Probably meant that when the call to Country comes down during league time the players in Euro have a long way to go to suit up for the US... Regarding nobody's comments... yeah, obviously soccer players get hurt... I was just disappointed that the three top US players in the Bundisliga all got hurt at the same time at the most crucial moments of the season. I am completely heartened by the stats and articles being posted however... soccer really has come a long way in the US. A 16 year old scoring 3 goals in 2 GS in the MLS? I have been keeping my eye on Pomykal... I need to DVR Sporting KC to watch Busio play. Also very eager for the U-20 WC. Again... thanks to all for your responses. This is a great site.
I didn't see that argument but I would say that it appears (from the study) that the correlation to injury was not measured using cumulative data but per travel incident. (indivicual games). It noted the rigors of travel as well as issues of different time zones...both of which are far more significant when considering travel from Europe to the US than even travel from the East coast to the west coast. (customs plus difference in time. right now the time is 1530 Los Angeles, 1830 Boston, 2330 London. I am guessing that the difference people would be referring to is with international travel to games (as occurred for the last set of friendlies).
Piece of good news related to my concern... It looks like Weston will be back this weekend against Hoffenheim: https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bunde...-stats-nagelsmann-bentaleb-rudy-mckennie-3819 Some articles said he would be out for the remainder of the season. Not sure if he is going to start... but the article features him. Also found this one related to the game the following week with Dortmund: https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bunde...dortmund-schalke-revierderby-key-battles-3832 No mention of Pulisic in that one. Weston's injury appeared a lot worse... hoping Pulisic can make it back.... although I am not sure they would start him anyways. Still can't find any googled news on Tyler Adams.
It’s a 2 hr flight time difference between lax - boston and LONDON - boston. That difference is less than the difference between chicago and Boston but I don’t see people calling for midwestern players over west coast.
According to google it takes an additional 5 hours to get from LAX to London as opposed to Boston. Google says: 5:35 LAX to Boston Google says: 10:30 LAX to London Oddly enough, because of Great Circles or perhaps Lufthansa is a faster airline... Google says it only takes an additional 10 minutes to get to Frankfurt Germany... that is strange because a flight from London to Frankfurt takes 1:30. Obviously, differences in the style of jet makes a difference but I live near LA and I fly to Euro every year... I also fly to the east coast occasionally and I am pretty positive that trans-Atlantic flight is way longer than roughly 2 additional hours. I still kind of get your point. Travel in the MLS would be far worse on the players according to the article compared to those playing in the UK or Germany.
I wa saying that the London players are only on the plane for 2 hours more than the LA players. If 2 hours of flight time is meaningful, then chicago based players are better than LA ones for east coast games.
And yet, Parks looks to be in the starting U23 lineup but can't get off the bench because of Sands. Something doesn't add up.
I was speaking mainly of the difference in time zones. I interpreted the conclusion to be that air travel led to difficulties due to travel time and difference in time zones with the difference in time zones being the more significant factor. (partly due to the fact that they focused primarily on the difference between east/west travel as opposed to north/south travel.) The authors concluded that the results with the NBA were better for teams travelling east but it was based upon typical game time being closer to their natural circadian rhythms (set by the home time zone). You are absolutely right that travel time is important but the time difference is also quite significant. These are a few time zones for comparison. LA GMT -7, Houston GMT -5, Boston GMT -4, London GMT +1, Dortmund GMT +2 For Pulisic, for example, the clocks in Houston were 7 hours ahead of his clocks in Germany. For any MLS player, the MOST they had to adjust was 2 hours, but as the study pointed out...even that isn't insignificant. It is also true that Pulisic didn't just fly in and play that same day....or even the next. He had some time to adjust which wasn't the case in the study. I think the study was interesting and leads to some important questions about how to best deal with and minimize the effects of travel time (because it isn't going away).
I didn't say that. I said that the more we ask a player in Europe to come over the more likely that person will suffer injuries.
MLS has yet to develop that reputation and right now, programs are looking for young talent that they can groom. However, only a small list of huge teams are willing to pay MLS prices and it's not because they think these players will step into their first team. It will be quite some time until MLS "proves itself to be a legitimate development vehicle" and until that time, strong players would be well advised not to sign away their rights after 19. They should sign as young as they can (mid-teens) to get several years under their belt. Let's look at who MLS has transferred to elite leagues/teams 18/19 - Almiron (27), NUFC, EPL - Davies (19), BM, B1 - Adams (20), RBL, B1 (internal) - Richards (18), BM, B1 17/18 - harrison (19), Man City, EPL - Larin (23), Beşiktaş, Turkey 16/17 - de Jong (32), Galatasaray, Turkey - Castillo (24), Trabzonspor, Turkey 15/16 - Miazga (20), Chelsea EPL - Nemeth (26), Al Ghar This does not seem like a well-oiled path for talented youth. I think with the elimination of "loan armies" is going to make it even harder for other teams to pay what MLS presumably will want for its players.
The article mentioned specifically cites the challenges associated with "frequent air travel exposure" several times. Having read the report, it seems pretty clear that air travel in total is more damaging for MLS players than it is for European based ones during their season, which is obviously far longer than the USMNT one.
Yes, but that is not even remotely the issue at hand here. The question is why are we suddenly seeing more injuries in our top young European players. The answer is simple and understandable. NT call ups always have a cost associated to them. The air travel and jet lag from Europe to the US is just a bigger cost than is immediately obvious.
