This is why national team coaches don’t run their nation’s soccer leagues.
Jurgen Klinsmann, a smart guy who got one wrong
U.S. national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann has made his feelings known about the regrettably insufficient length of Major League Soccer’s season. Only through longer seasons and a greater run of matches can MLS properly develop international caliber high achievers, according to Herr Klinsmann.
For the record, this year’s 32-week Major League Soccer season began in mid-March. (The season covers 32 weeks, although each club plays 34 regular season matches.) The MLS Cup final is held annually in late November, although most clubs are done two or three weeks earlier, at least.
Here’s what Klinsmann said:
“The big challenge is for MLS overall, how can we stretch this season into a format that is competitive with the rest of the world?” the U.S. manager said during Monday’s presser at Red Bull Arena, where his side prepped for Tuesday night’s friendly against Ecuador. “Right now, it’s not competitive if you have a seven-, eight-month season; that’s not competitive with the rest of the world. We need an 11-month season for those guys. They can have three, four weeks off a year, that’s the maximum. Otherwise you’re not at the same level physically.”
Klinsmann is a sharp guy, and he probably has a good handle on how best to develop world class players. That said, he’s wrong on this one.
Here’s the thing: Major League Soccer’s charter mission is NOT to optimally create national team players. No more so than a big, weekly trip to the grocery store is all about “Sunday night dinner.” Yes, it’s part of the greater plan, but it’s never the sole goal.
So it is with Major League Soccer and its relationship with the national team. And frankly, I’m a little surprised that Klinsmann, worldly as he is, doesn’t see this.
(By the way, this is a universal truth in soccer. For instance, the English Premier League does not exist fundamentally to support the England national team, nor should it.)
It’s Klinsmann’s job to create the best possible national team, so I don’t begrudge his single-minded stance. And to that end, yes, it would surely goose his cause if the MLS season were a 10 ½ month operation. But there’s so much to consider here:
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First, Major League Soccer’s No. 1 target for 16-plus years has always been – and will continue to be for some time – survival. From there, Goal No. 2 is “growth,” followed by closely b “long-term stability.” That’s it. That’s where it all begins and ends for MLS, a league still in its relative infancy. Survival, growth and stability are big engines that simply must drive the train, no matter how many cars attach themselves along the winding tracks.
To this end, a hyper-expansive season may not fit into the cultural comfort zone of American sports. Thus, ideas of a longer campaign become a complete non-starter, at least until the professional branch of the sporting tree establishes slightly stronger support systems. At that point, more radical departures from the standard U.S. ways may be on the table. But not until.
There are weather concerns. While it might be possible to play more domestic matches in November, December, January and February, it certainly won’t be comfortable in plenty of markets. And that means fewer fans, a destabilizing factor that comes attached to a boatload of undesirable repercussions.
There are financial concerns. Most MLS sides lose money. Most, in fact, still lose plenty of it. Longer seasons mean stretching advertising and market budgets even further than they are now. Looping back into the previous deterrent, those winter-month matches would almost certainly dent average attendance, which would devalue sponsorship and TV deals.
Major League Soccer exists, essentially, to support Major League Soccer. That’s no easy ask. So there’s plenty on the MLS plate as it is.
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