Hi all, This is my first post here. Welcome to me! I was wondering what the consensus view is on how MLS compares to other leagues around the world. Personally, I think that obviously La Liga, Serie A, the EPL, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 are better, and the Eredivisie is probably also better. But what about the second tier European leagues, like the Danish, Belgian, Norwegian, Portugese etc? There's really no way to know an answer, but I'm inclined to think that MLS teams could hold their own against such leagues (didn't San Jose recently beat Sporting Lisbon in a couple of exhibition matches?) Probably the better question is how MLS compares to leagues throughout CONCACAF. Is it better than the Mexican league? How would the top teams in the MLS fare in a CONCACAF champions league? (Or does one already exist and receive very little attentioin? I'm guessing not) Ok, chew on those questions. Bill
The more things change, the more they stay the same... Welcome to BigSoccer, fischerw. It may interest you that this subject has been beat to death around here in the past. No shame in that, but just to let you know what can of worms you just opened.
You'll get flak for asking this question because, in the end, it really shouldn't matter how leagues around the world "rank". Just pick an MLS team to follow and let that be your team until the day you die (that is if they don't relocate of course ). Other than that team, all others are the enemy. All other leagues are nice to watch, but your's is the one where the result really matter. If you do this, you'll grow to love MLS...I guarantee it. If you truely are a fan of the game of soccer, you should be able to extract some amount of pleasure from watching any game...whether its the World Cup final or some kids kicking around a ball of tape in Brazil.
The reason you're not getting responses to the questions you posed, fischerw, is because they pop up continually on Bigsoccer and have been debated ad nauseam. Most of the regulars just roll their eyes whenever they come up again. If you'd like, you can do a search for the old threads and participate in those discussions. There is a CONCACAF Champions Cup, by the way. MLS teams have sometimes done well (the Galaxy and D.C. United each won the competition once), but usually only when the tournament games have been in the United States. On the road, their record has been mediocre at best, and embarrassing at worst. Neither the MLS teams nor the teams from the Mexican league seem to take the games all that seriously. That could change if FIFA ever gets that World Club Championship tournament going again and offers some real prize money for it, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Hey folks, sorry to touch off frustration and to bring up things that had already been (not to my knowledge) dragged through the mud. I suppose the more responsible thing would have been to search old threads before starting a new one. Sorry. But just to clear things up here, I in no way meant to suggest that it "matters" where the MLS ranks among other clubs, nor did I hope to choose one side or the other. I simply wanted to get a sense of what peoples' opinions were. I was motivated purely by curiosity, not by agenda. Also, my post misled many of you about what my opinions are. I love the MLS (though I haven't yet come to follow one team specifically, mostly since I've never lived very near one). But I enjoy watching all soccer, and the differences in play between various leagues is what spurred me to ask the question. Bill
Has your curiosity motivated you to hit the search function? You'd have got better responses by bumping up and older thread.
You know that has happened, right? This was in the news no more than 2 days ago. Apparently it is scheduled to start up next year in December, to be played in Japana I believe, and the Concacaf Champions Cup winner will be awarded a spot. Total prize money for the tournament ..................... $15 million smackaroos.