Tuesday, October 12, 2010

On International Breaks

This weekend I found the Interlull exceptionally boring. Usually I don't mind international breaks too much because I love watching the CONMEBOL qualifiers and of course supporting the US through their qualifiers, but with the cycle being months away from its start I found myself with a complete lack of interest in all of the matches.

With the weekend over I resumed my daily consumption of footy news in preparation for the weekend's matches. Already the injury list is piling up. Inter will be without Milito and Cambiasso after they both picked up injuries on their trip to Japan. 100% completely unnecessary. It also brought back memories of Stuart Holden's broken leg that almost cost him the World Cup.

It got me thinking. How many of these useless friendlies are being played? I looked at the top 25 teams and the answer is quite a few. Over the last 4 year cycle, 44% of the matches played were friendlies and teams averaged 5 friendlies a year. Rooney wants a winter break? Maybe he should ask the FA to cut back on some of these meaningless matches.





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