mikechamp wrote: ↑December 5 22, 9:47 am
Not a country, but a club team in any country. To get to the level of World Cup contender, they have to play against better competition that what you see in today's MLS.
Exactly. Por ejemplo, the January European transfer window hasn't even opened and these are the major pre-agreements already signed of outgoing MLS transfers:
Consider MLS a crucially important player development league as it applies to the national team, and the younger they sell their players to Europe, the better for the player (difficult cultural adjustments not withstanding). This isn't an inherently bad thing. All but essentially four leagues in the world are locked into that mode and it certainly hasn't stopped countries like The Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, France, Portugal, and Croatia from being regular contenders and even winners.
I wouldn't be shocked if Zimmerman, Acosta, and Ferreira are added to this list in the upcoming weeks. If our best players are playing in MLS when a World Cup comes around, that isn't good. If you have a few, like in this tourney, Zimmerman, Acosta, Ferreira, Johnson, etc, that's not a big deal, but you want your best players competing at the best clubs in the best leagues possible (while also getting regular playing time; you don't want someone stuck on a big clubs bench for too long like Zach Steffen had been, and even Pulisic at this point).
