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Posted by
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March 20, 2014 |
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Aaron Nielsen
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Over Tuesday and Wednesday night the last three remaining MLS clubs in the 2013-2014 CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals were eliminated in what only can be described as an embarrassing fashion.
As Kamal Hylton and I discussed on this week’s Gaffer and Hooligan podcast, all three clubs were in precarious positions. San Jose tied 1-1 at home, while Los Angeles and Kansas City were only able to win 1-0, which isn't much in an aggregate knock-out scenario, however, both the Galaxy and Sporting KC could have advanced holding their opponent to a draw.
Instead, the Galaxy lost 4-2 to Tijuana and despite what will be said about that final score, the heroics of Robbie Keane made it a close encounter. San Jose was able to hold Toluca to a draw, losing on penalty kicks, however, during the full and extra time despite a 1-1 score line, the Earthquakes were outshot 36-10 with Toluca hitting the target 11 times and having 72% of possession. Finally, last season’s MLS champions Sporting Kansas City lost 5-1 to Cruz Azul and were outshot 19-9 and 9-2 in terms of shots on target.
If you are familiar with my work and articles here on RedNation Online you wouldn't be surprised that in my statistical work related to soccer I cover Liga MX and have for a number of years. The perception, especially after the results this week, is that Liga MX is a top league and is played at a much higher quality than the MLS. The reality, at least in my analysis, is that this isn't the case other than a few key initiatives that Mexican clubs seem to do a lot better than MLS clubs.
From the business and revenue side, Liga MX’s only advantage is their television contract and although attendance is listed as higher in Mexico, the ticket prices in MLS are much higher. It is estimated that Mexican clubs might earn 1/3 more than the average MLS club and this is also reflected in the overall team salaries. Without a salary cap Mexican clubs compete in the traditional soccer market in terms of paying transfers fees and salaries, with players have more freedoms to negotiate with each club in the league to attain the best salary.
This means that it's safe to assume the average player in Liga MX would make more than the average player in MLS. However, if you talk to American soccer fans most will say Americans are now better than Mexicans in terms of national team play, and even with an unbiased view, if you break down the top domestic players in both leagues, veterans and prospects, there is not much of a discrepancy between the two.
It seems the greatest difference between MLS and Liga MX is the quality of the imported player. Yet when you break down all players in the league only 23.4% players in Mexico are non-Mexican, including 13 American players, while MLS currently has 37.8% non-American players and it's been reported that the top earners in Mexico make around $3 million a year compared to the $8-9 million that Jermain Defoe and Clint Dempsey make in MLS.
This shows a weakness and an issue that I been talking about for a long time: MLS has failed both at a league and team level in recruiting players that improve the overall quality of the league. For example, when Toronto FC put the great effort to get Maximiliano Urruti to sign I discussed how Toronto would have been much better signing, now EPL player, Ignacio Scocco instead.
In these past CCL games, six players made the difference and are all players who could have been MLS targets instead of Mexico, had a proven track record that demonstrated their future success, and transfer fee and salaries that are equal or less than the average DP players in the MLS.
Tijuana, the weakest of the three Mexican clubs in the CCL tournament, beat the LA Galaxy 4-2 through two early goals by Jaime Avoyi and a goal and an assists by Dario Benedetto.
Avoyi is a 26 year old Ecuadorian forward who was one of top scorers in the Ecuador league with 23 goals in 2010 before joining Liga MX club Toluca. Since then he played with Pachuca, also in Mexico, and Al-Nasr in the Saudi Premier League, then joined Tijuana on loan this season costing Tijuana salary-only that is listed at less than a million dollars a season. He is also a regular for the Ecuadoran national football team who will be in the World Cup this summer.
Meanwhile, Benedetto is a 23 year old Argentinian winger who joined Tijuana for a cheaper transfer fee and salary then when Urruiti joined Toronto FC last summer. Benedetto has scored more goals than Urruiti so far, despite playing in a midfield role in Argentina and has a number of assists to go with his goals.
