MLS v Various European Leagues

Well.. The Norwegian Team of the Year was from what I recall a list done by a newspaper.. Nothing official.. And even so, Yes, he's done good... But I wouldn't say he has done amazing.. He's done good, that's it.. In my opinion...!!

 

If you consider late 20's young than yes I am. I've been following Galaxy and the rest of MLS since it's inception. I agree with you and would love to see the league grow faster than it is now.

I love MLS now and will love it throughout many decades to come when there are 20+ teams, relegation, first and second divisions,real reserve leagues,etc.

 

wow elninho - you definately get wonk of the week. Nice work. And pretty much what I expected. Engerland and Germany import the most, the rest are 2/3 to 3/4 "native." And if you pull out the "big money" clubs: Arse, Chelski, ManU down to PSV, Gers, Ajax, that leaves a very heavy level of "natives" on the rest of the leagues.

 

Last week Univision showed Osasuna vs. Real Sociedad, a middle table team (Aguirre's O, 10th) vs. a near bottom dweller (Real S., 17th out of 20 teams, 1 point ahead of the previously mentioned Albacete).

The game itself wasn't all that interesting but the quality of each player was quite evident. The 40-yard passes were on target, the one-touch passing was flawless, several one-time volleys were attempted and most of them were on goal or "goal adjacent".

Also, I'll contend that it's incorrect to compare La Liga "inaccurate pass" to an MLS version of the same. Since La Liga defenders read the play on the same high level as attackers, most passes must be very accurate or they are intercepted. In MLS, the incompletions usually are due to a passer's inability to hit a stationary target from anything beyond 20 yards.

Most La Liga team are capable of advancing the ball from own penalty box to at least midfield with 2-3 quick passes. In MLS, this may take 15-20 seconds.

When Ramiro Corrales took the ball on top of the midfield circle and slowly trotted back with it without any pressure from a Jamaican defender, it was a typical MLS play.

The Europeans pass backward only under duress and then quckly swing the ball to a less problematic spot, somewhere where they can proceed to an attack, which itself takes place at full speed, not a slow trot more suitable to a speedwalker, sadly a norm in MLS.

So, when one wonders why the MLS stars aren't desired in Europe, the quality of their coaching and demands on their talent have a lot to do with it. It could have been different but the improvement has been very slow in coming.

 

Comparing MLS to the EPrem or the 1bund is unfair. The prem tv rights per team are more than the combined MLS player budgets. In the bund it's not that drastic, but still dwarfs MLS income. IMO, no MLS team survives in either one, but they're not set up to survive over the course of a long, intense season.
I do think there are a number of MLS players who could success here, no team has 18 of them _ and every team here has more than 18 players of prem or bund caliber. And, I'm not sure even a well-coached MLS all-star team survives here.
General problems:
1. The speed and quality of thought here are significantly higher. Tactical understanding is at a far higher level here, and you can see it in the play.
2. Intensity. I've heard the argument that it's too hot in the us summer to play at a prem pace, which is a good point. But the better point is that MLS players aren't under pressure to perform at their best through most of the season, so they don't. The reasons: playoffs encourage saving it for the end and a mad dash, while relegation makes every game life or death (and over time, this significantly increases the quality of players/teams).
3. Athletic ability is generally higher in the 1 bund and prem. this is an oft discussed point, but makes sense, the best athletes in the US play other sports. that is not the case in england or germany, plus the money there draws great players from around the world in their prime. MLS has to settle for aging greats, or yet to be greats. Which means the Euro leagues have much better stars _ the folks who determine the outcomes of games. Every bund team has a couple out and out studs, as does every prem team. MLS simply doesn't have players at this level.
4. Technique, points been made a million times. Players here are technically better, traps, passes, runs, shots, everything.
Finally, the two clubs I really support are from the MLS (kansas city) and the CCC (reading) (hertha is a distant third). Reading is not built to survive in the prem, but has a chance of making it there this year. A chance. But even so, KC, one of the better MLS teams this year and pretty decent most of the time, matches up at best evenly and probably slightly below. Reading has a slight edge at GK these days, with MH better than Bo O and Meola hurt. On the back line, Sonko and IIngamarrson add more offensively than garcia and conrad, defensively about even. In the midfield, KZ is very serviceable, but would struggle to find a role (as has convey), and beyond the holding spot, Reading has a big edge with sidwell, and g. little (a healthy Klien in form narrows the gap). Up top, I think Arnaud and Wolff and Igor are good enough, but none are as complete as Kitson, the leading scorer in the CCC and forrester is wolff pre-injury, a lot of speed and nice touch, and Goater and the Ghanian int who's name I just forgot both bring a lot into a game. Add to that the fact that Coppell has money and freedom to go out and fill a need, and it's hard to see KC as a superior team.
which is my assesment, I think MLS teams could certainly compete in the CCC, and could push for playoff spots. But I think they'd be overmatched at the next level.

 

With all due respect mschofield, I don't buy that for a second. Give me the top 23 players in MLS this last season and my choice of coach and put them in the Cola Championship and they survive the first season(fairly easily IMO, not going to contend for promotion). The second season with access to CCC resources i.e., TV money & higher attendence figures the club would be able to buy a couple of quality player to fill weaknesses. Season 2 the "Club MLS" would contend for promotion. In season 3 with a couple more good buys, "Club MLS" would get promoted to Premiership. Once there, with the improved resources "Club MLS" would be set up for a long stay in the EPL. My point, the top 23 players in MLS would form a very nice nucleus for a run and stay in the EPL after a season or two to adapt to the English game.

