Do we know yet when training camp begins for US-Jamaica? Will it be a full week, or just start after the games for the weekend just prior? Coaches won't be required to release players, but flying to Jamaica after a Saturday game in England or a Sunday game in New York ... could be tiring. I've attached the whole schedule below. Obviously, KC and Columbus players will definitely miss the 8/18 match if called in, but how about Burn/Metros on 8/15? Or the four games on Saturday 8/14? Or the EPL games that weekend? Or the THREE Wednesday night matches on 8/11? Why is there serious match congestion in August for MLS, anyway? A Nat on one of the six teams who play on 8/11, and whose team made the Open Cup quarters, would have two games a week for basically all of August. Should the team try to get a full week of training, or just assemble after the weeked and make the best of it? Saturday, August 7th Columbus at New England 4:00 Colorado at Dallas 8:3 D.C. United at San Jose 10:00 Sunday, August 8th Los Angeles at MetroStars 6:00 Wednesday, August 11th Colorado at D.C. United 7:30 New England at Dallas 8:00 San Jose at Chicago 8:30 Saturday, August 14th San Jose at Kansas City 4:00 New England at D.C. United 7:30 Colorado at Chicago 8:30 Columbus at Los Angeles 10:00 Sunday, August 15th Dallas at MetroStars 6:00 Wednesday, August 18th Kansas City at Columbus 7:30
I am going to be in the minority on this, but teams shouldn't have to do anything but what they are required to do per FIFA rules, which is what every team does. Real released Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo after their weekend match for a big WCQ earlier this year, and they were traveling further than our guys will be. If we want to have a real league here in MLS, we can't just continue to accept that players should be routinely handed over to the national team coach, no questions asked, for however long they are asked for.
Valid points. However... I love MLS. I want to see MLS become outrageously successful. But there is still nothing like the World Cup. If we crapped out of WC qualifying because we went about it half-heartedly or if MLS coaches start pulling Hankinsons and not letting their players go to camp, then soccer in the US is going to take a HUGE step backward. Let's face it, for the average casual sports fan, soccer = World Cup every 4 years. Kind of like every 4th year when people become track and field fans for the Olympics. If the US wasn't at the World Cup? No significant growth in mainstream soccer interest until 2010. I hope Bruce has a full week's training camp for every WCQ game. Even if that means my team is missing Wolff, Klein, Zavagnin, Meola, and whoever else Bruce wants to get into the mix. MLS can recover from missing a few players occasionally. The Nats shouldn't even THINK about taking that chance.
By the way, does anyone have any guesses as to what time the US-Jamaica game might be? Ussoccer.com still has it listed as TBD.
Look, I don't like Hankinson as a coach. He has his teams play a negative brand of soccer that is nearly unwatchable. I think he should be canned right now by the Rapids. However, there was nothing wrong with what Hankinson did in holding Pablo until after the midweek game. Again, FIFA has rules for just such an occasion, and he was playing by the rules. Every other league in every other country plays by those same exact rules, yet we think that our national team coach should play by a different set of rules, for the simple reason that he wants to. If Bruce said he wanted players 2 weeks in advance, what would you say? 10 days? Bruce has just arbitrarily picked an amount of time that he wants these players, and everyone is simply drinking his coolade on the issue. FIFA says 3 or 4 days (depending on the circumstances). It's the same for every team. So for MLS players, 3 days it is. That means that the players from Dallas and the Metrostars will have to miss their Sunday MLS game if they are to play in this WCQ. As I stated in my first post, I already know that I'm in the minority on this one, so that doesn't bother me. By the way, I also must say that in my opinion the growth of mainstream soccer in this country is now firmly in the hands of MLS, and not with the national team. The National team will be good for a few games here and there each year, but MLS is an 8 month continual proposition. Sure, the national team in the WC gets more attention than the MLS season, but being once every 4 years, it can't have the same effect as 4 MLS season can have if the league continues to get better and brand itself. PS. Hanky didn't prevent Pablo from playing. Bruce prevented him from playing by not being willing to play by the rules.