Zimmerman to SV Kapfenberg (Austria) [R]

I completely disagree that the austrian leauge is better than MLS. I lived in Vienna for 6 months last year and saw plenty of austrian vienna and rapid matches and I can very solidly say that outside the top 4, non of those teams would compete in an entire season of MLS.

 

let me just emphasize again that the MLS/US soccer is a horrible environment for a player.

1- you've got a bunch of coaches who were, with a few exceptions, never any good themselves.
2- soccer in the US is more full of politics than in any other country i've encountered.
3- the journalists, the fans, and even the players are uneducated in the sport and create a poor environment.
4- there's NO money in it.
5- There's no proper feeding system, which leads to a general lack of quality in your average player
6- the mls owns all contracts of the players(what the f***), and the season ends in a playoff...(WHAT THE F***)

My main point, and back to the main topic: If Preston can become one of the best players in the Austrian Bundesliga, then I think he's more warrenting of a place in the national team than any MLS player.

 

Sean Franklin, Brandon McDonald, Chad Marshall, Boukary Soumare, Maurice Edu, Michael Harrington, Dane Richards, Adam Cristman, Jonathan Bornstein, Mehdi Ballouchy, among others I'm sure.

 

Haha, don't forget they play most of the season in the dead of summer in 90+ degree heat, which tends to make stamina more important than skill.

 

Biased much? Jaqua is an average MLS forward and he was scoring every other match for Altach last year and pretty much saved them from relegation. Austrian BL is on par with MLS AT BEST. The best teams are a bit better than the best in MLS, but not all that much and the rest of MLS is significantly better than the teams outside the top 4 in Austria.

 

i was about to mention that but i edited it out. some US players seem to think that the only thing between them and maradona is how fast they can run two miles. skill skill skill! not enough US players have it.

 

Are you proud that the US is ALMOST as good as Austria in soccer. there are 7 million people here, most of them would rather watch skiing than soccer, and yet their league is better than ours.

most of the judgement on how good a league is is based on how good the top four teams are. when you admit that the top four teams here are better all i understand is that you're conceding that the austrian bundesliga is better.

 

First of all there are 8 million here, not 7.


I would take the U.S. against Austria all day long, but that isn't even the discussion.

The top 4 (really only the top 3 if you ask me) are slightly better in Austria than in MLS, but there is a massive drop off in quality after those top 4 in Austria. That is not the case in MLS, and seeing as how I don't view those top four as so clearly outclassing their American counterparts, I would definitely argue that MLS is already a stronger league. Even if you want to argue that it isn't, it is not that far off, which doesn't say that much for Austria when you consider that MLS is only 12 years old now.

 

Ah, this brings up the 1976 Olympics and Franz Klammer flying downhill in Innsbruck.

In any case, regardless of how the two leagues match up had they ever played each other mano-a-mano, the Austrian B-liga plays a lot more like a typical Euro league than MLS.

And that makes it a better prep league for the future endeavors than MLS.

PS. Shouldn't the pro-MLS smack choose a more appropriate time to speak on its greatness ... like when its teams actually do beat Joe Public and Saprissa?

 

Point taken. Maybe more specifically I would say that I think the top MLS teams are a fair match for their Austrian counterparts given a well-rested and healthy first XI. If there is one sore spot that really sticks out about MLS sides it is the real lack of quality depth. That is definitely a deficiency.

 

This is a comparison of apples and fruit cocktail due to the cartel structure of MLS.

 

How does that really alter the argument?

 

No pro/rel ,players contracts owned by the league, a salary cap,roster size,allocations,reverse order drafting,even the 60 percent playoff pool,all have a tendency to manufacture parity.

I'm not arguing whether that's a good or bad thing,just pointing out that the great imbalances that exist in (let's be honest) all European pro leagues simply do not occur in MLS.

 

I'm not arguing that they don't. In fact, that pretty much supports what I am saying. I don't think the best teams in Austria are really that much better than the best in MLS, and given MLS's goofy structure, the worst team in MLS is much close in quality to the league best than the Austrian equivalents are, and I would therefore argue that the league is on the whole stronger. I am fully aware of the differences, but I don't see that they really preclude comparing the two leagues.

 

It once again depends on whether we're describing a one-off competition,or results against common opponents over a couple seasons.

In any case,I do wonder how Preston Zimmerman's doing...

 

Right, my point was that I think if Zimmerman does well in Austria then maybe he deserves a look with the national team. does he get to play often with the U23 national team? I know I saw that he's at least in the player pool for them.

 

He didn't make the last Olympic team (unsurprisingly, given the talent level of that squad) and, since he's an '88, his youth career is over now. The next U23s will be '89s and younger.

 

Bruno Guarda and FCD's season really took off once he did.

 

Kapfenberg are up 2-0 at home against Mattersburg at halftime. Three points would go a long way towards preventing relegation. Zimmerman is playing, but uninvolved in both goals as far as I can tell.

 

2-1 now, 53rd minute.

 

Kapfenberg hold on for the win. Zimmerman was taken out in the 69th minute. Kapfenberg are now 5 points clear of the drop zone thanks to the win and an Altach loss.

 

Kapfenberg is playing their first game back after their Winter Break. Zimmerman apparently started and scored their first goal in the 11th minute.

http://livescore.com/

 

Yep:

"Tooor für KSV Superfund -> Preston Zimmerman Pass von Pavlov, Zimmermann läuft sich frei und schlenzt den Ball genau in die rechte Ecke."

Pass from Pavlov, Zimmerman runs free and shoots the ball right into the right corner.

That's his second goal of the year. KSV are winning 2-0 in the 60th minute.

 

KSV won 2-1. Preston got a yellow card in the 76th and was taken out in extra time, probably as a time wasting measure.