The last thing DeAndre Yedlin needs is a friendly to derail a transfer.
Jon Levy
There’s no US Men’s National Team match this week, and I’m absolutely overjoyed about it! Am I still burnt out from the World Cup? As a writer? As a fan? No and nope and nuh-uh. In fact, it’s already been a great week for the USMNT. The right back of the future, and probably the present already, took a huge step in his career, moving from the MLS to the best league in the world. Bravo to DeAndre Yedlin, who’s landed at a certain London soccer club that this writer enjoys cheering against. So why am I overjoyed about this week’s lack of international football? Simply put, the elimination of the idiotic mid-August “international friendly” date on FIFA’s calendar represents a victory for logic, sanity, and pragmatism.
For years FIFA’s August date for almost exclusively meaningless matches has stricken fear into the hearts of managers and fans alike, and for good reason. While mid-August might have initially seemed like a great time to play one midweek match to some shortsighted executive, it throws a wrench into the works of just about every professional soccer club in the world. But y’know, I’m sure there are a few exceptions. From a European point of view, this friendly date falls either just after, or in most cases, just before the season kicks off for all the best soccer leagues in the world. But c’mon, what could possibly go wrong?
I’m gonna go ahead and leave this anecdote anonymous, but not-so-hypothetical. Let’s say it’s August of 2010, and the bumbling new manager at your favorite East London soccer club has spent the preseason building a barnstorming attack around his new signing, a veteran German central midfielder who had just missed the cut for the World Cup in South Africa. Now let’s assume that due to the “bumbling” part of the description above, said pedigreed manager failed to account for the fact that this new attack only worked with that aging but still potent midfielder as its focal point. From there, well, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Joachim Loew would give said midfielder a throwaway cap in August, and that an injury would follow, forcing the new Londoner to miss four months, during which time his club would flail so terribly that even a second half surge couldn’t save it from relegation.
Thomas Hitzlsperger’s injury left West Ham fans in tears after an August friendly four years ago.
That story might seem like the ramblings of one fan who had a bad experience (and that’s exactly what it was), but almost every fan who’s been watching a European club for at least a few years has some version of this story. Usually with less disastrous consequences, but the theme still rings true.
And for those of you that never used European soccer as your gateway drug before getting hooked on the crack cocaine of Major League Soccer, don’t think for a second that you were in the clear with respect to the stupid August friendlies. As you’ve probably noticed, MLS shifts into high gear after the All-Star Game, with important matches coming fast and furious. This is especially true for the five MLS teams that play in the CONCACAF Champions League, which starts in, you guessed it, mid-August. For a successful MLS side, the effects of a sinister August friendly can do a lot more harm than just setting the season off on the wrong foot; they can take the team out of the playoff picture, and lead to an early exit from a continental competition that every MLS team is itching to be the first to win.
Thaaaanks.
Ya boy,
Jon Levy
Written by: Jon Levy on August 14, 2014. 
