The Trouble with International Breaks

Players will often talk about how no matter how much they love the club they play for, there is no higher honor than playing for their country. Which is great for fans when they support the same club and national team that player plays for. But players can get injured on national team duty, or come back late or tired and not be available for their next club match. And that is the trouble with International Breaks.

Please don't injure him...

Injuries are the worst. But for fans of club teams, when a player gets injured on national team duty, it feels pointless. At least if they get injured in a match wearing your favorite team’s crest, it feels like they are injured war heroes. National team injuries are like when you slipped and fall in the grocery store and are too embarrassed to tell people how you hurt yourself.

When players travel to represent their countries, or when the play every minute of every match for their national teams, they can come back to training with their clubs tired or jet-lagged. And players who represent their countries are usually starters, so the travel and extra game time definitely impacts your club team’s starting eleven in the next game.

Perhaps he is suffering from the early signs of dementia?

Worse still, you could have a coach like Giampaolo, who seems backwards-level cautious about including players who haven’t been training with the team. Over the break, he has been training the Borinis and Castillejos of the squad… those who only dream of representing their countries because (spoiler alert) they just aren’t that good.

But to Giampaolo, they are the ones he knows best, because he spends more time with them. The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” seems to be his mantra when choosing his starters, so after an international break, will he have forgotten the players who are actually good enough to represent their countries? Based on what we’ve seen so far of his selections, with his unwillingness to start players who were new or returned late from vacation, you can expect eleven Borinis to line up against Verona next week.

Imagine 11 times the diving, complaining, and auditioning for Academy Awards

I support the players playing for their national teams. International football is a change of pace, and it is such an honor for them to represent, I get it. But for fans, it’s a long time to go without watching Milan play. And the consequences of potential injury, fatigue, or just being coached by Giampaolo make it a difficult time to be a fan. And that is the trouble with International Breaks.

This post inspired by the music of “Fratelli d’Italia”

Our next match is

Serie A Week 3

Hellas Verona vs. Milan

Sunday, September 15 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)