The Ultimate Football Thread 2013-2014 Vol. 4 EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A etc

Eh. I mean elite as in, in america the MLS will breakthrough and become right up there with the major sports. I didnt mean for it to compare to La Liga or Barclays because that simply wont happen in 15 years. Only way mls can even compare to euro leagues is if the pay wages go way up.

You have to compare it to the NBA in a sense. Stern takes over and the NBA took off when Magic/Larry/Doc J/Kareem/MJ/etc came into play. The MLS needs players that can grow and become stars. Not getting stars who are on their last legs looking for a major payday. Which is why I cant stress enough the ability to put money into youth development here in the states. Until the MLS can BUILD superstars and not just buy them once their basically retired, it'll never reach elite status. But i believe in the league and america.

The key component here is the US national team. It's going to take a miracle and luck but they have to start doing better on big stages. This world cup is crucial but being with Portgual and Germany didnt help at all. If somehow someway they can make it to the knockout stages and america sees the cinderalla story brewing, that'll be huge. We all saw how america was foaming at the mouth in WC2010 when Landon scored that amazing game winner. Thats the excitment we need after EVERY MATCH. I love that **** man.

But again, it all starts with building stars. NBA built from the ground up. Having those HS camps all the way back to the 50's-60's and giving players the ability to grow their game by feeding them knowledge of basketball. Not a coincidence that the 80's is the boom era for NBA because thats when the NBA finally had youth and elite players that were built here in america. MLS has to study and do whatever it takes to follow that.

I view soccer in america as a volcano waiting to erupt and all it needs is a shift in the plates (aka the lure & excitement) to get this thing blowing up.
 
Last edited:
Just saw the replay of the Madrid derby, very intense game. Diego Costa is hilarious, one if the few players I've seen not named Messi that bother Ramos/Pepe so much :lol:
 
Nani too???  What's his deal?  Still injured?

And PSG wanting to pry away Adna... 
nerd.gif
 
I don't see MLS being elite any time soon. I made a point to watch a more MLS this past year. It's still behind Liga MX by a wide margin.

MLS teams (as a whole) badly lose form on the pitch & compared to Euro leagues or Liga MX, it honestly looks like kids running around chasing after the ball at times. A lot of players lack great dribbling skills & the kind of first touch you see in the better leagues.

The big thing lacking in MLS is creative players, specifically midfielders that came control the game either defensively or in an attacking sense. MFers in the MLS as glorified forwards or centre backs/full backs.

It says something about MLS if they hail Omar Gonzalez as one it it's best young stars. He's above average at times (I stress at times) in MLS play but his inabilities really come to light in international play. He's a "worser" version of Pique if that's possible.

His play against Korea not too long ago was a prime example. Defensively he was ok, but his link up with the midfield was consistently bad the whole game.

He made terrible/careless decisions with the ball in his attempts to pass it to the MFers which led the Koreans to counter very quickly, they just couldn't convert into goals.

That's not going to fly in the US's group of death. He's gonna get the US team killed with play like that...

Having said all that, this summer's WC will be a good measuring stick for US soccer & where we are. Signing Klinsmann long term & also making him technical director was a great step forward into making the US a better footballing nation...

Edit - Also, our athletic culture is vastly different than other countries. We tend to celebrate talent, physical atttributes, & ability over developing skill & helping to build intelligent athletes.
Too on point man I fully agree with everything you said especially about the lack of midfield play and creativity in the MLS and the US. To add on to your last few points, I think we tend to over glorify highlights in the US too.

We praise the scorer, the finisher, the highlight reel. I believe that's why the game hasn't grown as big yet. It's hard to market a sport that isn't about the scoring and lacks the ESPN highlight plays to the casual American sports fan. I believe time will help it grow though. The longer the sport is marketed, televised and talked about here on a daily/weekly basis it will get bigger and more and more people will be educated about the game. One thing the US desperately needs is an elite superstar in the MLS or overseas.
 
Last edited:
I stated this in the USNT thread, I'd like to see the US & Mexican NTs play South American teams instead of CONCACAF teams. I think it's at a point now where playing in CONCACAF hinders US development.

I don't think MLS is ready yet since they still struggle against Liga MX teams but I'd like to see MLS build up to sending top 3 teams to compete in the Copa Libertadores.

I don't think they're ready for that yet though. They'd get slaughtered now but at some point I'd like to see it...
 
Y'all giving Liga MX too much credit. Only thing they got better than the MLS is that their jerseys are generally cooler (UNAM and Santos in particular). The level of soccer played is not very entertaining

Speaking of jerseys, I wish Adidas didn't sponsor the whole league. Makes all the jerseys look the same
 
Last edited:
I don't think Baines or Barkley are leaving Everton or rather I'd be surprised. It's like they were used to eating gruel for a long time now their eating roast beef & mash... You think they'd want to leave that? :lol:
 
I've been wondering. Is a player allowed to wear a shooting sleeve (think LeBron, Carmelo) during a match? If so, I would definitely wear one if I were playing.

To answer this question, Yes you can wear one if you wanted, Players just choose to wear Base layer instead
 
I don't think Baines or Barkley are leaving Everton or rather I'd be surprised. It's like they were used to eating gruel for a long time now their eating roast beef & mash... You think they'd want to leave that? :lol:

No. But that's who I expect Moyes to chase.
 
The survey of world leagues takes into account attendance, finances, goals, competitiveness, caliber of players and managers, stadiums and success in continental competitions,

I'd like to know how it took "goals, competitiveness, caliber of players and managers and success in continental competitions" into account and still said the US was 7th best. I wouldn't put it too much lower...def put france ahead of the US.
 
A co-worker & I were chatting literally at the water cooler while I was filling my bottle. He told me Ribery is out for a bit because of surgery to his buttock & showed me some funny Tweets... This one was funny... :lol:

View media item 788788

In addition to listening to a lot of music while at work via headphones, I also listen to a lot of football podcasts. The BBC has some nice ones... Check out the link below... The latest one had a great segment with Frank de Boer who shared that Tottenham did approach him shortly after firing AVB.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wswf
 
Last edited:
So Ronaldo lost his appeal, two games for making a hand gesture? :lol:

Bale it's time to step up.

Benfica vs Sporting tomorrow btw/
 
^ I think the ref that gave Ronnie the red card got suspended & can't work RM games the rest of this campaign...
 
^ I think the ref that gave Ronnie the red card got suspended & can't work RM games the rest of this campaign...
yup just read an article on that

makes zero sense that the ref is getting punished, but the appeal is being denied
 
^ Tim Leiweke making moves... You can see what happens to Brucey over there at LA when he doesn't have the money to buy whatever players he wants... Galaxy looked rather pedestrian this year.

Damn I wish I could see Nurnberg vs. Munich this weekend... It's too bad Napoli vs. AC Milan won't be televised either...
 
Y'all giving Liga MX too much credit. Only thing they got better than the MLS is that their jerseys are generally cooler (UNAM and Santos in particular). The level of soccer played is not very entertaining

Speaking of jerseys, I wish Adidas didn't sponsor the whole league. Makes all the jerseys look the same
I was thinking this too. I catch a Liga MX game whenever its on ESPN, but I see a lot of similarities in play with the MLS, and whatever MLS 'hate' can be tossed around could also be thrown in the direction of Liga MX IMO.
 
Back
Top Bottom