How do you think that the A League currently compairs in its level of play to Divisions 2 or 3 in England? I have been impressed with what I consider to be vast improvements in the A League over the past few years, but I must admit that I see no lower division matches in England. I would love to hear what people think.
I have never seen a D2 or D3 english game but here is my opionin. I think D2 english teams would mostly beat the A-League and I think D3 would be even. But that is me never seeing an English Nationwide game.
We probably will never know. It is very unlikely that anything other than an off season friendly or an exihibition of some sort would happen and we all know that they are more about bringing the team together or a post season tour. That said, I've seen several D2 and D1 (and Premire) matchs in England and I think that a top A-league club would be pretty evenly matched with the Division 2 clubs and would hold their own against a few D1 clubs. While not English football, Charleston Battery played Peubla FC and beat them solidly with 10 players from early on. The match was pretty intense the whole time but the Battery was resting several starters and was trying out some young talent as well. Im sure Peubla wasn't playing at full strength either though. Could I say Charleston is better that Mexican 1st Division football. Charleston was supposed to play Ipswich (they were in the premireship at the time) a couple years ago and again last season but both times the matches were cancelled for different reasons I hope Charleston brings in a division one team in this season. Mikey
Based on the people that I know that have been able to see both A-league and Conference games I've reached the following conclusions. The A-league is roughly equally to a lower Division Two or upper level 3. That being said I personally think three or four A-league teams could also play comfortably in Division one.
I know that MLS players that have played in Division I have had very simular levels of success. Brian McBride, Ben Olsen, Eddie Lewis, Marcus Hannemann(old A League player), Stern John, etc., all seem to have achieved at about the same level in D1 after coming over from MLS. Does anyone know of any A League players that have played in Divisions 2 or 3?
This is a very interesting post. I too have noticed a difference in level of play (larger than in most leagues) depending on the team in the A League. Though I have to admit, I was surprised at the quality of play of some of the "lower" teams like Hampton Roads. They played a brand of soccer that was better than I expected.
I've seen plenty of Div 2 football, but I've also seen one A-League game between Rochester and Long Island. The play didn't strike me as noticeably higher or lower than the football I was used to watching, although clearly Rochester were the better team. Based on that rather flimsy evidence I'd say Rochester would have a good chance of getting out of Div 2, but Long Island would not be safe from dropping out of the other end of the division. One thing that does complicate matters is the speed & intensity of English football. The A-League game was played at a slower pace and wasn't very physical, giving players more time on the ball and much easier to play crisp passes. If someone watched lower division English football for the first time they could be forgiven for thinking that technically English players are poor because more passes go astray - but you have to also consider that players get much less time to make the pass as they are being pressured all the time.
Onandi Lowe (Richmond & Rochester) is currently playing for Rushden & Diamonds in the English 3rd division. He was a big physical handful for A-league defenders & scored pots of goals, and it's ditto for the competition in England.
I'd suppose that the pace in English football would be slower if they had to play schedules similar to A-League teams, what with 3 games in 5 nights and back to back scenarios. Same goes for physical play.
The Battery's Paul Conway played in Division 1, 2 and 3 leagues (Carlisle United and Northampton Town) before joining the Battery. While there, he played in 2 Auto Windscreens Cup finals in Wembley, winning one of them. Not many Americans can say they've won a Cup medal at Wembley.
You left out other factors that slow down some A-League games (as well as MLS): heat and humidity. And esp. in some A-League venues, horrific playing surfaces. I have to say, though, I really enjoyed watching the lower division (including the non-League teams) playing in the FA Cup on Fox Sports World. And I look forward to the day when inappropriate venues (like in, oh, say Pittsburgh) no longer cut into my enjoyment of A-League matches.
Actually a friend was reading this thread on my computer before I responded and he brought up the heat and humidity factor as well, I just didn't want to steal his thought!
There was a friendly a couple of years back between a USL Select team and a Select team from the English Non-League teams. The English won that game 2-1.
If I remember correctly it was all American players, very few from the A-League and very young ones at that. They played a few games overseas. Anyway you slice it, they didn't really represent the A-League in any way. I bet a top A-League team would do better playing a full season overseas in division 2 or 3 than a division 2 or 3 team would do playing a full season in the A-League. They wouldn't be able to hack what A-League players have to put up with in a season.
How often do teams play 3 times in a week? Div 2 & 3 teams play a mimimum of 49 games a season, so playing twice a week is very common. One thing I have heard said is that the squads of American teams generally don't have much depth to them. I'd say even Div 3 teams have squads of 30 players, and youth teams to possibly draw players from below that. As some of you have seen Div 2 & 3 teams in the FA cup, how do you rate the teams you've seen?
Game Watched Plymouth - D&R and wasn't too impressed with Plymouth, very little passing, long balls were very inacurate, didn't seem to have much pace. Maybe wishfull thinking on my part but I think the Sounders are a better team.
In the A-League teams frequently play 3 or more game in a 7 day span. Also you have to remember the great distance that A-League teams travel to away games. They don't just play one away game and get home the same night to sleep in their own beds. On long road trips the players are away from home for more than a week. Heres an example of some of Vancouvers schedule from last season. In July Vancouver played a home game on the 14th travelled across the country (3 time zones difference) and played in Montreal on the 17th and Toronto on the 19th. So that was 3 games (and a trip across Canada) in 6 days. In August they played games on the 11th, 15th, and 17th, the final game which was played in El Paso which is a tremendous distance away from Vancouver. Vancouver three times played games back to back (May 18th and May 19th, June 8th and 9th, and Sept 1st and 2nd). many times they played games with only one days rest in between (not much rest as they were travelling the days between the game). In 2001 Vancouver had to fly out to El Paso to play a game and the next day had to be back in Vancouver to play another. That type of schedule is indicitive of the type of schedule A-League teams have to put up with, some teams have it worse. It's no wonder the play seems slow to others used to watching other leagues play.
Re: Game How did D&R look? Didn't see the match so would be curious to know what the level of play is in the Conference -- of course D&R are nowhere near as good as Yeovil Town, our entry in the crossover league C'mon you Glovers!!
D & R D & R were playing at home, I think the comentators remarked that it was a narrow pitch, Plymouth went to a 4-3-3 but didn't appear to utilize the extra front runner and kind of lost the midfield. D & G basically outworked them.