Three reasons why Liga MX trumps MLS in CONCACAF Champions League
The cycle of hope inevitably crests when the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals beckon. MLS teams enter the decisive stage of the competition with knowledge of the past and expectation in the present.
Every year is the year when a MLS team finally topples a Liga MX club to win the tournament for the first time. And every year -- even those odd years where a MLS team reaches the final, like Montréal Impact did a year ago -- eventually dashes those dreams at some point along the way.
The numbers are ugly and inescapable ahead of the start of four MLS vs. Liga MX quarterfinal ties on Tuesday (live, 8:00p.m. FS1, FOX Sports GO, FOX Soccer 2Go). Two wins in 14 knockout round ties against Mexican teams. Two wins in 42 matches in Mexico. Two MLS finalists in the Champions League era. Zero titles in the Champions League era.
Mexican clubs dominate the Champions League for a reason. It is not some fluke or some stroke of luck. It is a hard-earned, well-exploited advantage compiled and protected over the past several years through diligence, investment, precision and skill. And it stems from three factors capable of separating the leagues and their clubs over the long haul.
Financial might gives Mexican clubs more squad options …
Liga MX clubs enter this competition with superior budgets year after year. The difference isn’t restricted to lavish spenders Club América and Tigres UANL, either. Even smaller Mexican clubs outspend their MLS counterparts and use their inherent advantages -- including the custom of paying net salaries, the existence of a more forgiving tax system and the utility of a cheaper cost of living --- wisely.
MLS teams face an uphill battle because the salary budget system restricts how and where they can spend money on players. It is designed to reward the top performers in the squad (the top two or three players are Designated Players outside the salary budget, while Targeted Allocation Money reduces the salary budget hit of the next couple of players) and squeeze the resources available down the line. Even with the soft nature of those restrictions and the extra allocation money afforded to Champions League participants, the resources only stretch so far with a base salary budget of $3.66 million.
Those limitations hinder the ability to compete in the latter stages of the competition. Mexican clubs do not match the top salaries doled out by MLS teams (and some clubs like LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders have competitive budgets overall with their lavish DP spending), but they smooth out their curve to assemble a stronger squad throughout. Even if MLS sides cobble together capable players to lead their squads, Liga MX clubs usually benefit from their superiority in the middle of the roster -- say from players eight to 18 -- over the course of a tournament.
There are times when outsiders -- Alajuelense, Herediano, and Montréal Impact reached the semifinals a year ago, after all -- overcome those disparities through exceptional performance, kind fortune or superior organization, but the spending gap generally increases the degree of difficulty and strips away the margin for error.
Ignacio Piatti led Montréal Impact to the CONCACAF Champions League final last year.
… and superior youth development schemes exacerbate the difference in depth
The budgetary differences are amplified by how Liga MX cultivate players and integrate them into the squad. Mexico is one of the top talent-producing nations in the Americas. The development schemes in the country fuel successful youth national teams and test young players with national competition from an early age. The production line raises the base level of the squad (even for clubs with relatively inefficient or ineffective systems) and promotes competition within the ranks.
MLS teams are still in the nascent, fitful stages of building academy systems and reaping the benefits from them. The output so far -- a handful of genuine, club-trained players scattered across the United States and Canada, a smattering of products claimed as Homegrown players with minimal links to the teams themselves and a heap of marginal or ineffective ones with limited technical ability who lack the capability to perform at the highest levels -- reflects the work still ahead.
MLS sides can close the financial gap by producing capable academy players. The infrastructure isn’t fruitful enough to achieve the feat in the short- or the medium-term, though.
D.C. United coach Ben Olsen has outlined the need to change the CONCACAF Champions League schedule.
Tournament calendar leaves MLS teams to close gap at awkward juncture
Many of the familiar problems -- including the woeful record on Mexican soil -- stem from the comparatively paltry budgets and the lack of alternatives within the ranks. Those issues are exacerbated by the placement of the tournament on the calendar.
CONCACAF is in a no-win situation because MLS operates on a different calendar than most of the region. The confederation shifts the calendar somewhat frequently to address those concerns and tries to split the balance, but it inevitably runs into trouble as it attempts reconcile the spring-fall MLS schedule with the fall-spring preference elsewhere in the region.
The current setup offers MLS teams an advantage during the group stage (albeit with the complications of squeezing meaningful group matches into the tail end the season) and a significant hurdle once the quarterfinals arrive. These impending quarterfinal ties mark the first meaningful matches for MLS sides during this calendar year. The corresponding issues with cohesion and fitness complicate the already difficult situation. It is why several MLS coaches -- including D.C. United boss Ben Olsen -- voice their desire for alterations in the future.
Even with those realities in mind and the potential schedule change in the future, MLS sides face pressure to improve their performance in the competition. The final accounts do not offer room for excuses or explanations. Mexican teams dominate in this competition. The onus falls on their American and Canadian counterparts to figure out a way to end their hegemony in the years ahead.
