Isolationism - it's the MLS' way

"You would hope that we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot by winning that game (against Firpo in the Champions League preliminary stage). If we wouldn't have had that schedule, it would look pretty good for us. I don't buy it (that international tournaments that reward the winner with a pass to a world event are more important than league play). I guess it is. It's important to the club and it's important to the people here -- we're taking it seriously -- but for me, the league has to be [the priority], right? What good is it to play in this tournament if you don't make the playoffs? To me, it doesn't make sense."

Via Goff, that's DC United's Santino Quaranta talking about the CONCACAF Champions League and what it means to the players.

If you ever wanted evidence demonstrating why MLS struggles so much in this event, there it is. Even though the team is, apparently, "taking it seriously" its players -- or at least this player -- can't even be bothered to fake excitement when talking to one of the most well read MLS journalists in the world.

It's pretty clear MLS players look at the CCL as a burden rather than an opportunity. And that's too bad.

But, it's easy to understand where they are coming from. With the razor thin rosters and indifferent fan reactions (outside of Toronto) why would they care? They don't view the competition as being played on an even playing field and they don't see the value in beating a Honduran team that no one outside of the hardest of the hardcore soccer fan has heard of.

I think we in Canada have a different view of the competition because we, as a much smaller nation than the U.S., are forced to take a more worldly view on many issues (relax American readers. I'm not saying that you personally don't have a worldly view. Clearly you do. You read a blog that covers football from a Canadian perspective. About 80 per cent of my traffic comes from outside the U.S. so you're not the typical MLS fan). Canadians always look forward to a chance to measure ourselves against the rest of the world (even though it's often discouraging). U.S. fans, in general terms, are satisfied to measure themselves against themselves (as an example, TFC is last in road attendance in MLS this year).

It stands to reason that a 24-year-old from Baltimore that has played his entire professional career in the United States would share the viewpoint of most of the people that watch him.

All of which makes TFC's exit from the competition particularly frustrating. Although Toronto fans understood that the fixture congestion playing in the CCL would have caused would have made the Reds' playoff drive all the more difficult, I would suspect that significant amount of TFC fans would have preferred a deep run in CONCACAF to a MLS Cup playoff appearance.

Why focus on being the best in MLS when you can compete to be the best in all of North America?

The competition resumes tonight. The USL’s Puerto Rico is in Columbus and Marathon (Honduras) is home to DC United. We will be watching closely to see what the rosters look like.