When you produce a lot of young national team talent – particularly domestic – you create your own problem with the number of callups that come your way. That’s something FC Dallas is going to learn first hand this season as they have a large number of players eligible for national team calls.
So I dug into, combed over, and trashed apart all the international calendars and windows I could find and think of to cobble tother an FCD vs FIFA/US Soccer conflict schedule. Since MLS usually plays in the international windows, it’s a staggering amount of games.
Kobra, for example, could miss up to 16 MLS games. Yes, 16.
Senior National Teams
Potential Callups – 7
USA: Reggie Cannon, Paxton Pomykal, Jesus Ferreira, Brandon Servania, & Jesse Gonzalez
Honduras: Bryan Acosta
Czech Republic: Zdenek Ondrasek
International windows
All of the above-mentioned 7 players could be called. Most countries, including the USMNT, play 2 games in each window.
March 23-31
USMNT vs Netherlands on March 26, vs Wales on March 30.
0 FC Dallas games missed
June 1-9
Concacaf Nations League – USMNT vs HON on June 4, vs MEX/CRC on June 7
1 FC Dallas game missed – at RSL June 6.
European Championship 2020 – Zdenek Ondrasek Only
Perhaps called 1 week before in late May? Czech Republic has 3 games at least between June 15 and June 23.
June 1 – July 12
5-9 FC Dallas games missed – depending on Czech Republic results. I’m not going to bother to list the FCD games, It’s too many.
World Cup Qualifying – Also International Windows
Opponents TBD, but again usually 2 national team games per window.
August 31 – September 8
2 FC Dallas games missed – at SJ on Aug. 29, vs POR on Sept. 5
October 5-13
0 FC Dallas games missed – the season ends right before, playoffs begin right after
UEFA Nations League – Zdenek Ondrasek Only
Czech Republic has 2 games each against Scotland, Slovakia, and Isreal.
Month of September
4 FC Dallas games missed – vs POR on Sept. 5, at LAFC on Sept. 13, vs SEA on Sept. 20, vs VAN on Sept. 26.
Summer Olympics
Potential Callups – 5
USA: Reggie Cannon, Paxton Pomykal, Jesus Ferreira, & Brandon Servania.
Canada: Callum Montgomery
Side note – Haiti: Ronaldo Damus (North Texas SC)
Olympic qualifying
US Soccer announced that players would depart March 8 after the Montreal Impact game and be gone until March 26. US U23s games: Mar 20 vs CRC, Mar 23 vs DOM, Mar 26 MEX.
March 8 to April 1
2 FC Dallas games missed – at NYCFC on March 14, at SEA on March 21.
If USA advances to the final, then LAFC on April 4 is a concern but not technically missed.
Summer Olympics
It’s a guess at this point, but might players depart on July 19th after the FCD game against Orlando City on the 18th?
July 24 – Aug 9
3 FC Dallas games missed – at SKC on July 25, at NYRB on Aug 1, vs RSL on Aug 8
Could there also be a pre-OLY camp to prep the team in late may with some friendlies? That would be around the time of vs HOU on May 16 or at VAN on May 23.
US U20s
Players born in 2001 and 2002 for next year’s World Cup.
Potential Callups- 5
USA: Tanner Tessmann, Thomas Roberts, Bryan Reynolds, Ricardo Pepi, & Dante Sealy
Side note – Adacemy/NTX: David Rodriguez, Nico Carrera, Seth Wilson, Kevin Bonilla, & Justin Che.
Concacaf U20 Championships
The Concacaf Championship serves as the qualifier for the 2021 World Cup.
June 20-July 5
5 FC Dallas games missed – vs CLB on June 17, vs MNUFC on June 20, at FCC on June 27, at DCU on July 1, vs SJ on July 4.
Could there also be a pre-U20 Champ camp to prep the team in late may with some friendlies? That would also be around the time of vs HOU on May 16 or at VAN on May 23.
US U17s
At this time there are no players signed to FC Dallas that would likely be called up for the US U17s.
The Math
By my calculations here’s the Max amount of games each player could miss.
Kobra – 16 games
Cannon, Pomykal, Ferreira, Servania – 10 games
Tessmann, Roberts, Reynolds, Pepi, & Sealy – 5 to 7 games
Montgomery – 5 games
Gonzalez – 3 games
And if you think I missed something, which is easily possible with all this traffic, let me know.
Situations like this only point to mls needing to, again, adjust their schedule. Even if they don’t play through some of the international dates it will help.
As the league gets better players and younger, we’ll see more of the league have these issues increasing.
Thanks for pulling all this together, Buzz. Very helpful.
The only thing that stands out to me to be added is that, should the US advance to the knockout stages in Olympic qualifying, they would play in the semifinals (March 30th) and maybe the finals (April 1st). While those don’t technically overlap with any FCD games, I imagine it would rule any players involved in both out of the LAFC game on the 4th. Hard to play 3 games in 6 days with international travel involved.
I adjusted that date on the Oly Qual, but technically it didn’t change the games missed. Although certainly, LAFC is a question as you say.
ATL just announced that they won’t be releasing players for international duty that aren’t official FIFA windows. If FCD did something similar, it would certainly affect player’s hopes of representing their clubs and growing within the national team system as well, but just for selfish reasons I kind of want a similar system. Especially in years where we look like strong contenders in the playoffs. `
Luchi and Hunt have gone on the record as supporting the national team and “always” releasing players when called. It’s part of their “we’re a developmental club” philosophy.
Except for injuries of course.
With talk of the Olympics potentially being moved back, watch it clash with the last games of the regular season or the playoffs!