I've been comparing MLS and Mexican League teams for a few months now and I can honestly say I don't see Mexican sides holding any tactical, technical or athletic superiority over MLS clubs. I even think our soccer style is way more attractive than theirs. So why did we sucked so bad against them in the TFC's Champions cup? Did our teams decided to place more emphasis in our league? Did our teams just happened to have bad games combined with injuries to key players? Over kill? Could it be that our team rosters are not big enough to play for two cups at once?
You may want to check the CONCACAF forum. I think there are still a couple of threads over there discussing this tournament. I'm not sure how well you can predict matchups between MLS and Mexican teams by watching them in league play. I think the officiating in the two leagues is so significantly different that it changes how teams can play in each league. Once they get to matchups involving a ref from a third country, teams may have to play differently from how they would play in their domestic league. (And the fact that Concacaf allows the linesmen to be locals only complicates matters.) I also prefer watching MLS, but that's just a matter of preference. The Mexican league is the most stable and financially successful league in the Americas. Mexican clubs have been very successful in their international adventures - Morelia reached the semis of this year's Libertadores, America lost to Morelia in the quarters, Morelia and America each won their Libertadores groups, Morelia scored the most goals in the group phase, Cruz Azul reached the finals of last year's Libertadores. And, FWIW, Necaxa took third in the 2000 FIFA club championships. And MLS rosters are indeed too small - a problem that will only get worse next year if the tournament goes to group play. But IMHO the more significant, but related, problem is the low MLS salary budget. Mexican clubs bring in some great players from South America. In general, MLS can't compete financially for foreign players of similar quality. MLS clubs may, from time to time, close the gap by having some really outstanding young US players and the occasional foreign find, but it's a tough challenge to compete with the kind of money that the big Mexican clubs can spend.
Rosters are small, and KC players for some reason thought it was a good idea to eat potato salad in Morelia
Lack of experience playing competitive games outside the country is also a factor. Note that the only MLS team in the tournament that had previous experience with competitive games in Mexico was also the only MLS team to knock out a Mexican side.
obviously... its because the LA GALAXY wasnt in it to win it...u know that too, galaxy only team that CAN win it..
One explanation could be that MLS teams change rapidly so by the time they get to an international tournament a former champion can suck. Another explanation is that we have better coaching on the national level so our national team does more with less. A third explanation is that the Mexican Nats might be better than recent results vs. USA might lead you to believe. It wouldn't surprise me to see Mex win the next one vs. USA.
I think Turk's points about the Mexican and US national teams are right, but comparing the leagues is a different matter. We can expect the US can have more success against Mexico on the national team level than we can currently expect at the league level because it's a different set of factors. A top Mexican club may have several high-quality foreign players that are at least as good, if not better, as any foreigners in MLS, plus maybe a couple of Mexican national team pool players. The best players in the Mexican league are foreigners. Many of these guys - Abreu, Cardozo, probably still even Aguinaga - would likely be All-Star quality, high-impact players in MLS. The best players in MLS may well be the young Americans. They're good, but they're still developing and there are only so many of them on any given team. Some of the best players in the US national team pool don't play in MLS, whereas all but 3-4, IIRC, of the Mexican national team pool play in the Mexican league. I think that a team of Mexican league all-stars would be heavily-favored against a team of MLS all-stars. OTOH, anywhere outside Mexico, a US national team made up of only MLS players may be favored over the Mexican national team (especially if they also only use domestic players).
Quality levels of the teams are not as good as two years ago KC, Chicago, and DC are not as good as they were two years ago. The only teams that could play MFL teams and do well is LA and SJ. And even theis teams are not as good as the early (97,98) DC teams. The league should have never taken apart DC United. The league should have build teams equal or better then United by spending money on more forien players like Carlos Ruiz. Each team should have a forien player like him (striker or playmaker) to help the avg. MLS/U.S. player get better. And bring up the quality of play in the league. MLS will not spend the money to do that now. So with that and the roster sizes being too small we are not a CONCACAF power like GB said at the MLS ALL-STAR GAME. As soon as Garber said that KC LOST 6-1 to Morelia.
Re: Re: obviously... *ahem* The final and Semi's were played at the LA Memorial Coliseum. That counts as being in Mexico doesn't it??? BTW, can someone please explain to me how the team that lost in the MLS Cup final and won the Open Cup last year didn't qualify for the Champ Cup this year? Yet the team that they knocked out of both (Chicagoon) made it as did a team that didn't even make the playoffs. Yeah, some Flamer fan will come on here and sput BS about the Giant Series (caugh) and how it was announced early in the season what it would take to qualify.....but even if we win both the MLS Cup and the Open Cup this year, will LA make it? Have the powers that be said anything?
Re: Re: Re: obviously... Not when your opponents are from the District of Columbia and Honduras. Your main gripe is with CONCACAF and DC United. United (along with Americrap) was put in the Champions Cup as a remnant of the Giants Cup fiasco. The teams that participated in the Giants Cup were promised a chance to qualify for the 2003 Club World Championship, which of course was cancelled, making it all a big farce. If the Giants Cup hadn't been there, I'm sure LA would have been in the tournament just like every other MLS Cup runner-up has. To this point, the US Open Cup has not had any bearing on Champions Cup qualification, at least in the MLS era. The only thing you can be fairly confident about is that the MLS Cup champion will qualify, even if they have to wait more than a year like 1999 DC and 2000 KC. How many other teams qualify and the criteria for qualification isn't somethin CONCACAF makes well-known.