The Union have made the playoffs twice in 8 years. The Earthquakes have made it 3 times in 10 years. Those teams are both straight garbage.
If the tournament stays as is, MLS teams should disproportionately outperform expectation based off the roster. Bracket only style means fewer games to test depth. Being early in the MLS season also means fewer injuries to account for (I realize Seattle is the exception this year). And MLS is willing to manipulate the schedule to allow teams to rest their starters whereas Liga MX is not. That last point is highlighted by the LMX teams this weekend. Chivas was close to being in a playoff spot but decided to rest most of their line-up and ended up losing to a team facing relegation. If Chivas miss the playoffs yet again, as is likely, Almeyda is going to face more heat. That's why many coaches wouldn't take the risk. Herrera has taken the complete opposite approach with America. He has played the A line-up last week against Cruz Azul, midweek against Toronto, last night against Necaxa, and likely again against Toronto on Tuesday. Even though America has depth, it's not being used. Not only are the players likely to be tired, but one of America's top playmakers (Cecilio Dominguez) is doubtful to play because he picked up a non-contact muscle injury which seems caused by fatigue. That's not to make an excuse if America fails to advance since it is entirely self-inflicted. A playoff spot is practically guaranteed at this point so I wanted to rest the starters against Necaxa. But MLS takes those decisions out of the self-interested coach's hands which should improve results.
Chivas is all in for the CCL, it's do or die for Almeyda. If he wins the CCL the season could be overlooked, failing in both and I can unfortunately see him being gone.
El Piojo's arrogance is hilarious to watch. Match preparation? What's that? TFC has spent a lot of preseason in Mexico, partly to know what playing in altitude feels like. TFC has also been training in Pachuca since Thurs to reacclimatize to altitude. And TFC knows that they can compete against Liga MX first teams. Respect Azteca and Club America. But not intimidated.
I respect you for not embarrassing them by pointing out their error. Instead, you just went along with it and endured the awkward situation. Props to you, sir.
Based on things like tranfermarket numbers there is a gap, which is undeniably rapidly been closing. But based on watching the games, the margin for error has been bigger than the gap. Money matters - One big difference between the two leagues is that players are willing to play at a discount in MLS whereas in Mexico they most likely want a premium. Zlatan's not going to come to LigaMx $1.5MM per year. The supposed $97 million discount vs China is clearly extreme, but quality of life, relatively respectful fans/press, green cards etc are very attractive to many players. North American based players are also paid at a significant discount due to the fact that teams aren't paying to value they create, but instead what the league is able to negotiate. While this model is starting to become unproductive in more situations, it still reduces the impact of budget differences. Take fivethirtyeight.com analysis based on the last 5 years. According to them the difference is as follows: Country Confederation Interleague competition Market value Overall strength Mexico CONCACAF 1.12 0.93 1.09 USA CONCACAF 0.54 0.66 0.56 As a result the highest ranked team, Toronto is supposedly closer to the average LigaMx team than their best. League Average Best Worst Liga MX 252.9 132 401 Major League Soccer 366.0 208 441 Red Bull was at 311 when and Tijuana 235 when they won series 5-1 aggregate. This is the problem when you try to apply historical data to current situations, when the current conditions are vastly different than the historical conditions that drive the model.
No matter what the results are going forward, MLS teams have significantly outperformed expectations of most. Fair point about MLS as a league making some adjustments as the is clearly beneficial. But playing in pre-season is like your entire roster coming off injuries as opposed to a fraction of the players. Also since most injuries are short term, I'm not sure there is a significant difference week to week throughout the season. Galaxy in their game against LAFC had half their starting line-up out due to injuries.
PROGRAMMING NOTE Just a friendly to all fans of the CCL that the return legs of the semis this week ARE NOT spread out over 2 days , but rather will both wrap up tomorrow. UDN will have the tv coverage and Go90 will be streaming. All Times Eastern: Univision Deportes Network will have live coverage NY Red Bulls vs Chivas Guadalajara @ 8 pm Red Bull Arena (Chivas leads 1-0 on agg) Club America vs Toronto FC @ 10 pm Estadio Azteca (TFC leads 3-1 on agg)
I didn't know they changed that. The 2016 CCL had overtime in semis (America needed it to beat Santos). PS: Looks like it got changed this year, see page 7: https://res.cloudinary.com/concacaf...ank_CONCACAF_Champions_League_Regulations.pdf
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Almeyda on Pereira: V strange. It’s uncomfortable that a team with only Mexicans may reach the final.America's Herrera: It seems like they want to force a gringo team (into final).Pereira: Mex teams have been in the Club WC. Now they want to have a team from USA.#ligamxeng— Tom Marshall (@mexicoworldcup) April 10, 2018 Working the refs early. Phil Jackson would be proud.