That sounds good, but perhaps if that was a hard rule, the league would not have had Seattle and Atlanta in the league. Would that be good?
Um... yeah... F seattle and atlanta. Seriously though, the league should have insisted they build their own stadiums before admittance. Same with nycfc.
Didn't watch. Haven't seen an ASG in about 10 years in any sport. But this one is particularly meh because I have already seen LAG beat Juve in an equivalent friendly. Noted that the so-called all stars couldn't do what LAG had already done.
I recorded the All Stars game and deleted it moments in when he said ' Ibrahimovic won't play he withdrew from the squad ... '
I wouldn't say that was a given. So, if MLS instituted a hard and fast rule that all teams must play on natural grass next season, do you think Seattle and Atlanta would leave and join NASL?
It's not just those two teams, Vancouver, Portland and New England also have turf fields. I don't see anything changing anytime soon.
MLS knew exactly what it was getting in Seattle and Atlanta, and so accepted the surface as part of the devil's bargain. Pretty hard to change the rules after the fact. This is on the league as much as it is on the teams.
Honestly think MLS should suspend Zlatan for like 10 games for his "I come from the real world" comment. Can't let him shit on the league like this. When Zlatan talks, people listen. Millions of people will now not give the league a chance because of this big shit's verbal diarrhea.
http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-le...ion-for-skipping-mls-all-star-game-ridiculous "No comments", proceeds to make awful comments.
But he's all about show and where better to show off .... As THE star of the All Stars !?! Just can't see him wanting to miss that game ..
I think that this will remain a mole hill. Lets face it the league is more concerned about marketing then it is the health of the players. The league took its pound of flesh from the Galaxy and I am quite sure they are not looking for further retribution. If anything they will continue to promote him and use him to draw crowds.
I am mostly talking about the interview. The ASG snub is time served at this point. And mostly talking about "I came from the real world" comment. He basically called the league Mickey Mouse.
I think you're reading something into it that isn't there. I took his "real world" comment to be referring to the mindset of the people that would suspend him for refusing to risk injury and fatigue in the ASG. This part of the quote says to me that he's absolutely taking the league seriously: "It is what it is. I respect in the end, and I'm sorry for my teammates only that I could not help them in the game." He made IMO a footballing decision. Given that we saw Gio half-arsing his performances prior to the World Cup and Jona declaring himself injured, we should be praising a guy who didn't want to disrupt the league campaign for a needless trip and stay in Atlanta for a game whose result is absolutely irrelevant.
This also ties-in with my previous stated opinion on how ludicrous it is that we feel the need to have an ASG when time in the MLS schedule is already at a premium: Ibrahimovic had played in three games in nine days for the Galaxy before the All-Star Game and pulled out of what would have been a cross-country trip to Atlanta, citing fatigue. As a result, he then missed the Galaxy's only trip to Colorado this season, disappointing local fans who hoped to see one of the league's marquee players. Thinking about it like that, "They're not in the real world" would be an understandable statement.
We can get rid of the All Star Game, but then MLS Cup would need to go back to being a neutral site. We can create a week long All Star break, but then each team would have to play an additional midweek game. We can play the ASG the week before MLS Cup, but then we won't get an international opponent and also it's an international break day. We can play it after MLS Cup, but that would be extremely anti-climatic (like the NFL's Pro Bowl) We can get rid of it altogether and pretend like the league doesn't need the marketing... None of those things are appealing.
How is it a footballing decision? Did he need the rest from the ASG so he could play in Colorado, which he couldn't do because he got suspended?