http://soccer.fanhouse.com/2010/08/1...tter-than-mls/
Sadly, I don't think he's wrong.
Kljestan says Belgian league better than MLS
http://soccer.fanhouse.com/2010/08/1...tter-than-mls/
Sadly, I don't think he's wrong.
I don't know enough about the Belgian league to comment, but what's he gonna say - he just moved to the Belgian league from MLS.
I know...obviously when players move there is a whole lot of fellating going on.
Still, from the point of view of the content itself rather than the context, I still think the statement is accurate.
MLS needs to increase the roster size and cap. This last CBA was a massive disappointment for me. Kljestan in Belgium is a result of a league that isn't moving fast enough to keep new and developing talent.
I think maybe the setup around the leagues there might be better, but I feel that the talent is here to compete with smaller leagues in Europe
Compete yes. I don't think the Belgian league is miles ahead of MLS. But in terms of technical and tactical ability, in both respects their league still has an advantage I think.
MLS has the ability to complete because in my belief, the North American system in general develops better athletes. US and Canada have always produced athletes in many sports that are simple larger and faster. But that only goes so far.
give that league, in fact give any league in the world a 3 mil cap and see how good the league is..apples and oranges..
There's no doubt that the Belgian league is better. We have bigger names because of the DP rule, but league wide - and especially in terms of depth - their league is much better.
Take the top 3 players from every MLS team and put them on Belgian league teams and you'd have a pretty good league!
not surprised at all,not just Belgian many other UEFA countries are miles ahead of MLS.In all aspects except physical play,but we all know skill will win over physical game anytime.(Spain vs Holland)
Comparing ANY league would be apples to oranges. That's beside the point.Originally Posted by reggie
yes thats true...but how many leagues have a 3 mil$ cap
you cant compare mls to any league because of the cap and the fact the mls is only 15 yrs old is another factor compared to some of these leagues that have been around 100 yrs,
And MLS attendance dwarfs Belgium and North American population dwarfs Belgium etc, etc. There are qualifying factors on either side of the argument.
The low salary cap is exactly my point however. MLS missed a real opportunity to reduce the chasm separating it from the other leagues in the last CBA negotiations.
Last edited by Roogsy; 08-18-2010 at 08:54 PM.
i agree with you on that,the cap had to go up to least 5 mil.
cheers..
No shit, Sacha.
Meh, I wouldn't expect him to go there and say it's a lower level. If it's better now, it won't be for long.
I think it will change with the next CBA. There are still teams losing money.
But with better prepared franchises going to better football markets, and the building of more SSS they will have no choice to a) increase the cap and b) increase roster sizes.
It will take time.
But yeah it goes without saying that the Belgian league is better than the MLS.
MLS really lacks in the football IQ department.
The Belgian Jupiler league's best teams such as Anderlecht, Standard Liege and Club Brugge are better than your standard MLS teams but the rest are nothing to write home about.
I think MLS overall is on par or better than that league.
^ I think Lateralus is spot on, the Belgian league is the SPL, they big boys are better than the MLS, but the rest are between marginally better to on par.
It's good watching though, some crazy fans in Belgium. I watched a stream of one of their playoff games last year, the fans were just going crazy.
I don't think the roster size is the issue (isn't the EPL roster size now similar?). The main issue is the salary cap. It's because of the cap that the drop off in quality from first team players to bench player is so dramatic in MLS. So it's not that team don't have enough players - it's that they're too afraid to rest their starters...
I guess you're right about the roster size. I figure it goes hand and hand though.
It just seems with TFC they have a short bench!
can anyone really be surprised by this?
I like the MLS, but in reality even the J-league is better than the MLS. FACT.
It doesn't mean that MLS is terrible. It is what it is.
why is people putting so much stock into Kljestan's words? not that he doesn't have his own agenda or anything, lol
i mean, if we are going to judge MLS by words of players, heck, Rafa Marquez recently said quality of MLS is about Ligue 1 and Eredivisie level. just who's words are you going to believe?
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
^ Just as an aside, Rudd Gullit and Ljungberg also said that MLS is at the same level of quality as the Eredivisie.
I guess will never know unless the MLS and Belgian league merge.
That's insane though, and probably has more to do with catering to their own egos than an objective opinion. I've watched a lot of soccer from a lot of different leagues for a very long time...I'm not down on the MLS, but its no where near Ligue 1 or Eredivisie.
Mexican League > MLS
I don't see how MLS can compare with any major country in Europe.
Thats the reality of the situation, but its not all that bad really. As a league, the pre DP years are hard to take into consideration in terms of evaluation. With the DP and the most recent CBA salaries have come up to the point where the league has earned a level of credibility, what we have to do is keeping moving in that direction.
Because its America - with a giant population with relatively wealthy people (by world standards) the potential is there for the MLS to be the biggest league in the world. Its just going to take time, we need better infrastructure, more interest in the league from fans, investors, TV, advertisers etc. Its an uphill battle for sure and it won't be easy, but the potential for this league is greater than any other league in the world.
I'm not worried.
MLS is a long-term project. Most people here didn't follow it until TFC, and one tends to forget how its changed even since 2007 because it has been gradual. It has improved enormously.
Just like MLS in 2010 is very different from MLS in 2005 (when I first started casually following it), MLS in 2020 will be very different from MLS in 2010. Eventually the league will get good enough and rich enough to become a top league. When it is strong enough to top the Mexican league will be very significant. How it compares to Belgium, who cares (unless you're from Belgium)?
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
the problem with increasing the salary cap (from what i've heard around the league) is that there's teams around who aren't prepared to spend that much. MLS has an AMAZING angle to it where any team has a shot at winning (DC, top of the standings last year, dead last this year. NYRB, bottom last year, top this year. etc) when you increase the salary cap you're going to create a gap that would be a death sentence for teams like dallas/san jose.
i agree that it does need to be increased, but not before the MLS finds stable markets for these teams.
I definitely agree. Technically and tactically there are very few leagues that are worse than the MLS. Now this doesn't mean that an MLS team cannot beat a team from, say, Belgium, because MLS players just work harder.
At the moment, Klejstan is correct, but the gap is narrowing slightly every year. The level of play in North America has improved rapidly over the last few years. For example, going into this year's Concacaf Champions League MLS clubs enjoyed sporadic success but generally didn't fair well in the past. This year a record number of four MLS clubs qualified for the CCL group stage. As of last night, MLS clubs are 3-0 (TFC, Columbus, and RSL all won their CCL group stage openers) with Seattle looking to continue that streak tonight. I believe this year will be a breakthrough year for MLS clubs in CONCACAF and that is the first step towards gaining international recognition as a legitimate top level football league...
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