Fox sports world runs an EPL preview/review show every week, and this week, Captain America had a feature interview. He said with all the talent City has, they should be doing better than they are: dangerously close to the relegation zone. He said everything is in place for City to improve & move up the table. Also said their home form in the new stadium (although he did not play in the old one) was an area that needed improvement. He also commented that the EPL is so competitive, if a team is not firing on all cylinders you'll get punished for it, and City has had games where one area of the team or another has not performed. He talked about how much his game has improved playing in Europe with the pressure and high quality of play. Said there was nothing comparable in the US for soccer.
Yeah, just saw this too and I'd have to say he could have been a little more diplomatic about the quality of the MLS. Someday he might have to work there! Looks like the show re-airs at Midnight EST and again Saturday morning 11:30 EST just before the ManUtd v. Fulham game.
I really don't think CR was direspectful to MLS in any way. He just acknowledged the fact that the day in day out competition in the European leagues is unlike what it currently is here. And I think virtually all of the US players who have played abroad agree that that kind of environment improves players.
funny, I thought he had never played professionally in the USA.So either he has lost his mind or his is comparing his expeiences as a college player and as a pro. So the pros are better than college? Gee, what a revelation that is. Call the New York Times with that story.
Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show I have never set foot on American Samoa. But I have learned through talking to some of my American Samoan soccer friends that the level of play in American Samoa is rather poor. I wonder if I should form on opinion on this topic.
Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show I thought about that too but c'mon it's not like it's a stretch to say that the game in England is on a whole different level than it is here. All you need to understand that is a pair of eyes.
Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show And hardly ever plays with MLS professionals... I think MLS is underrated by a lot of non-American soccer players and fans, but it's always hysterical that when a guy like Mathis goes to Germany and says "the game is faster" people think he's just making it up. Or when a guy like Reyna makes an outlandish statement like there is nothing comparable to the EPL in North America, someone can try to make some sort of case that statement is out of line. Ok, what in North America IS like the EPL? Nascar?
Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show It is interesting to note that Reyna has never played in a US league.
I used to have a lot of respect for Reyna, after all the dude is prolly the most successful Yank to ever play soccer overseas since he went to the Sunderland Mackems and now with the Manchester City Blues, but the dude has no right to talk smack on MLS if he has never played here, he sounds like the worst of all eurosnobs and he looks stupid.
Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show to say that the Prem is better than MLS is obvious, but the point is, he has never played in MLS, so what makes him qualified, or even especially knowledgable about this subject. But having said that, I watch a lot of Prem games, and while all are fast, very few of them are good.Basically everyone plays at a breakneck pace, but 3 teams, Chelsea, Arsenal and ManU, can play good soccer at that pace.There rest are running around like madmen on cocaine. I would guess( merely a guess) that on average, more passes are strung together in MLS than in the Prem. The Prem is still better, but I have to say that there are many,many bad games in the Prem.Really ugly, unwatchable soccer.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show Hilarious. You cannot make this stuff up. Maybe if Claudio posted here more often, he would be more entitled to an opinion?
sometimes the truth hurts. I don't know how you can compare playing infront of 60,000 at Old Trafford at any point in the season, playing for your job because you KNOW there is a player on the bench who is there waiting to snap it up should you falter, to playing front of 10K in Chicago in what amounts to an exhibition because you have an 80 percent chance of making the playoffs no matter what happens. I'm an NFL junkie but I would say that there is more pressure playing EPL than the NFL because of Relegation and the dog fight for European soccer.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show what makes you qualified on the subject? More specifically, what makes you more qualified than Claudio Reyna on the subject of soccer? and the reason more passes are strung together in MLS is because they don't play pressure defense in MLS like they do in Europe. Its almosyt impossible considering #1. The weather, #2. the level of defensive midfielders and man marking defenders in our league. Ever wonder why our MLSers struggle against bigtime opponent? Thats why right there.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show Ok, People Who Can Talk About the EPL v. MLS - Joe Max-Moore, Tim Howard, Brad Friedel Stern John Gazza Carlo Bocanegra Brian McBride Eddie Lewis Jovan Kirovski Any Twit On Bigsoccer. Come on guys. It is an indefensible and absurd position to say Reyna can't speak about MLS v EPL because he has never played on an MLS team. Especially when what he is saying is essentially the soccer version of "The Sun is bigger than the Moon." I mean, Reyna has played countless games in camp, Q's, even the Gers tour of Fla with, against, watching MLS players. He knows MLS quality and EPL. Do you think any other of the above would contradict him? I mean, come on.
Reyna is right that MLS isn't comparable to EPL. The fans are different, the speed of the game is different, the quality of players is different, etc. I don't think he is disrespecting the MLS, but it is quite obvious that EPL is a lot better than MLS.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show the point is he is no more or less qualified than any other pro soccer player. How does he know about MLS.If you noticed or bothered to read what I wrote, I started by saying that the fact that the Prem is better than MLS is not in dispute.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show Bruce Arena is quoted in this months SA as saying the Prem is a lot of fun to watch though he is not sure many of the games are that good. I would agree.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show it helps if you read what was written and what I was responding to: "He talked about how much his game has improved playing in Europe with the pressure and high quality of play" my comment was that his improvement in Europe was based on his never playing pro in the US. So he was comparing college soccer in the US to high level Euro leagues.
Ok, come on Bruce. Deep breath on this one. I feel a little silly even wading in one more time as it just makes no sense, but are you really saying that a guy who has been in camp with the USMNT every year for 10 years, has played with just about every decent American player from Caliguiri to Convey, has seen how guys have developed, from LD, Lewis, Heyduk, Pope, Kirovski, JOB to McBride to Bazza, Mo Ross, Lovenkrands and McCann, can't have an opinon over whether Europe or MLS is better for his or anyone's soccer development. I mean, he could even be wrong and perhaps having come back to MLS in 96 and leaving Wolfsburg in the dust would have made him a better A middie, or a genius RB. But to say that he somehow needs to recuse himself, Scalia-like from this conversation, simply because he only spent ten years of his life playing with MLSers and not actually played in MLS seems a bit, uh, reactionary to me.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Reyna on EPL Preview Show Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd are three of the best teams in the whole of Europe. The fact that they are a lot better than the rest of the Premiership in no way means that the rest play crap soccer. This simply belies reality. There are many many excellent teams in the Premiership, as is evidenced by the fact that a team as talented as Reyna's Man City are scuffling around the relegation zone.