Strong relationship between MLS and USSF serves both parties well.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Wednesday, May 9, 2001) -- Major League Soccer, this country’s only first-division league, has developed a close working relationship with the United States Soccer Federation, the American organizing body. This spirit of cooperation seems to work to the general advantage of both.

A couple of examples. On Thursday, June 7, the U.S. men will meet rising South American power Ecuador in a friendly match in Columbus, Ohio, the main purpose of which is to keep coach Bruce Arena’s European-based players match fit for three upcoming World Cup qualifiers

The European seasons will have ended by then, but Major League Soccer is only in the second month of its season. Instead of summoning his full squad, which would mean that MLS players would miss June 6 league games and then be tired going into weekend matches, Arena will assemble a squad comprised almost fully from players based abroad.

Arena will only avail himself of MLS players from the MetroStars and Colorado Rapids who have no league games that week. "I am not going to call in any players from MLS teams who play on (June) sixth or ninth," Arena said.

In a way, by not calling in MLS players and forcing them to miss matches, Arena is returning a favor from MLS. Under FIFA rules, if a World Cup qualifier is played midweek, a club team does not have to release a player for national team duty until after the previous weekend’s matches. However, when the U.S. played Costa Rica in Kansas City on Wednesday, April 25, Arena was permitted to take any MLS player he thought he might actually use a full week before the match. This allowed Arena to field a rested team and have flexibility in case of any last-minute injuries.

Though MLS coaches were not necessarily happy about playing matches without their star players, the league released its players, and now Arena is returning the gesture.

U.S. Soccer is also further cooperating by not calling on any of the MLS players for the U.S. under-20 men when they travel to France in late May for the Toulon Festival which is the warm-up before the world championships in Argentina a month later.

Arena goes out of his way to praise MLS at every opportunity, such as when he said recently: "Clearly, I think our success is largely due to MLS to be honest. There are other factors, but there has never been a national-team coach who sits in the position I'm sitting in. We have depth at every position and a lot of competition because of it. In the end, we're going to be a better team for it. MLS is a much better product than it's given credit for. I can see that first hand. I think the improvement of the young Americans and the more experienced Americans in MLS has been incredible over the years and it adds up to us being a more successful team."

It seems clear that at least part of the closeness between the two organizations has come about because of various personalities involved. Arena and his top assistant, Dave Sarachan, both come from MLS’s D.C. United. Whenever he is available, Chicago Fire coach Bob Bradley joins the national-team staff for matches. Sunil Gulati, U.S. Soccer’s executive vice president is also managing director of Kraft Soccer which operates the New England Revolution, as well as an alternate MLS Board member. MLS

MLS commissioner Don Garber is a member of U.S. Soccer’s board, as is Kevin Payne, D.C. United president and general manager and an influential member of the league’s competition committee.

Rabid MLS fans might be unhappy when their team has to play with a star player missing because of national-team commitments. Likewise, national-team fans are disturbed when the U.S. cannot field its strongest team, even for a practice match against a top=flight opponent. But in the end, a close relationship between MLS and the national team works to everyone’s benefit.

Speaking of the national team and MLS, reader Scot Little of North Haven, Conn., poses an interesting question worth examining. He postulates "If you were to take the national team pool and divide it up between European-based players and MLS players, and they would square off on the field, who would likely win?"

Let’s assume, for argument’s sake (and the purpose of this is not to start arguments that this player deserves a start over that player) the "MLS" team would consist of Tony Meola in goal, Jeff Agoos, Carlos Llamosa, Eddie Pope and Mike Petke on the back line, Chris Armas, Cobi Jones, Clint Mathis and Ben Olsen at midfield and Brian McBride and Josh Wolff up front.

The "Europeans" might have Kasey Keller in goal, a a back line of Steve Cherundolo Greg Berhalter and David Regis, four across the middle in Tony Sanneh, John O’Brien, Claudio Reyna and Eddie Lewis with a three strikers -- Ante Razov, Joe-Max Moore and Earnie Stewart.

Given his dual contract status, forward Landon Donovan could play a half for each team.

Who would win?

I actually don’t know. It would be two pretty evenly matched teams. The MLS squad would seem to be stronger in the defensive half of the field. The Europeans would have slightly better goaltending, and probably both a better offensive midfield and stronger attack.

Such a match might actually be worth staging. I would imagine, 25,000 tickets or more could be sold for such a match at RFK Stadiums, Giants Stadium or a couple of other venues to see such a match, and it would certainly be, as writer Little notes, "vastly more entertaining than the MLS All-Star game."

The fact that the question can even be posed points to the growing depth of the national-team pool and the importance of MLS.

Senior correspondent Robert Wagman's "It Seems To Me . . . " appears regularly on SoccerTimes. He can be e-mailed at bobwagman@soccertimes.com..