While I want DC United to win on June 7th, I think Ryan Nelsen should not be made to play in that game considering that other DC United players (who will be with the USA national team) will not.
I would assume (dangerous, I know, but I'm going with it...) that Nelsen is not being FORCED to play any games that he does not want to play. A game on June 7 and another one on the 8th, followed by one 3 days later on the 11th is obviously a lot, but I'm sure the coaches have been in touch and have talked to Ryan and have an understanding of what can reasonably be expected of him in terms of playing time. I almost feel like, if anything, it'll be Ryan pushing himself to play as much as possible rather than the coaches.
The FIFA rule is that he has to be released five days before the tournament. New Zealand's first game is on June 18th. It's true that MLS and the USSF have a tight relationship, but I don't think MLS has any duty to treat other national associations similarly. MLS has decided, probably correctly, that success for the US team directly helps the league, so they shaft their clubs a bit in order to help the US national team. MLS certainly has no reason to shaft its own clubs to help other national associations.
I think that's the point. There is one standard for the US players, another standard for international players, or at least, Nelsen. If Bobby isn't being made to play the day before the Richmond game, DC could just say to Ryan that he should go be with his national team. The club could be proactive about this and look out for Ryan's best interest, which don't appear to include playing games in back-to-back days. Besides, after we add that Nigerian defender, we won't even miss him!
I do agree with the first paragraph. My post was directed to the June 8th game. Which your second paragraph addresses. It is sad that MLS has to shaft Ryan Nelsen.
I don't think anyone is getting the shaft here. If Nelsen weren't suspended for our 5/31 game, he wouldn't be able to play for NZ in Scotland on 6/1. So NZ is getting him for a game he wasn't expected to play in. In exchange, Ryan gets to play for us on 6/7 - he probably feels he let the team down by getting suspended and is eager to play. And then he can still get to Richmond on the 8th, and maybe just play as a sub. I don't think anyone should be too upset with the way it worked out.
True, but there is clearly a reason for it. MLS must think it makes financial sense for the league to do everything in its power to have the US national team have success. If that means US players missing two more club games than they'd have to under FIFA rules, the league must be OK with that. If the clubs were owned by individual owners, this would much less likely be the case. However, is there any incentive for MLS to do more than the FIFA rules require for non-US players? Surely the success of the New Zealand national team shouldn't be on MLS's priority list.
If MLS had better referees, Nelsen would not have been ejected from the game... So in that sense DC United is getting the shaft ...
The fault for this kind of stuff falls on MLS' shoulders. 18 man rosters put teams in a real bind with international callups. We play in the summer, the majority of leagues play in the winter. Of course all major tournaments will be held over the summer. If we want to compete, then MLS needs to increase roster size and perhaps adjust the schedule to allow "open" weekends for national team games (like the rest of the world does). We need Copa America experience. We end up turning down invitations because of "league" duties. Maybe when we get more yanks abroad we can have two different teams, a summer one and a winter one. How about some financial compensation from USSF to MLS? Perhaps enough to add 2 more players per team? 20 man plus developmental would make a huge difference....
While I would agree with the theory are we all willing to pay $5-$8 more per ticket? I don't see Lamar, Robert or Uncle Phil footing the bill for the extra players. I'm not will to foot the extra $$$$ either.
What about the fans that show up expecting to see Donovan play? Are they happy they bought thier tickets and he's in Mexico? If MLS is going to play during World Cups, ect they need bigger rosters....otherwise we'll end up with a band of A-League gypsies filling in. As a fan, I can identify with my team. On the other hand, I'm not too enthusiastic about that "fill in" goalie (MLS has two guys that rotate around right now).
For the fans that show up expecting to see Donovan (or any specific player) play: Too damn bad. Same thing if he's sick. Or if he's injured. Or if there's a family crisis. Stuff happens to athletes, just like all other people, and you have to accept that the one guy you really want to see might not be there. At least with the National call-ups, you can kind of anticipate them if you do your research. Which presumably you would if you really like that one player so much. As for bigger rosters, well that simply takes $$$, and where does the $$$ come from?? As Shawn12011 pointed out, that has to come from somewhere. And until it does, rosters will stay small.
It would be nice if Nelsen could be released earlier, but frankly, until we know that it was both (A) not Nelsen's choice, and (B) Nelsen is going to play a full game, it isn't such a big deal to me. I'm guessing that Nelsen plays a half the day before, which is reasonable considering his age. Could Convey etc. do that as well, of course. But one of the main purposes of establishing MLS was to help out the USA internationally. So, I can live with this type of double standard. It's quite possible that there will be scouts at the NZ game, so they mgiht just arrive a little early to catch him in his DC United game. If so, he'll be getting double the exposure. So he might want to play both. After all, New Zealand isn't a particularly high profile national team, so they're not going to get that many chances to showcase themselves. Obviously the Confederation's Cup is huge for them, but this is probably one of their highest profile friendlies. -Digital
A lower-profile friendly, announced Friday, is being squeezed in: http://www.marinerssoccer.com/press2/releases/releases.asp?ID=133