I'm trying to crank out my PE column tonight so I don't have to worry about it on Monday morning, which is a good thing since I'm going to be out and about most of the day. I'm writing a column on the horrendous scheduling by Major League Soccer and how they're playing right through World Cup qualifying.
John Carver actually got me to thinking about dedicating my column to it. Originally, I was going to write about Chivas-Tauro but forget that, especially after what Carver said on Saturday.
If you missed it, skip below a few posts.
Here's the players who will be absent from Toronto FC this weekend:
TORONTO FC
Greg Sutton and Jim Brennan (Canada)
Amado Guevara (Honduras)
Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala)
Tyrone Marshall (Jamaica)
Carl Robinson (Wales)
Marvell Wynne (US)
Jarrod Smith (New Zealand)
Julius James (Trinidad)
Let's see... that's pretty much their whole team. They'll have Danny Dichio, Tyler Rosenlund, Kevin Harmse... uh, like I said, that's their whole team.
It's an extreme case for sure but the schedule will cripple many teams. The Galaxy will be without three players, Houston will make do without a quartet, Chivas has two absent players, Chicago is sacrificing a trio of players I believe... seemingly every club will be without players. Why exactly is it necessary to play through this schedule? Ridiculous. The league really ought to be ashamed of itself.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself... Back to writing...
6 comments:
l.b., the problem is that World Cup qualifying has become virtually a year-round affair, given the number of countries involved and the ways that FIFA and the continental federations can make lots of money off of it. If MLS tries to re-arrange its schedule to the fall, winter and spring (like the rest of the world), it will get buried in the U.S. by baseball, football and basketball, and in Canada by hockey not only in terms of popular interest but in terms of stadium availability by those clubs (few as they may be) that still play in football stadiums.
The solution for MLS is to increase the salary cap and roster limits, and to ease transferring players from developmental to senior rosters, and vice versa, especially for teams in regional tournaments.
True, but the league could have scheduled its games for Wednesday and gotten around the qualifying that way. Its not like we don't have midweek games every week of the season.
MLS does need to increase the cap and rosters and all that but it also needs to respect the international game and the US national team more.
Here's one solution: Do a away with the playoffs. Let the ripping of this idea commence. Now.
If MLs does away with the playoffs, they can skip out on playing a few weeks because the last week of the season will not have to be played in December.
Problem solved.
anon. you have a point for the future of the league but that's just not in the cards now.
like LB said more Wednesday games need to be played earlier in the season, and not having teams who will be in competitions off weeks be so early in the season too.
another thing that could be taken into consideration is to have the season start earlier maybe in march instead of april so the season could end earlier and not be stretched out because of the competitions coming into play for the MLS
i'm all for no cap and bigger rosters it's an issue that needs to be address in able to compete.
but that really sucks for Toronto
We don't even have to kill off the playoffs. Look at the Mexican league, they have playoffs for both seasons and still hardly play on FIFA dates.
I believe the Galaxy will be without four players - Beckham, Donovan, Lewis and Jazic.
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