The International Federation of Football History and Statistics released a list of the top Concacaf clubs of the decade on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, most of them are Mexican. Thirteen of the top 17 in fact.
The highest non-Mexican club is Costa Rica's Saprissa at 6th spot, followed by Guatemala's CSD Municipal in 9th and Honduras' CD Olimpia in 10th. The top MLS clubs? DC United in 21st spot. Followed by Houston in 22nd and the LA Galaxy in 24th. Which raises an interesting question. How well would one of these top Central American clubs perform if it were plunked into MLS for a season?
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As far as I can make out, the IFFHS allocates points for this ranking based on a club's performance both within it's own national competition and within the federation's club competition, in this case the Concacaf Champions League. Oh, and Concacaf clubs' participation in South American competitions is also taken into account. (Which would benefit the Mexican entries.)
It seems to be a virtuous circle: Mexico has the highest ranked league in the region, so performances within that league are worth more. I think? I'm also assuming that the Central American clubs outperform the MLS ones based on dominating their domestic leagues and doing reasonably well in the Concacaf Champions League.
(TFC is the top "Canadian" club at 79th spot. Somewhat confusingly, the CSL's York Region Shooters come in at 140th, followed by Toronto Croatia at 144.)
This all raises a question that fascinates me. How well do the top Central American clubs measure up to clubs in MLS? A league notorious for its parity. The Concacaf Champs League is the only tool for comparison we have at the moment and I'm not sure it's a great one. How well would Saprissa or Olimpia perform if they were plunked into MLS for a season? I'm guessing that they would neither struggle nor dominate.
Even better, how long before the MLS begins to challenge Mexico's Primera Division for supremacy in the region? Don't scoff, it wasn't that long ago that the idea that the U.S. mens' national team could regularly compete with Mexico would have been greeted with disbelief.