LOS ANGELES — Apparently it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Because with the conclusion of the CONCACAF Nations League on Sunday in Las Vegas and the kickoff of the Gold Cup coming up Saturday in Chicago, we're entering a summer of soccer in the U.S. that is far too crowded.
The three-week-long Gold Cup will feature 16 countries playing 31 games in 15 venues. That will end the same week the Leagues Cup, a month-long, 77-match tournament involving the 47 MLS and Liga MX teams, begins. In addition, two dozen European and South American teams will play a series of 34 friendlies across the U.S. in July and early August while in Australia and New Zealand, the Women's World Cup — with 32 teams and 64 games, the largest ever — will be held. The U.S. is the two-time defending champion.
And that schedule doesn't include the more than 200 NWSL and MLS regular-season matches that will be played between Saturday and the end of September.
Former U.S. international star Clint Dempsey said he believes less can mean more when it comes to the schedule.
"I would rather see quality over quantity," said Dempsey, a studio analyst with CBS Sports. "Especially being in the U.S. with the travel schedule, the distance that we have to cover, the time changes and the things you have to deal with. Then you add in all these other competitions, playing on turf and playing in the heat of summer. It's a lot to ask of players.
"At some point enough is enough."
Consider the plight of LAFC. With the addition of the Leagues Cup, the 34-game regular-season schedule, the longest playoff tournament in league history, eight CONCACAF Champions League matches, the U.S. Open and Campeones cups, LAFC could play 56 times in less than 32 weeks, more games than any MLS team has played in one season.
Steve Cherundolo, the team's coach, said if MLS wants to keep adding games it will have to rethink its roster rules, which impose a salary budget of $5.21 million per team. Teams may also sign three designated players, whose salaries count only partially against the cap, and can spend an additional $4.62 million in allocation money, exceptions to the budget caps designed to give teams a mechanism to attract top talent.
Those rules produced top-heavy payrolls that see some players get paid well while others scrape by. LAFC, for example, has six players making more than $1 million while a third of the players on the roster make less than $128,000. With the crowded schedule, there needs to be a mechanism that allows teams to add depth.
"If you want to consistently compete in finals and win these, you're going to have to rethink your roster rules and regulations," Cherundolo said after his team was swept by León in the two-leg CONCACAF Champions League final. "Money in this game buys quality players.
"Roster building is about … having deeper rosters and more players."
That breaking point will come at different times for different teams, but LAFC might have brushed the wall already. Juggling MLS and CONCACAF Champions League games at the same time, the team played five games in two countries in a 15-day period without winning a game, going 407 minutes without scoring a goal.
And LAFC is arguably the deepest team in the league. Imagine what the coming crunch will do to lesser teams.
Even one of the people responsible for overbooking the calendar agrees it's now too crowded.
"I think there is congestion. I think it's an issue for soccer or football globally," said MLS commissioner Don Garber, who nonetheless signed off on the Leagues Cup and extended MLS playoff schedule, which could mean as many as nine additional games for some teams. "At some point, too much soccer is going to be too much soccer for fans and for players."
The scheduling crunch isn't just an issue in the U.S. It's also affecting play in Europe. Kevin De Bruyne, who played 57 matches in 10 months for Manchester City and Belgium, was so battered by the end he couldn't finish his club's two most important matches, the FA Cup and Champions League finals, getting subbed off both times.
Yet because money, not the players' health or the quality of play, is driving scheduling decisions, expect to see more, not fewer games added to club and national team calendars. As a result, the games and the tournaments and the hype are nonstop. There's no chance for anyone — players, fans or coaches — to take a breath, focus and enjoy one event because the next one is about to start.
It's all become too much. Way too much.
Consider the two CONCACAF tournaments, which are separated by only a week. They are played under different rules and have different qualifying procedures, but both are confederation championships and need to be taken seriously. Yet they are so close together, U.S. coach B.J. Callaghan had to call up 42 players this month to fill both rosters.
With the Gold Cup semifinals likely to include three of the four Nations League semifinalists — Mexico, the U.S. and Canada — casual fans, the ones the sport needs to grow, are certain to be confused.
But two CONCACAF tournaments means more sponsorships, more TV money and more ticket sales. Same with the Leagues Cup, which crowds the MLS and Liga MX schedules yet will end like most CONCACAF Champions League tournaments, with a Mexican team raising the cup. Will fans get those events confused as well?
Charlie Davies, the former U.S. national team forward turned CBS studio analyst, believes there can be benefits to a crowded schedule. But he's glad he never had to play one.
"If MLS is trying to compete with some of the top leagues in the world, it means more competitions and it means more games against higher quality opponents," he said. "So inevitably, that means higher quality games and more of them.
"But I'm not gonna lie. If I'm playing, I'm not trying to play 75 games in a season."
