Top Stories

Miguel Herrera: Liga MX competes with Europe, not with MLS

24 Shares

Miguel Herrera has seen his seen plenty of the rivalry between the U.S. and Mexico, and the current Club America boss says that he believes the premier American league is still playing catch-up.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s opening leg against Toronto FC, the Mexican manager said he doesn’t necessarily see a competition between MLS and Liga MX. Rather, the former El Tri manager says Liga MX is competing with leagues across the Atlantic.

“Our league is very solid, very strong and isn’t competing with MLS,” Herrera said at a news conference ahead of Tuesday’s opening leg against Toronto FC. “Our league competes with leagues in Europe, and obviously the MLS is wanting to catch the Mexican league to also compete with the leagues in Europe in the future.”

Herrera went on to say MLS is clearly improving due the increased investment, citing Toronto FC and the New York Red Bulls’ recent CONCACAF Champions League success. Despite the results, Herrera says he views Mexican teams as stronger overall while adding Liga MX clubs Tigres and Club Tijuana were unlucky.

“I think we have to show on the pitch that our league is still solid,” the Herrera said. “I saw both the games between Toronto and New York against Tijuana and Tigres, and I felt the Mexican teams played better.

“Sometimes this isn’t about playing better — you win with goals, and [the MLS teams] were practical and scored the goals at the right time to eliminate them.”

Comments

  1. He and others should enjoy whatever advantage Liga MX has for the time being. It is not a question of “if” but when MLS will surpass Liga MX.

    Reply
  2. In the club world championships the South American representative (usually from Argentina or Brazil) almost always does better than the Mexican side representing CONCACAF, so I doubt Liga MX is better than either the Argentina or Brazil leagues. How many players does the Mexican league spirit away from top European leagues? I don’t think it’s very many. The gap between Liga MX and MLS is small and growing smaller as I think MLS is improving more rapidly because they are getting more young, good DP’s. Also, if salaries are close to comparable, I think most foreign players would prefer to live and play in the US rather than Mexico.

    Reply
    • Travel really, really hamstrings Liga MX when they play in South American competitions. Truthfully unless you’ve got a situation going where you can allow everybody to acclimate to the conditions – like the World Cup – it’s very hard to measure the quality of the visitors, especially if they’re in midweek form.

      One thing I got used to seeing from, say, Copa Libertadores was, Mexican teams would do pretty well early and then tank as the toll of all that travel caught up with them. It was just too much when you’re flying to South America from the Northern Hemisphere for the 4th or 5th time while still trying to maintain a domestic schedule. Officially it was a scheduling conflict but I also I think that’s a HUGE reason why Liga MX has finally bowed out of the Libertadores; they just couldn’t sustain it and it was just too durn hard to be competitive in both.

      Reply
    • But does the SAm team pay its players? MX graduates some players but you don’t have to leave or be sold to make your team solvent and get a regular paycheck that doesn’t bounce. There is a reason some name brand SAm players move to not just Europe but also MLS, which many here would view as a step down. Not if the checks bounce. Even Beasley had that experience at Puebla. The players way down south are good and ambitious but what’s not talked about as much is why they want out of dodge.

      Reply
  3. Love how everyone thinks he is debating league quality.. clearly just trying to undermine Toronto! Probably not the tactic I would pick.. America doesn’t look that dominate right now, and giving any underdog bulletin board material to Toronto isn’t going to help.

    More like trying to become the Jose Mourinho of North America..

    It looks like it’s MLS’ year in the CCL but I wouldn’t say MLS is a better league top to bottom yet.

    Reply
  4. Rivalry is good for the sport in the region. We can’t have that until things like MLS teams knocking out two LigaMX teams happened last round and continue happening each year. So long as LigaMX teams don’t get a cake walk each year to a Concacaf title this rivalry will continue to grow and be better and better to watch on TV which brings the dollars.

    Hoping this becomes a real fight/competition back and forth without either league dominating every year, that will be great for our region long term. It could really blossom into a serious and lucrative international club competition if this rivalry gets going but MLS teams still have to show they can hang and knock off LigaMX teams on the regular.

    Without what happened to the LigaMX teams last round this question doesn’t even get asked and we are not even talking about it. Good on TFC and NYRB for showing up.

    Reply
  5. Liga MX is probably the #6 league in the world if you look at the metrics. (Attendance, salaries, international players produced, infrastructure, investment.) Only the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, and Ligue 1 are ahead…and Liga MX is ahead of the last two in several areas. The next level down – Eredivisie, Portugese League, Turkish League, Russian League, etc, simply do not compete with Liga MX in any of the five areas above, and rating them ahead of Liga MX is just…blind prejudice. The metrics say: no way.

    You could argue for the Brazilian or Argentine leagues, but you’d be arguing quality, not money, infrastructure, or attendance, since those leagues can’t compete with Liga MX in those categories.

    The metrics also say that MLS is right on Liga MX’s tail and will overtake, certainly within the next decade. (I think it will be sooner.) MLS is not yet competitive with the likes of Ajax, FC Porto, Benfica…but guess what, Europe is top-heavy and many of their leagues are average or worse. Whereas MLS is a league built on parity and the rising tide lifts ALL boats.

