I don't find sports, any sports, to be entertainment. Unless you are entertained by failure, which could be someone's thing. Unless your team is ridiculously stacked, you are going to end the season disappointed. If a movie or music or book disappointed me like that it would be Peter Jackson's Completely Made Up Stories set with characters and a setting that bears almost no resemblance to Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and I reject that with venom. Sports are a tribal need for competition and community. YMMV.
So, was the Leagues Cup played 12 v. 12? Did it eliminate offside? What, specifically were the rules that were changed? None, you say? The on field sport was exactly the same? QED. Category error...the business of soccer and the sport of soccer are two different things and when you confuse the two, you will make mistakes.
Leagues Cup was a tournament. It existing and being played is not in question here. Using fixture congestion as an excuse to bail out of the USOC after bagging the middle of the regular season for Leagues Cup is where the excuses start to wear thin.
The English players are saying the same things about increasing fixture congestion: PFA exploring legal action over increasing number of matches - BBC Sport The context is that the Club World Cup will expand to 32 teams and the Champions' League is expanding to 48 teams meaning that the players will have up to 10 more games in their season. They are worried about career threatening injuries due to the extra wear and tear and less recuperation time.
They. Need. A. Union. Also, they need to collectively realize that if there are fewer matches, their pay will be affected. I mean, the NBA clearly needs to go from 82 games to...something less than 82 games. Whatever number would be necessary to get players to stop routinely skipping games. But when it was brought up, and the players were told that if games go down 10% so would revenue, and so would pay, it stopped.
I don't follow the NBA at all, but I've heard talk about load management and dudes taking nights off mid-season which is only a notable failing because it's never been the norm and they don't a federation cup, a league cup, or intercontinental competition. The idea in soccer is much more common and easier to predict when you look at league and cup schedules and of course, barring injury.
Maybe FIFA should blanket limit the number of club games for a given player to 48 across all comps, plus 12 international fixtures. I think you'd need a hard cap on both to prevent handbags. That's more than enough games for most and still too many for a few. Theoretically, that'd be good for development, too.
Well, I'm not sayin' limit comps, I'm saying put a mileage limit on individual players. Long term, Haaland's injured less of the time and his body holds out for an extra year. That's $$. Your coach is "straight-jacketed" into rotating in that young player you're trying to develop and sell. That's $$. Maybe the argument's not going to be convincing, but you can do the right thing and profit from it. Or at least break even, so why not?
IIRC MLS CBA (still?) has terms on how many minutes played and recovery time between games. Getting FIFA to institute such limits would be interesting.
Just saw DC United will not participate in the Open Cup, even though teams participating in the CCC are not in it, and other teams are entering in their Next Pro sides. The gift that keeps on giving: DC United.
The whole stupid-fight between MLS and the US Open Cup/US Soccer makes me even more dismissive of MLS and their short-sighted "leadership". I hope every entrance to every int'l competition next year is given thru Open Cup and only the MLS Cup Winner gets one from MLS - at the most, I might even take that one away.
I can't say that I am surprised at even the slightest, but the idea that we're choosing not to prioritize this trophy versus a Leagues Cup & MLS Cup at which we'd be colossal longshots to win. There are only 8 MLS teams playing in this tourney and while some of them are without a doubt better clubs than we are, you still have to play the game, they don't give you the W for just showing up. This is some mickey mouse BS that we're turning out noses up at this.
There are no MLS teams from the northeast whatsoever so if DCU played in the Open Cup, they would very likely only face lower tier teams until the semifinals at least. What a waste. DC United's long-suffering fans and the Open Cup deserve better.
A compromise would be to have every MLS team not in the CCC participate. Playing in the Open Cup is our one "realistic" shot at getting a spot in the CCC. F the League's Cup!
It's not an issue of DC not prioritizing the trophy (Lesesne said they want to play in the Open Cup) it's an issue of MLS deciding who from the league participates, and DC doesn't qualify under those standards.
Nah, some MLS teams had to qualify back in 2011, through a play in tourney. DCU wasn't in the tourney proper that year, either.
When the league decides which team play in our nations cup competition, its a Mickey Mouse league, whether it just United or a whole bunch of teams. I am sure there's some point in the history of European soccer there where teams just weren't entered in their nations cup like the FA Cup, Cup de France, Copa Italia, etc.
just published interview with more detail from Garber: MLS commissioner Don Garber explains 'controversial' U.S. Open Cup decision: It did 'not drive value' - CBSSports.com To expand on what this means moving forward, Garber went into how he sees the priorities of the league moving forward. "So we need to prioritize the league schedule, prioritize the Champions Cup, prioritize the Leagues Cup and where we can, we will support the U.S. Open Cup and we are believers in it. Our founder's name is on it, we'll continue to participate, we just have to be thoughtful about how we do that." There is nothing yet on how that future for MLS teams will look and Garber emphasized that he'd still like MLS Next Pro teams to compete as it's a great opportunity for player development, but these are all things that are still in discussion. Garber did say, "Our federation should be mindful and supportive of that," referencing the tension over the Open Cup's format that exists between U.S. Soccer and Garber's league.