 

I can agree with that. MLS teams, as structured, aren't set up to survive at the top right now, but an MLS all star group would not be overmatched in the CCC (not a top league), from what I've seen of the two leagues. But once they start gaining money, getting used to the intensity of the leagues, adding players, etc, they're no longer an mls club, IMO. I was placing MLS teams straight in, and guessing how they'd do.

 

If you watched the US vs Jamaica game last week from Columbus, you'd know that Ralston can hit exactly those kinds of passes probably as well as anyone in the world. Over and over, one touch, boom, it's sailing to the feet or head of a striker 30 yards away who's surrounded by defenders. There are others, too, but you're probably right that it's not as common a talent in MLS as for players who's annual salary might rival or exceed the salary cap for an entire MLS team...

 

No, I think they have one Spaniard.

 

I agree with all your other points completely, but thought I'd touch on this detail: While KC did well this year in how they placed in the table and reaching the finals, I thought they were clearly outclassed in the final match vs. DC, (moreso than New England or even NY/NJ were), and on top of that, I think they are one of the more boring teams to watch in MLS. I don't feel like they have the creativity, flair, and drive in passing and attacking that some other MLS teams have.

That doesn't mean other teams would be much more competitive in a top European league (espcially without deeper benches), but I still think of KC as only a rather average MLS team, rather than a good example of the best MLS has to offer.

 

I agree with the notion of parity in MLS leaving little gap between first and last, but while you may have found KC boring, they did find 1. win the open cup, 2. tie for best record it the regular season, and 3. make it to the championship game. They may not have been the best mls team this year, but the facts indicate they were consistenly good. And, FTR, Dc United may be a better matchup with Reading, but as i said, I don't see any way this Reading team would survive in the prem.

 

UEFA Coefficients ONLY measure the teams that get into Europe, not the leagues as a whole.

Think about college football here. In the 90s, the Big East won a good number of national championships, but it was a crap league. All they had was Miami.

Look at England. Arsenal, Chelsea, and ManU dominate that league, and if Arsenal would stop underperforming in Europe, the UEFA coefficient would overrate that league.

Celtic making the UEFA Cup final a few years back does nothing about the quality of Dundee United.

 

American players crack the weakest 20-35 yard shots in the world. It's embarassing. In a related story, Americans aren't dangerous on free kicks.

 

Man, I'm glad you said it and not me....I totally agree (although the youngins' will be better)..oh...you are probably kidding (I'm halfway kidding..sort of...)

PS-Landon can get off some crackers sometimes...

 

I know. I explained in my post that UEFA Coefficients can be deceiving if one league is more top-heavy than another. But the Coefficients are still the best single indicator of where European leagues fall in terms of quality.

 

I thought from the World Cup'02 the Koreans, the Chinese and the Japanese were even worse (without their Euro based contingent). They could do a bicycle kick without looking but not get any power behind the ball whatsoever for a piledriver.

Upon his arrival to South Korea, Hiddink was disgusted with the fact that his players seemed to play in ballet slippers, super balance with no power behind them. He made them run some sort of a gauntlet that required contact and, by the World Cup, at least they were fouling like a good Dutch team.

MLS, during a recent (2001 or 02?) All-Star Game had a skills contest, including the hardest shot competition. As I recall, Steve Jolley won it with the 74 mph'er, which is pretty darn hard. Sun (UK) kept track of Wayne Rooney's goal scoring shots from the Euro'04 and the hardest was registered at 55 mph (into the corner from 20 yards against Switzerland, IIRC). Of course, it was perfectly placed.

 

If one did an average statistical description of all Euro league by the UEFA rankings, he'd probably have to come up with some sort of a formula where the top clubs who register at the UEFA meets are rated against their domestic competition.

It's be something like: a total sum of top 3 (or 5) league team points divided by 3 (or 5) and then divided by the sum of all points achieved by the entire league divided by the number of teams; e.g., an average of the top 3 (or5) teams divided by their league averages.

Or (Arsenal+Chelsea+ManU) : 3 = top club average (TCA).

Total EPL points registered : 20 = league average (LA)

TCA : LA = ECS (Elite Club Superiority).

(This year, top 3 clubs have 93 points as of now, for an easy 31 pt average between them. The EPL average is 18.6 for a perfect ECS of 5.)

Then one would take the UEFA rating and divide it by the ECS and perform the same for the interested leagues.

England (EPL) 5 year cumilative of 62.2 divided by 5 would give it a 12.4.

Others are welcome to do the same for other leagues.

The applicable UEFA scores are : Spain : 79.9, Italy, 59.2, Germany 49.5.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/crank2004.html

 

That's a little misleading in that the UEFA coefficient also includes performance in the UEFA Cup. So, in fact, one could argue that England's coefficient might underrate the league given that England awards a place to its League Cup winner, who in the past would not have always qualified based on league position (Middlesbrough, this season, being an example of this).

 

The Germans sent Aachen from BL2 and it's doing fine so far.

 

Clark and Gaven are two guys who have had some nice goals outside the box. Jewsbury as well. So hopefully this will improve over time. Just don't let Claudio Reyna shoot anymore.