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Cruz Azul crush Sporting KC to send MLS champs crashing out of CCL

CruzAzulSportingKC

By TATE STEINLAGE 

Sporting Kansas City had no answer for Mariano Pavone and the rest of Cruz Azul in Wednesday’s decisive second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals.

Pavone tallied a hat-trick in under an hour to boost the Mexican side into the semifinals with a 5-1 (5-2 aggregate) victory, eliminating the last remaining Major League Soccer squad from the tournament.

“They were the better team,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said in a post-match interview. “We weren’t good enough. The start of the game we weren’t good, and the second half (we weren’t good). You can go back and pick out all kind of things, but in the end they were better than us tonight.”

Cruz Azul needed just two minutes to eliminate the 1-0 deficit earned from last Wednesday’s loss at Sporting Park. Pavone slipped behind defender Ike Opara and the Sporting KC defense, and blasted home a world-class shot into the upper 90.

Twenty-two minutes later, Pavone found the back of the net again to put Cruz Azul in the driver’s seat. It was the result of a wonderful sequence by Cruz Azul that sent a shot at Sporting KC goalkeeper Eric Kronberg. The veteran did his best to save the initial attempt at the near post, but Pavone was left open for the easy score.

Sporting KC did show a glimmer of hope right before the halftime break, though. A strike by midfielder Benny Feilhaber put his squad ahead in away goals in the 44th minute. The score was an individual effort by Feilhaber, who took a Sporting KC short corner and struck a ball just past the fingertips of  Cruz Azul goalkeeper Jesus Corona.

“We gave up those two goals there early, which we didn’t want to do. Benny (Feilhaber) did a great job to get us back in the game and to get us to a place where the away goal counts big for us,” Vermes said. “But in the second half, they definitely were the better team. We gave up four goals on the outside. That was the difference in the game.”

Cruz Azul wasted little time asserting themselves in the second half as the wheels of Sporting KC’s defense came off. Pavone capped off his spectacular night in the 55th minute with a goal from less than 10 yards out after working past the Sporting KC back four.

“In those situations, with who you’re playing against, you have to be tough,you have to be hard. You can’t give those guys any space,” Vermes said. “And that guy (Pavone), he is an aggressive, and very hungry, player. You can’t give him anything.”

The dagger came 11 minutes later. Sporting KC defender Mechack Jerome was beaten on the outside flank, left chasing his man into the box. Kronberg came out indecisively to assist, but eventually the ball landed at the feet of Mauro Formica who sent in another rebound.

Cruz Azul added insurance in the 70th minute when Christian Gimenez found himself open inside the box, shooting at the right post, getting the lucky rebound into the back of the net.

Gimenez’s goal capped out a disappointing night for Sporting KC, who had high expectations coming into the quarterfinals. Despite the early exit, Vermes told SBI that he is pleased with the team’s play throughout the tournament.

“I thought we did well going through group stage, and I thought we did a good job at home against a team that is the best team in Mexico,” Vermes said. “Unfortunately, we learned a good lesson here tonight. The big thing is that, as a team, can we grow and get better from those types of games?”

Sporting KC is the final MLS team to be eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League after LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes defeats. Kansas City returns to action Saturday at home against the Earthquakes at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Comments

  1. Is it fair to say, at this point, that the next person that comes here claiming that MLS is a hair below EPL and is clearly superior to the Mexican League gets an automatic ban for being an idiot?

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  2. What top notch athlete is turning down the money of the NBA, NFL, or MLB for the chance at an MLS base salary? That’s what holds back the development of the league. The players just aren’t good enough.

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  3. Garber claims that MLS will be one of the best leagues by 2022. I bet Garber wishes MLS teams didn’t play in the CCL. Eight years from now, Liga MX teams will still be destroying MLS.

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  4. Herr GARBER wants to increase mls to 24teams.We don’t even have enough talent to fill 19 teams with skilled talent.Increase cap and d.p.s and let the chips fall where ever. If a team can’t compete financially, get new owners, or fold.

