If MLS is compared to UCL then you all must have MLS on some pretty big standards. I'm okay with that. That just means that you all know individually each Euro league won't be able to be compared to MLS and that's why an entire Euro Tournament needs to be compared to MLS. Might as well compare MLS vs Conmebol too while we are at it.
Or we could combine Liga MX and MLS if the order of the day is to ignore the fundamental difference between continental competitions like the UCL/ CCC and regular domestic leagues.
Clubs playing across federations are pretty common. For instance, there are currently five Welsh teams playing in the English system. The funny thing is that the current Welsh representative for the UEFA Champion's League, The New Saints, is an English-Welsh merger team playing in the Welsh League and is currently located in England. Most other teams playing across federations are from micronations like FC Andorra and Victor San Marino or the whole of Lichtenstein clubs or small border towns of larger federations like the above The New Saints. Most of these play in smaller leagues so it's not exactly apples to apples with MLS' three Canadian clubs in the US' first division. However, there is one very similar example. The Australian A-League has two teams from New Zealand. That is all.
The Canadian MLS teams predating the CPL also adds context to why they play in MLS. And of course there are those like our Canadian friend Borden who think a divorce is inevitable at some point.
My point was that mls nr 30 isnot competing for players with non existing number 30 in domestic leagues, but competing with not only the top 30 of the CL, but also with at least 12 of the EL contenders for players costing 10 million or more. Both the Chinese league and the Saudi league clubs have/can pay way more money for a player and pay way more money to the player in salary than what the "poorest" clubs in the CL or the EL can afford. Yet nobody talks about those leagues.
Some quibbles. China has radically reduced spending since over five years ago. The Saudis have been more consistent and I think that the league does draw some attention. Likewise, MLS has been fairly consistent and has their quota of attention. Whatever the situation, both of these leagues have plans a bit more forward looking and growth seeking than say, Japan or Greece. I think that this is not the last we have heard from China but for the moment they have scaled back.
Yup, but my point still stands, the mls-competition is with over 40 clubs for 10 million+ players, not with bottom dwellers of individual leagues.
He just miss word it, I think. We all know aside from Argentina and MLS no other leagues have 30 teams. But my guess is that his main point was that the bottom of the barrel MLS team has the money to spend more than the bottom of the barrel of majority of teams from any Euro league. And that gap will only get bigger as the MLS salary cap increases. I hope big salary cap changes are coming in 2028. I would assume MLS isn't going to change its calender to mirror the European calendar just to continue penny pinching.
Assuming I am interpreting your post correctly, than your post ignores the reality that soccer is global business. MLS also competes with those same CL and EL contenders for players. Of course the largest overlap in the pool of players they are competing for are young South American players. MLS does get some young Euro players but I think the vast majority stay in Europe.
Anyone paying attention to what Agyemang is doing in the Championship which is highly overrated by USMNT fans? Did Agyemang improved that much in such a short period of time or is he doing the exact same thing he was doing in MLS which USMNT fans say it is so easy to score in?
Derby County plays direct and physical and it fits Pat. In general, Championship has more clubs playing that style. MLS teams are much more transitional. That's why MLS keeps selling those big boys to Championship year after year. Championship clubs should really scout directly from NCAA. Certainly League One could do that. Edit: I'm just remembering the work permit rules. One good year in MLS helps you clear those.
Many college teams now rely on Europeans and others who decided at age 18 to come to the NCAA rather than play U21 for a League 2 (or the French or German etc. equivalent) club. With Brexit, maybe not English clubs, but for clubs on the continent, sure.
yeah of course....following all the americans in europe....bc thats the highest level of soccer in the world. i agree the championship is overrated by usmnt fans. i honestly hate that so many american players that also play usmnt are there. they should be in EPL or another 1st division in europe. plus i hate the physical wrestling style of that league. but they are there for money, chasng EPL dreams.....meanwhile, theyd be better served in bundesliga, france or other euro leagues. i havent watched agyemang in efl. but i know he had a double hernia that he played through during the gold cup which partially explains why he seems to be doing better now. i really dont understand your post bc he scored a lot in mls too.
