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Osorio clarifies comments regarding Mexican players, MLS

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While Juan Carlos Osorio does believe that players from the Americas should aspire to play in Europe’s top leagues, the Mexican national team coach clarified previous comments he made in a recent interview that appeared to knock MLS.

Osorio told Mexican newspaper Excelsior that he would rather see El Tri internationals playing in Europe than in MLS because the U.S. league is for players at the end of their playing careers. However, speaking to Goal USA, the 53-year-old says that his intentions were never to single out MLS, but instead to push players to reach their full potential.

“I did say that for any player the ultimate goal, especially at their peak, should be playing in Europe,” Osorio said. “This goes for any league in the Americas, whether it’s MLS, the Mexican league, Brazilian league, Argentinian league or any other.”

Osorio, who served as head coach of both the New York Red Bulls and Chicago Fire, also wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t suggesting a Mexican player playing for an MLS side wouldn’t be given a fair shot to represent his country.

“I have never said that I won’t call in players from MLS,” Osorio said. “Any suggestion of that idea is false. I would never ignore a player because of the league they play in.”

While Osorio did stress his respect for MLS and its continued growth, he also reiterated that players should aim to join the league towards the latter stages of their careers.

What do you think of Osorio’s comments? Should all players strive to play in Europe?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Anthony, your just making things up when you say that donte and David Luiz are not world class. I mean really, come on. Neymar and silva at two tough players to replace mid tournament, but that would be tune with any team losing two pieces like that.

    Domestic league success matters more than anything. I don’t know about your correlation causation theory, but it sounds pretty weak.

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    • Dude, everyone knows that was the weakest Brazilian NT in decades. They were lucky to make it to the semi-finals.

      Argentina, with a squad almost composed entirely of European players, probably should have beaten Germany in the final.

      But you don’t hear anyone in Brazil or Argentina say that their players should stay home instead of going to Europe. Only in America do we have ideas like that.

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      • Soccer fan, Argentina and Brazil are in America. Do you think South America, after winning at least every other World Cup for the first seventy years of the tournament, is happy that they have lost three in a row, with only one of those events even being held on European soil?

        If you really think brazilians want Neymar playing in Europe, over Brazil, you might need to reexamine that thought process. Why do you think. South America is allowing the U.S. To host copa America? What, because it’s 100 years. It’s the same reason South America is offering Mexico entry into its continental club tournaments. It wants to increase the level of its competition, and for the money, to be for sure.

        Soccer fan, you look at the success of the uefa champions league and think, this is the center of the football universe, for ever, and ever, and ever, but others look at it as a challenge to equal or surpass this event. This chorus will only grow louder should a European team win the next World Cup.

      • i really think the question you should be asking yourself is this, do you think we are going to establish a rich soccer culture in our country by relegating our top professional league to second tier status? Europe of course being first tier status.

        is this really the way its going to happen for our country???

  2. There is little doubt that playing European club ball has benefitted South American players, but how long is it going to be before South American federations come out and say, South Americans playing in Europe is not benefitting South American national teams?

    You might think this happened when the home team in the last World Cup, Choc full of champions league talent spread around Europe, got dismantled by Germany, made up predominately of players from one club.

    Reply
    • Correlation does not mean causation (as is the case here). This Brazilian teams was one of the weakest and shallowest (in terms of depth) that have seen in about 30 years. Good Wingbacks, 1 good centerback, Excellent 10, but the rest of the team was not all that impressive

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  3. Well the goal of the Mexicans, Brazilians, and Argentines should be to play in the MLS! It’s the best league in the Americans and it’s so good that our guys don’t need to go to Europe. The competition is good enough at home.

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  4. Klinsmann is like, “Your my boy JCO! I feel yah”

    Gio Dos Santos is like, “sooo you’re saying there’s a chaance??”

    Garber is like, “I’m voting for Trump, hate these Mexicans!”

    Ives Galarcep is like, “so guys, what’s going on over at sbisoccer? How’s that going?”

    Jordan Morris is like, “Mom that was delicious! I missed you.”

    AMphibian is like, “this comment deserves a like”.

    Rob is like, “yes this article is perfect for trolling.”

    Gary Page is like, “this article deserves a really long post by me where I will talk about myself a lot and how I used to be a social-scientist”.

    Slowleftarm is like, “my wife is Mexican, so I will let Osorio off the hook”.

    Oldschool is like, “i really like the word echo-chamber, let me stick it into another post”.

    Reply
    • I’m surprised more people don’t use the like button!

      I use it in place of when I normally would’ve written something like “+1”, “hahah”, or “good point”.

      I know a like is not as good as written response, but hopefully it’s better than no acknowledgement.

      If I like AND respond to a comment, well, that means I really appreciated the thoughts and how they were presented, and probably that I had too much free time on my hands.

      Reply
      • I never noticed that. After SBI’s most recent change I created an account with WordPress and now every time I come here I’m logged in. I must have clicked something you didn’t or vice versa, but I like it this way, so I’m a bit to apathetic to investigate.

        I think I’ll continue to like button stuff that I like, despite whatever other mysterious reasons I may have lurking in my nebulous subconscious.

        I can say that I don’t like button comments nonchalantly. I read them a couple times and think about them for a few seconds.

        I think I’m just a dude who likes a lot of stuff in reality. I love watching and playing and learning about every sport. I love playing games in general; video games, board games, math games, word games, card games, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. Shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes. . .
        I want to be the architect and the guy who builds the foundation. I want to be the actor and the director. I want to be the story and the writer. I want to be the teacher and the student. A lot of things and ideas appeal to me, so I’ll tend to like things even when they are opposite of my position. I want to be the zealot and the agnostic. The scientist and the shaman.

        If a comment is reasoned and respectful, I probably have a good chance of understanding and liking that comment.

  5. ridiculous he has to clarify what should have been obvious. so many people are too insecure and have an inferiority complex.

    i love MLS, but it should be OBVIOUS that a national team coach would want his national team players, especially star players in their prime, to be playing in a top European league. that is not a slight on MLS or Liga MX.

    so for him or JK to say they prefer players in those leagues should not be a trigger for the mob mentality mass to start complaining and going off about being anti-MLS. both him and JK have said that despite saying that is what they prefer, they understand it’s not that easy and that every player deserves further analysis on what offers they have, prospects for playing time, the league in question, the team in question, etc. but the overall IDEA of having our best players in a top European league should not be met with outrage.

    Reply
    • Osorio is guilty of speaking the truth. I have seen a number of times in life that while it may be bad to attack another person’s cherished beliefs, the worst thing is to do that and then be shown to be correct. People hate you for that. Henrik Ibsen wrote a wonderful play about this called Enemy of the People.

      Reply

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