Ryan Richter will be the last Union coach to manage a hurdle for MLS playoff-bound teams: FIFA match dates
The final one of five in 2026, which included the month-long men’s World Cup, will see five of the team’s starters away for the week as they prepare for a pair of international matches.
It’s something that every coach in Major League Soccer has had to deal with since the inception of the league.
But this week, and the early part of next, will be the first time Ryan Richter has had to navigate around it and prepare for a playoff run as a head coach: FIFA’s international match schedule.
The final one of five FIFA dates in 2026, which included the monthlong men’s World Cup, will see a number of the team’s starters away for the week as they prepare for international matches. Some are mere friendlies; however, some, like the pair of U.S. matches against Haiti and Jamaica’s two games against Mexico, offer a meaningful reason to be away from the club for up to 11 days.
It’s not just the matches themselves, but the weeklong national team camps in the lead-up to those matches as well.
» READ MORE: The Union’s first round playoff schedule is set. Here’s what to know.
In the Union’s case, four players — Cavan Sullivan and Neil Pierre (USA), Danley Jean Jacques (Haiti), and longtime goalkeeper Andre Blake — will be away from the team for a two-leg quarterfinal in the CONCACAF Nations League.
Starting right back Frankie Westfield will spend time away with the U.S.’s under-23 national team, as will backup goalkeeper Andrew Rick.
Additionally, first-team midfielder Phillippe Ndinga will miss time after being called up by Gabon, and striker Malik Jakupović is presumably gone for a sizable chunk of the season as a member of the U.S.’s under-17 national team currently competing in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Qatar.
It’s expected that Sullivan, Pierre, and Jean Jacques will all see action in Saturday’s first game when the U.S. takes on Haiti (4:30 p.m., TBS, Universo), and then again next Tuesday (7 p.m., TBS, Universo). As for Blake, it’s anticipated that he’ll once again lead Jamaica against Mexico beginning Saturday (8 p.m., Univision 62) and on Tuesday (9:30 p.m., Univision 62) as well.
However, as the Union gear up for a playoff showdown with New England on Nov. 21 (2 p.m., Apple TV), Richter and the coaching staff will have just three days of preparation with his full squad and assumed starting lineup. And while he’s seen top players on the roster come and go countless times as an assistant, this would be his first as the person in charge.
It has to hit a little differently, right?
Richter said the notion was “a big motivation” for Major League Soccer to shift its schedule, considering it’s a bane that affects all of the league’s 18 playoff teams, including the Union, who have missed the playoffs just twice in the last 11 seasons.
“Obviously when you’re going into the biggest games of the season, you want to have your full group to prepare, [and] not just two or three days before the playoffs kick off,” Richter said. “I think that’s probably a big motivation leaguewide at least as far as the change in the calendar … but we’re not the only team that’s going to be dealing with that, so it’s not an excuse.”
Not an excuse as much as it’s a hindrance to MLS teams like the Union, who are hoping to enter this second season with a complete roster set to benefit from a week that offers a bit more time to recover. Recovery is crucial for the Union, who rounded out October with a pair of weeks that saw three matches played in seven days, before closing the season with a 4-1 win over Toronto FC last Saturday.
Four starters won’t get that privilege, and will be the last on the Union’s roster to ever have to deal with it, courtesy of MLS’s calendar change that will see the league’s 30 teams play a shortened season beginning in February, before aligning with the traditional August-May FIFA calendar instead of playing meaningful matches in June and July.
While the timing might not be ideal from a club-level perspective, particularly for those that are MLS playoff-bound, as Richter explains, national team call-ups offer a privilege of another kind.
» READ MORE: The Union’s run to the playoffs was great, but they know they’ve now reached the hard part
“The guys [who] got called for their national teams, they deserve that,” Richter said. “It’s an awesome honor for them individually to have a chance to represent their country. That’s a real positive, and it doesn’t take away from the positive that is for them and their families and for their careers.”
But in the same breath, he didn’t hide the hint of frustration lying underneath, the kind from a first-year interim coach and team eager to continue their post-World Cup success with a deep postseason run: “But of course, yes, you want to be preparing for the most important games with your full squad and have the weeks of training lead into that.”
» READ MORE: Follow the Inquirer's complete coverage of Union playoffs right here!
