Jordan Mutch

[tdob (in Toronto)]

MLS is on the up? By signing on loan someone whose career has been blighted by injuries and under achievement?

Chinese league within a few years will be far ahead of MLS. They've not just thrown money at players but also brought in experienced coaches which will benefit football there far more.

This is so wrong. Look at teams like Atlanta United, LAFC, the types of players being brought in. Teams are also paying big transfer fees for young talent that they're beating European clubs to. There has been a huge shift in the last 5 years where the average age of players being brought to the league (specifically the high profile ones) are 26 or younger.

[ccfc_is_my_life]

This is so wrong. Look at teams like Atlanta United, LAFC, the types of players being brought in. Teams are also paying big transfer fees for young talent that they're beating European clubs to. There has been a huge shift in the last 5 years where the average age of players being brought to the league (specifically the high profile ones) are 26 or younger.

Atlanta had a plan to play the South America style, fair play to them. Of course they signed that perfect fit, Kenwyne...

What young talent have they beaten European teams for? I'd doubt very much it's anywhere near to high quality talent.

Again, games I've seen have been riddled with defensive naivety that would get slaughtered at league one level here.

[tdob (in Toronto)]

Atlanta had a plan to play the South America style, fair play to them. Of course they signed that perfect fit, Kenwyne...

What young talent have they beaten European teams for? I'd doubt very much it's anywhere near to high quality talent.

Again, games I've seen have been riddled with defensive naivety that would get slaughtered at league one level here.

Kenwyne started about 5 matches for them, wasn't key to their team at all. But there are always going to be signings in any league like that.

Atlanta signed 19 year old Barco this season for $15 million, and Almiron last season (who will eventually go to Europe
I am sure). Both players are said to have turned down offers from Europe and Mexico, the manager of Atlanta is someone players want to play for though. I don't want to keep pumping Atlantas tires though as their supporters have already become the most annoying.

Diego Rossi is another 19 year old who signed for LAFC, most articles linked him with other teams / offers but LAFC put up the money and can obviously offer an attractive workplace.

Jesus Medina is only 20 and signed with New York. Interest from him all over, although as NYCFC is owned by Man City there might be some type of deal there.

Kaku, Paredes, Colman, etc there are so many players under the age of 22 or 23 coming over from South America and these are only the ones in the last few months. Nobody is oblivious enough to think a player would turn away a top 25 European club to stay in MLS but the league is quickly becoming a hot bed of talent from Latin America. You also get players like a Giovinco who could easily play for a club in the Champions League but likes his life in Toronto on a salary that likely won't be beat. That's the thing with MLS, it offers players the chance to increase their quality of living in many cases, not be under the microscope 24/7 and play a fairly high level of football.

Anyway, i'll put down my MLS pom poms now, just sometimes gets frustrating when people who maybe watch a handful of matches a season make sweeping judgments of an entire league. Don't get me wrong there are terrible matches in MLS, but i've also watched every Cardiff match this season and some of them have been pretty dire themselves (i'll take about 10 more of them if we get the 3 points though).

[CopenhagenBlue]

[QUOTE=tdob (in Toronto);4853423]Kenwyne started about 5 matches for them, wasn't key to their team at all. But there are always going to be signings in any league like that.

I saw one of Kenwyne Jones' games for Atlanta, in Toronto when they played eachother last April. Finished 2-2. It wasn't a bad game to be fair, and the standard seemed decent enough. It seemed generally better than the last game I watched in 2012, LA Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake. That game had Beckham and Keane both playing for LA too. Last year, I seem to remember Giovinco standing out for Toronto. Jozy Altidore I can never quite make my mind up on though... I enjoyed the experience though, nice ground and friendly locals.

[ccfc_is_my_life]

Kenwyne started about 5 matches for them, wasn't key to their team at all. But there are always going to be signings in any league like that.

Atlanta signed 19 year old Barco this season for $15 million, and Almiron last season (who will eventually go to Europe
I am sure). Both players are said to have turned down offers from Europe and Mexico, the manager of Atlanta is someone players want to play for though. I don't want to keep pumping Atlantas tires though as their supporters have already become the most annoying.

Diego Rossi is another 19 year old who signed for LAFC, most articles linked him with other teams / offers but LAFC put up the money and can obviously offer an attractive workplace.

Jesus Medina is only 20 and signed with New York. Interest from him all over, although as NYCFC is owned by Man City there might be some type of deal there.

Kaku, Paredes, Colman, etc there are so many players under the age of 22 or 23 coming over from South America and these are only the ones in the last few months. Nobody is oblivious enough to think a player would turn away a top 25 European club to stay in MLS but the league is quickly becoming a hot bed of talent from Latin America. You also get players like a Giovinco who could easily play for a club in the Champions League but likes his life in Toronto on a salary that likely won't be beat. That's the thing with MLS, it offers players the chance to increase their quality of living in many cases, not be under the microscope 24/7 and play a fairly high level of football.

Anyway, i'll put down my MLS pom poms now, just sometimes gets frustrating when people who maybe watch a handful of matches a season make sweeping judgments of an entire league. Don't get me wrong there are terrible matches in MLS, but i've also watched every Cardiff match this season and some of them have been pretty dire themselves (i'll take about 10 more of them if we get the 3 points though).

I watch as many as I can though obviously the time difference makes the "late" games difficult to watch. Our matches may have been "dire" but against a higher standard.

I'd like MLS to be successful but there's a long long way to go. I like Orlando's fanbase, I don't like NY City FC or whatever it is, especially the way they a) tried to manufacture a rivalry with Red Bulls and b) play on a pitch that is technically illegal due to being below minimum width. Then again with some of their older players in recent years, that made sense.

I watch games and you can see how Bradley Wright-Phillips suddenly became a goalscoring machine over there. Defensively, it's pretty naive, a long way behind even League One standard at times. Some nice football it has to be said but the overwhelming impression I tend to get of the bulk of certainly US players is that they tend to come acros as athletes trying to play football as opposed to "native" footballers if that makes sense.