I do not disagree but he was comparing it to teams in the EPL, and those teams have larger payroll and access to top professional players and coaches, hence I stand my comments, we may not be bad for the payroll, and we are improving, but the top leagues are still far ahead of us.Originally Posted by Ultra & Proud
Agreed!
I'm not dismissing the MLS, I'm a fan of this league. But in terms of organization, tactics and the general soccer IQ of the bulk of the players in this league it doesn't compare to any top European league let alone the Premiership. I don't think that the best MLS team could break down the worst Premiership backline with any kind of regularity. If Sunderland played the best MLS team 10 times they're getting at least 8 or 9 wins.
That is the point. Even if you talk about system based , in Europe top league players may have to learn the nounces of how the manager wants them to play in his preferred system, here they have to be taught like if they are teenagers how to play the basic form of relatively standard systems.
Again agreed.
What's this thread about?
According to Jason DeVos, Defoe is to be in Toronto today. Assuming he takes a direct flight; 7 flights arriving from London today starting at 10:55 am, and the timing is all over the map. 1 Air Transat, 4 AC, and 2 British Airways. ASSUMING he took the British Airways flight, he should be here at 2:50 pm. Any plans to welcome him at the airport? (Of course we need more info in order to do that)
Source: http://www.torontopearson.com/en/flights/schedules/#
Last edited by khso11; 01-12-2014 at 05:18 AM.
I looked at the flights yesterday, and assumed he'd be taking BA. (The cattle class you get on Air Transat seems to be a bit beneath a millionaire pro athlete, haha). So I assume he'll be arriving at 2:50.
Defoe interview:
http://www1.skysports.com/watch/vide...or-his-country
Q: "How excited are you about finally getting to Canada"?
A: "Excited. It's cold, but I'm excited".
My money is on a private jet courtesy one of MLSE's owners.I looked at the flights yesterday, and assumed he'd be taking BA. (The cattle class you get on Air Transat seems to be a bit beneath a millionaire pro athlete, haha). So I assume he'll be arriving at 2:50.
He may have been on a Air Canada flight.
the lady in the interview was wearing an Air Canada Altitude lanyard and dressed in the Air Canada garb.
My money would be on AC 869 getting in at 1225. Get up early and get here early.
Someone tweeted this out 3 hours ago. He is flying commercial, he was at Heathrow today. Dressed like he's ready to join a polar expedition!
http://instagram.com/p/jEUAdqwt95/
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Gotta wear layers Jermain....layers. Man does look stylish though...and fit.
That would be the AC857 arriving at 3:19.
this is also my bet. I will be at the airport for 3pm.
If only I didn't have my rollerblades in for repair today...
Totally agree with this point. Like asking an American league hockey team with three NHL starters added to compete and beat full NHL squads. The weakest teams in the top tier leagues still have quality all over the pitch that MLS cannot match, its just a matter of payroll. Your Hull, Fulham squads etc would punish mistakes inevitably made by an MLS squad and the MLS teams are not as clinical on the counter. This doesn't mean MLS is not entertaining or has quality its just not fair to compare with teams that have 10* the payroll.
Come on guys, on pure economics alone there is absolutely no team in MLS that is going to compete in the premiership. The highest spending team our league spends around 15M dollars while the absolute bottom dwellers in the EPL typically spend around 15-20 million pounds, or approximately twice as much as our elite teams (and that doesn’t even include transfer fees). What’s more, they don’t have bizarre roster regulations where you spend all your money on three players. When an EPL left back on a proper salary faces down a MLS guy earning 1/10th as much, it’s going to be a slaughter every day of the week.
As far as physicality goes. MLS is physical, it is not world class like these other places are. You guys have seen TFC play these other teams in pre-season form. Does it not strike you how puny our players look in comparison to every EPL team that’s ever shown up here? Add on the superior skill level and the end result is MLS footballers are unable to wrestle control of the game. It’s hard to barge in on a guy when he’s strong enough to shield you off the ball but also tricky enough to wrong foot you. These are problems MLS defenders don’t face; if they did, they would have to defend much more cautiously.
