welcome to bigsoccer. Just what we were short of, another pro-MLS poster on the USMNT boards. so, what’s the number since it’s way more than regular rookies in the NBA? There are 29 NBA rookies with over 500 minutes and 65 who have played 10 games or more.
Right, but my point, if you'd bothered to read my post at all, is that most of those rookies are negative-value players. Only a few -- this year, probably just Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, Tyler Herro and Brandon Clarke -- are genuinely contributing to winning basketball. Other players (like say a Coby White) are playing because they're on a bad team and are getting developmental minutes. Hence my point that (again, if you'd bothered to read the post at all) there are generally only four or five rookies per year playing winning basketball in the NBA. Even that's a deceptive figure for describing the chasm between the NCAA and NBA because most of those rookies, being rookies, are a year older than their NCAA counterparts. So in reality there are probably like one or two (if that) NCAA players per year who can be teleported into the NBA and contribute to winning basketball. Now, are there more than one or two -- or even four or five -- MLS players who could be rotational players in top European leagues? Sure. The league just imported multiple players who were rotational players in European leagues (e.g. Hernandez and Locaida), so this is a trivially easy bar to clear. You don't have to be a pro-MLS poster, which you've decided I am based on zero evidence, to conclude that.
yep if you make up number to suit you. Again, I never said that the bar was playing winning soccer as you’ve somehow made the argument to be. If winning soccer was the case, we’d have to use the bar at a much higher level than what I stated and it would only likely include players far better than Almiron who isn’t playing winning soccer in the EPL. so which one would you like to focus on: - MLS players who can contribute to “winning soccer” in the Big 4 next year as opposed to this (as if that matters), which puts the bar at above Almiron. Chicharito was barely contributing at WH and Sevilla - that’s why he began his retirement. or - MLS players who can earn time in at least 10 games in the major leagues next year? The bar is 65 players.
Jozy played basically every game for Sunderland at his worst.I am sure that if he was willing to work for less he could be a regular in one of the top 4 leagues as at least a sub. That is the problem with a lot of better MLS guys, they make too much money for the teams that could/would use them or are priced too high by the MLS. If teams are bidding on Aaron Long, you can't tell me that Ike Opera isn't good enough on pure on field merit. As for Almiron, he is a written in ink starter for Newcastle, playing out of position for who knows what reason and his 2 goals is tied for second. https://www.transfermarkt.com/newcastle-united/startseite/verein/762 Chicharito played 1300 minutes and scored 7 PL goals for West Ham last year,making him their #3 scorer. They would have been happy to keep him. https://www.transfermarkt.com/chicharito/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/50935 https://www.transfermarkt.com/west-ham-united/startseite/verein/379/saison_id/2018
the point isn’t that there aren't players who could step up but that those players are the elite players in the league and it’s a small amount even those players aren’t guaranteed to be able to play when confronted with faster and smarter players. who are the players who generally can move up the ladder? usually young athletic rising players who immediately make a splash as teens (not simply getting minutes). This is just like everyone other sport. MLS also has the Downside-of-career players who could likely still play in the majors but are getting worse each year. yet it’s MLS fans who think that Roldan is a guy who could be a 4 year regular in the B1. Cmon. the post that I was responding to tried to refine what I said about college vs pro by making it playing winning basketball rather than the ability to make it in the bigs.
Gregg Berhalter went to Mexico to scout and speak to Ventura Alvarado. Berhalter has had Alvarado on his radar for some time. The March friendlies are a perfect time to give him a long overdue #USMNT call-up: https://t.co/RE2DMkwvPC— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) February 23, 2020 Ventura back in the picture?
