Congrats to Cyle Larin on MLS Rookie Record

[shermanator]

Great stuff! Can he get 20 in 2016?

[rob.notenboom]

Great stuff! Can he get 20 for Canada in 2016?

Fixed your post.

[Deltron]

Fixed your post.

If he can get 20 in 2016 for Canada then he will break Dero's record at only 21 years old.

[1zzurri]

He is gonna grab 3 goals in the first two games of round 4. No doubt about it

[Vince193]

according to Anthony Totera, Mexico's Tigres are interested in him.

[king1010]

8 minutes ago, Vince193 said:

according to Anthony Totera, Mexico's Tigres are interested in him.

 

8 minutes ago, Vince193 said:

according to Anthony Totera, Mexico's Tigres are interested in him.

that would be an interesting move

[adrenaline11]

Gonzalez, Juninho and Villafana have already been sold from MLS this season and it's not even January. Wouldn't surprise me if Orlando, too, get tempted with a big offer.

[Floortom]

Larin might not see much time in the pitch with Gignac ahead of him.

would prefer larin to stay and develop in Orlando for another season or two

[canucklefan]

Tigres signed a striker this week, Fernando Fernandez. I wonder (and would be surprised) if they are still interested in singing more strikers. Also, from soccerway, I see they signed 2 more forwards, Nigerian international Uche and a 20 years-old Colombian named Ibaguen. 

[Vince193]

11 minutes ago, canucklefan said:

Tigres signed a striker this week, Fernando Fernandez. I wonder (and would be surprised) if they are still interested in singing more strikers. Also, from soccerway, I see they signed 2 more forwards, Nigerian international Uche and a 20 years-old Colombian named Ibaguen. 

Uche was signed with Gignac, but has been injured. 

[Obinna]

I thought Uche would have a bigger impact than Gignac, but unfortunately he's been sidlined. Uche has a pretty similar strike rate to Obafemi Martins over the course of his career, but has spent his entire career in La Liga and Segunda, rather than Martins who played in Serie A,  EPL, Bundesliga, Russian Premier,  La  Liga,  and now MLS

 

Anways, Liga MX is making a huge push to nab all the sub superstar talent from MLS. It is so obvious. Players like Luis Silva, Juninho, Omar Gonzalez, Luis Gil have all left in the matter of weeks. Larin looks like he'll be next, but I hope he stays.

 

I wonder if this push is a retaliation to MLS grabbing top Mexican players like Dos Santos, and now in the summer Carlos Vela? Let's not forget Chicharito to Orlando was discussed as well last year.

[Coramoor]

5 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I thought Uche would have a bigger impact than Gignac, but unfortunately he's been sidlined. Uche has a pretty similar strike rate to Obafemi Martins over the course of his career, but has spent his entire career in La Liga and Segunda, rather than Martins who played in Serie A,  EPL, Bundesliga, Russian Premier,  La  Liga,  and now MLS

 

Anways, Liga MX is making a huge push to nab all the sub superstar talent from MLS. It is so obvious. Players like Luis Silva, Juninho, Omar Gonzalez, Luis Gil have all left in the matter of weeks. Larin looks like he'll be next, but I hope he stays 

given their forward situation, i'd be beyond shocked if he agreed to a move, the risks are too high

[Yohan]

9 hours ago, Obinna said:

I thought Uche would have a bigger impact than Gignac, but unfortunately he's been sidlined. Uche has a pretty similar strike rate to Obafemi Martins over the course of his career, but has spent his entire career in La Liga and Segunda, rather than Martins who played in Serie A,  EPL, Bundesliga, Russian Premier,  La  Liga,  and now MLS

 

Anways, Liga MX is making a huge push to nab all the sub superstar talent from MLS. It is so obvious. Players like Luis Silva, Juninho, Omar Gonzalez, Luis Gil have all left in the matter of weeks. Larin looks like he'll be next, but I hope he stays.

 

I wonder if this push is a retaliation to MLS grabbing top Mexican players like Dos Santos, and now in the summer Carlos Vela? Let's not forget Chicharito to Orlando was discussed as well last year.

Luis Silva and Luis Gil are hardly superstars. They aren't even that good.

As for what's going on in LA, there is something weird going on there. 

Last season there were few MLS players that transferred to Liga MX. Hardly a new thing that few MLS players left to go there. 

[Blackdude]

42 minutes ago, Yohan said:

Luis Silva and Luis Gil are hardly superstars. They aren't even that good.

As for what's going on in LA, there is something weird going on there. 

Last season there were few MLS players that transferred to Liga MX. Hardly a new thing that few MLS players left to go there. 

Difference is that Gil and Silva have a Mexican passport and don't count as foreigners.

