While the growth of MLS has clearly improved the quality of the lower tier national teams in CONCACAF, its made it much harder for the club teams as their best players get scooped up, weakening those clubs.
Does a non Mexican team finally winning it and breaking the stronghold held by Liga Mx. does this raise the prestige @Paul Calixte ?
It raises awareness of the tournament, to be sure, and adds to its lore... Let's be clear: Seattle are a blatant outlier in MLS (e.g. never once missing the playoffs). I can count on one hand the other teams here who combine that top-level talent with that much depth, security in goal and reliable young contributors; most of us lose two starters in the 1st half and we're cooked. Mind you, it's been true for a while now as well that not just any Liga MX club can win this. There's a Tier 1 (Monterrey, América), Tier 2 (Pachuca, Tigres, Cruz Azul), and then there's everyone else.
What's still apparent is that only *some* MLS teams really want to win this tournament. Seattle, Real Salt Lake, Toronto, Montreal are certain bets that they want to win. LAFC really looked like they wanted it in their one try. The rest I'm not sure about.
I see Leon have already qualified for the next edition. Their CCL performance in particular has been very disappointing for three straight years. Let’s see if they can finally step it up in year four.
Their previous CCL appearance wasn't any better: showing up with two straight league titles under their belt, only to get knocked out by Herediano in the group stage and nearly start a brawl in the last game in Costa Rica.
What MLS should do to motivate other teams is give the Sounders a big gold star on their shirt below the crest.
I really don’t think mls teams need much motivation. The simple USA vs Mexico rivalry does translate over and once they start playing, players start talking smack and the mls team does absolutely want to defeat the Mexican opposition in front of them
I don't get this idea of professional soccer players not wanting to win a continental competition. Sounds to me more like fan made excuses for lackluster performances.
Oh no, it was a very real thing at the outset. I distinctly remember DC United's Santino Quaranta publicly sharing his ennui at having to play CCL, right around the time Saprissa was helping them find the exit
I don't get it either, but yeah it's very real.... There's an odd fixation in the US that winning the domestic league is more important that the international competitions. I guess I can see two potential reasons for it: one, a bit of a cultural knock-on from other big sports in the US where the US league *is* the premier league in the world (which is not the case in soccer), and two, IIRC the earlier years of the CCL weren't that great in terms of prize money, so in a literal sense the domestic championship was worth more (and was more attainable).
The other part is that MLS teams are absolutely loathe to play other competitions in the middle of their playoff push. Best thing Concacaf did to help the tournament catch on here was (with MLS's input, mind) opt for no more CCL in September and October.
??? They were in the initial proposal, but the final CCL expansion announcement clarified that there will be no group stage: rather, leagues and regional tournaments (Leagues Cup, a 20-team Central American cup, and a 10-team Caribbean Cup) will feed into the CCL proper. So for MLS teams, Leagues Cup (presumably in July, or up to mid-August at the latest) will be the last international engagement of the calendar year.
Let’s be as precise as possible… 21 Jan 2001 - LA Galaxy (yes, the 2000 CCC was played in 2001) 4 May 2022 - Seattle Sounders That makes...21 years, 3 months, and 14 days. Someone born in January 2001 would have just now been able to have their first legal drink in a bar. I still remember the mood in the MLS camp after the Galaxy victory. The general feeling was that MLS had caught up to Liga MX, having won two of the last three Concacaf titles. I was quite skeptical of that conclusion but not even I predicted a dry spell of more than two decades.