    Reply
    • I would love to see this data if you can link it. I tend to agree on money. CA has 2x Toronto payroll, and Liga MX is roughly 2x MLS payroll (which says that Liga MX is just as top heavy as MLS at 2.5x median salary for the top team), but so does the Championship in England.

      International players produced is a fuzzy number (ie the Championship probably has more than EPL), because that is a development target, IP currently playing would be a useful metric
      Infrastructure is even fuzzier (if you play in a civic arena do you count it or not) Investment is even more problematic than infrastructure, because there is no common source at all.

      Reply
      • Best site I’ve found is transfermarkt.co.uk. Astoundingly useful, ton o’ real data.

        There’s even a data point under the attendance field called “capacity”, gives you an idea on stadia…it’s a very real sense of who actually has what though I agree “infrastructure” also can mean a lot else, from transportation to support facilities to training fields.

  6. Liga MX doesn’t compete with Europe, they compete with MLS. tonight for instance, America will play Toronto
    tomorrow Chivas will play NYRB.
    .
    They will not be playing Euro teams.
    If he is saying that Tigres could do very well playing in European leagues, obviously they could….so sure, they “compete”.
    .
    Don’t know why you would say that now, when there are games actually being played, the next two weeks, between the two leagues that you say DONT compete against each other?

    Reply
    • You are using a different definition of the word compete.
      Yours: take part in a contest.
      Miguel: strive to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others who are trying to do the same.

      MLS can take part in matches with Liga Mx but Liga Mx has proved itself superior to MLS based on MLS only putting two teams even in the CCL final over nine years. (I don’t think based on the FIFA Club Championship that Liga Mx competes with Europe either).

      Reply
      • Well he might want to focus on the competing on the field portion. Because they lost 3-1 last night to a better team. His team can still reverse that at Azteca, but it IS a competition on the field. There is ZERO doubt about that.

  7. Como se dice, “humble pie” en español? No matter, Miguel Herrera never met a pie he wasn’t willing to eat.

    Reply
  8. I love this site and a loyal reader of about 8 years…but can at least one other person copy edit these so there aren’t glaring errors in at least the first sentence?? As for the article itself, he is right until an MLS team can win this CONCACAF competition.

    Reply
    • Already did, twice (DC and LA), but back in the superteam era. Worth noting that in the superteam era CCL (I think it was CCC or something like that then) used to be a straight knockout like it’s headed back to now.

      Reply
    • As far as I can tell mls has no intention of building from within. The league and its fans expect the salary cap to be released and turn the league into the Chinese Super League. Leave the player development to Germany.

      Reply
    • Re: “the best young players are still going elsewhere”, this applies to virtually every league on earth, not just MLS. It applies to Liga MX, as more and more of the top Mexican players now play in Europe.

      Reply
  9. Mexican league will never catch up to Europe. They are losers for life in that regard. MLS at least has potential to be better than Liga MX, probably sooner rather than later.

    Reply
  10. Overall he’s right.

    But the Red Bulls and Toronto outplayed their Liga MX opponents so far. A 2 leg series is as clear a picture as you can get.

    Reply
  11. HYSTERIA!!!
    He ain’t wrong. While the Mexican league is trying to catch up to Europe mls is trying to catch up to the Mexican league.

    Reply
    • well, this is weird: i agree with rob. liga mx is trying (and failing) to catch up to europe, and mls is trying (and might be succeeding) to catch up to liga mx.

      however, he’s still wrong in saying liga mx is “competing with europe”. that’s just laughable; maybe he meant the scandinavian leagues?

      Reply
      • But yeah, even still, how is Liga MX competing with Europe? It’s virtually impossible for them to measure themselves against European teams because they never play each other. Maybe they “compete” for the odd player every now and then with a European team, but hardly ever on the field. He might not like it, but MLS and Liga MX are directly competitors and rivals, which gets more and more serious each year these days.

  12. While Liga MX is still stronger than MLS top to bottom, I think he’s underestimating Toronto. Hopefully TFC will make him eat his words.

    Reply
    • Fighting the last war. I think you’re starting to get MLS teams like TFC and Seattle with big crowds and payrolls. Plus half the teams left are MLS. I take it as mindgames.

      MLS and MX are in the same region and by definition compete. That bit is literally silly and the gap is rapidly closing. MX and Europe rarely meet in something like summer friendlies or world club cup and you never know who takes it seriously, so that comparison is kind of a BS thought exercise.

      I mean, where does MLS fit relative to England’s pyramid. You could argue some of our best might beat their cellar dwellers in EPL. Most of the teams would be Championship. Some might say worse. We rarely play. Other than can we pay competitive salaries and attract players, so what.

      I mean, what if England didn’t have the work permit rules. How many Americans would be good enough to break in then. How many of their own players would be employed in a free market. Some of this discussion of who is better is covered up by which team has the best sugar daddy owner who can buy players.

      Reply

Leave a Comment