Whither Friendlies

According to Prost Amerika correspondent Cory Ritzau, former USMNT head coach and current LA Galaxy manager Bruce Arena has seen the future, and it doesn't include international friendlies:

"I do think that as we move forward, I think friendlies are going to be dinosaurs. I think as we continue to move forward globally, I think clubs are less and less in favor of having friendly dates. I think its one thing with official World Cup qualifying or Confederations Championships, but clubs around the world have had enough of friendlies. And I think they are going to put their foot down and prevent this from happening much in the future because they invest too much to be having (their top players) traveling to all different parts of the world.”

Bruce Arena is much more plugged in to the world of international soccer, and so I will take him at his word and assume he's making the above statement based on knowledge and not spite that his best player is being taken from him during a crucial league match. Two things on this. One is that the international friendly is increasingly becoming an anachronism that is deferred to where it is most convenient, i.e. western Europe, and openly disregarded where it isn't, i.e. in the Pacific rim and North America. Timbers, for example, have at least three players facing call ups for international duty this weekend. Of those, Kiwi goalkeeper Jake Gleeson has turned down his homeland because his club has only one other functioning 'keeper, and both Futty Danso (The Gambia) and Steve Purdy (El Salvador) will stay with their club through Saturday's match before shuttling off to do their national sides proud. When a player isn't from western Europe and doesn't play in a EUFA league, a co-commitment to team and country easily produces absurd travel results. Futty will have been in Portland this week, Toronto, Canada on Saturday, and will be present in Jamaica for El Salvador's match. Incredible! Timbers play Chivas USA on Saturday in a US Open Cup play-in match in Portland, and it's safe to assume that not only will neither of those guys be playing, but they won't be present. Buon viaggio, amici!

The second point I think bears making is that MLS has shown no intention of providing the respect traditionally shown international friendlies, and it will likely defer less and less as the league grows. With its contrarian and calendar-busting March-October season, which is more constricted than UEFA leagues' September-May season, MLS schedule-makers are less willing to provide the club soccer-free weekends that international friendlies depend on.

Uncompensated international duty is a part of a soccer culture that's quickly vanishing, especially in the States. I don't like that- right now I'm wearing my Deuce USMNT jersey in anticipation of the USA-Argentina tilt Saturday, after all- but as Bruce Arena notes, the writing's on the wall.

(Photo credit: Three Flags, by Jasper Johns, 1960.)