Interesting Comment from FanNation/CNNSI.com

[peachgrinder]

Grant Wahl's blog on CNNSI makes the following point about CONCACAF:

One thing I don't understand is why CONCACAF was the only major confederation that scheduled senior-team World Cup qualifiers during the Olympic tournament. The built-in conflict made sure that Landon Donovan and other potential Olympic-team players were not part of the process and made Nowak's job harder than it should have been.

Source: http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/218095

Affects Canada less than other teams as we are not qualifying. Will anyone on other teams still alive be in trouble as a result? I don't know the rosters well enough.

PEACH

[adma]

I believe only 3 over-age (over 23) players from each country are allowed to play in the olympics so it will not have a severe affect on the qualifying teams. There are many factors to conisder including which match dates conflict with the olympics. Only one match date conflicts -Aug 20. only Honduras and the US qualified, so they will be the only two squads affected. Dont know too much about the honduras squad or what their plans are but considering they are in our group of death it is not likely they will send any of their top players. US is another matter but they are not in our group so they are probably not too concerned with who they are sending.

[jpg75]

Honduras U23's lost 4-0 to San Jose on Tuesday night. From looking at their roster i noticed Carlos Pavon and Jorge Claros (an '84 d-mid) as overagers.

[jamonty]

Here's the bigger issue... MLS doesn't make concessions for FIFA match days. It's not just Olympics but most national team games that require a club to release their top players at the expense of their league games. The MLS operates using the same concept as the NHL in pre-Olympic involvement: ie that league is the be all and end all focus of competition. Problem is that MLS is just a small minnow in a huge pond. When will MLS accept international competition as part of the sport of soccer? Or is it just me?

[red card]

MLS playing on FIFA dates is a hot topic on various forums. Part of it is because playing on FIFA dates dilutes the talent pool for MLS especially since their rosters aren't deep.

Plus, you have situations such as TFC faced already this year where they're missing 4-6 players while their opponent is missing nobody.

So, it's one of a few remaining things that MLS needs to get with the program if they want to be considered a "true" league.

[piltdownman]

I for one have never understood why MLS doesn't follow the "Fifa International Dates" I mean its only like 10 days in the year, and only about 2/3 of those are during the MLS season.

[jamonty]

For competition in any sport, world and regional tournaments needs to be respected (Olympics most certainly included)! Professional leagues would have no base of players whatsoever if it were not for the national programs, doing the hard ground-work to build sport in small communities around the world. We all deserve to see the fruits of these programs on an international stage, be it amateurs or professional athletes. As it is now, the MLS stands in the way of competition, which I deem ridiculous, almost canabalistic, to its own on-field product.

[Tuscan]

Alot of things with the MLS need to change, like getting rid of the East/West division of the teams. Why they seem to allow their clubs to be able to deny international duty so readily and easily is beyond me. Are they really worried about losing quality in the play from letting team stars go play for their respective countries?