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  5. MLS needs better players, simple as that. How, raise the salary cap and steal players from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and make uslpro a league to develop players as soon as possible. Tell high school students, either pick a college education or an academy.
    Another SAD fact, Tijuana is a team that has no history and got started by a rich drug lord casino dude and his team is better than galaxy. Sad story, I thought galaxy was an international MLS team with Real Madrid class. We gotta see the reality, Beckham left a big hole in MLS and especially galaxy.
    Garber, Tijuana has about 4 years or 3 in first division and galaxy has about 20 years. sad story

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  6. Wow…impressive amount of whining and gloating. Maybe the cap needs to go up, maybe not. I’ll simply point out that MLS needs to give these teams more support in terms of scheduling. I’m also shocked these teams never seem to do high altitude training before they go to Mexico City, SKC just looked worn out. At least SJ held their own in Toluca which is on average higher than Mexico City.

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  7. Kansas midfielders and forwards play high pressure until they can force turnovers for goals. Problem is, the LigaMX clubs are not bothered by the pressure and will pass right around it. The tactics were all wrong. I wouldn’t say that the loss is indicative of MLS quality at all honestly. It says more about SKC and their style of play – it works against middling level MLS teams, but teams with more quality can handle the pressure and make them pay.

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  8. A true disgrace! Thank you stingy salary and low price price DP!!!

    Salary cap was an issue, but MLS season just starting with over 2,000 meters and high toxic air just it add more to carnage.

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  9. Soccer Specific Stadiums are great as long as there are good players playing in them, and that’s not the case. Landon Donovan thinks so as well . According to him MLS teams have 6-7 players that can compete against Mexican teams, and that’s obviously not enough. As long as there are players making 40.000 Mexican teams will not have a problem beating our champion 5-1

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    • Landon is absolutely right. From watching these games here is a sample list of players that looked like they belong playing against MX competition:

      Salinas, Besler, Feilhaber, Cronin, Donovan, Keane, Lenhart ….

      and players that cannot compete:

      Jerome, Cato, Sarvas, Leonardo, Peterson, Zardys, Harris, ….

      MLS teams need to be at full strength just to have a slight chance because the bench players cannot compete.

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  10. What we need is for the Mexican teams to forget about this tournament and move on to The Libertadores.
    What do they have to gain out of this? For them it’s a lot tougher to win the domestic league or the CopMX than the CCL.
    At the end they end up playing each other in the final anyways.

    Reply
    • CONCACAF made them play this tournament and specifically banned their champions from participating in Libertadores. They are invitees there after all.

      What we need is to have an all MLS-LigaMX cup. 16 vs 16 with a group stage. Ditch the central americans, ditch CopaMx. It may start slow but would add competitiveness all around and grab more attention.

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      • Would be interesting, but we couldn’t send the champion to the club world cup without inviting the carribean and central american clubs. What you proposed would be a improved version of the Superliga.

    • well it is CONCACAF who is forcing Mexico to play CONCACAF competitions with their best, just like a couple of years ago Mexico was forced to take their starting XI to the 2011 Gold Cup instead of taking it to Copa America.

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  11. A 5-1 smack down hurts… That’s not a loss, that’s humilliation for SKC and the league.

    Need more money, better player development, improved coaching, better players, more money… more money, smart investments, more money.

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      • Eh, Liga MX brings in a lot of players who develop in South America. I’m not sure how responsible the domestic league is for the development of players that are bought.

      • yeah but the number of players they can sign is limited and sometimes they aren’t even starters (to name an example, Cruz Azul kept Achille Emana on the bench against SKC) Also, the best players for both Toluca (Brizuela) and Cruz Azul (Fabian) are mexican.

  12. We need to raise the cap and bring in a lot of German players. We will never be successful as a league until we start bringing many Germans into the league and make it something we can be proud of.

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    • Yes, Germans, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, ad whatever other quality players we can draw to our piddly, fifth-tier league.

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  13. MLS surprises wages of players leaving only half decent players willing to play here and do a horrific job in player development. I mean Jesus Christ…it’s been 15 years since Landon Donovan turned pro and we still haven’t produced a player here that is as good as him. Almost an entire generation later and we rely of duel citizens in Europe to be our stars. Laughable.

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    • Back in 2006, Cruz Azul had an average salary somewhere around 800k a year–nearly 10 times higher than MLS.

      It’s probably higher now.

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  14. 2 out of 3 go down in flames, and San Jose got reff’ed. Not a good showing by the league as usual, but a good indicator on where it stands in comparison to a good league. I don’t see us getting any closer.

