Periodically, the Italians blame their poor showings at a European Championship or World Cup by claiming that an excessive reliance on foreign players impairs the development of Italians. Recently, former German international Karl-Heinz Rummenigge blamed Germany’s woes at France ’98 and the failure of any German team to reach the UEFA Cup quarterfinals on a poor crop of foreign players, mostly Eastern Europeans and Africans, who aren’t the match of foreign legions in Spain or England or, of course, Italy. MLS is cutting back its foreign player limit of four per team, which should open up roster spots for American players. Since most teams seldom played all five foreigners at a time, the level of play won’t suffer. The other major consideration is how much a foreign player can help a team, and the league, at the gate. In some cases, like those of Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno and Carlos Valderrama, the value on both fronts is significant. San Jose could well boost its gates by 3,000 or 4,000 per game with a top-class Mexican player, but the same results could be attained — at a much lower cost — by fielding a more competitive team. That’s what teams should strive to accomplish. Unless the league breaks the bank to stock each team with a pair of truly world-class stars, it must reduce its reliance on foreigners. Stars do sell tickets, but so do entertaining, exciting matches, and so does tons of hard work. The fans in Foxboro are just incredible. And the Crew — with its own stadium coming in May — has made soccer a desirable commodity in Ohio. Only on its fields and in its offices will MLS get it right. And it starts with a peek in the mirror.