Last night I watched (on TV) the KC Wizards (my home team) v Man U game. Over the years I have often wondered how to put into perspective the results of these exhibition games and I still struggle with it.

On one hand, the Wizards played well and deserved to win…a tie at worst. From the Wizards perspective, it was an incredible opportunity to play against one of the biggest clubs in the world. They are in the middle of their season, in tip top shape, and motivated like crazy to give it 110% for a once in a lifetime opportunity.

On the other hand, Man U look at it from a total opposite perspective. It is pre-season for them…and early in the pre-season at that. They are not in great shape and are still building their fitness. The majority of the starting 11 are back home resting. They never play a game in 90F humid heat back in England. The 11 players are a mixture of first teamers, reserves and young players who deserve a look. These players are pieced together and play these exhibition games. The players certainly don’t have the motivation that the Wizards players do and basically end up doing as little as they can get away with while still trying to win the game, which sometimes bites them in the butt like it did yesterday.

The bottom line is, the games - Complete article here.

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I'm a big fan of Ryan Giggs and have often used him as an example for my son. We were at the game and were surprised and pleased to see how much effort Giggs gave. He is a very competitive player and seemed to want to win every ball. He had quite a battle all game long with #2 Harrington of the Wizards,on the ball and off the ball far from the play.
World class players(Giggs) really love to compete,must be part of what makes them so good.

"The players certainly don’t have the motivation that the Wizards players do..."

Kind of a silly blanket statement. If the majority of starters are back home, then I'd say the ones who are getting a look when they usually wouldn't would be extremely motivated.

But its still an apples to oranges comparison, taking one team in mid-season form and putting them against another in pre-season scrimmage form.

Anyone that thinks the MLS is not becoming one of the top leagues might want to re-think that position in the future.

http://www.liveoddsandscores.com/news

"The Premier League outfit are the favorites at 11/10 (bet £10 to win £11 profit) on Betfair to win the match, and the draw is available to back at 13/5 with Sky Bet. The Red Bulls are the outsiders to win the match at 13/5 with Bet 365, but are by no means ruled out of contention".

"Chelsea are 5/6 (bet £6 to win £5 profit) favourites on Betfair to win the match, which promises to be entertaining. Meanwhile the draw is on offer at 11/4 with Sky Bet and a win for Ajax is at 14/5 with William Hill".

"Liverpool are generally 6/5 with the bookies to beat Kaiserslautern, but fans can take bigger odds of 29/20 (bet £20 to win £29) on Betfair. Another draw would be frustrating at 9/4 with Coral, whilst there has been money for a Kaiserslautern victory at 11/5 with William Hill".

It's now beginning to look like other top leagues with a few big teams, LA Galaxy, NY Red Bulls and other teams along for the ride.

"The British bookmakers have seen solid support for a United win, which has been trimmed into 2/7 (bet $7 to win $2 profit) by Sky Bet and Stan James. The draw is currently at 9/2 with bookie William Hill and a shock win for Kansas is trading at 19/2 on leading betting exchange Betfair".

"Manchester United are the favourites to win the match at 8/13 (bet £13 to win £8 profit) with Totesport, whilst Celtic can be backed at 9/2 with William Hill. The draw could be a popular option at 7/2 with Sky Bet in what could be a tight match".

The Red Bulls scored first in the sixth minute and just beat the "Worlds Richest team" 2-1 in the New York Challenge.
KC scored first also, and went on to win 2-1 in front of 52,342 fans.

http://nmsn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/premierleague/story/Ferguson-blames-lack-of-experience

Ferguson fielded a young defence from the start, with Ben Amos in goal and Rafael, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans and Ritchie De Laet making up the back four.

Ferguson said: "I thought the inexperience of the defenders showed in the first 15 minutes. We never quite recovered from that.

"That was a bit of a handicap, that inexperience.

"I felt our young goalkeeper organised them and calmed them down. Their centre forward [Teal Bunbury] was a handful physically. He gave us a hard time that way.

"They are very committed, the American players, they are very athletic. It is a big game for them. They are playing Manchester United.

"You have to expect that kind of motivation. You know they are going to get stuck in. I wasn't too bothered about that to be honest."

http://nmsn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/premierleague/story/Wizards-beat-Manchester-United-21-072410

''MLS owns the city of Manchester right now,'' crowed Jimmy Conrad, who was sent off in the 39th minute. KC played with 10 men.


Manchester United captain Ryan Giggs said the final score only confirmed what was already evident: that American soccer is on the rise.

''You can see it in the standard of the teams, the standard of the national team, the interest within the crowd and the fans,'' he said.

''They're a big, strong team,'' Red Devils coach Sir Alex Ferguson said. ''Athletic. Very powerful...

''The game is improving in the general play of the players,'' Ferguson said. ''Some United States players are doing well in Europe and in England, and that's the best barometer.''

Kaiserslautern versus Liverpool featured a complete Liverpool reserve side so Kaiserslautern should have been big favourites.

John,

but if everybody thinks Liverpool is the favorites, they will bet against Kaiserslautern and boom all the money is gone!

I think like a gambler and not a bookie though Willy!

I watched that game and Liverpool were poor although a couple of the kids looked half decent,Amoo in particular.

Still look like they're in need of more attacking quality though.

"Anyone that thinks the MLS is not becoming one of the top leagues might want to re-think that position in the future."

Eh, polite comments from English visitors aside, I think MLS still has a long way to go.

Actually I'm not convinced its getting better, either. Most of the play I've seen this year has struck me as relatively poor compared to a few years ago. I did see LA play San Jose last week or the weekend before that (can't remember) and that game was pretty good. Actually very good. But a lot of league play in general has been more kickballish.

Part of the reason the MLS teams look better than they are against visitors is just the half-step of lacking intensity by those teams. The MLS guys are still pros, and if you give pros time to find passes, they will. Actually a lot of times the MLS teams will look better against EPL teams than they do against other MLS teams.

A lot of those games seem to follow the model:
- visiting team allows MLS team to find a rhythm early
- MLS team starts to dominate possession
- visiting team starts to get embarrassed and picks up speed of play
- somewhere in the last 30 minutes, visiting team remembers they're visitors and either because of heat or desire to avoid injury starts backing off again

"Somewhere in the last 30 minutes, visiting team remembers they're visitors and either because of heat or desire to avoid injury starts backing off again".

Or, maybe they already trained once that day.

Q-MLS is attracting more better players from all around the world than five years ago, True or False?