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  15. Early season form or not, this is sad for mls. The level just isnt there yet. Especially the outside back position where teams are reluctunt to spend money on bc most of that cap cash is going to midfielders and fwds. Raise the cap a measley 2 mil more on top of the pathetic 3 mil its at now. 10 mil would be great but its not realistic.

    Teams with 2 or 3 DP difference makers on their roster need to afford quality competant max salary non DP role players. Put zusi ,parkhurst and goodson on the galaxy vs toluca (combined salary of around 1 mil for those guys? Just using thise guys as an example bc of the money they make)and there could have been a different result.

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  16. One major problem is that these knockout games happen when the mls is in preseason and Mexican league is mid season .. Big difference and big advantage to the Mexican teams

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    • MLS is not in preseason right now. They’ve done their fitness and team building already, they should be more than ready to play and fresh….unlike liga mx sides that have played a bunch of games and are fighting fatigue.

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  17. Too bad past US players who had a great European career, whether they are dual national or not, are not stepping up into the coaching ranks….how about it Wynalda, Reyna, McBride, etc…only Berrhalter is stepping up….

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  18. Now might be a good time to say coaching in MLS needs to upgraded to modern times and not people stuck in the past and in there ways. Go ahead all apologetic super knowledgeable soccer analysts..prove me wrong. I got Caleb Porter’s back.

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    • Great comment…the closest MLS got to winning this thing was when Jason Kreis managed RSL. His teams played more futbol than the usual kickball that most other coaches in this league play.

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  19. MLS needs to decide what their priorities are. Up to this point, parity has been a top priority for MLS–and I think every MLS fan supports some kind of salary cap. However, last year parity was almost extreme in the league. There were only about three teams that had no chance of making the playoffs and pretty much any team in the playoffs could win MLS Cup. There are benefits to that. However, I think MLS could do with a bit more inequality and actually the playoff system is made for inequality because, say, LA and New York get into the playoffs every year, but then the rest of the teams still fight for the other 8 playoff spots. No team will be left out of the hunt. The fact is, MLS has to compete with other leagues in the world, not just in Champions League but also for fans. I will watch MLS no matter what the quality but a lot of soccer fans won’t. Raise the cap.

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    • True. The salary cap prevents MLS from competing with Liga MX and playing high quality soccer. It might be necessary to keep the league profitable but lets delude ourselves into thinking that the MLS can be a “major” soccer league until it is done away with.

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    • Part of what we saw this week was a response by Mexican Clubs. MLS had closed the gap gained a little respect and they responded by playing first team rosters. Lest MLS ownership/management think they have arrived, a reality check with full squad MX teams is a good thing as I see it. MLS is improving, but they aren’t on par with upper level MX teams in top to bottom quality and they need to realize that. Plain and simple, if they want to consistently compete on a level playing field, changes are needed, more work to be done, more money spent. I believe they’re doing that and It’ll happen.

      There’s really no mystery what it will take… sports is a meritocracy… you can get the occasional upset or bargain upstart player through development and occasionally through scouting, but by and large, for trophies and high end talent, you get what you pay for. Higher pay, higher cap bolstered with improved development to fill in the gaps and feed the bottom of the roster… let it bake.

      And certainly, when you are already chasing from behind, playing teams that already have a huge edge in depth in mid-season form and you are a game or two into your season is an unfair, thankless position to put your players in.

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  20. MLS is garbage and this really shows how weak the league is. The defending champs getting smacked. The MLS can keep bringing in old European players to sell tickets while other leagues get better. Liga MX will always be MLS’S papa

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    • Thank the schedulers for giving a bye to tfc but making skc and la play the first two weeks. If you want to win, you tailor your schedule to make that happen. But that many games just to open things up means the legs are tired. As evidenced in the second half of the skc match.

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      • SKC were offered a week off, but didn’t take it because they didn’t want to jam up the schedule later in the year… so, you can thank SKC for not having extra rest. Reality is, that is no excuse. Cruz Azul sat no one last Wednesday, Saturday, or this Wednesday. They’re just that good. SKC was exposed. Granted, they were missing some key players (fullbacks, fullbacks, fullbacks) but man, that was an ugly way to bow out.

