My vote is to drop Superliga and use the additional scheduling flexibility to help teams playing in the new Champions League.

The bouncing the cameras survived after the Saprissa goal was pretty impressive.

Goffinho,

Not to play "gotcha", but I read in the Insider last year that you liked the looks of the Superliga tourney. Perhaps the idea behind it had something to do with reversing the roles from the Champions' Cup - i.e., MLS teams in mid-season form vs. Mexican teams in pre-season form. If SuperLiga doesn't become any more popular this year or next, I agree that it should give way to the new Champion's League.

Just wondering - will John Oliver have a similar opinion of American soccer fans uttering the phrase "Champion's League" as he does about our appropriation of the word "football"?

SuperLiga is your next Giants' Cup.

Not to play "gotcha", but I read in the Insider last year that you liked the looks of the Superliga tourney
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I do like SuperLiga; that hasn't changed. What I find perplexing is the fact that MLS cleared the calendar for that event while not lightening the schedule for teams competing in Champions' Cup/Champions League. SuperLiga is about money, marketing and Mexican TV ratings; Champions Cup/League is about getting an MLS team to the Club World Cup.

Nice match last night on a RSL-esque dispicable pitch. Is it just me or does Pachuca loose their concentration late in away matches? 2 late goals against DCU that late equalizer against Saprissa? No knock against their game, because I think they are tops in our region, but they don't seem to play the bunker well (God bless them). If that's the case then they should just come out and play their game and stretch aggressive home teams with thier dynamic counters, or better yet force the home side to bunker down. That late goal makes things a bit more interesting, but at 8,000 ft., that 1-1 result has the feeling of a 3-1 result. I look forward to the match.

Highlight commentary of the night? Bretos..."Ooh the capital of Thailand."

The tournaments (aside from SuperLiga) are always bound to fall at inopportune times for MLS.

I've stated before that a club that gets to participate in MLS Cup at the END of November will have to start pre season right after New Years in order to be ready for the knock-out rounds of the Champions League.

Now, it may be that MLS one day moves to the dual season format followed by a good number of the larger Western Hemisphere leagues. It could be that they don't.

It could also be that MLS finally (and very thankfully) would get rid of their own stupid Playoffs. Boost up the US Open Cup and allow Champions League and SuperLiga (moved to the spring as a sort of UEFA Cup tournament) to be it's "extra revenue games".

If teams are struggling to perform well in the CCC as we all are and it shouldn't be denied - then when the CCL knockout rounds start that last week of February then it could be EVEN uglier (especially for a team taht were to be eliminated and then have 3 weeks until MLS opens for its season).

I'll just lump me in as curious about the idea of a Spring Apertura and Fall Claursura. Start at the beginning of March and run until June - take 4 weeks off to allow for the early US Open Cup rounds as well as time for International Competitions - then pick up in July and play the Clausura through the end of October/Early November. Use the extra calendar space to allow for Champions League and SuperLiga.

I hope I didn't open Pandora's box (but I'm sure I just did). The reality of a shift in our competition calendar grows more real as it appears we are probably still 10-15 years away from being able to spend money on par with the likes of larger clubs here in our own hemisphere.

Virginia Blue Blood, I like your thinking. And MLS doesn't even have to do away with MLS Cup. They can just schedule it to be all inclusive and run during the regular season. That way they have their elimination style tournament, along with the bonus of making the regular season games more meaningful by not turning the season into an extended qualifying tournament for the "post season".

Yes, you opened Pandora's box to find a dead horse :)

Not related, but I just found out the the Dutch have a weird playoff system too, to determine their UEFA Cup, Intertoto, and one Champions League spots. See, playoffs aren't just an American thing. Or Mexican thing.

I forget -- does the CWC award any money to the champion team?

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"SuperLiga is about money, marketing and Mexican TV ratings; Champions Cup/League is about getting an MLS team to the Club World Cup."
----

Man, love 'em or hate 'em, you've got to admire Pachuca's ball movement inside the 18. What a great run and through ball on their goal. It's something most home grown MLS strikers haven't seemed to master yet...

I hope I didn't open Pandora's box (but I'm sure I just did). The reality of a shift in our competition calendar grows more real as it appears we are probably still 10-15 years away from being able to spend money on par with the likes of larger clubs here in our own hemisphere.

Posted by: Virginia Blue Blood | April 24, 2008 9:28 AM
**************************

Nice try! I'm sure you wanted to open Pandora's box, you thought someone would take the bait. But not me, I'm just going to ignore everything you said and pretend that post doesn't exist. There will be no listening to the heretic today for me.

Silly question here - Why does Saprissa have an artifical pitch? I'm no meteorologist, but it seems to me that you'd be able to grow and maintain a nice grass pitch in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Perhaps too much rain?

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SuperLiga is about money, marketing and Mexican TV ratings; Champions Cup/League is about getting an MLS team to the Club World Cup.

Posted by: Goff | April 24, 2008 9:15 AM
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Minor quibble with the use of the pharase "Mexican TV ratings".

TeleFutura (as part of Univision) which owns (and pays for) the SuperLiga broadcast rights is a US channel. US television household ratings (even and especially for a Spanish-language network like Univision/TeleFutura) are very important to MLS's future (and Soccer United Marketing knows this).

SuperLiga is here to stay. Hopefully it can be modified (perhaps to include "marketable" teams from beyond US/Mexico) and/or it should be moved to a different month to not conflict with MLS's league schedule (or -- and this is a pipe-dream, the MLS league schedule can get moved to stay out of the way of "summer soccer" such as the WC, Confed Cup, Continental Championships.)

SuperLiga is a fine exhibition, and we should thank Univision for helping to fund it and presenting it to us.