Chicharito is done as a major league talent. Great career but he was kicked to the curb by West Ham and completely ineffective at Sevilla. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ha...ggles-for-goals-and-game-time-at-sevilla/amp/
Why is the bar arbitrarily 65 players, or about 10% of MLS? I love it how you make this stuff up. You say there are 29 rookies in the NBA this season getting minutes or whatever. There are over 4500 players in NCAA division 1 to choose from, so that makes it 0.6% that make it to the NBA this year. I dislike your insistence on comparing other sports to soccer. It has very little validity.
cmon. There are 65 NBA rookie who have played in at least 10 games as I stated above and the number who received any minutes at all is far higher. comparing all of division 1 to MLS/B2/Championship is not apple to apples - you’d have to include almost all professional leagues. You can use the top d1 leagues that compete to make the NCAA tournament as a better analog. soccer is like other sports - the amount of minor league players who can step up to the next level is quite low and looking good (eye test) against lower level competition simply isn’t comparable to players who are competing against the best. If you want to believe that the overlap between MLS/Championship/B2 and the big 4 is higher than in other sports, show some data. Or you can say, as usual, I’m not going to do anything to corroborate my belief or even consider data that goes against it.
I'm sure most know my thoughts on Egg so far, but this is great news. Combined with the youth infusion in January (sure, wasn't a huge leap for that camp) and seeing the success of the young players like Uly/Ferreira, as well as the injury to Bradley undermining the caps record requirement (hopefully), I'm feeling more optimistic about Egg. Assuming the slurping sycophant Ives has some inside info on the call-up...if/when he's called up in March, I'll be happy. As long as these guys are getting a chance, that's half the battle. Sure, Egg still needs to pick the right players, which is a HUGE question mark at this point, but he's at least on the right track now.
I'm all for the general comparisons made between minor/major leagues, as you know, but you're going a bit too far with it. This is still a soccer message board. If I want to dissect AAA players and NBA rookies and the NBA mock drafts, I'll go somewhere else. Let's ease up on that, as I think the points you make have outlasted their utility.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least 65 players of Simon Elliott's quality in MLS right now. But I also know nothing about basketball and wouldn't be surprised if DHC1 is correct about the leap from MLS to the EPL being comparable to the leap from the NCAA to the NBA.
He was an average MLS player who impressed Fulham's manager during a pre-season friendly in America, and he was fortunate enough to be able to get a work permit pretty easily. He transferred during the winter break, ended up starting a dozen games for the last half of the season while Fulham finished comfortably midtable, and he didn't really look out of place. Unfortunately, he picked up an injury that sidelined him for the next two years and essentially ended his career (though a couple MLS clubs took a flier on him before letting him go after a season). He's one of a number of players over the years who have convinced me that appearing in a small number of Premier League games for bottom half of the table sides and looking serviceable isn't an extremely high bar to clear, though I'll grant that the quality of the Premier League has improved over the past several years.
A lot of the Euro leagues have foreign player restrictions (EPL is very hard to get signed for because of this) making it hard for veteran MLS types to get interest in most Euro leagues. I don't think a flood of older MLS players would get signed in Europe if those restrictions were removed but I do think there would be a lot more movement than there is now. Opara is a good example. He's a solid CB that could help a lot of lower to middle teams but because of his age and foreign player restrictions he's not worth taking a shot on because any team interested knows a player that's already proven them self is a more sure thing. Use a spot on an older American and they don't work out and the team has severely handicapped themselves.
fair enough. As I’ve said before, I don’t think that players who get a single season and disappear are what I consider major leaguers (Ream, Wood, Jozy). It’s quite different from the Yedlin, Morales, Cameron, et al who have multi year histories of playing at that level.
Very good news. Center Back went from a position of strength to a black hole extremely fast. And Ventura is the most in form CB we have.
I only saw the second half, but I thought Brooks had a solid game today for Wolfsburg in a 4-0 win. He displayed his usual strengths--strong in the air and some really nice long passing. If Alvarado comes back in to the set-up and displays that he has matured in his positional play, he might fit in well in a three-man back line with Brooks. We have several good candidates to play wing back if we can get folks back from injury.
it’s not particularly close IMO if you’re including Bradley, trapp, roldan and Yueill (who is young and has upside).
Does it even matter if, "they could do it," if they don't do it? Even if someone like Opara could go to West Ham and pick up the pace of his game and break into the starting line up, and hang with a bottom table team, he hasn't done it. He doesn't have to pick up the pace of his game, never had to, and that is the player he is. Hyndman couldn't get on the field in the EPL with any regularity, but he instantly displaced the best American MLS midfielder, according to many, in Atlanta. Whether a player could do it is just not important. It doesn't look like Opara is ever going to be relevant to this thread or the USMNT.