  21. I also think mls can compete in copa libertadores, besides MLS, champions and open cup but they need to raise the cap. Another thing, if MLS changes their schedule in 5 years or less, with a winter break, they would kill ligaMX because ligaMX is owned by TV contracts and underground promoters and those promoters and tv stations hate the FIFA schedule and love the split schedule due to money.
    Also, players love long seasons and MLS has that, besides safety, guaranteed contracts, a growing league, good connections.
    It’s just a matter of time, MLS kills ligaMX and these two leagues go at it just like a Europe.

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    • Try visiting the northern part of the country in winter and then revisit your fifa schedule idea. Totally unworkable. You can’t play (or watch) soccer when it’s 20 degrees and there’s 2 feet of snow on the ground, like there was all this winter in the northeast.

      As the league grows MLS teams will eventually dominate this competition but we’re 5-10 years from that probably. Just be patient.

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  22. God MLS and garber, should have watched these games because MLS need to raise their salary cap no matter what in order to compete with mexico teams and grow MLS.
    Basically MLS will compete against mexico ligamx forever, besides competing versus nfl,nba,mlb.
    In reality, MLS will have to steal ligaMx top talent and get most if their top talent and if they have to be DPs then do it.
    Hopefully garber opens his eyes and realizes, that besides competing with nfl,nba,mlb, that MLS fans want to compete at the global stage.

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    • Garbage did watch those games and he’s rolling in his bed right now crying himself to sleep! SKC was Garbage tonight the Salary Cap does need to be raised and stop using the whole MLS is still in preseason form excuse! What about when MLS played Liga MX in the superliga while liga mx was in preseason form and they’d still beat us. The point was that SKC just isn’t good enough. SJ could have had a better chance with Djalo and Pierrazzi starting but they didn’t and LA just played uninspired against TJ and once Martinez came on “poor mans neymar” i knew it was over. MLS is getting better every season and watch next year a MLS team will win the CCL.

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    • The worst part is top player choose to stay in Mexico for a wage they aren’t guaranteed to get instead of coming to MLS. Thats how embarrassing MLS wages are, Camilo Sanvezzo chose a ‘maybe’ pay check over the Whitecaps guaranteed pay check. We need to go back to that situation and really take a close look at it and evaluate MLS,

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      • I’m inviting you to name which teams other than Queretaro and Puebla are having financial issues on Mexico’s top flight.

        It’s important to know all the facts and not get carried away with hyperbole and misinformed opinions.

        Guys like Pavone go to Cruz Azul because they pay him well, LigaMX is a competitive league and there are avenues for international competition that MLS doesn’t offer.

    • Why raise the salary cap to win a tournament that generates a pittance of revenue. Our nats hose the Mexicans on the field. Our league can only grow– we can displace other sports internally and raise our proflie internationally. What can Liga MX do for the future? Stand still, or feed off the table scraps of the US market. It’s an inevitabilty, and I could care less how they do in this lame, empty-stadium non-tournament. Is a favor to the others that us or the Mexicans even show up. Or it’s supposed to be, except the also-ran fans don’t buy the bs either.

      I’d rather see us find a way into the Libertadores/Sudamericana than watch a sad half-effort at a group stage. There is no purpose here at all. An empty rainy stadium in Haiti on a random Wednesday should not have a place in the future of MLS.

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      • Stup!d idea. Let’s go to the libertadores where not only we are going to run into the best Mexican teams but also the best from Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Argentina etc. That sounds like a great idea.

      • I’m not suggesting the Earthquakes are going to go down there and lift the cup. Heck USMNT may win the World Cup before an MLS team wins the Libertadores.

        I just don’t see the point of this tournament. Nobody cares, Nobody shows up. And unsurprisingly, the teams don’t assign much value to it — there isn’t really much to lose by just crashing out. I’d rather send MLS teams down to Paraguay on a Wednesday to lose in a packed stadium that roars and shakes with every goal than see them have a kickabout on a waterlogged pitch in front of 280 people in Haiti. At least there is some upside to be had at some point in the future.

      • what can Liga MX do in the future? invest more millions (or even billions if your name is Carlos Slim) into youth development and vastly increase the level the average mexican player (which is already miles ahead of the average american player), if you really think that Liga MX isn’t growing at a similar rate as the MLS you are either blind or deluded.