It's like you looked for a completely different horse to ride on, killed it from exhaustion and then decided to whip it.
It could be the air travel. Or it could be that GB was so gung ho to "install the system" in a 2-day window that he overworked them. Pulisic, McKennie, and Adams were the only new central players and probably had to most to digest and try and implement. Other guys flew in but played defense or on the wing.
Respectfully, I’m not sure if you read in depth the article cited. It appear you’ve taken a study to try to make a tangential point. Unsurprisingly, it’s not much of an argument as it’s based on frequent domestic travel and games played on/near the travel date. WM didn’t get injured because of travel - he made a bad overaggressive play. Neither did CP’s or TA’s injury have anything to do with travel. If there’s a reason that players in elite leagues in Europe get injured more, it’s probably more likely due to having to compete at a higher intensity both in practice and in games.
Yeah. Apologies. I misread your post. Still interesting fact about the LAX to London vs Frankfurt only taking 10 more minutes. Combo of Great Circles and a faster Lufthansa Jet? Strange.
Weird. Did this injury occur during that last fantastic game he played? He showed no signs that I could see. Perhaps towards the end of the game. Really bummed he is going to miss another. It means he may not start the weekend after either.
Sometimes it can just be about what coaches are looking for at certain positions. U20WC rosters are really small. The starter at the #6 position appears to be Durkin. Maybe instead of Durkin 2.0 in the roster, Ramos wants a different type of player. Maybe a better passer like Servania. At CB the starting tandem is likely Richards (Bayern) and McKenzie (Philly).So maybe with the defenders on the bench he wants a player that can play all across the backline (like a Julian Araujo of the Galaxy). There are quite a good of really midfielders that aren't going to make that roster. Andrew Carleton probably isn't going to make it. Taylor Booth of Bayern Munich probably isn't going to make it. Chris Cappis of Hobro probably isn't going to make it. Edwin Cerrillo, who starts for FCD, probably isn't going to make it. We can keep going. Brenden Aaronson of Philadelphia probably won't make it. I wouldn't read too much into the most recent U23 camp roster. That was more about the players who were available for callup than the players likely to be part of the group when the Olympic qualifiers come around.
Understood. What U23 players do you see getting called that didn't make the first camp? I understand some U20 players will probably graduate to this group.
Well, that's the first thing. Once the U20 World Cup ends for the US (which is hopefully mid-June)................all of those players go into the U23 pool. And that's an extensive group of talent. Every cycle we have a joke on the youth boards that Predicting that U23 group is REALLY tough. The 2019 CONCACAF U23 Championships (which serve as the qualifiers for the Olympics) are in October. That means European seasons are going on, and MLS will be in its stretch run. And teams aren't forced to release players. So its really tough. You'd want your starting XI for that squad to include players like McKennie, Adams, Pulisic, Sargent, Weah, Soto, Carter-Vickers, Palmer-Brown, Antonee Robinson, the list goes on and on. I'm thinking that Mendez of Freiburg and Ledesma of PSV might both debut before October. Maybe Uly Llanez of Wolfsburg. Maybe Chris Richards of Bayern. Hopefully Haji Wright has moved on to a club that makes him an important part of their plans. And none of them might be available. And you'd hope that the BEST U23 options in MLS are so important that their clubs wouldn't want to release them for the playoff run. Its one thing for FCD to release Paxton Pomykal in May..............quite another to release him for the playoffs. No way! So who the hell knows. All I know is that Sands would be given a chance to make my U20 team. That's for sure. From where I sit he's better than quite a number of the midfielders that the staff has taken a look at.
I think it is significant that three players from MLS academies (Davies, Adams, Richards) were transferred in 18/19 and only Miazga fits into that category from all of the other years. Most of the others are actually foriegners. The fact that the academy system in MLS is only about 10 years old and most academies are much younger should make this seem like a logical result. In addition, you are ignoring other American players that were developed in the US but went on a free. They are still examples of the academies developing talent. Weston McKennie, Soto, the Galaxy boys. Of course free is better than paying money fron the Euro point of view but do you think they would pass on a player they think could be another Weston McKennie because he isn't free? Another Adams? The first step isn't to prove they are a legitimate path (I know that is what I said...I am sorry). The first step is to begin turning out enough players that European teams are willing to put some money in hoping for another Pulisic, McKennie, Adams etc. It's like the lottery; it certainly isn't a proven method of winning millions but enough winners have come through that people are willing to pay a few bucks. So far we have a few winners and a few more that seem like they are on the way to becoming winners (Sargent etc). You may Say that Sargent, Pulisic and some others didn't pass through MLS academies but they did pass through the American development scene and each American success also benefits MLS. I agree with you in the sense that any young player should try to make sure his contract is written so that he has maximum flexibility but I don't think that 19 or 20 is too late to transfer and I suspect that the "acceptable" range will climb steadily into the early twenties as MLS improves the quality of the league and as its reputation for development improves year over year.
Respectfully, I think you’ve materially changed the discussion. What we were discussing was how long a contract elite youth should sign with MLS. What’s not in question is if talented young Americans are coveted by elite programs - they certainly are and the younger the better. Conversely, there appears to be limited appetite for young 20s players who still need polish. Therefore, giving MLS the ability to block one’s ability to move to better programs at the point when you are most desired is highly undesirable. You made the point that signing with MLS is dependent upon MLS being a source of talent - makes sense to me but again, it’s very young talent that they’re interested in, not 21+.