Nepo Berhalter did not invest so much of other people's treasure and time, to build a power base and impose Brother General Egg in control over what happens with the USMNT, just in order to cave at mere waves of disgust at the stench of corruption. Chicago is made for Tough Men, Men who Like The Way Their Shit do Stink, Men who find Riches in that Odoriferous Muck, and Chicago is famously The Stinking Onion for very very good reason.
People who know football know exactly where MLS stands. It's not a strong league like the PR types want to convince the people new to the game it is, but it's not garbage either. It's a decent league for a country with limited soccer tradition. Ranking around #24 in the world is not that bad.
I've never searched for league rankings before, but just did. I clicked on the top 3 search results which do some sort of detailed statistical analysis. MLS was 15th, 20th, and 15th by their calculations. https://www.globalfootballrankings.com/ https://www.soccergearhq.com/best-soccer-leagues-in-the-world/ https://www.kickalgor.com/football-...football-leagues-global-rating-2019-20-table/
Zlatan also called France a shit country while playing for PSG. Not like the guy usually has much time for reasoned discourse.
I like Brian McBride. As a player, and as a pundit. He hasn't been hesitant to take US Soccer to task on-air when they screw up. I like him better than other ex-USMNT-turned-pundits who act more like hype men and apologists. That said, he's not qualified. Any more than Kate Markgraf - who I also really liked as a pundit because she also was not hesitant to criticize USSF - is qualified to be a GM. What I feels it all boils down to is this: The "General Manager" position has no real authority. Earnie is still making decisions - he's just the "Sporting Director" now. This is essentially a PR move, to put two popular ex-players into positions of public presence, and take the heat off of Earnie and other executive-level guys. Brian and Kate's role is to smile and talk to the cameras - which they've done a lot of. I'm sure they'll be involved in the leadership meetings and can give their opinions, but there's no guarantees that they'll be listened to. That's the perils of working in such a disorganized, informally-structured leadership like the USSF. Your actual authority and responsibilities are very soft and mostly at the whim of the guys at the top. Anyone with qualifications and experience would have recognized this and declined the job. I also suspect that it's a rather cynical ploy to slide the women's GM role under direct control of the executive leadership. Undercut the GM's authority entirely by putting it under the Sporting Director - just make extra sure that side never goes rogue and does something like support the players' lawsuit. I'm not entirely sure that's what happened there, but it seems convenient that the role remained vacant until the restructuring.
Although it doesn't do much for my respect for the "globalfootballrankings.com" one that is has LA Galaxy as the best team in MLS. They do not mean "historically", because FC Cincinnati is set out as the worst.... So, what the heck?
So exactly what the cronies want out of him. A yes man who takes their ideas and runs with them. Has more fan appeal than the entire USSF so maybe they're thinking he'll be their face. Not fooled. It's a token position/hire. The last thing the USSF wants is a challenge from the inside.
https://www.kickalgor.com/football-leagues/the-ka-football-leagues-global-rating-for-2019-20/ MLS is ranked #15 in the world by the above algorithm. That's pretty damn impressive for a league that is only 24 years old. At the same time, one individual club ranking has Seatte at #409, LAFC at #414, and Atlanta at #421. https://footballdatabase.com/ranking/world/9 That's pretty low, and hard to reconcile with the #15 league ranking. This one, however, has the clubs ranked considerably higher: https://www.clubworldranking.com/ranking-clubs/wd/2/yr/2020/nationality/198 and more in line with a top 15 league ranking.
LOL at the Clubworldranking list, for those who believe that Atlanta United is better than most EPL teams and that Monterrey is the 8th best team, right behind Real Madrid!
I apologize in advance but as far as I am concerned.....out of all the different lists that rank clubs, one of them is best (most accurate). It may or may not be due to any scientific advantage. The same can be said about the lists that rank individual clubs.
I didn't really mean it as a response to your post but a general response to the overall conversation about the rankings. People, imo, put far too much credence into those rankings. They can be interesting to look at sometimes but have very little meaning (again...imo). I was being a bit of a smartass (not aimed at you) and tht is why I apologized in advance. If it seemed like it was aimed at you, I apologize for that also. I believe that all of the rankings that compare leagues or teams that don't compete with each other in different leagues have to be taken with a grain of salt. When comparing leagues in different continents it becomes even more difficult. While I think that putting multiple teams at the level of the EPL is probably ludicrous, I also beleive that the best teams in MLS likely deserve a ranking far above 400ish world wide. While Monterrey may not deserve a ranking anywhere near 8th in the world, I wouldn't be surprised if they deserve a ranking that is far higher than many would suspect. (I'm not willing to make any kind of a guess on that ranking.
I would assume the same reason I will take an interview now and then that I don't really care about. To feel out the organization and see if I am wrong about them. In most cases, I realize that I was right to not be excited by them, but I have been wrong. If you take into account that all of the news around the fed has been a shitshow for the last few years I would not be excited to go to that interview or even want that job. But, I might want to advance my career, so I am willing to have a look and kick the tires. In most cases, I am guessing that is what is happening. Then they realize all of the silly demands and say it's not worth it.
I would say, again this is my opinion, that the very best teams are clearly in Europe and ranking those teams (because they compete in CL and EL games) gives a somewhat meaningful ranking. Not perfect but can give a general idea. The further you go down the rankings, however, the harder it is to justify the accuracy of the rankings. Phoenix Rising from the USL championship is ranked 308 which is high enough that they should be safe from relegation if they were in pretty much ANY 2nd division in Europe (probably in relegation zone for English Championship). They were ranked higher than multiple teams from leagues that include B2, MLS, La Liga 2, Ligue 2, Austrian B1, Scottish Premiership, Serie B, Liga Mx, Primeira Liga.... According to the rankings, they would be ranked high enough to avoid relegation in each of the leagues above and closer to mid table for most. Like I said, I think rankings can be interesting but comparisons between teams that don't directly compete should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Even when teams compete in the same tournaments (CL etc) it can be extremely difficult to rank teams when they don't actually play each other and the the small sample size also increases difficulty but the further you get from the actual head to head the more difficult it is to rank the teams accurately. I have no idea where the rankings become meaningless...is it somewhere after the top 10? top 50? top 100? I don't know. The only thing I feel very strongly about is that somewhere down the line, randomly throwing darts at a board would be just about as accurate.
Sounds about right although I bet it's rising. How fast? Who knows but attendance compared to teams in and around 15 aren't exceptional and MLS keeps adding more teams and that means the TV footprint keeps growing. One day we'll wake up and realize the league is a pretty big deal. Maybe ten or more years away though.
Rankings coimpletely ignore African leagues and tend to underrate leagues from poorer countries just because the players get paid little. Also rankings in "language x" always find an algorithm to inflate the leagues of countries that speak "language x." There's no way Liga MX is stronger than the Brasilerao or the Primera Argentina (even Mexicans will admit to that), no way MLS is stronger than the leagues from Colombia, Ecuador, Morocco and Paraguay, and no way that MLS ranks 6 positions above the Championship and 18 above the J-League. Also, due to historic rivalry, all the European sites do their best to underrate everything South American. That's very well known.
I’ll again say that MLS is somewhere between Championship and B2. Are there posters who really feel that that’s not about the right level?
Good thread here. They are at least saying things that people could be optimistic about. conference call with Brian McBride and Earnie Stewart scheduled to start shortly -- I'll post what I can in this thread— scuffed (@scuffedpod) January 13, 2020