      • That’s great for player development but what about revenue? A business model that funds itself is always better in the long run than relying on the whims of rich owners willing to lose money. I see three ways a league can grow its aggregate revenue (1) Capture a greater market share domestically (2) Convince the existing fanbase to spend more or (3) Grow interest in the league in new markets abroad. I don’t see how Liga MX is a better proposition on any of these fronts.

        MLS has billionaire owners, too, and some real heavy hitters are going to be coming online in the next few years.

      • Mexico’s economy has been growing rapidly, so the quality of their player pool should increase along with decreases in poverty and deprivation. So with better players and a fan base with increasing incomes, Liga MX may well be poised to grow more than MLS.

      • you think that Liga MX isn’t making any revenue? where do you think the 600m the MXNT gets every 4 years for the World Cup go? to the club owners of course, add to that the money they get from, TV revenue (Chivas alone gets 80m for their rights on Univision), shirts sales, etc. Yeah there are also many billionares in MLS but no one close to Slim and most of them wouldn’t waste their money in a league where there is no interest, not even local.

      • I don’t doubt that Liga MX has good revenue. From what I understand, still better than MLS, which makes sense with higher average attendances and bigger, more established fanbases. And yes, $600+ million from sponsors is nice, although they may not be so generous next time, given they almost lost their shirt (sales) at this turn.

        But once again, I am talking about *growth opportunities*, and I don’t see where they can go from here. Soccer has little competition among sports in Mexico, and as such they have the market saturated. No new fans to be had there. Anywhere else? Probably not. They’ve tapped all they can. MLS by comparison has a very small share of its domestic market, which means there is massive upside still to be claimed in the world’s largest economy, and the statistic surrounding the growth in interest among 12-24 year olds has billionaires from here and abroad pumping money in as fast as they can.

        At best, Paul’s argument makes a little bit of sense sense.. you could squeeze your existing fans for more money if they are doing better financially. Nice enough, but not a home run. And when it comes to pumping folks for disposable income, I’ll stick with the tried and true USA. We didn’t get this bloated and fat from just sitting around

  23. Those SKC fullbacks are going to have Cruz Azul in their nightmares for a long time. Marco Fabian especially, he absolutely embarassed Jerome.

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  24. The olllll crash out. haha. Its really hard for me to believe we are THAT much worse than Mexico. Seriously!

    Time to up the cap to 10 million and up the # of DPs to 5. That way we can sign a few more big names, keep young developing players and buy high quality starters in MLS and hope to compete against the Mexican teams. For example, as a sounder fan, Yedlin will progress. By the time he wants to cash in he wont be a justifiable DP. But with more cap and more DPs, there would no doubt be some way to keep talent like that in the league all across the board.

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    • In the 6 matches, 3 US players with a goal, 3 Mexican, 2 Ecuador and 6 came from players from Argentina . The big difference right now is Liga MX brings in alot better South American talent.

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      • not just that, today the MOTM for Cruz Azul was Marco Fabian, a mexican international, 4 of the 5 goals were started by him.

        in the Xolos-LAG game the best player after Benedetto was Joe Corona who plays for the USMNT but lived in Tijuana until his teens, went to high school in San Diego and used to play for Mexico at the youth level.

      • Don’t know what game you watched that made you think Corona was the best player behind Benedetto. Pellerano and Guemez were collectively and individually better than Corona.

      • Re Corona, he also went to San Diego State out of high school and hoped to be signed by MLS, was ignored and after his first year signed with Xolos when offered a contract. Xolos were 2nd division at the time. He was born in the US.

      • First of all I really like Zusi as an MLS player but for the national team I don’t see a spot for him. Everytime I see him suit of the nats he does one play that wows you but then he goes into his usual habit of stunning the attack. He’s to defensive and the problem is he isn’t good tracking back defensively like LD or Bedoya. Yes, his crosses are pretty good but then again Donovan’s are better and I’ve never more than 3 of his crosses connect like they do when he plays for SKC. I think this was one of the worst games i’ve ever seen from Zusi, his set pieces were all skyrocketed to row Z and he was playing against 1/2 of the mexican nats who shut him down all night.The US now has Green and the games i’ve seen him play for Bayern he’s either a striker or on the right seeing his inclusion I see Zusi’s spot up for grabs. Also, Corona is also starting to light up for TJ who could also steal his spot. I don’t see him playing LM because Fab J, Beasley, Castillo, or Johannsson have that covered.
        “Zusi is still living off of a hot summer from 3 years ago.”

