneo, es algo absurdo. Ellos tratán de tener más roce en el futbol internacional, para ellos fue benéfico y para uno hay que jugar la Liga local, la Libertadores y ahora la Superliga", concluyó." Translation: "Personally i don't see this as a good idea, i think it's dumb. They try to get more international exposure, which is good for them but for us it means that we have to play the local league, libertadores and now then Super Liga too"
think of it this way...HAd Venezuelan clubs not allowed Mexicans a shot into the Libertadores Cup competition , since your teams "would get to get more international exposure" (imagine a venezuelan Gullermo Ochoa saying this) or Leoz done the same from the start (not letting Mexican clubs play in South America).... how would YOU feel? The reason you got to play at all was the $$$ NOw it is wrong of MLS to try and use the very same tactic?!?!?! and yet i see tons of Mexican fans act all arrogant about this.... and yet, their clubs will get up to a mill for playing during their pre-season, no less...
Uhm, no he's not. Central America is not a separate continent. It's like the middle east, defined as a region of a continent. North of Panama is north am. south is south am.
Why must bigsoccer knock everything that MLS tries? Better yet, why do I allow myself to return to this website knowing the next big MLS announcement will be pronounced idiotic? I agree with the other poster...why not give something, anything, in MLS a chance before declaring it not worthy? The league has survived this long and for the most part is getting more stable each year...the MLS brass must be doing something right.
I feel sorry for you Dan, you just dont get it do you. Please go back to baseball or something, your pretty dumb and it shows. If you only you knew what was good for u.s. soccer, seek help.
thanks, mschofield. my favorite part about that was when nutella said, "i hate to get technical on you." really? you hate to? it looked to me like you were quite enjoying yourself. it looked to me that you were absolutely revelling in "getting technical" on us (me). nutella, hate to break it to you, but the world has not added an 8th continent. central american + the carribean nations are still parts of North America. SHEESH. my soccer knowledge gets challenged on here everyday ... i didn't think i'd be having to stand up for simple geographical facts I learned in 1st grade. BigSoccer NEVER ceases to amaze me.
I'd love to get technical on you, but all I have is your Wikipedia link: "According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico with the intervening region called Central America (or Middle America if the Caribbean is included) and resting on the Caribbean Plate. Before the Central American isthmus was raised, the region had been underwater. The islands of the West Indies delineate a submerged former land bridge, which had connected North America and South America via Florida and Venezuela." And for some reason I never knew that Greenland was considered North America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America
it's not. it's just something i made up. i went in and doctored the wikipedia entry (and every Geography book in every school on the face of the planet) to make it so, in an effort to get Odd Grenland into the North American SuperLiga.
this "crap" will be useful fertilizer for the game to continue to grow here in the US. they've got to start somewhere, it doesn't have to look or smell great at this point.
This is the exact same thing that was said about the Copa Sudamericana when it started up--that it was for losers, a fake Libertadores, more games crowding the schedule, etc. Except...now that Pachuca wins it, it becomes proof of the superiority of Mexican futbol to that of South America. Well, which is it now? A tournament for losers or a legitimate competition? Almost anyone you ask would say the latter. Slamming this Superliga competition before it even starts is falling into line with the usual naysayers. I hope someone saves this thread so we can shove it back in the face of the initiator in five years.
Oh, Snap that fool said isthmus! I was waiting for someone to drop it. Let's set simplify matters and just have a "Pangea Cup". Yeah, I got Mesozic era on ya.
but see why dont mls gain international exposure by actually going to down to southamerica and earning those spots just like mexico had to do
Okay, let's go with the soccer knowledge. Who says SuperLiga is called the North American SuperLiga? Yes, in the press release, they call it a tournament for the North American crown, but in escence, this is MLS's and MFL's tournament. They can include Nepal in it and call it a battle for the NA crown. The leagues can do whatever they want, if MLS/MFL decides they only want MSL/MFL teams in it, thats fine. All the Central American teams can create their own tournaments if they're so upset (which I doubt they area). And let me point something out to you, if you think this is crap then don't go. *As for the definition of NA, opinions will differ, your right about the textbook version, but for all practical purposes, NA includes USA, Canada, Mexico, and the Greenland; CA isn't included by all definitions, and the Caribbean is a totally different.
It's a great idea. US and Mexico are obviously the top two federations in our confederation, so I have no problem with the winner of this going onto the Libertadores. I've always had a huge problem with the CONCACAF Champions Cup being played during our pre-season. It's simply not fair to MLS teams. Look what DC United did to Celtic during their pre-season. Does anybody really think United would fair better than Celtic in the UEFA Champions League? But CONCACAF has no problem eliminating MLS clubs that have barely started training. This competition will be good for MLS and our clubs, so I'm for it.