On any given day an MLS team can beat Hull

I'm not saying anything about a conspiracy, and I think honestly it has more to do with being young, raw, and not English, as opposed to being specifically American. I think Jozy is being handled fine, but he probably would have been better off playing a year or two in MLS to polish himself a bit.

Scoring or an otherwise a strong performance in the WC brings attention to you as a serious player in a way that is hard to achieve coming out of MLS without good international performances. The WC got him a look, but Dempsey earned his spot. Without the WC goal, Hodgens wouldn't know him from a hole in the wall.

 

You did shoot yourself in the foot a bit there, as it was Chris Coleman who signed Dempsey for Fulham. Since then there has been Lawrie Sanchez & now Roy Hodgson. What you did here is show how people will by nature know less about countries they are not related to - players, clubs, etc from Holland are of lesser importance to me than Ireland by nature, for examples. Clubs as far areach as America will of course then be far less noticed, especially when the overall level of player, club, etc is not very noteworthy related to in Hodgson's case, England.

Don't want to cause confusion here btw, this is not a knock on the MLS. I think there is a good job being done there in steadily improving the league, and they have done a good job of getting some decent names in without becoming an ageing league as far as I know. Their biggest downside outside of not being in UEFA is the draft system though... as much as I agree with this system and think it could do a world of wonders here if all the players had to get a proper education and were by-and-large kept 'in check' until their early/mid 20s, it is going to make it nigh-on impossible to hold onto your best young talents consistently (which is absolutely key to consistently improving a leagues level of play).

 

You are a clueless, moronic, fucking cretin.

 

PMSL!!!! hahaha good one

 

Look at this report at imscouting

i copied the report down, by the result they are pretty bad......(November was not that bad thow)


Matches report: Teams success rate by month
Month% Success July22.22% August38.89% September 0.00% October33.33% November66.67% December16.67%

 

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Nonsense. It's to do with being young and raw. Young English players have an equally difficult time establishing themselves in the Premier League.

 

Perhaps you should have said "it has nothing to do with being not English. It's more about being young and raw." Seems you agree with two out of three of my points.

BillyIreland - You clearly are a reasonable person and understand reality. Fair enough about Hodgson not signing Dempsey, but honestly, I don't give a damn about who signed Dempsey for Fulham. That wasn't the point. The point was that performance at the international level will get you far more opportunties than playing well in the MLS for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I don't expect to know every fine point of EPL happenings to know quality from crap and see certain patterns.

That being said, I probably watch many more ELP games than most British watch MLS games. That's not bragging or a criticism. THe EPL is a better league, and if you want to watch that level of team, you can watch Championship or Scottish teams. MLS is probably equal to the lower table to Championship and the upper table of League One. The better teams in MLS would be able to play competitively with most teams in Championship, but they certainly wouldn't be challenging for promotion. Columbus or LA would be at least mid table teams in Scotland. I don't see a team like Motherwell running the Revolution or Crew or Galaxy off the field. I've been in the 5th row for a Scottish Cup semifinal. It looks rather similar to the MLS in terms of speed and skill.

 

Scotland is a small nation. MLS teams should be as good as if not better than ours.

 

I believe it is better, other than the teams who have the money to spend, ie Rangers and Celtic, and to a lesser degree, Hearts and Hibs. The greater overall popularity of the sport allows a few teams to have the money to bring in outside talent, like an EPL team, or their big market teams. MLS has rules against this and a salary cap, so that the league doesn't turn into another NASL with New York signing every over hill superstar while the rest of the league starves.

 

I know. What I was getting at is that it's hardly an achievement.

 

Scottish self-deprecation...I love it. Classic. LOL.

But seriously, it depends on the way you look at it. Soccer is at best the 5th most popular team sport in the US. 20 years ago there was no professional men's soccer in the US. Until just a few years ago, I couldn't bare to watch an MLS game. It's somewhat of an achievement that we've manage to develop ourselves a reasonable second rate league. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have given a top MLS team much of a chance against Dundee.

So I guess that's progress. The MLS is nothing to brag about, but it has gotten better and will continue to get better.

 

If it was a national sport we'd have won the gold for the last 100 years.

 

You guys give MLS more credit than they are worth and Scottish league less credit then they are due. MLS clubs have not achieved anything in the international level. I'd rate MLS lower than J-league/K-league. The AFC has certiantly stepped it up a notch in terms of domestic leagues especially the east asian leagues (IE K and J league.) AFC is definitely has the best leagues outside of Europe and South America in my opinion. The Middle Eastern Leagues are quickly gaining strength by buying all the old retired players from European leagues/ South American leagues. I don't know much about the mexican league but they are certianly the best in the CONCACAF. I'd rate Scottish leagues better than the J-league and K-league as a whole. The J-league and K-leauge clubs probably can play at the level of lower PL club and around mid table scottish league club. MLS teams play at mid table to lower scottish league clubs.

 

j and k league play at the level of the prem? riiiiiiiiight

 

Read it again.

 

lower level of the prem is still a big assumption

the championship is a very good standard too...

 

I meant to say the Top 4 clubs in K-league and J-league = the lower PL clubs. Well my assumptions are based on how well we play in FIFA world cup club and how well be play against European clubs that do the during Asian tour. FIFA world cup is a decent indicator for how well other clubs around the world are.

AFC clubs have got 3rd place 3 years in a row in the FIFA world cup. This summer FC Seoul almost beat Manchester United's first team.

 

...in a friendly. Reading almost deservedly beat Chelsea in a friendly this year too. It didn't say too much about the quality of the two teams.

 

big sides treat the club world cup as friendly matches, yet brazilians act like it is better than the champs league

some mad people on these boards

 

I'm jumping in a little (OK, a lot) late here but all of Hull's forwards really are shit. Craig Fagan? C'mon man! Hesselink is a decent enough player but Brown sees him as a supersub. In all fairness, Altidore has played a decent amount and still has no league goals. However, he had a run of 4 straight league starts during November in which Hull actually scored 9 goals eek. They won 2 of those games and drew the other 2. Neither Jozy nor Hull have fared as well in December so far, and Brown preferred carthorse Fagan up front alone at Arsenal last time out, but that isn't to say Jozy isn't taking steps forward in a pretty shit team. He's only just turned 20 after all and patience is a virtue

 

Remind me how many league goals Altidore has scored this season?

 

he scored in the confed cup, that all important tournament everyone cares about...so he must be amazing....right?