Actually did remember him, just couldn't be bothered to go back and edit particularly as one more old Euro guy out of ~600 players didn't really change the narrative. That aside, I don't just go on this forum, I'm already here. Usually only posting in WK-League and Korean WNT threads, but I lurk the K-League threads to stay up to date. I can read Korean, but not well enough to read and fully grasp soccer news in Korean. But I actually do defend K-League as well, to both Americans and Koreans. When I'm back in Seoul a few times per year I drag friends to matches, most of them for the first time, etc.
I agree, hence saying you won't have heard of them yet until they make the jump to a bigger league. You've probably heard of Miguel Almiron now. Maybe Alphonso Davies, Tyler Adams, Zach Steffen, etc. Perhaps Luciano Acosta, although his PSG move fell through last minute last year. These are all guys you'll hear of in the next couple of years as they are already drawing transfer offers from EPL, Bundesliga, etc.
MLS. Get real. 5 years ago, I might've been inclined to say K-League but I don't think these two leagues are comparable in terms of strength.
Agreed. But between crap and turd, MLS is the much lesser turd of the group. And really, the K-League should be scrapped. As it stands, it's unwatchable, unsalvagble and more importantly, irrelevant. We're probably better off by creating a new "premier" league with 5-6 core teams, if even that.
I'm not going to get into the MLS vs K-League debate, but I think the MLS has value as an intermediary league that better resembles Europe than the K-League does, even if the quality of play isn't as good. Relative to the K-League, MLS's player pool is more diverse: there are small, speedy, technical players from South America; big, hulking CBs from across CONCACAF, vets with Premier League and Championship experience; physical players from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe; and a few ex-superstars sprinkled throughout. I would always prefer to send players straight to Europe too, but at the same time, there have been more than a few Koreans who took that route, couldn't adjust to the massive jump in difficulty and washed out of Europe pretty quickly. Also, MLS can be pretty entertaining to watch, and the league gets way better fan support than the K-League. Atlanta routinely sells out their 70,000-seat stadium, LAFC games can get rowdy as hell, and Cascadia rivalry games in Portland have a better atmosphere than many of the European games I've been to. Will always have a soft spot for K-League though. I was a big SIC / Sasa Drakulic fan back in the day.
Honestly wow I didn’t know the state of kleague became like this...if a Korean talent had a Choice of going abroad to Japan or the states I for sure thought that the right choice would have been to stay in Korea but wow looks like that’s not even an option anymore
There was a time when I told a scout working for San Jose earthquakes to look into Korean players playing in the kleague like Lee Ho , LDG, and kim Dong Jin. All players who held stints in Europe and would be gems if you bring them over haha
Close this thread. MLS is not even worth discussing. Europe should be the only goal for our players. No pun intended.
just for fun.. based on top 5 clubs of each league standings https://iffhs.de/the-strongest-national-league-of-the-world-spains-primera-division-again/ Mexico (Liga MX) - 20 Korea (K League) - 28 Japan (J League) - 31 China (CSL) - 38 Iran - 46 USA (MLS) - 52 edit - btw, shouldn't this thread be locked now? unless mods are okay with continuation of pointless flame war. unless the discussed leagues player each other.. like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Pacific_Championship it is all just an opinion and nothing more.
Americans trying to justify their retirement league Lol. How about not losing to Trinidad and Tobago in the World Cup qualifiers?
No one in that entire video is of American descent. You're watching two Englishmen, a Scot, and a Venezuelan talk to a French scout about MLS.
Can't disprove the points in the video, so you bring up their races. Great. I don't want to revive this thread either, but just wanted to point this out.
Sigh... go watch the video, again. They're quite literally not American, so blaming them for the USMNT's struggles is pointless.