Welcome to the worst place on the internet. Let 'er rip. I dedicate this thread to the fraying patience of @bshredder
Or here? http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-containment-unit-the-ya-league-comparison-cesspool.2011515/ Seems more appropriate for the Academy forum.
Thread merge? Main YA board or Academy? http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/comparison-of-mls-to-other-leagues.2011525/ @bungadiri
Merged (at the risk of creating a singularity that sucks the entire internet into it) and moved to the main forum.
Wil Trapp might be good in MLS, but our domestic league isn't even as good as Coruscant's second division.
It's well established that MLS is equivalent to the bottom half of the Championship and the top half of League 1.... (or whatever they call it now)
Just go by UEFA coefficients. End of story. US is somewhere between Turkey and Greece as a league. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient
All your questions answered here Disclaimer: I don't vouch for the rankings and I'm not competent to make such rankings on my own.
Greece to some extent, but because of the salary cap (if nothing else), there's no club on a par with Olympiakos in MLS, or even PAOK. In Turkey, Super Lig is another story--light years ahead at the top (many UCL quarterfinal appearances among Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, & Besiktas) and even the worst clubs with budgets comparable to the very best of MLS. It's a big country that loves the game and has a solid, deep top flight. 1.Lig would be a more apt comparison to MLS. I still don't think I'd favor Sounders to win 1.Lig and I imagine Chivas USA would struggle to avoid relegation there.
All right, let's do this as a two-parter. The first part is to take attacking foreign players that have played or are currently playing in MLS. Some of the stats are going to be off Wikipedia, whose accuracy is presumed to be "in the ballpark". Off the WhoScored listings. http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/23...PlayerStatistics/USA-Major-League-Soccer-2014 7th best MLS player is Diego Valeri (7.44 score) with 8 goals and 10 assists in 28 matches. In his previous stops, he basically washed out of Porto (12 games, 0 goals) in Portugal and lower tier La Liga (9 matches, no goals with Almeria). He had his top season with Lanus in Argentina in 2010-11 with 8 goals in 18 matches (then he was loaned to Almeria). His subsequent seasons with Lanus were less successful - 28 matches, 3 goals in 2011-12 and 16/2 in 2012-13 (spring season). 12th rated MLS player is Aurelien Collin - 7.37. His past pro experiences were with Gretna in the season they were relegated from the SPL in 2007-08, with the newly promoted Greek club Panserraikos in 2008-2009 (9 matches only), with Wrexham in 2009 (then and now in Conference Premier), and finally with Vitoria Setubal in Portugal where he got into 33 matches over a two year period, presumably being only a back up/squad player there. The club finished 14th and 12th over those two years. 16th best player is Javier Morales (9G/10A, 7.32) - his top Euro experience was with UD Vecindario in La Segunda (5 goals in 23 matches, 20 starts) in 2006-07 just prior to coming to MLS. The club finished 22nd and was relegated to Second Division B. 17th best player is Joao Plata (13 goals, 2 assists, 7.32 rating). His most recent "foreign" experience was on loan (from TFC) with Liga la Quito in Ecuador where he scored 1 goal in 13 matches in 2012. 24th best player is Fabio Espindola (9 goals, 7 assists, 7.27) - the best stats I can find for him in Argentina are (6 matches, 1 goal with Boca in 2005). In 2006, he was with Talleres in Nacional B (i.e., Argentina's 2nd division) where he scored 1 goal in 13 matches. His next year was split between two Ecuadorian teams where he barely played and scored no goals. I'll skip Obi Martins, who's at 25 (13/8, 7.27), who had an interesting career that has been marred by scandals, injuries and allegations. At 26 is MLS's leading scorer Bradley Wright-Phillips (24/0, 7.26). His most successful scoring season was in 2011-12 with Charlton (42 matches, 22 goals) in League One. He could not hack it in the following season in the Championship (19 matches, 1 goal) and was subsequently loaned to Brentford in League One where he tallied 5 in 15 before coming to MLS. At 41, (3G/8A, 7.14) is Lloyd Sam. His most recent gig were with Leeds in the Championship (35 matches, 2 goals over two seasons) and (on loan from Leeds) Notts County in League One (5 goals in 10 matches). At 48 is Federico Higuain (10G, 7 A, 7.12), whose most recent Argentina seasons were with Colon in 2011-12 (7 goals in 35 matches) and 2010-11 (3 goals in 27 matches) and Godoy Cruz (11 goals in 36 matches in 2009-10). He washed out at Besiktas (2006-07, 14 matches, 2 goals), Club America (13 matches and 1 goal) in 2007-08 and Independiente (18/1 in 2008-09). I think this paints a decent picture vis a vis the foreign imports.
I'm surprised you chose the main forum over Academy. It's like buying the crazy aunt a rocking chair and putting her on the porch instead of locking her in the basement.
Honestly, while I'm not interested in the conversation (since all too frequently it tends to run toward rancor and conniption rather than actual discussion) and while it's pretty much an instant threadjack in a YA-specific thread, it IS something folks want to talk about. The easier we make this thread to find, the less likely (he said, hopefully) it will be for this threadjack to happen.