You definitely understand the meaning of the post you just pretend you don't. There are many more 1st divisions in Europe but probably 6 or maybe 7 are better than the Championship. And as we are seeing, MLS players going to Championship fit in right away. MLS and Championship aren't that far apart contrary to what many USMNT fans think because they highly overrate that league just as they overrate any other non-top 5 European 1st division leagues there.
i think most people in us soccer overrate mls more than they overrate the championship im not surprised mlsers do well there. i am surprised anyone would be. 1st division players in the usa dropping down a division oughta be able to do well....they do well in bundesliga 2 as well, or serie b...its not surprsising at all. besides, to move from MLS to championship you usually have to be a standout in MLS....so its not just random players from MLS moving over.....i would expect a random mlser to be able to do well in championship (provided they have the physicality bc the league is like half soccer half wrestling from the highlights ive seen) what woould be surprising is if guys like agyemang, campbell trusty etc just jumped over to the epl and did well furthermore, as a usmnt fan i am kinda pissed that guys like busio, tolkin, haji, sargent, campbell, downs, tessman, aidan morris, horvath, wiley, all these guys are either in 2nd div or had to grind their way out of those leagues bc I think all of them are plenty capable of playing 1st division soccer in europe.....i think if they were brazilian or argentinian they would be in 1st divisions, too so this talk of like "surprise" pisses me off....the real surprise is that these good usmnt players have to grind it out in leagues that are beneath them (to me) tolkin, busio, haji, morris especially piss me off because they are all better than the leagues they are in
Which 1st divisions in Europe because there are many but only 6 at the most are better than the Championship. If the Championship, according to.you isn't that good anymore, then how are the other non-top 5 first divisions in Europe?
The Opta Rankings have the English Championship as the 6th best league in the world. I don't know how they come about that ranking. [At least with the UEFA coefficients, there are games in European competition that can be used as data points.] Yes, if we were Argentina or Spain or France we'd have forwards on the biggest teams in the World. We don't. Instead, our two most in-form forwards are at Coventry and Derby. [Pepi is hurt again, Balogun is having a mediocre season in Ligue 1 again, and Sargent is on ice.] And by way, neither Wright or Agyemang are in the top 5 of English Championship top scorers. Are we winning a World Cup if our starting center forwards are Haji Wright and Patrick Agyemang? Or with Balogun, who's having a mediocre season for the 10th best team in Ligue 1? Or Ricardo Pepi, the oft-injured forward that comes off the bench for the most part in the Eredivisie? He won't have scored a USMNT goal in 19 months prior to the World Cup. No. That's not the only reason. Just no. That's the forward pool of a team that finished 4th in the CONCACAF Nations League. But as Donald Rumsfeld once said: You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. We can't call up the American version of Kylian Mbappe if he doesn't exist. I love this team, and I'm going to room for the guys we put our there in USMNT jerseys. Sometimes magic happens. Ask Indiana University football fans.............................
Players are at the clubs they are at, simply because that is their current level. If players like Busio, Tolkin, Haji, etc. were clearly "better than the leagues they are currently in " then they'd be at clubs in better leagues. League and Badge FC are meaningless talking points at the end of the day.
The issue with fans and the Championship is they honestly don't realize how wide the gap is in the league in quality. There are so many cases in the Championship of teams getting new owners, owners pumping a bunch of money into the teams (mainly via debt) and when promotion doesn't come, turns out the owners don't have the money that is promised, funds start getting pulled, and the team's run into years of issues. That is not to say there aren't good teams in the Championship, but... many of these teams are either teams receiving parachute payments, or they're teams that work on a very tight budget. Like I'm rooting for Haji and Morris to get promoted so they can be in the prem, but if we're being honest, Boro and Coventry would be favorites to be relegated next year... and honestly they probably wouldn't be competitive in the prem. But it's the same story with many leagues around the world (same with money). It's funny. I keep people saying that players lack ambition coming back to MLS. While I do question Paxten coming back, thing that I will keep saying is for many of the players that have moved back to MLS recently... they just aren't getting offers that would be enticing... and I don't think people realize that for players like Busio, Tolkin, Bryan Reynolds, Griffin Yow... they're playing on teams that are not known for selling players to bigger teams in leagues that... aside from one or two teams... bigger teams don't traditionally buy from (Haji I do think would have moved to Leceister last year if he wasn't injured at the time though... that was rumored to be close to done). I do fully expect once the calendar changes that you'll see more established teams shopping in MLS.
Griffin Yow is already back. Signed by New England. Its not actually rocket science. Right? Players go where the money is. There are many MLS players that can go to the secondary leagues of Europe. Same as Mexican players. But why would they? Championship clubs pay well. I'm sure Aidan Morris has a nice salary. ..................but Bryan Reynolds? He's one of the highest players at Westerlo (last time I checked) and I bet he could get a pay raise by coming home. [And of course, each nation has different tax situations.] Taylor Booth? Pay raise if he came home.
One of the things that weird about being a US fan is that our fanbase never really seems to have a grasp of how good our players and the chances of them succeeding at a higher level. It's much easier to get by as a defensive 8, so I could see Morris growing into it at an EPL level, but he's far too error prone right now to get a lot of time, I think. Someone might give Haji a shot, but do we think Haji's more than a 10 goal "just a guy" type? Especially on a team that would buy him? I mean, more power to them, go for your dream and get that bag, but it always seems like there's a segment of the fanbase that really just completely abdicates all evaluation to what team players are on. If they are in the EPL, they must be that good.