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Give them a break
Sometimes things are so obvious that even children understand it. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Eat a slice of cake (or two) and it's wonderful. Eat the whole darn cake and you're bound to head for a place populated by bellyaches and nausea.
Soccer players simply don't get any real time off, unlike most other athletes in team sports. Basketball has an off-season. So does baseball and the NFL -- even Formula One and NASCAR take a break. But FIFA has decided that the lights never go out. That's why a club like Romania's Cluj can play its final league match on June 11 and then play in the first round of the InterToto Cup a week later. Simply put, it's insane and it's dangerous. The players know this, which is why the Confederations Cup generally is played at anything but full throttle. But they still are competitive games and the risk of injury or just sheer fatigue -- the kind that can have serious repercussions down the road -- is very real. What can be gained from putting Ronaldinho or his countryman, Kaká, through a grueling season and then sending them to Germany for another three weeks' worth of games? Very little. Some TV channels fill extra air-time (though whether anybody is tuning in is another matter). Germany gets a dress rehearsal for the 2006 World Cup (though there is a huge difference between 32 teams and eight teams, so it remains to be seen just how worthwhile it is). And we get to see more of the world's best squaring off against each other (though how seriously they take it is another matter). Now consider the negatives. It cannibalizes attention from what should be FIFA's real showcase in years like this, the World Youth Championship, which is a real competition, featuring the stars of tomorrow. It diminishes the expectation and anticipation for the upcoming season. And, most of all, it takes its toll on the players themselves. By the time the Confederations Cup ends on June 29, Kaká, for example, will have played more than 60 games this season. AC Milan's training camp starts 16 days later, on July 14. Ten days after that, the Rossoneri play their first preseason match, in Boston no less, against Chelsea. In less than a month, Kaká gets to go from Germany to Brazil to Italy to the U.S. -- while squeezing in his summer vacation along the way. And then the fun starts: another long and grueling season with Milan, followed by the World Cup itself in Germany. What physical condition will he find himself in when Germany '06 rolls around? We can only guess.
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