The key players in Toluca’s pressure and shots over San Jose Earthquakes were forward Edgar Benitez and midfielder Juan Salgueiro. Benitez is a 26 year forward who plays with the Paraguay national team and first joined Liga MX in 2009 after leading the Paraguay League in goals in 2008 with 21. Benitez has now played close to 150 games in Liga MX, never costing his Liga MX sides Pachuca or Tuluca a huge transfer fee or salary.
Juan Salgueiro, a 30 year old Uruguayan midfielder/forward has played for a number of teams in Uruguay, Spain, Argentina, Ecuador, and before joining Toluca as his second club in Mexico, was a key contributor in leading Uruguayan side Olimpia to the 2013 Copa Libertadores finals. Salgueiro also won the 2009 Copa Libertadores with Estudiantes de La Plata of Argentina. Being out of contract he joined Toluca on a free transfer for the CCL tournament in January.
Finally, Cruz Azul, who are currently the top team in Liga MX, beat Sporting KC easily 5-1, led by the top player in Liga MX Hugo Pavone. His hat-trick and a goal and an assist by ex-English Premier League player Mauro Formica sealed Kansas City’s fate like so many other MLS teams who have failed in the away leg of the tournament.
At the beginning of Pavone’s career, he was one of the top scorers with his home club Estudiantes de La Plata of Argentina from 2001 to 2007, then joined Spanish club Real Betis for 6.8 million euros. In 2010 he returned to Argentina, then joined Cruz Azul in 2012 and has already scored 26 goals in Liga MX. Pavone is making a reported 1.5 million a year, a little more than Kenny Miller and less than half of what Tim Cahill making with the Red Bulls.
Fellow Argentinian Mauro Formica might be the best known of the six after being a regular starter with English Premier League club Blackburn Rovers. A highly touted prospect in Argentina, including a national team cap, joined Blackburn for 5 million euros. After Blackburn were relegated he joined Palermo in Serie A on loan. Cruz Azul signed Formica, now 25, for a reported 800,000 euros and are paying him a million dollars a year.
Of the three MLS CCL clubs, only the LA Galaxy has shown a willingness to pay for players in this transfer fee and price range, which brings up other concerns in terms of how MLS treats the CCL tournament. This summer, if Toronto FC can make the 2014-2015 CCL, they should have the quality to win the tournament as the money they spent this winter is equivalent to the top fifty players in Mexico. Add to that, Liga MX also made 60 million euros on players they sold this offseason compared to 3 million euros made by the MLS.
Recently, South American sports news service Terra came out with the top paid players in each league in the Americas. Defoe and Dempsey make $8-9 million, $2 million more than Neymar did at Santos and was the highest paid player in Brazil before joining Barcelona. The top salary in Mexico is Humberto Suazo at $3 million, in Argentina top player makes $1.5 million, in Paraguay $880,000, in Colombia $667,000, in Ecuador $500,000, in Chile $457,870, in Peru $300,000 and in Bolivia $240,000.
If these numbers are true, it shows a real failure in the MLS recruiting services. When you consider in comparison, Obafemi Martins makes more than any player in Argentina, while Alvaro Rey makes almost as much as the top player in Bolivia. Based on salaries alone, MLS should be competitive with all these leagues, however, if MLS finds the CCL success a challenge, imagine how difficult these clubs would have it in the Copa Libertadores.
True, MLS have made an attempt to enter the South American market backed up by favourable reporting such as: "Looking solely at the quality of the 'in their prime' players transferring in, 2014 has already blown out every other season; 14 players, arriving from quality leagues, between the ages of 23 and 29. Garber is right, we are now a destination of choice."
However, the results on the pitch are telling me something different. Admittedly, it's difficult to follow soccer closely in South America, even though I have, including ten years of detailed statistics on these players and 1000's more. I can provide top goal scores, assist makers, shot takers, proven veterans and prospects with the precedents, assumptions and hope they can improve the league.
The problem to most North American soccer fans is these names would be new to them. So the biggest issue regarding MLS in its comparison to Liga MX is not finance, it's not big names, it's not experience and it's not even passion. It's that the league prefers to sell tickets and shirts via marketing, press releases and highlight videos instead of success and quality on the pitch.
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