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If there's one thing we've learned over time about Major League Soccer, it is that the league has plenty of quirks other top divisions of soccer don't have.
One of the unique qualities to MLS that was put in the spotlight over the last week was the scheduling of regular-season games during an international break.
Due to the league's decision to play on, stars like Robbie Keane, Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley missed early-season matches for their respective clubs.
The full total of players called up to a combined 21 national teams was 59, which is an impressive number for MLS to boast.
However, some sides with a plethora of international players were forced to scramble in order to assemble a functional starting 11. No team was hurt more by this than Orlando City, as the Lions lost seven players to the FIFA window.
Luckily for the expansion side, it still had Kaka in the fold for its 2-2 draw with the Montreal Impact on Saturday. But a few other clubs were not so lucky, including the Seattle Sounders. Sigi Schmid's team lacked Clint Dempsey and Marco Pappa in its starting 11 against FC Dallas due to international duty.
With two key components of its attack already out, Seattle faced even more difficulty when Obafemi Martins failed to travel with the team because of an injury. All of the absences resulted in plenty of squandered opportunities in the final third and zero shots on goal.
While many will point to the matches during the FIFA window as the main problem, MLS has also opened itself up for criticism because of the bye weeks handed out to certain clubs.
All 20 MLS sides participated in the opening weekend of play at the start of March, but since then only one weekend has seen a full slate of action.
It did make a bit of sense for the league to hand the Montreal Impact and D.C. United an off week during Week 2. At the time the schedule was released, both teams were still involved in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Only Montreal needed the bye week to prepare for a semifinal showdown with Alajuelense, which it won 2-0 in front of a raucous crowd at Olympic Stadium.
However, there was one key mistake the league office made when it came to scheduling the second weekend of games. Instead of postponing a potential league clash between Montreal and D.C., MLS gave two other sides a vacant date on their fixture list as well.
Instead of halting the brakes on the weekly rhythms of two other teams, MLS could have made the situation more understandable if the Impact and D.C. United were paired during a midweek game over the summer to make up for the lack of play in Week 2.
It is hard to criticize MLS' focus on one of its clubs potentially earning a spot in the FIFA Club World Cup, but Colorado and the New York Red Bulls shouldn't have paid the price for that ambition by not playing in Week 2.
Another baffling move was made with the Week 3 list of matches, as Columbus and Seattle both sat on the sidelines during a forgettable conglomerate of eight contests.
There seems to be no strong reasoning for leaving two of the better attacking sides off the pitch in Week 3, as the following week only featured international matches.
Entering the month of April, eight clubs already have a game in hand in the standings. That is something that shouldn't happen, ever.
By excluding eight teams from early-season action, the league will most likely have to rely on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night to make up those games.
It is no secret that certain clubs in the league do not have a massive fanbase that will be drawn to a match during the middle of the week.
There is no guarantee that the five sides in the Eastern Conference that are behind a game on the schedule will produce impressive attendance numbers for a midweek contest.
On the other hand, Seattle and Real Salt Lake are capable of filling their respective stadiums on any day of the week. Portland, Orlando, Sporting Kansas City and the LA Galaxy are four other clubs that could turn a midweek league game into a spectacle. Everyone else in the league seems to be lacking a passionate group of fans that will show up at any time for a soccer match.
One of the reasonable solutions to this problem is for the league to give one of the teams mentioned above an early bye week, which would then allow them to play in the middle of the week at some point down the road.
If the schedule makers at the league office were that reluctant to schedule Montreal and D.C. against each other for Week 2 and let the other 18 sides play, they could have easily set matches for both teams in Orlando and Kansas City.
In this scenario, the travel regimen during a two-game week would not be as massive as flying to the Pacific Northwest and back home for a Saturday match.
When you look for a solution to the international break, the same attendance conundrum comes about. While it would be great for MLS to earn sellout crowds at every venue on any day of the week, the reality is the 20-year-old league is not there yet.
If the league is afraid of losing an entire week of play, it could feature a limited schedule with teams that do not contain a ton of star international players on their respective rosters.
This would keep Seattle, Orlando, LA and Sporting KC out of the equation and give MLS four strong sites for midweek matches in the future.
The downside to that specific strategy is that the quality on the pitch may be lacking. For example, the Week 4 matches between Colorado and Houston as well as Philadelphia and Chicago, which were two of the less active games of the weekend, would be the potential matchups if the big clubs have off.
Leaving the entire weekend vacant would either lead to midweek games with lower attendance numbers, or another week added on to the already-long MLS calendar.
In reality, there is no true perfect fix to MLS' scheduling problem at the moment. Wherever you turn, there is a roadblock in the way to stop a potential cure.
While tweaks to bye weeks can be made, the slate of action during international breaks is here to stay whether we like it or not.
However, if the league continues to grow over the next few years, there may come a time where clubs choose to willingly lose a weekend home match because they will have full confidence in selling out a match during the week.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90. Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com Source: Click Here
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