This weekend will see the first in a series of kickoffs in a new season of domestic soccer in the U.S. and Canada. When the Columbus Crew take on the Chicago Fire at Crew Stadium this Saturday it will signal the start of the seventh MLS season. Four short weeks later the resurrected Hampton Roads Mariners will begin their attempt to navigate through another A-League season at the Richmond Kickers' City Stadium. New seasons also bring other things such as international tournaments of varying degrees. They also have a nasty little habit of brushing aside a lot of the speculative, sky-is-falling talk that dominates the bleak winter months of the North American soccer calendar.
The talk of "will player A who cost X play up to his contract? Will team C fold because of the parent company's financial troubles?" will slowly begin to fade into background noise to the screeches of "MIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAA!!!!!!!" and the banter of the Barn Burners bemoaning the bouncy turf in Naperville or the loss of some key players to some two-bit tournament in Asia. I hear the tournament was so bad that they could not get one country alone to cough up the money that was asked for to host it so they got two. Sounds kind of like the deal a bunch of frat boys make to get a room on Bourbon St. during Mardi Gras because they can each only cough up five bucks for a room and five hundred for the partying.
In all seriousness, though, with the World Cup taking place during a month's worth of the MLS schedule we can certainly expect to see some A-League players given an opportunity for some fill-in duty with the division one sides. The stage will be set, though, for a personnel battle with much more at stake than in previous years. Just think, what happens in Charleston should one of their "affiliates" decide to call on Eric Wynalda, a man whom MLS refused to pay his worth during contract negotiations? What of Rochester losing Lenin Steenkamp to a possible call-up? Then there are the teams who may not be strong in the A-League but may be driving for a playoff spot losing one of their better players during a long stretch near the middle of the season. These are just some of the hypothetical situations that could come about in the middle of the domestic season with repercussions that could be felt all the way into the post-season.
One has to wonder what some of these circumstances could lead to in the long run? If an MLS team gets a lot of help from a top A-League player in order to move up in MLS competition then drop him when the previous player returns to the team what are the repercussions for that A-League player? If a player like Vancouver's James Jordan helps to take the Whitecaps near the top of their division by late May and then is brought in by someone like the Colorado Rapids to keep them steady or get them into the hunt only to be sent back to Vancouver after his team has fallen out of contention what will his teammates think of his actions? This is just one version of the several variations that could happen for several players in the A-League by June.
For a team like Charleston losing an important player in their squad during the World Cup would mean missing up to eight league matches and possibly a first round Open Cup match. This includes five matches against divisional rivals Hampton Roads, Atlanta, and Charlotte. This is just an example of the amount of games that a team could be without one of their players because of this situation. These are valid concerns for anyone involved with the A-League clubs as we head into the new season.
If there are several player defections from the A-League to MLS during the World Cup it could wind up leading to one of two major things. First, there is a possibility that it could lead to one of the more competitive playoff races in recent memory. If some of the better league clubs lose their top players we could see a leveling of the league playing field and more hotly contested playoff spots. However, the second possibility could see teams like Charleston and Rochester, who pay their players handsomely to stay with them, could keep their squad intact for the most part while other teams lose vital players. This could wind up leading to a one or two horse race by the time July comes around.
Then again, there is so much depending on whom A-League clubs have affiliation agreements with. The clubs that are lined up with teams like D.C. United, the Chicago Fire, and the San Jose Earthquakes could easily lose more players than those who are aligned with the Dallas Burn or the New England Revolution. Then there is the question of where A-League teams will look to replenish their squad. That leads us to ask ourselves, though, is the talent in D3 good enough to replace some of the A-League talent? That's a topic for another day.
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