Ljungberg: Seattle = Eredivisie quality

[CretanBull]

I thought the dutch league was better than that, but like many others I don't think I've ever sat down and watched a match from there;

Historically, the Dutch league is a very good one but its been in decline for the last few years. I think it will bounce back, although I don't think it will ever be as good as it once was (the major issue being bigger leagues buying up Dutch talent)

But I will say that I found watching the league one playoffs on setanta this spring a much better standard than MLS, and the league 2 playoffs slightly better - or perhaps equivalent to MLS.

I didn't watch the FL2 playoffs, but there's no question in my mind that the top part of the FL1 table (ie the promotion & play-off teams) would regularly beat any MLS team. Mike Grella, who would have went 1st OV in last year's draft if he hadn't made it clear that he wanted to go to Europe, is 4th or 5th on the Leeds striker depth chart. He's played in about 15 mins per game in about 10 games. I can't imagine a situation in the MLS where the 1st OV pick couldn't get more playing time than that. At the same time, Leeds are turning down £6 miilion offers for Fabian Delph. Is there a single player in the MLS worth more than $10 million?

[spezz44]

Historically, the Dutch league is a very good one but its been in decline for the last few years. I think it will bounce back, although I don't think it will ever be as good as it once was (the major issue being bigger leagues buying up Dutch talent)



I didn't watch the FL2 playoffs, but there's no question in my mind that the top part of the FL1 table (ie the promotion & play-off teams) would regularly beat any MLS team. Mike Grella, who would have went 1st OV in last year's draft if he hadn't made it clear that he wanted to go to Europe, is 4th or 5th on the Leeds striker depth chart. He's played in about 15 mins per game in about 10 games. I can't imagine a situation in the MLS where the 1st OV pick couldn't get more playing time than that. At the same time, Leeds are turning down £6 miilion offers for Fabian Delph. Is there a single player in the MLS worth more than $10 million?

Beckham

[Yohan]

I didn't watch the FL2 playoffs, but there's no question in my mind that the top part of the FL1 table (ie the promotion & play-off teams) would regularly beat any MLS team. Mike Grella, who would have went 1st OV in last year's draft if he hadn't made it clear that he wanted to go to Europe, is 4th or 5th on the Leeds striker depth chart. He's played in about 15 mins per game in about 10 games. I can't imagine a situation in the MLS where the 1st OV pick couldn't get more playing time than that. At the same time, Leeds are turning down £6 miilion offers for Fabian Delph. Is there a single player in the MLS worth more than $10 million?

Leeds isn't really a typical League 1 team, with more spending power than most League 1 teams

[CretanBull]

Beckham

Nope....his transfer fee was set at £4.5 miilion.

[CretanBull]

Leeds isn't really a typical League 1 team, with more spending power than most League 1 teams

Spending power? We're broke!

And we finished 4th so there are 3 better teams (4 if you want to include the team that knocked us out of the play-offs).

[Yohan]

Spending power? We're broke!

And we finished 4th so there are 3 better teams (4 if you want to include the team that knocked us out of the play-offs).

curious to know what is the payroll of Leeds compared to other L1 teams

[CretanBull]

curious to know what is the payroll of Leeds compared to other L1 teams

In the top 10, but I doubt the top 5. The 3 teams relagated from the Championship would all have higher payrolls, then Leeds would be in the group of teams behind them - maybe 6th or 7th? At the moment, we're set to lose our top player (Jermaine Beckford) at the end of the season because we can't afford to pay him (and he's not making outrageous wage demands).

[Yohan]

that's fucked up

[twistedchinaman]

Have you guys ever watched the Eredivisie? Outside of Ajax and PSV those teams are pretty mediocre. This mainly has to due with the fact they don't bring in much attendance league wide so the other teams suffer. On the odd years other teams like AZ (like last year) , Heerenveen, Groningen and Utrecht are good but not always. People really like to shit on the MLS but the reality is, the league ain't half that bad when you leave out the top 10 leagues in the world.

You could add Feyenoord, but that's as far as I would say.

[profit89]

Not yet.

[Dunkers]

Nope....his transfer fee was set at £4.5 miilion.

Did Altitore go for 9 or 14 mil?

[Yohan]

10 million dollars

[jloome]

Here's the key to all of these "league comparison" threads:

1) Some leagues have three or four 'ringer' teams that are guaranteed to be richer and better than most other places.

2) The remainder of the leagues are basically the same.

There's not a lot of difference between Greece, The U.S., Turkey, Sweden etc once you get past the "top four". Or, in some countries, "the top 2."

MLS has a cap, so there's no "top four." Other than that, all of these leagues operate on similar salaries (players aren't making millions), with talent that goes all the way from "future star" to "overlooked" to "good journeyman" to "what the fuck is Andy Welsh doing on the wing, exactly?"

On an average day, Randers could beat D.C. who could beat Brondby, who could beat GIS, who could beat OFI Crete, who could beat Genclerbirligi, who could beat Young Boys Berne, who could beat Seattle.

Yes, there are some secondary leagues in Spain and England that might whomp us regularly, but that would have more to do with roster depth, money and travel distance than day-to-day squad comparisons.

There's a pantheon of the top, say, two dozen clubs. Then there's everyone else.

[EAsoccer]

It's not a debate. Ljungberg is being a salesman.

We already know where MLS players fit in over in Europe. It's in Scandinavia: first divisions if you're good (Perkins, Tracy), second divisions if you're average (Freeman, Stama, Lapira).

I dont think that's very accurate or fair comparison. It's well known that for a individual player to go over to a club in Europe they have to be significantly better than the players already over there and that goes for players from any foreign countries or that command a transfer fee.

Just like foreigners coming to MLS .. average foreigners dont come to MLS or at least dont stay very long.

[EAsoccer]

That's a different story all together though. That's history, and time and refinement - things we wont be able to replicate for decades. Ajax was a top club in the world consistantly only a few years back because of their developement and before the sport was so globalized that major clubs could snap these players up much easier.

But today, if MLS & Dutch clubs played in the same table, I beleive the standings would be mixed...although I would probably think a Dutch club would be at the top.

I doubt that. I would bet money that Ajax,PSV,Feyenoord,AZ will be the top 4 if any given order. The next couple of teams would largely be Dutch but with some MLS sides mixed in. The bottom would be New York Red Bulls and San Jose Earthquakes.

Bottom line comparing MLS to other leagues is comparing apples to oranges.

MLS is a league with parity where players are spread out to create a balanced league... the rules dont allow us to have teams with a significant advantage over others, the strength of each club fluctuates moreso than it does in any other league in the world.

The only way this comparison even makes sense is by comparing MLS to another league with the same rules as Major League Soccer, but there are none! My verdict: make MLS single table even/balanced schedule and then we can start comparing.