One of the problems with the MLS playoffs of years past has been its schedule. The playoffs take place in November and this happens to be the worst time of the year to stage the playoffs. Not only are the playoffs up against the NFL, CF, the start of the NHL and NBA (none of these are really the main problem), but November also has a FIFA Match day in the middle of the month that takes away almost two weekends and the league chooses to not utilize the weekend of Thanksgiving to stage a 2nd leg conference final or even MLS CUP. What happens instead is that the league crams in the wild card game and the first and second leg of the conference semifinals in the first week of November (this is done to avoid the FIFA match day). After almost two weekends off, the playoffs return with the conference final first and second leg being crammed into less than a week in order to avoid playing on Thanksgiving week. The league than returns for MLS Cup in December. What results from all of this is a crazy schedule that doesn't allow teams to able to host games on weekends, tired legs from playing as many as three games in one week and games so spread out that any type of momentum gained from the final weeks of the season almost completely disappears. If the league is going to insist on having their their showcase event(s) during the month of November, they should instead disregard the FIFA Match day in the middle of the month and the week of Thanksgiving and play right through them all. The playoff schedule could potentially look like this: Eastern and Western Conference Wildcard games on 10/29 Conference Semifinals Leg 1 on 11/1 & 11/2 Conference Semifinals Leg 2 on 11/8 & 11/9 Conference Finals Leg 1 on 11/15 & 11/16 Conference Finals Leg 2 on 11/22 & 11/23 MLS Cup on 11/28 or 11/29 This type of schedule could provide 5 straight weekends of MLS playoffs that will maintain momentum and give teams enough rest in between games. The league may also carve out better TV ratings by holding the final on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving. While this schedule may result in a few of the leagues international players missing one or two playoff games for international duty, a more consistent playoff schedule will outweigh the loss of a few players and playing through Thanksgiving.
My guess is the schedule hasn't been announced. There won't be any World Cup Qualifiers in November 2014. In general I like MLS not conflicting with national teams, but I wouldn't mind MLS Playoffs during a FIFA week unless the USMNT wants to play a quality opponent in a friendly.
Does Ireland count as a quality opponent? Despite no World Cup qualifiers being played in November, other confederations do have official matches: UEFA: All teams will play a 2016 Euro qualification match between 14th-16th CAF: The final two qualification matches for 2015 African Cup of Nations will be played on 14th-15th and 19th CONCACAF: The finals of the 2014 Caribbean Cup takes place between 9th-18th; Mexico, Costa Rica & Honduras have friendly matches AFC: Although theres no qualification matches, this is the last official dates for friendlies before the Asian Cup in January. CONMEBOL: All but Argentina and Uruguay currently have matches scheduled during this period. So the situation similar to last year: although the USA has no official matches, plenty of other teams do and have the right to call up their players.
Irish squad > USA squad USA team spirit > Irish team spirit. Ireland are obviously a good enough team to play agaisnt the Usa.
USA is 18th in the FIFA Rankings and Ireland is 66th. The USA has done better than Ireland in the last six World Cups, counting Ireland not having qualified for four of them as having done worse than any country that participated. In 1994 the USA and Ireland both were eliminated in the round of 16 with USA 14th and Ireland 16th in the rankings on Wikipedia, and in 1998 through 2014 USA advanced farther. You could argue that if you put Ireland in USA's 1998 group (Ireland didn't qualify), Ireland would have done better. The last time the USA was eliminated in the World Cup Group Stage was 2006, when Ireland finished fourth in their qualifying group. If USA played 10 games in Ireland I'd be disappointed if the USA did worse than about 18 points and a +5 goal differential such as 5 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses.
You quailfy regularly because you play shit teams. We would never fail to qauilfy from your groups. World rankings don't mean anything. You can't compare the 1994 Irish WC to the USAs as Ireland was full of stars playing for the best premier league teams. Ireland regularly gets to the play offs and has faced teams like Belguim,Turkey,France,Holland who are ALL far better than the USA. I was going to say that I can't wait to beat you guys in Dublin except we won't as we will field a weak team as we will have just played a tough quaifier against Scotland in Glasgow, a team who would aslo quailfy regularly from your confederation. Howard Coleman O'shea Clark Cameron/Wilson McCarthy Gibson Dempsey Mcgeady Brady Keane not much room for American players in a joint XI.