The Concacaf CL will be a fine tournament (although it's early rounds may seem like too many "meaningless" games) and it will be the more important as it will send the winner to the CWC, as Goff noted.

It's certainly not easy to craft an MLS schedule, but it is telling that they'd opt to "work around" SuperLiga in 2008, but not the CCC. (Although it should be noted that the MLS teams in the CCL this fall have a Thursday-free schedule to allow for CCL group stage participation.)

And what's Saprissa's nickname? I heard the fans singing "Vamos, Vamos [???], Esta Noche Tenemos Que Ganar," but I couldn't make out the name.

Wiki:

The club's on-field successes have led to the Costa Rican press nicknaming the team El Monstruo Morado ("The Purple Monsters"), a reference to their purple-coloured playing kit.

Juan-John,

I had the same question - maybe "vamos Morados" (let's go, purple!).

I liked SuperLiga last summer. The games were mostly pretty exciting and drew decent crowds.

The Concacaf Champions League sounds good on paper (with the same scheduling problems for MLS teams) but hasn't proven itself on the field yet.

Man, love 'em or hate 'em, you've got to admire Pachuca's ball movement inside the 18. What a great run and through ball on their goal. It's something most home grown MLS strikers haven't seemed to master yet...

Posted by: Throwin | April 24, 2008 9:59 AM
=======================================

I couldn't agree more. Pachuca are an excellent team. DC United played very well against them at home and struggled to get a very slim, late victory. Down in Mexico, Pachuca just had too much class. We can talk all we want about clearing up more time or playing in the middle of the season, but right now Pachuca are the class of the region, regardless of all the other stuff.

@Matthai

Very true - however, I was referring to hopefully not starting a virtual shouting match over single table, international calendar, International Tournament success, Television exposure, etc, ad nauseum.

It's just something MLS and it's followers are going to have to be cognizant of, and I'm not that diametrically opposed to it. I don't think spending all the money in the world would necessarily equate CCL victories. Being in the close season for December, January, and February now is a bit too long when you consider that elsewhere, teams are only truly off for a month or so and can't celebrate Carnival (EMILIO!!!).

And, for the benefit of the competitions, they deserve to see all teams at some level of high competition in order to drive the performances on the field that are going to warrant the success as a business.

I've just come to think that perhaps an inverted "split" season could bridge our weather, television, and growing international aspirations a little bit. And heck - MLS could still have it's SUPER BOWL with the two season winners in a ONE GAME decider for say - a chance to play in InterLiga for if the MLS buys up a spot in Libertadores (Gawd that would be fixture and travel congestion nightmares until teams can charter flights).

Yes, Pachuca is a very good team, but I don't think they have won any CCC games at sea-level.

That they live and train and restrict needed oxygen to their opponents at ~8,000 feet cannot be discounted.

Any idea why FSC is showing Sunderland vs. Middlesbrough on Saturday morning instead of Chelsea vs. Man U.? Anyone know where I can watch Saturday's real game?

As to Matte's idea of an MLS counterpart to the EPL League Cup -- that would be only slightly more interesting to US fans than the Open Cup. We have a long American tradition of a regular season that is the mere opening act to a playoff -- goes back at least to the time when the Americans and the Nationals decided to send their champions into a "World Series" to decide the sport's true champion. It is as ingrained into the American consciousness as anything could ever be. Anything else would be positively un-American. As for the expanded playoff format -- sure it trivializes the regular season, except that it also provides some meaning to those late -season games for more than just the teams at the very top of the table. Not just more money for teams, but involvement for more fans.

As for Pachuca -- Best team in the region? They clearly they aren't even even fit to carry water for the Columbus Crew, given the way United outplayed Pachuca and was so outplayed by the Crew, at RFK. They have an American player (Jose Torres) who gets much playing time -- even set up the goal last night. And, apparently, he isn't good enough to even merit a real look from any of our national sides....

Gotta love that Saprissa crowd, though. That was the most incredible celebration I've witnessed.

At this moment can we officially say that Mexican Club Soccer is the best in the America's? Considering the numerous sponsors, full stadiums, player salaries, dominating in CONCACAF, and doing well in Copa Libertadores and other South American tournaments.

Love Saprissa's crowd...And american critics say 20,000 seat stadiums are not enough for a great atmospheres.

I can't help but remember how Pachuca burned Wells by scoring at the near post - causing him to be overly cautious of covering the near post - and then burned him again by driving the ball to the far post much too close to the goal yet scored the second goal because Wells was so concerned about covering his near post.

Pachuca are good.

I thought it goes without saying that the Mexican clubs are leagues ahead....

Setanta Pay-Per-View game?

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"Any idea why FSC is showing Sunderland vs. Middlesbrough on Saturday morning instead of Chelsea vs. Man U.? Anyone know where I can watch Saturday's real game?

Posted by: Todd | April 24, 2008 11:41 AM"

To FischFry's comment that doing away with playoffs is "un-American," well, soccer is "un-American" to many US sports fans, and I think the sport's existing fans would be open to format changes that would give more weight to the regular season and give MLS teams a better chance in international competitions.

Hedbal,
I don't understand. How would eliminating the playoffs give MLS teams a better chance in int'l competitions? Only the US Open Cup final occurs around playoff time.

Playoffs generate more revenue and are therefore very American.

Don't the early rounds of the CCL begin during the MLS playoffs?

Lots of Rain=Turf.

I bet the ref didn't know who to cheat for more in this one.

Don't the early rounds of the CCL begin during the MLS playoffs?

Posted by: sitruc | April 24, 2008 3:54 PM
================

Maybe for the minnow leagues. MLS and Mexican league teams bypass the early rounds.

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