2021 Leagues Cup

I like making the losing commissioner present it.

 

mistakes? Depends on what you follow. Seattle or MLS in general plays more of an aggressive/physical style while Liga MX is more technical. Seattle committed 17 fouls and 4 yellow cards when there should have been more yellows for Seattle. IMO, these are signs of frustration by Seattle. Seattle did have good spurts but when the changes were made by Leon, Seattle looked lost and the second goal by Seattle was by chance. However, Seattle did put up a decent fight in spurts but did look confused at times.Ruidiaz is a good 9 despite 9s being a bit bigger in stature

 

Everything is a money grab tournament. I don't get where people get the idea that a business would spend money only for the good of a sport and the entertainment of people without them getting anything in return.

 

Nobody is arguing about a business getting a return. McDonald’s is one of the most successful fast food franchises but it doesn’t take from the fact that their food is garbage

 

If it were garbage then it wouldn't be growing.

 

What is growing?

 

You aren't paying attention? Leagues Cup is growing to include everyone. You might think its garbage yet pretty sure you watch the game which is what the people behind Leagues Cup want. If it makes money it makes sense.


The day it stops making the money and the day people stop watching that will be the day they will stop making Leagues Cup.

 

What a disaster this year has been for the "closing the gap" narrative. Next week we get to see Columbus get rolled on...

At least we won the ASG... lol

 

With nine major honors since MLS was founded in 2009, I think Seattle qualifies as one of the top teams ever in MLS.

Thx,

Jay!

 

If Columbus wins: lol at this cash grab game. So meaningless, so stupid.

If Columbus loses: disastrous result! Why doesn’t MLS want to compete?

 

Seattle is considered one of MLS' best franchises, although it should be noted that they are missing two of their best players in Morris and Lodeiro that cumulatively represent approximately 1/3 of their payroll. MLS teams don't currently have the depth to overcome those kind of top-end personnel losses relative to Liga MX.

A few other thoughts (not specifically related to your post):

- MLS is a parity league relative to Liga MX and you should be careful extrapolating too much from the results of the top Liga MX teams vs the top MLS teams. In a previous post, I included data that showed that the Liga MX CCL representatives took 50% more points from their league opponents than their MLS counterparts did from theirs over the current calendar year. In the case of Leon vs Seattle, the Sounders have earned about 18% more of their maximum achievable league points.

- For all the complaints about home-field advantage benefiting MLS, their squads are often essentially visitors in their own stadiums. Kudos to the fans of the Mexican teams for showing up, but it's not something we should be making significant adjustments for when we assess relative league quality.

- A certain portion of the Liga MX fanbase is frankly delusional about both the size of the gap and the rate of improvement of MLS and what it means for the future. A Mexican fan recently compared Liga MX to La Liga and MLS to the Bulgarian league which is laughably arrogant and naive.

- MLS will catch and surpass Liga MX in the near- to mid-term (as will the USMNT at the national team level) and some of your fellow fans are clearly going to have a hard time coping with the transition to the new power structure. That doesn't mean that Liga MX and the Mexican National Team won't be good (as they will likely be even better than they are today), but a basic analysis of trends, growth potential and relative structural limitations bears this prediction out. It should be noted that it will take a bit longer for the top MLS teams to catch and surpass the best of Liga MX.

- Ultimately it won't matter a bit as, despite what we think on this board, soccer is utterly unimportant in the greater scheme of things. What I care about for Mexicans and Mexican Americans (and frankly everyone) is that they continue to make material gains in their overall health, prosperity, happiness and other substantive measures of a high-quality life.

 

Didn't have a chance to catch the game, but the attendance of ~25k seems to be what a potential MLS team would strive for. How did the crowd sound/look? Would it actually be feasible having a team there that only pulls about 15k-20k a game?

 

Home field advantage isn't just "noise in the stands". It's not having to travel, eating what you are used to, and sleeping in your own bed surrounded by family (as opposed to a hotel). Not to mention intimate knowledge of field dimensions and turf (especially if artificial). These things matter at the professional level.

It's difficult to take the Leagues Cup serious until some games are played in Mexico.

 

I didn't actually watch the game, but from what I understand, there was a sizeable Sounders fan there. But you also have to take in account the LigaMX club.. I don't believe Leon is one of the teams with a large US fanbase. So, if you have a MLS team with a large fanbase vs a LigaMX team with a large fan base and you could have an even larger crowd there.. The opposite would, obviously be true.

 

It didn't look like there were many Sounders fans there.

 

My sources may be extremely biased. That being said, the most popular Sounders jerseys are not the rave greens, so it's not as simple as looking for that jersey anymore.

 

Oh I actually meant for a potential 30th MLS team located in Vegas, which everyone seems to think is a foregone conclusion at this point...but fair point on the teams playing, could easily see double that if it was America v. LA Galaxy perhaps.

 

The current Vegas based teams seem to get pretty good attendance? I'm not sure why we'd expect the MLS club to be any different? Assuming their FO is reasonably competent, of course.

 

Honestly the 25k in Allegiant did not look good. This seems to be the type of stadium that needs to at least sell out the lower deck to look decent. As for noise - VERY loud when Leon had chances, not so much for Sounders, though the famous "SEATTTTTTLLEEEEEE SOUNDERRRRRSSSSSS" chant came across well. Friendly atmosphere overall - oohs and aaahs mostly with little singing or chanting.

 

Anyone remember what the attendance was for the 2019 final? 24,824 for the final. So even if the tournament doesn't get bigger I think it could've been 30k this year without the pandemic situation, or 50k if Club America or Chivas were in the final. Not bad.

EDIT: It was 20,132, so a nice improvement this season despite the circumstances.

 

Don Garber literally said "look at this great crowd, and this is only an exhibition".

 

Yeah.. Definitely more of an open bowl layout than a stacked deck layout that Atlanta and Seattle have. There's not really a way to "hide" the empty seats in Vegas.

 

Leon players and coaches sure partied like they had just secured their very first regional trophy. The optics on that did show well and so did the kids in the stands in Chivas gear going bananas when Leon scored. It appears this Cup Final meant alot to Leon fans, hinchas, players, coaches and even rival fans. take from this what one will.

For sure, cuz that is one massive new stadium out there in Las Vegas. One would think that any owner of MLS-Las Vegas would want his or her own stadium to control home dates and all the other assets that are so beneficial of utilizing a smaller, soccer specific stadium.

 

Of course now they need to follow it up with a good performance in the 2022 CCL. Tigres were a laughing stock in Mexico for many years when their only trophy in the "international" cabinet was the 2009 Superliga (cover your ears Revolution fans ).

That only changed with the 2020 CCL title and thereafter reaching the 2020 Club World Cup final against Bayern Munich.