J-League vs. MLS

Both Japan and the United States are rising teams in the world of international soccer, but you might not get that impression tomorrow if you tune into their friendly in San Francisco. The two teams will be featuring rosters drawn almost exclusively from their domestic leagues. I’m not one of those who bash Major League Soccer – although there are many, many things that I think it does wrong – but clearly a team of MLS-based players does not strike much fear in the hearts of the world’s best national teams. The same can be said of the J-League, a fun league to watch with many good, but not great, players.

The level of play in Japan and the United States gets better every year and more than anything tommorow’s game will be a good opportunity to compare the country’s domestic leagues. Both emerged about the same time in the 1990s and both have helped to advance the development of players for their national teams. Both the J-League and MLS have helped to serve as a springboard for players to make the move to European leagues.

Which is why tomorrow we won’t see the best of either nation. Those players are in Europe right now. What we will see are young players fighting for the limited spots available on both national teams. For that reason alone, this one should be a fun, competitive game.

My prediction is US 2 Japan 1.