Mls takes a backseat to Mexico

[Sir X]

Why MLS takes a backseat to Mexico


Updated: April 12, 2012, 10:03 AM ET
By Jeff Carlisle | ESPN.com

• 38
• 24
• 377
• EMAIL
• PRINT

Steven Bisig/US PresswireMLS sides, including the Seattle Sounders, suffered major beatdowns in this year's CONCACAF Champions League. Was it a step back for the league, or an aberration?


The knockout stages of this year's CONCACAF Champions League made for some grim viewing. In the quarterfinals, the Seattle Sounders were well-beaten by Mexican powerhouse Santos Laguna, falling 7-3 on aggregate. After disposing of the Los Angeles Galaxy in the same round, it was Toronto's turn to take on Santos in the semis, only to suffer the same fate, right down to the scoreline.


It amounts to a major disappointment for MLS. It was just a year ago that Real Salt Lake reached the final round of the CCL, only to lose 1-0 at home to Monterrey after drawing the away leg 2-2. This season MLS failed to reproduce the feat, and suffered some embarrassing scorelines that were thought to be a thing of the past. Seattle was beaten 6-1 in the second leg, while TFC fell 6-2.


"It was an ass-whipping, any way you slice it," said ESPN television analyst Alexi Lalas. "It was difficult to watch."


So was RSL's feat merely a mirage for MLS? Was this year's tournament a step backward for the league? Is MLS destined to forever be left in the wake of teams from Mexico?


The answers to these questions aren't as obvious as they might seem. Clearly, RSL's run was impressive. Since 2002, when the tournament began requiring MLS teams to beat opponents over two legs, no team has come closer to claiming continental supremacy. But as is the case with most deep tournament runs, some stellar play was accompanied by good fortune. RSL garnered a favorable quarterfinal draw against a Columbus Crew side that was undergoing a considerable overhaul. Real then managed to avoid Mexican opposition until the final, prevailing in a tense semi against Costa Rican side Saprissa.



This year's entrants weren't so lucky, though there is no excusing L.A.'s inability to navigate its way past a clearly less talented Toronto side in the quarterfinals. Santos is currently atop Mexico's Primera Division and hasn't lost a league game since February. Santos forward and U.S. international Herculez Gomez has been in epic form of late, tallying 11 goals in his past eight games across all competitions. He insists there's no shame in losing to the Albiverdes.


"We've been doing that to a lot of teams, not just MLS teams," said Gomez via telephone about the two blowouts. "We're in first place, and for very good reason. We've got a good squad; this team has been together for a while. This team has had success over the years, so I don't think people should put that much importance into [the results]. We did very well against these MLS teams, but it wasn't just because they were MLS teams."


And it should be noted that when viewed through the broader context of the entire tournament, MLS teams did achieve some notable successes. FC Dallas became the first MLS team to triumph on Mexican soil, defeating Pumas 1-0 on Aug. 17, a feat that was duplicated by Seattle six days later when it beat Monterrey by the same score.


MLS teams also put three teams into the quarterfinals and compiled a record of 21-16-7 in the competition, making it the best performance since the tournament was expanded to include a group stage during the 2008-09 edition. Such data is the reason Lalas doesn't believe that the sky is falling when dissecting the most recent CCL performances.


"I don't think everyone should all of a sudden feel that the quality of MLS is suddenly so much lower than the quality of Mexican teams," he said. "It was a bad run. It doesn't mean that MLS can't compete with Mexican teams."


Perhaps not, but it does raise additional questions about what can be done to level the playing field for MLS teams, which enter the tournament shouldering some significant disadvantages, especially when going up against Mexican clubs. The financial disparity in terms of the relative salary budgets is clear. Seattle manager Sigi Schmid estimates that his team's payroll is "25 to 30 percent" of that of Santos.


"I think on an MLS team, player one through 14 can compete with any team [in Mexico]," said Gomez, who spent parts of eight seasons playing in MLS. "That's not a joke; that's a fact. Not too much separates these players. From 15 on, that's where your depth gets tested. When you get injuries, when you get fatigue, when certain guys aren't on their game, it gets very tough for these teams.


