In his latest blog for the official Chelsea website, our Stateside columnist, Stephen Rea, looks forward to the return of Premier League football this afternoon... It’s always an exciting day when we return to Chelsea matches after the international break. Of course I look forward to the weekly (or twice-weekly) ritual of watching the Blues, but I enjoy the pause when club competitions give way to national tournaments.
Each Premier League campaign lasts almost 10 months - twice as long as the American football NFL season - and the occasional interruptions are like coming up for air, taking a minute to catch your breath. I feel reinvigorated afterwards.
I recently read an interesting article speculating how the Blues would line up for a fixture while deprived of their international players. How would we cope if domestic games continued and we had to compete minus those called away to join their countries?
It’s like that here in the States. Major League Soccer is not on the August to May schedule that most of the football world adheres to, and on this side of the Atlantic, things kick-off in March and run until October. The play-offs (‘post-season’ as it is called) then rolls on into November.
No matter how many squad members a team has called up, they are not allowed to postpone a match and rearrange it. That’s true even if their opponents are in the same boat, and they too want to stage it when their players have returned. Sides like LA Galaxy and New York City have to soldier on - potentially for weeks during summers with international competitions - without their best players. That seems unfair.
In the UK, if a club loses a few players to international duty, the fixture is rescheduled. This routinely happens with lower league teams, as the majority of the Northern Irish and Welsh squads for instance are drawn from below the Premier League. The amateur Irish League sides rearrange games, even though the part-time players joining the national squad may be there only to gain experience or to fill out the numbers.
However, it doesn’t seem to be a big issue in the USA. In my experience, fans accept it and describe it as part and parcel of how the sport is structured Stateside. Temporarily losing star players (injury excepted) is not something that impacts other popular American sports like baseball or basketball.
However you feel about international breaks, we can all agree to be glad that Chelsea are back. And we don’t need to worry about it again - until next month.