It keeps paying off. League's Cup is going to be a success the longer Miami stays in the tournament. Now they get a home game against Charlotte for a chance at the Semi-Finals.
The Winner of NYRB and Phi meet Liga MX's Querretaro in the Quarter Final, either MLS team hosts Miami, which would be kind of fun for their fans, but their fans will also get a home game with Messi next year too.
Are the MLS salary and roster rules still largely constrained by bottom-spending owners not wanting to have a team that always loses? Lower spending teams like Nashville and Houston are currently still very competitive and, while high spending doesn’t guarantee success, when done smartly and done unconstrained across the whole roster there is ample evidence in the world it very strongly correlated with more successful, higher quality play.
I agree with everything you said here. I'll note that Messi beating the crap out of MLS isn't that much different than Messi beating the crap out of Ligue 1. I've long contended that the idea of the "Big 5" leagues is silly, because the French league just isn't good. If you look at the UEFA league coefficients, France was closer to number 6 Netherlands than it was to number 4 Germany.* And I say "was" because France is now number 6 for the coming season. (Somehow France still gets 6 clubs in Europe and Netherlands get 5, I don't understand. Maybe that was calculated before the finals finished.) Anyway, yeah, Messi is the best living player still, and he will be awesome wherever he is.
*honestly by this logic you could also say the "big 4" is absurd, because No. 2 Spain has only 84 percent the points of No. 1 England, and the gap is growing. Turns out shitloads of petrodollars buys success... mostly.
It keeps paying off. League's Cup is going to be a success the longer Miami stays in the tournament. Now they get a home game against Charlotte for a chance at the Semi-Finals.
The Winner of NYRB and Phi meet Liga MX's Querretaro in the Quarter Final, either MLS team hosts Miami, which would be kind of fun for their fans, but their fans will also get a home game with Messi next year too.
Are the MLS salary and roster rules still largely constrained by bottom-spending owners not wanting to have a team that always loses? Lower spending teams like Nashville and Houston are currently still very competitive and, while high spending doesn’t guarantee success, when done smartly and done unconstrained across the whole roster there is ample evidence in the world it very strongly correlated with more successful, higher quality play.
I agree with everything you said here. I'll note that Messi beating the crap out of MLS isn't that much different than Messi beating the crap out of Ligue 1. I've long contended that the idea of the "Big 5" leagues is silly, because the French league just isn't good. If you look at the UEFA league coefficients, France was closer to number 6 Netherlands than it was to number 4 Germany.* And I say "was" because France is now number 6 for the coming season. (Somehow France still gets 6 clubs in Europe and Netherlands get 5, I don't understand. Maybe that was calculated before the finals finished.) Anyway, yeah, Messi is the best living player still, and he will be awesome wherever he is.
*honestly by this logic you could also say the "big 4" is absurd, because No. 2 Spain has only 84 percent the points of No. 1 England, and the gap is growing. Turns out shitloads of petrodollars buys success... mostly.