Here are my thoughts: I think there has to be some limit on international players. People say “but it’s fair because the international players are better.” Sure, they are. No arguments. These are third and fourth rate American talents they’re competing against. However, I don’t think the answer is to abandon the third and fourth rate American talents. If we shrink the pool of American talents with the chance to be successful pros sometime in the future, we will get worse. It’s inevitable. You might say who cares, but keep in mind that Matt Turner was a third or fourth rate talent. So was Max Aarfsten. So was Patrick Agyemang. So was Matt Freese. So was Chris Wondolowski. Could keep going. There have been plenty of unheralded American college soccer recruits who turned into good pros who contributed to the USMNT. In fact, I think prior pedigree goes out the window once these kids get to college. College soccer is not pro soccer. It’s not academy soccer. The motivations are different. The style is different. Who succeeds in a pro setup is not who succeeds in a college setup. There’s some overlap, but it’s really not as much as you’d expect. I routinely think players are top recruits and then they don’t get regular playing time until they’re juniors. I also routinely think players were very average pro prospects, they’re top college soccer players, and then they come back to a pro setup and are once again very average. If college soccer is going to exist (believe me, it will only get bigger now with the full season), we can’t abandon the value of it for American players. Maybe you don’t personally care about American player development if it’s not a Sullivan or Mehmeti, but ultimately the development of the third and fourth rate American talents does matter and there has to be a limit of how many international players this American soccer development platform is going to take away from American talents. No, it doesn’t tangibly matter 1v1. You probably aren’t taking a spot away from a future USMNT player by having 26 internationals and 1 American on this team, but overall the big increase (an increase that is becoming out of control) is shrinking the true opportunities third and fourth rate American talents have to develop their games. We can’t abandon these talents at 18-22 years old. We are limiting our senior team player pool to do so, whether you tangibly can feel that impact or not. It’s proven out over time that it will.