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Gerrard, Pirlo, fellow star players talk challenges in MLS on media day

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images Sport / Getty

In 2015, Major League Soccer signed a number of superstar players who joined various teams across the league. Footballers like Steven Gerrard, Andrea Pirlo, David Villa, Kaka, Sebastian Giovinco, and Giovani Dos Santos all now call MLS home.

With the 2016 season set to kick off on March 6, this group of stars conducted interviews with reporters on MLS media day, talking about their adjustment to MLS and their impressions of North American soccer.

Here's what the league's biggest stars had to say ahead of their second season in MLS:

The travel, trials, and tribulations of MLS

Adjusting to a new league means learning how to endure some unique challenges - for Orlando City captain Kaka, LA Galaxy midfielder Steven Gerrard, and New York City FC star Andrea Pirlo, there most certainly was a learning curve.

"The biggest challenge was understanding how to play away and at home," Kaka said. "In this league, soccer is not an exact science. If Real Madrid plays the last team in the league, Real Madrid is going to win for sure, 99 percent. Here if the first team plays with the last team it's 50-50. So you need to understand how the league works. This was the big challenge for me the first season."

"The level is much higher than I thought," Pirlo admitted.

"How can I put it?" Gerrard pondered. "When I turned up here, I didn't know there was humidity in Houston, didn’t know there was altitude in Salt Lake. I didn't know a lot about a league that was new and a bit of a shock to me at the time. Now I know what's in store for me. … I'm in a lot better position now than when I first turned up."

Adjusting tactically to the MLS style

(Photo courtesy: @NYCFC)

European football and American soccer are two different beasts, and players like Pirlo, Toronto FC's league-MVP Sebastian Giovinco, and LA Galaxy star Giovani Dos Santos know that thriving in MLS means fine-tuning your tactical approach, too.

"It's a beautiful kind of soccer," Pirlo said. "It's fast. Technical not so much yet, but maybe with the arrival of European coaches it will improve in that regard."

"It's different from the type of game in Europe," Dos Santos explained. "Here it's more physical, there it's more technical. MLS is growing, and it needs a few more years to get to the prestige of Europe. But it will get there."

"The beauty of this league is there are fewer tactics," Giovinco said. "For supporters, it's good to go to games because there are lots of goals and nice play … For attackers it’s better because there are more chances to score. For a defender it’s maybe not the best."

"Giovinco said the right thing," Pirlo admitted. "In fact, we often talk about this when we talk. I think the league can improve, tactically speaking. All teams can improve. And they are already doing it, because this league tends to be very strong physically. If they become strong also tactically, the level would definitely go up."

Living life off-the-field in North America

Living and playing in MLS isn't just a new challenge for these star players; it also affords them a new, lower-key lifestyle.

"It's refreshing and peaceful," Gerrard said, of life in Los Angeles. "I go about my day-to-day business pretty much unrecognized. The odd people who are soccer fans pull me aside from time to time. But at home (in England) it's really intense and grueling. When you're captain of Liverpool and England it's very difficult to go about unnoticed."

"I like also the passion of the fans, the fact that they love the sport, they love being at the stadium," Pirlo said. "Win or lose they're happy and that's the most important value of a sport."

"Here people talk about soccer and what surrounds it and I think it’s positive for the growth of the game," Villa said. "People here focus on what’s happening on the field and not so much what happens off of it and that means football players are happier since we come to play football and don’t have to worry about our outside lives."

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