We have a solution for Major League Soccer, struggling to make its mark in the burgeoning pay-per-view market. Hook up with the popular pro wrestling extravaganzas offered on pay TV and present a tag-team special: MLS’s Doug Logan and Sunil Gulati against coaches Bruce Arena and David Dir. They faced off in individual matchups this past week: Arena and Logan, in interviews in the Washington Post; Dir and Gulati at Giants Stadium following the Dallas Burn’s 1-0 win over the MetroStars in which Dir ù the Burn coach who was faced with playing four games (and crisscrossing the country twice!) in nine days ù fielded a second team. The central issue at hand: the MLS schedule to which is added cup competitions. Arena called working in MLS one of the most difficult coaching jobs in the world, but just how tough it is? We compared D.C. United’s schedule (47 games in 213 days, assuming it plays the maximum of seven games in the playoffs) with two big European teams last season: ’97 English champion Manchester United (53 games in 268 days) and ’97 Italian champion Juventus (48 games in 268 days), which had to play in various cup competitions, domestic and international, on top of their league schedules. If D.C. United’s season was extended over the same period, it would have played 6.5 more games than Manchester United and 11.5 more than Juventus. Reforms are needed: (1) Fixture dates, so MLS playing dates are inserted around dates for cup competitions, not on top of them. Otherwise, MLS clubs shouldn’t bother entering a money-losing competition like the U.S. Open Cup. (2) A playoff system that doesn’t allow a .500 team like the Burn to clinch a berth with two weeks remaining and then have no incentive to field its first team. Eight of 10 (or eight out of 12 teams next year) in the playoffs is simply too much. by Soccer America Managing Editor Paul Kennedy