13 -- requiring an unbalanced schedule and the potential United States-Mexico club tournament.
Splitting the 2007 season into two halves, which may seem to some an attractive option, isn't on the table at the moment, Garber said. He made it a point to stress that the league and federation are not at odds when it comes to club-or-country conflicts, even when tournaments like Copa America put a further strain on an already crowded calendar.
"We're not making any plans to split the season next year," Garber said. "We're continuing to look at our competitive format and will continue to do so over the next number of months, but right now there's no plan to split the season.
"[Copa America] benefits our players and what benefits our players benefits the league. We're still at the point where any opportunity we get to be more competitive is something that we will take advantage of."
According to Gulati, the league's schedule was one of the federation's three primary considerations when deciding whether to accept CONMEBOL's invitation to Copa America.
"We've spent a lot of time over the months talking about it and gotten to a place that both Don and I are comfortable," Gulati said. "We're very, very thankful that MLS is going to be working with us to make sure we can have a good team go to both of those events."
Another consideration was whether the U.S. would be allowed to start play later in the first round of Copa America to avoid any potential conflict with the Gold Cup title game. The last was that the yet-to-be-named new coach of the national team had to be comfortable with playing in both tournaments.
When it comes down to it, Gulati said, the next U.S. coach will decide whether it's best -- in order to minimize wear and tear or as a consideration for MLS -- to bring two entirely different teams to each tournament.
"Some of the people we've talked to out of the five coaches that are still in the mix, I guess, like the idea of taking virtually two separate squads," he added. "At least one or two of the others think that would be the wrong way to go and they'd want to take almost the same squad. Another has said it would really depend on how the first tournament goes."
Gulati said he anticipates naming a coach in November, but not before MLS Cup 2006 and not the week of Thanksgiving. If the timing isn't right for U.S. Soccer or whomever earns the position, the announcement could be pushed back to December.
Once again mum on specific candidates, Gulati said his list of 4-5 candidates has not changed in the last month.
"We have not made any decision about who will be coaching our national team," Gulati said. "We certainly haven't made any offers to anyone to coach our national team, and we certainly haven't made any offers along the lines that have been mentioned in various publications."
Gulati did imply that there are current MLS coaches on U.S. Soccer's shortlist, saying the number of candidates who are in the midst of their seasons is shrinking as the MLS Cup Playoffs wind down.
Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
