Is the European league players that are not starting due to talent, or USSF pretending that MLS players are better and we don't need guys in the European leagues?
You just stepped into a massive argument playing out on the soccer boards. Some of it is the fact many of the friendlies are on US soil and Euro based players aren't called, especially during Covid. Sometimes, there are availability and injury issues. But, I do think there is an effort by the USSF to keep MLS players as being visible in the national team. There are also a lot of US fans who will mock the "Euro pixie dust" argument, but, to me, the better players for the US are in Europe. I doubt we'll see more than one or two crack the lineup in the next few years when it's nut cutting time.
Probably some of both. COVID travel is somewhat of a factor, too. The US has often sort of had a domestic-heavy for home friendlies and European-heavy for travel friendlies in Europe/Eastern hemisphere. That situation has its pluses and minuses. If wielded properly, it grows depth and allows a lot of guys to get some time playing for the national team. The drawback is you get less time building chemistry from having an established roster. Given how much a professional player plays, it probably doesn't hurt too much to have this approach. We don't want to rack up miles on Pulisic, for example. Note that this situation here illustrates the difference between the men's team and women's team. The men's players overall benefit from having a bigger player pool of guys, some of whom only are on the roster situationally and so paying per game works best for them. For the women's side, the national team is the best paying gig they are going to get so it makes sense for them to have a smaller pool that is on the roster almost all of the time, and make a good salary. It truly is apples and oranges, and it would be bad for the women's team to be paid on a game by game basis because they need the financial security of the salary whereas the majority of the men's roster does not. It functions as a nice pay day for the MLS guys but almost an honorarium for the European guys.
Also, I think the national team tries to grow the profile of young MLS guys to get them European contracts-- and it works. Which again, benefits the players personally and hopefully the development of the player pool as a whole. There isn't a mechanism like that on the women's side.
Pulisic was fouled 11 times today by Porto, the most by anyone since Leo Messi ten years ago. Chelsea still moves on to the semis. Bayern out.
I'll take "How to destroy a sport" for $1000, Alex. Teams that cannot be relegated is a recipe for [uck fay]ing disaster, as is removing the teams from its supporting roots. Making $100 billion isn't enough, need to make $120 billion. This way of thinking will eventually eat everything.
It doesn't really feel like it, to be honest. This is going pretty far to draw a change. And what kind of change would they even want?
I will become a Bundesliga fan if this goes through. [uck fay] the greedy bastards. Ruined every sport I love.
They always shit on the American closed sports system, but they seem to want to take the bad parts of each system and put it into one terrible idea. Meanwhile, the current system has created a free for all exploding salary and transfer fee issue of their own doing which they want to fix by screwing over the rest of the teams in Europe.
It's going to be a rude awakening for half of these clubs when they find out no one wants to support #10 in the ESL