"I've lived both leagues," Gomez added. "You see Toronto in the last leg -- you can just see the look on these guys' faces. With all due respect, it's a deer-in-the-headlights look. They've never been in this environment. They've never had a game of that caliber. Some are two years out of college, just two years as professionals. I had a teammate at Pachuca who made his first-division debut at age 15. [In Mexico], it's just different."


The travel MLS teams must endure during the regular season, which often involves long flights across multiple time zones, also saps energy and cuts into preparation time. And perhaps most damaging of all is the time of year when the knockout stages take place. It is no accident that the two aforementioned triumphs in Mexico by Dallas and Seattle took place when MLS was well into its season and Mexican teams were starting theirs. When the knockout stages begin, the roles are reversed.


[+] EnlargeGeorge Frey/Getty ImagesIt was only a year ago that Real Salt Lake reached the CONCACAF Champions League final.




"Trying to get the team ready is difficult because you're trying to get them fit, but you don't want to get guys injured by pushing them too quickly, too early," Schmid said. "Then you're trying to find competition. The problem is that no matter how many exhibition games you play, they're exhibition games, and they're not the same as regular competition. You're finding out how this new group of players is going to react, because every year it's a new group of players. Even though it's only one or two changes, how they are going to react now to the pressure of the moment. It's difficult to accomplish that in six weeks."


These are issues that the league is well aware of, and to its credit, MLS has done what it could to help its CCL entrants overcome these obstacles. Additional allocation money -- although MLS declines to specify how much -- has been granted to CCL participants in recent years, allowing them to shore up rosters and keep their core together longer. Schedules have been tweaked when possible to avoid playing league matches during the knockout stages.


MLS executive vice president Nelson Rodriguez said MLS is considering granting more allocation money to teams that reach the quarterfinals, although the league is cognizant of creating an uneven playing field as it relates to the regular season. A proposal to subsidize charter flights for teams that reach that stage, as opposed to just the semis and final, is also under discussion.
Rodriguez said MLS also intends to approach CONCACAF about tweaking the tournament's format once newly installed president Jeffrey Webb has had time to settle into his role.


"We think that one thing that should be considered is playing the entire tournament in one calendar year, and not crossing over the winter recess if you will," Rodriguez said. "Those will be discussions that we'll take up with CONCACAF at a point in time when they're sufficiently able to focus on it."


So can an MLS team triumph in the CCL? Everyone interviewed for this story believes it can happen. Certainly the teams that have qualified for the 2012-13 edition -- Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, Real Salt Lake and a Canadian entrant to be determined -- are capable. But Schmid surmised that as things currently stand, the last few steps will be the most difficult.


"I don't think we're that far away," he said. "But I also think we're far enough away that without a fortunate occurrence or two, we're not going to be successful. I don't think we can grind it out into winning the competition, whereas I think a Mexican team can. They can win it even if they're not fortunate because they're in form, they're in rhythm and they have bigger budgets. We don't need a ton of luck, but we need a little bit."


Fans won't have to wait long to see whether that's all that's needed. The start of the next version of the CCL is four months away

[Sir X]

Life in Mexico a very different experience for three U.S. players

Story Highlights
Mexico League has become an alternative destination for U.S. players

The pay in Mexico is far better than what MLS or Argentine league offers

Player safety in Mexico can be an issue because of the crime and violence

DaMarcus Beasley (right) revealed he's been forced to pay police not to confiscate his driver's license while playing in Mexico.

