USA Vs. Mexico, 2011 Gold Cup Final: The Old Club Vs. Country Debate - Brotherly Game

MLS has received a lot of criticism in recent days over its decision not to reschedule any matches for Gold Cup. Two matches were scheduled on Wednesday that conflicted directly with the semifinals and four games are scheduled on Saturday that will conflict with the finals.

No group of fans ended up getting it worse than those of the Philadelphia Union, whose Wednesday and Saturday matches both conflicted with the Gold Cup schedule. The Brotherly Game, not surprisingly, is a bit perturbed by being forced to quite literally choose between club and country:

No soccer fan should find him or herself forced to choose between watching club or country on any given night, especially when the USMNT is playing Mexico. The situation is made even worse when MLS had the ability months before hand to prevent the conflict from happening. Frustrating is an understatement.

It’s true that MLS’s schedule came out before the Gold Cup’s. But MLS reschedules games all the time. How hard would it have been to move some games to earlier in the day?