      • Bedoya’s started a good number of times on the National team recently and really hasn’t done much. I don’t believe the team’s even scored much less him in the last 3. Most of Donovan’s success on the national team recently has been in that role under the striker. Corona’s looked fine but is in and out of the line up for Tijuana and wasn’t as good as Bedoya during the Gold Cup anyway. Also the last 3 matches Zusi’s played on the National team I believe he has 2 goals and an assist.

      • Yeah bedoya hasn’t done well for the US in the past but idk if you’ve seen him play for Nantes. He is one of the reasons they are on the rise in Ligue 1 and he was the only bright spot for the US against Ukraine he worked that right side all night. It’s true about Corona being really iffy with lineups but as of his past 4 games with TJ im kinda liking how he plays not huge fan of his but man when the kid has confidence he is a game changer. I think he earned himself a callup due to his showings against LA. I’d like to see Zardes as well but hes too raw. True but, Zusi just isn’t that good outside of Concacaf . I do see him making the 30 man pre-lim but I don’t see him making the 23 I feel Klinsi is going to snub him and surprise us ala Bob Bradley.

    • The DP limit needs to be done away with entirely.

      The salary cap may be necessary, bu if owners want to spend millions of their own dollars on improving their teams, what good comes from preventing that? Parity? Who wants parity. People get up when the big clubs come to town. Even if the minnows get crushed nine of ten times, most fans would welcome the chance to take on Goliath. And if you happen to have a big-spending, well, enjoy your good fortune.

      Let the owners spend their money however they like.

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      • So throw away the model that led MLS to go from not existing to what it is today in only 18 years because of a few CCL losses? Mexico had about a 100 year head start on us in terms of having a professional league and a soccer culture. We’re closing the gap but it doesn’t happen overnight.

      • What? The Mexican League didn’t exist 100 years ago.

        It wasn’t until the 70’s that the league gained any real traction and it was because they hosted the WC.

      • I didn’t say “throw away the model”. Letting owners spend their own money however they like — above and beyond the amount budgeted for salaries by the league — would enable them to improve their teams with no impact on league finances.

        There is no downside to that…unless you enjoy the monotony of parity.

      • You can keep parity and a lid on salary while giving a team options. Give MLS teams the option of 3 DP’s or 2 DP’s, plus an extra $2 or $3 million that they can spend above the salary cap. This way a team can spend on a star, or a number of good players and build depth, all while maintaining the same level of spending.

      • Um, they can have 2-3 DPs already and if you give everyone $2-3m above the cap wouldn’t that be just raising the cap?

    • MLS owners and managers just don’t value this tournament. It’s a nuisance that generates little money or prestige… There are times in the group stage when I’m pretty sure I actually saw Robbie Keane at dinner while we were both avoiding a weeknight snooze at the StubHub Center. I only noticed because our usual waiter scored the opener.

      Managers barely feign enthusiasm when interviewed about the matches. Not a manager in the MLS-based bunch who will lose a wink of sleep. It’s a problem because a good regional club tournament would be awesome, but it’s a problem with the tournament just as much as MLS.

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    • Seriously, going O-ferr in the CCL is embarrasing. Something needs to be done so we can compete with these guys. How are we supposed to be taken seriously as a league if we can’t dispatch Mexican teams on a consistent basis?

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      • We are one game into the season and still working out kinks. The mexican league teams are all inshape and ready to ball. This isn’t a new thing.

    • One good game and all of a sudden TFC is the best team in the region? They might have Defoe and Bradley but the rest of the team is average. Mexican teams have more to offer, don’t count on TFC winning CCL.

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    • Haha TFC? Please son they haven’t proved anything. Liga MX will always have MLS’S number. I’ll say Leon wins next year if not them it’s gonna be another MX team like always.

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    • I think TFC supporters would just be happy to qualify for MLS Cup playoffs, but shoot for the stars right?

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    • Just another proof that MLS’s single entity anti-competitive structure stifles the growth and development. Mexican league is based on free market principles (including promotion/relegation and individual independent clubs) and thus has a distinct competitive advantage over the MLS.

      Reply

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