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, Yohan said:

Luis Silva and Luis Gil are hardly superstars. They aren't even that good.

As for what's going on in LA, there is something weird going on there. 

Last season there were few MLS players that transferred to Liga MX. Hardly a new thing that few MLS players left to go there. 

I said "sub-superstars", as in players who are or have been effective key players but not the face of their club, which is what you get from a super star. 

Certainly Gil, Silva and Juninho all represent this, as does Larin (although he has super star potential written all over him). Maybe it was unfair to throw Omar Gonzalez into that category, but I really feel he is overrated and while Americans view him as an MLS super star, Mexican clubs probably view him closer to a "Juninho" than a "Donovan".

Yeah there are players going there all the time, but this latest stretch is a frequency we've never seen. Maybe it's a coincidence or maybe there is an effort to bring in as many MLSERS as possible for whatever reason. I am just speculating here

[Yohan]

49 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I said "sub-superstars", as in players who are or have been effective key players but not the face of their club, which is what you get from a super star. 

Certainly Gil, Silva and Juninho all represent this, as does Larin (although he has super star potential written all over him). Maybe it was unfair to throw Omar Gonzalez into that category, but I really feel he is overrated and while Americans view him as an MLS super star, Mexican clubs probably view him closer to a "Juninho" than a "Donovan".

Yeah there are players going there all the time, but this latest stretch is a frequency we've never seen. Maybe it's a coincidence or maybe there is an effort to bring in as many MLSERS as possible for whatever reason. I am just speculating here

It's a bit of both. There is slow recognition in Mexico (at least footy educated folks) that US soccer no longer sucks and Liga MX teams are actively recruiting in Hispanic parts of US for their youth teams. Most will still think El Tri is better than the Yanks, but at least they know they will be in for a fight whenever they play the Yanks.

Silva and Gil have been underperforming for RSL and don't represent value for their wages. RSL is also in major rebuild mode. I do think Silva and Gil have been looking at Liga MX for a while, and may fit their style of play better, plus without cap restrictions, they have better chance of making more cash. Personally, unless both improves dramatically, I think both will be back in MLS within 2 years. Gil has been overrated for very long time.

Juninho has been after a wage bump and considering he was making near max cap hit money IIRC, LA was not going to spend TAM on Juninho if they were after other targets. Gonzalez's wages were too much to spend on TAM to bring it down and I think that's the reason he was let go for cheap. LA is in a rebuild mode, as Arena tries to retool LA squad to accomodate their 2 old geezers and dos Santos that didn't click with the rest of LA squad. Funny, LA is doing what TFC is doing. Or it may be that Arena's roster juggling luck finally ran out. Should be interesting how that plays out.

I'm not going to read too much into losing a few players to LIga MX, which has happened pretty much every season, until I see some more notable names move on. 

[lazlo_80]

6 hours ago, Yohan said:

It's a bit of both. There is slow recognition in Mexico (at least footy educated folks) that US soccer no longer sucks and Liga MX teams are actively recruiting in Hispanic parts of US for their youth teams. Most will still think El Tri is better than the Yanks, but at least they know they will be in for a fight whenever they play the Yanks.

Silva and Gil have been underperforming for RSL and don't represent value for their wages. RSL is also in major rebuild mode. I do think Silva and Gil have been looking at Liga MX for a while, and may fit their style of play better, plus without cap restrictions, they have better chance of making more cash. Personally, unless both improves dramatically, I think both will be back in MLS within 2 years. Gil has been overrated for very long time.

Juninho has been after a wage bump and considering he was making near max cap hit money IIRC, LA was not going to spend TAM on Juninho if they were after other targets. Gonzalez's wages were too much to spend on TAM to bring it down and I think that's the reason he was let go for cheap. LA is in a rebuild mode, as Arena tries to retool LA squad to accomodate their 2 old geezers and dos Santos that didn't click with the rest of LA squad. Funny, LA is doing what TFC is doing. Or it may be that Arena's roster juggling luck finally ran out. Should be interesting how that plays out.

I'm not going to read too much into losing a few players to LIga MX, which has happened pretty much every season, until I see some more notable names move on. 

If you don't mind me asking who has been more notable than this in previous seasons? Taking a USMNT player as well as a very good to great starter from LA seems like the most noise the LIGA MX has made in recent memory.  And that's just the Galaxy. 

[Yohan]

45 minutes ago, lazlo_80 said:

If you don't mind me asking who has been more notable than this in previous seasons? Taking a USMNT player as well as a very good to great starter from LA seems like the most noise the LIGA MX has made in recent memory.  And that's just the Galaxy. 