Jam Media/Getty Images

Last Friday started like most other Fridays for DaMarcus Beasley. The three-time U.S. World Cup midfielder woke up in his house, located in a tony neighborhood on a golf course in Puebla, Mexico, where he plays for the top-flight soccer team. He hopped in his new Chevy Camaro, passed through two security checkpoints in his gated community and drove to Estadio Cuauhtémoc for practice and the ensuing bus trip to Pachuca for a Mexican league game.
But then things got strange. When Beasley approached the stadium, a security official told him he had to park outside the perimeter, far from the usual place. Inside the locker room, a teammate informed him the Mexican government was seizing the stadium after an audit revealed $1.05 million in unpaid taxes from 2007. Stunned, Beasley snapped pictures as government officials took possession of a locker-room TV, weight-room equipment, office computers and even soccer balls. "They took everything, basically," he says. When the team bus was seized, players started organizing carpools for the Pachuca trip, until finally team officials located another bus.
It was only the latest example that life as a U.S. player in Mexico isn't always the same as it is in, say, Western Europe or the United States. On Wednesday, Beasley, 29, revealed on Twitter that twice in the past week Mexican police had stopped his car and demanded bribes, threatening to confiscate his driver's license. (According to Beasley, he paid $225 and $45, respectively.) Then there's the issue of his own paycheck. "We haven't gotten paid for December," he tells SI.com. "We don't know when that's going to happen, don't know if it's going to happen."
Beasley is quick to say that playing in Mexico has its positives. The quality of the soccer is good, and the technical style fits his game. Beasley hasn't encountered any of the violence that has spiked in other parts of Mexico in recent years. "Puebla is a nice city," he says. "I don't feel threatened going anywhere. My parents came down here and felt safe." What's more, due to TV money the pay in Mexico is better for most players than any league in the Americas this side of Brazil -- more than in Argentina, more than in MLS. For some foreign nationals salaries are tax-free, and in Beasley's case he gets paid in U.S. dollars.
That is, when he does get paid. Plenty of questions surround Puebla's future right now. It's one thing to go without wages for a month, but any longer could be a major issue. "If it keeps going, we might have to sit down with the captains on the team and find out what's going on," Beasley says. "But right now it's not a big concern. We're just trying to play football."

***

Herculez Gomez thought long and hard about joining Santos Laguna this year. From a soccer perspective the move made sense: Gomez, 29, a member of the 2010 U.S. World Cup team and the Mexican league's co-leading scorer in the '10 clausura, would be moving from 15th-place Tecos to a team that reached the final of the most recent Mexican playoffs. The only stumbling block was a big one. In the five years since president Felipe Calderón began deploying troops to fight the Mexican drug cartels, more than 47,000 people have died in the country. And Torreón, where Santos is based, has become one of Mexico's most violent cities.
Five months ago, a Mexican league game in Torreón had to be suspended after a gun battle took place just outside the stadium, sending players and fans scurrying for cover. Just last week Gomez read a story that included Torreón (and four other Mexican cities) among the 10 most dangerous cities in the world.
Gomez's three previous clubs in Mexico had been in relatively safer areas: in Puebla ("a beautiful city," he says), Pachuca ("like Green Bay: small town, amazing team") and Guadalajara ("one of the nicest places I've ever lived"). But knowing Torreón's reputation, he spoke to some of the Santos players, who told him he should be OK -- and could even bring his Camaro and Audi SUV.
"There's no two ways about it: There are things you can't hide, and insecurity in some cities in Mexico is one of them," Gomez says. "As great as the team is here, I knew what I was getting into. In my first week here I thought it was almost a ghost town at night. People aren't really on the streets at night, and for good reason. There's a lot of worry here with everything going on. So far I haven't felt unsafe, but I also don't turn the TV on," owing to some of the graphic violence shown on local news programs.
For now, Gomez is still living in a hotel in Torreón, though he's looking for a house in the area with the help of local advisers. He has had plenty of experience with new housing in the last two years. In Pachuca, where the main concern was overzealous home fans unhappy about a result ("guys said don't go out, even if you tied"), Gomez rented a house owned by teammate Miguel Calero. "This is not a joke: The place was straight out of a Colombian druglord movie," Gomez cracks. "It was bricks and pavers inside, high ceilings, an awesome place with a terrace and backyard and two-story-high walls with barbed wire on top. You couldn't get in without a key, and you couldn't get out without one. It was Fort Knox."
As long as he's safe in Torreón, Gomez says, playing there is worth it. He earns much more money with Santos than he ever did in his eight-year MLS career with Los Angeles, Colorado and Kansas City. Gomez tells the story of speaking to MLS commissioner Don Garber at an event in the White House honoring the U.S. World Cup team in 2010. When Gomez was playing for Colorado in '07, Garber had spoken to the team and mentioned Gomez by name as a good example for local Mexican-American fans and children. At the time, Gomez was making $50,000 a year.
The next time Gomez saw Garber was at the White House, where the MLS commish told the player how proud he was of Gomez's success in Mexico. Then he pulled Gomez aside. "So what's the pay like down there?" Garber said.
"The money?" Gomez asked.
"Compared to MLS."
"Well," Gomez said, "if I came back to MLS..."
"Yeah?"
"I'd be a Designated Player." (I.e., making at least $330,000 a year.)
Gomez laughs as he shares the memory. It helps to have a sense of humor about things, and as he settles in with his new team, Gomez tries to stay positive about the dangers of living in Torreón. "People here, they all assure you as long as you're not in the wrong places at the wrong times, those things won't necessarily happen to you," he says. "The people causing these problems aren't going after innocent people, they're going after each other in turf wars. As long as you don't go where you're not supposed to, you should be fine. Nobody in any part of the world wants to live that way, but it's reality. Mexico isn't the only place affected by these things."

