For Gonzalo Pineda, technical director of Atlanta United, with almost a decade of experience in Major League Soccerboth as a player with the Seattle Sounders and now as a strategist for Atlanta United, the distance with Liga MX has been shortened so much that currently between both competitions an “even shot” could be taken, where sometimes they will be victorious the North American teams and in others the Mexican squads.
This perspective arose in the talk that the three-time champion as a player in Liga MX with Pumas and Chivas del Guadalajara, as well as the 2006 World Cup in Germany, he performed with The opinion and where in his presentation he made clear the growth that the competition has had where he currently provides his services with Atlanta United and the stagnation for different reasons that the soccer teams in Mexico have suffered.
“It is very difficult to say, especially to make the comparison that fans often make, even in direct confrontations. I understand that we are very equal in level, I think that in the coming years, sometimes, we will win and other times we will lose, but the matter is even. The leagues are even, although I think that in many other things the MLS has advanced a lot and I think that compared to soccer in Mexico, the MLS has advanced in the last 15 or 20 years. From 2005 to now compared to what Liga MX is progressing.”
Pineda’s comparison was not intended to be pejorative, but with the intention of being able to find a solution that from afar seems to suffocate the Mexican teams in this desire to grow in the sporting aspect, but above all in the financial aspect.
“It stagnated or could have stagnated however you want to see it, but I think the growth that the MLS has had is incomparable. However, I don’t know if this is enough for the MLS to surpass Liga MX. I don’t know, but if they have a greater sense of all this and a better vision, it seems difficult, but it is undeniable how much the MLS league has grown. They have a plan to grow even more, so it is very encouraging to be part of a league. Without a doubt, you really want to grow and you want to improve day by day and you have all the facilities to do a good job.”
Are the criticisms of Liga MX exaggerated?
Gonzalo Pineda tHe also analyzed the role that the media plays in the criticisms or comparisons made between the MLS and Liga MX, perhaps many times being too severe with the little growth that is observed in the tournament in Mexico.
“I don’t know if it is a problem, especially because many times we are very critical for being so close to the United States. Especially because we see a league like Brazil’s, which has grown a lot, has progressed too much. Others like Uruguay and Argentina, where the Leagues have stayed in the same place for a long time, for many years, which is not bad, and I think that Liga MX has always been there.”
In this sense, Pineda He tried to see the positive side rather than the negative, however, raising the great differences that have been generated in the Liga MX competition itself.: “I think the focus of Liga MX has changed, where now I do notice it is very divided between four or five teams that are all-powerful in infrastructure, with the type of players on the roster, salaries much higher than the vast majority, and today Today there is a great imbalance in that sense. Before, America was the almighty and the others were trying to fight it.”
From that perspective, the Georgia State team strategist stated that: TQuite the opposite, it happens here in the MLS, here collective success is the most important thing, balanced teams, Maybe some with a little more budget provided by their owners, but the vast majority have great teams, great facilities, great stadiums, a more even competition in that sense and well, they are two different league approaches. I don’t want to be critical in saying that Liga MX has stagnated a bit and I think that what is happening in the world has happened to them, that suddenly you reach a level and you would expect an improvement, but I think that in recent years it has not happened ”.
The selection pays the consequences of stagnation
Asked whether the stagnation or the little progress that the Liga MX has had is making the Mexico national team coach, Jaime Lozano, suffer, his friend and colleague Gonzalo Pineda, had his perspective on this phenomenon.
I think that this is the result of the same thing that is happening in the MX League, but that we should go to the causes, it is always important to know what has happened, I don’t know if it is so dramatic, because the truth is I consider myself a little ignorant of That, about what happens in Liga MX, because I no longer follow it the same as before. My daily life requires me to be in MLS soccer all the time, so I can’t see all the teams, I think the only ones are my Pumas and them where I can see other teams, so I don’t know how much talent there is or there isn’t one,” said Pineda, one of the great values to emerge from the Pumas youth team at the beginning of the new millennium.
On this same point he added that: “But I don’t know, mAnd I consider myself a little ignorant, but I am always of the idea that there are many great footballers and what is needed is work, perseverance, a Master Plan, but that is not only for the benefit of one team or another, but for the benefit of the entire country, and we need to think more about the team, think about what the common good is for the team, because In the end, every day we work or we feel part of Mexican soccer or we are Mexican, we wish well for the team and I think that vision is lacking and creating a plan to have increasingly bigger and better players.”
Direct in Liga MX
The former player of Pumas, Chivas, San Luis, Cruz Azul, Puebla, Querétaro and Seattle Sounders, also referred to the possibility of sometime directing in Liga MX: “I don’t know, no, I know what it’s like to direct in Liga MX, but I’m not comfortable, I would tell you that I am very happy to be here, “I am very committed to the pressure I put on myself to be in a big club, to be in a place where they give me all the tools to be successful.”
And he explained that his permanence in the MLS, beyond being happy and delighted in a place where there are all the infrastructure and logistics arguments to carry out his work, the matter also involves the family aspect: “In Atlanta they have treated me wonderfully, there is also a family issue, it took almost 10 years, living in the United States, My children have grown up in American schools. My son, the oldest, is in High School and has been thinking about a Collage for two years, so that family part also has me sometimes seeing paths that one never knows, but if I could choose my path in my plan, because of a family issue I would like to continue in the MLS.”
Foreigners in Liga MX
In the interview the issue of the exaggerated number of foreign players and coaches was also touched upon, to which Gonzalo Pineda said: “I think there are many, but once again I consider myself ignorant in that sense, I don’t know how many come, I don’t know how many technicians there are in the Liga MX, in the Liga Expansión MX, who are making noise today. I don’t know many things, but it makes me very sad that there are few Mexicans today, but I don’t know the reality, I don’t know the context of why this is happening. “I don’t know if it will be an issue of malinchismo, it will be an issue of short-termism in Mexico, and just as the foreign player is more patient than the Mexican.”
Keep reading:
– Gonzalo Pineda takes the criticism against his friend Jaime Lozano as something personal
– MLS is not easy for Latin players, says Gonzalo Pineda, Atlanta United coach
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