Some notable transfers

D Carlos Saucedo (Mexican U21 player IIRC) to Chivas

F Juan Anangono supposed was bought by Tigres for 1.8 mil Euros

D Jorge Villafana to Santos Laguna just recently

F Omar Bravo did move from SKC to Cruz Azul in 2011

F Herculez Gomez was in USMNT pool when made the move to Puebla from SKC in 2010. 

D Jonathan Bornstein to Tigres in 2011.

Does old man Blanco count? lol

Oh yeah. Camilo. That was funny.

 

Just a bunch off my head. Liga MX poaches from MLS at least few times a year, mostly Hispanic players. I should also mention that Liga MX will go after some cheap depth players like Michael Farfan or Eric Avila. 

[CanadianSoccerFan]

For some perspective, Mexican soccer journalist John Arnold wrote a piece a few weeks back about how Pumas against Tigres in the league final was a contrast of financial fortunes with Pumas only having a $30 million USD wage bill and being unable to hang on to their best players compared to Tigres $54 million USD wage bill. 

[A_Gagne]

2 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

For some perspective, Mexican soccer journalist John Arnold wrote a piece a few weeks back about how Pumas against Tigres in the league final was a contrast of financial fortunes with Pumas only having a $30 million USD wage bill and being unable to hang on to their best players compared to Tigres $54 million USD wage bill. 

Those are massive wage bills. I wonder how they compare with other leagues around the world?

[Bison44]

Hmmmm, isn't the MLS salary cap 3.5 million for a 28man roster?  With DP's etc, high end clubs maybe around 5-12 million a season (3DP's).   No wonder MLS cant beat the top LigaMX teams if they are running 5 times the salary of the biggest spenders in Canada.  

[RS]

47 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Hmmmm, isn't the MLS salary cap 3.5 million for a 28man roster?  With DP's etc, high end clubs maybe around 5-12 million a season (3DP's).   No wonder MLS cant beat the top LigaMX teams if they are running 5 times the salary of the biggest spenders in Canada.  

MLS has a 'salary budget' rather than a cap. With DPs, TAM, GAM, HGPs, etc, most clubs spend well above the 'cap'. The MLS Players Union numbers are generally accurate, but even they don't include things like per diems and some other add-ons that can boost a player's take-home pay.

LigaMX teams spend well above their MLS counterparts, but IIRC there is no team in Mexico spending even close to five times what (for example) TFC is spending.

[Bison44]

When in doubt look it up eh? Thus is all from from Spotrac. And just working on the assumtion that original numbers for Tigres(54) and pumas (30mil and losing players) were correct and hopefully we are comparing apples to apples.  

TFC salary for 2015, 3.55million, with DP's its 21.9.  JEESH, we are really paying Bradley 6mil a season?? UGHHH!!!  So Tigres is 2.5 times TFC salary.  

VWC, 3.4mil salary, with DP's 6.1million.  Tigres is almost 9 times Vancouver.  

Impact, 3.7mil, 6.3 with DP's.  Again, Tigres is 8.6 times higher than Impact.  

We wont even get into the NASL teams.  But just for fun Portland was 6.2mil cap total and LA 19.6mil.  Just when you think MLS is making up ground on the other leagues in the world you get reminded that the majority of the guys out there are making less than 100K a year.  Hard to bring the league wide talent level and level of play up like that.  Low end Salaries are going up but geesh, they have alot of room to climb.  

[Cheeta]

Ug.  What was the EPL's latest broadcast deal?  5+ billion pounds for 3 years?

Under the latest agreement the worst teams in the EPL, the ones who're so shitty they get chucked (demoted) out of the league will still get 100 million pounds "parachute money" over four years.  That's a quartr billion Canadian.  Guaranteed. 

Just raising the point because you have to believe the TV revenue for the Mexican teams (amongst other streams) has to be FAR superior to MLS and that advantage can't help but be reflected in the player salaries. 

Point taken though.  Can't help but feel the MLS salaries are losing ground in comparative terms.   For a lot of American players where Europe may be a bit off the radar Mexico maybe doesn't feel so alien.  So for a bit more money why not?  

[CanadianSoccerFan]

The Mexican league really benefits from being the most watched league in both Mexico AND the United States.  I don't know the value of their US television contract but it has to be massive considering Liga MX ratings not only dwarf all other soccer leagues, but regularly surpass NBA, MLB, and even NCAA march madness games.  The NHL can only dream of the ratings Liga MX gets. 

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/114/mexico/2014/05/28/4846345/liga-mx-is-television-ratings-king-in-united-states

 

http://www.thegoatparade.com/2015/2/6/7994525/liga-mx-continues-ratings-champion-united-states-english-spanish-soccer-super-bowl