***

Marco Vidal can remember every detail of the day he got carjacked. It was the Christmas season in Ciudad Juárez, the violence-riddled city on the other side of the border from El Paso. Vidal, a tough central midfielder from the Dallas area, was playing for Indios in the Mexican first division, and he was driving his 2008 Audi sedan through town to go shopping for presents. Vidal stopped at a red light and was cut off by a Ford Explorer. He turned and saw the driver pointing a gun at him. Then he turned and saw another gunman on foot, telling him to get out of the car. And so he did.
"The guy just took off, but it was like everything was normal. He didn't even speed," says Vidal. "I turned around and saw a cop. I told him, 'My car was stolen. Can you chase him?' You could still see my car from a distance. The cop says, 'Sure! But you can't get in my car due to security.' So I jump in a taxi behind the cop, but the cop was driving 15 miles an hour, like he was trying not to catch him. My taxi drives past the cop, and I see my car at a red light. But I turned around and the cop was gone."
Insurance eventually covered Vidal's stolen Audi, but he resolved not to own any more nice cars as long as he was in Juárez. His story with the Indios team is a central plot line of a terrific new book by Robert Andrew Powell called This Love Is Not For Cowards: Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juárez, coming out in April. Juárez's descent into violence hasn't been easy for Vidal or his family. He still owns the house in Juárez that he spent most of his savings on a few years ago. Last year he rented it to some players for Indios, but now the club is defunct due to economic problems. (Vidal went more than two months without being paid during his last season with the team.)
"I bought the house when the violence wasn't as high," he says. "But when everything started getting worse I couldn't sell the house because it was worth a lot less than what I bought it for. Now it's just sitting there. I'll wait and see if things get better so I can sell it, because it's not a place where I want to be in the future."
These days Vidal, 25, is playing for second-tier León, a team that's fighting to return to the top flight for the first time in a decade. He's enjoying his new city with his wife, Dany. "León is a good place to live," Vidal says. "It's calm. You don't see as much violence as you see in Juárez. There still is violence -- there is everywhere in Mexico now -- but we live a more comfortable life."
A comfortable life. It's still possible to have one if you're a U.S. soccer player in Mexico. Like everyone else, though, you have to be careful.




[/color]


Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soc...#ixzz2PeFSlyNW

[Sir X]

I have always argued look to mexico for our players.

[Me]

I was watching LA Galaxy against Monterrey this week and it was a high level piece of ball game. LA take it to them in the first half and nuff of the second half, but dash some goal. Robbie Keane was giving them serious problems.

Then the gap between how the two league's are structured started to show. LA had to take of Juninho with injury and then the couple low salary man them who teams have to have to ensure they are under the cap, couldn't maintain the level of the other players. No to mention Landon Donovan look like him leave him boots back in Cambodia.

As MLS generates more revenue and increases the salary cap, the gap with our teams in the region will continue to shrink.

[Sir X]

our teams in the region ...i found another article that stated mls is the best league in the americas, yes including south america, these yanks know how to hype , i didnt even bother posting the b.s here , we have enough with H.L rants.

[Zeppo]

I have always argued look to mexico for our players.

There are UB40s there?

[Sir X]

How did they get into the MLS ?