MLS is improving but don't buy the hype that it's approaching the quality of some of the other leagues out there.
Classic Defoe, scoring in probably his final match for Tottenham, or at least his last before he is announced in Toronto.
He is a striker with a great sense of drama, and often manages to find the late, great goal.
Very excited for this season.
Gotta admit, this article stings a bit.
The MLS, as Sir Alex Ferguson notes in his latest autobiography, is too athletic to be derided as a Mickey Mouse league. Yet he still points out there were absolutely no football reasons for David Beckham making the move and that he suspects his old player probably regrets taking himself away from high-end football. As for Toronto – or "Ambitious Toronto", as the English press appear to have renamed them – they may have some money swilling around but their story is so undistinguished to this point it brings to mind an old quote from Rodney Marsh about the West Bromwich Albion side relegated in 2003. "They've made some new signings but it's like putting lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig."
http://www.theguardian.com/football/...onto-world-cup
Yeah that's a pretty good summary of the situation, its not even a fair comparison when you have 40k guys getting spot starts in this league.
The quality gap is not so much in the starting XI but in the bench. A average MLS starting line up could probably cope (aside from the top Prem teams) but moment had to go to bench, they'd be cooked.
All that being said, I'll take "Ambitious" as a descriptor seven days of the week. God knows there are far more appropriate words to describe this club...
This weird mythology about MLS being so "physical" is really quite silly. All the elite leagues are more "physical".
MLS had got fifth-rate officials who can't control a game, and because of that the thugs here run amok.
Last edited by ensco; 01-12-2014 at 01:37 PM.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Why?
I grew up there, and Britons are the biggest football snobs on Earth, despite not having won anything in 40 years and having an imbalanced leaguew with only four or five competitive teams.
Did anyone watch Sunderland-Southhampton a few weeks ago? Did it not look startling like an MLS match to anyone?
Nobody is more deluded about football than the English. They all think 'expert' is a birthright, that everything not English is crap. But when their own team comes up, they slag it, too.
The most telling part about that article? There are almost as many banned comments underneath as actual comments. That's what it means to try to have a discussion with someone English about football. No is more deluded (except maybe MLS.com types who keep insisting MLS teams could compete there day in and out, despite the cap).
So is anybody going to Pearson? I'll buy a beer to who ever gets the first Defoe holding up a RPB scarf.
That's what people are referring to when they talk about the physicality. To me there are two reasons for it - the raw athleticism of the bulk of the players combined with the horrible officiating that allows the physical play to go unpunished. Often times MLS backlines use holding & grabbing and midfields rely on late and (sometimes) dirty fouls to compensate for higher level skills.
Depressing, but a pretty typical response to any club who splashes cash combined with some small minded insecurity.
Author strikes me as someone who probably rotates between giving lip service to Manchester United and bashing Arsen Wenger for ruining English football.
I was just going to mention that point myself, we all must remember that a majority of the top teams in the EPL or any other of the top leagues in Europe have at least 22 if not 33 starting calibre players. Look at the likes of Blackpool and others in the Championship, they just don't have the bench and squad to compete consistently.
Back on course, I am pleased with the progress thus far. Welcome Jermaine
EPL vs MLS?
It would be a little like comparing the American Hockey League to the NHL.
By definition the MLS is a development league meant to cultivate players to improve their national programs. The best in the US don't play there long (or some times at all) but they most likely benefited from the USSF pyramid in some way, along the way.
While MLS aspires to be a top flight league, its roots and its current reason for being are squarely on the development side.
Perhaps a fairer, apples to apples debate is to explore the English development system vs USA. With both countries ranked 13th and 14th respectively, the differences between "football IQ" might not be that significant.
Anyways, as for Defoe the Spurs fan at the beach side bar i sat with yesterday at this resort says he's got a lot left in him. Take that to the bank.
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