Pirlo: MLS players have no idea how the game is played

This is not football!

The story of the weekend was not Barcelona completing a double or Pep Guardiola completing a double at his former club, or Louis Van Gaal winning his final match in charge at Man United.

Rather the football world was stunned by what it saw Saturday when the New York Red Bulls thrashed NYCFC 7-0 in an incomprehensible beatdown that matched the largest margin of victory in an MLS match.

The contest was an embarrassment for the MLS as its first nationally-televised match of the year. And it came after Andrea Pirlo hit out at the quality of the league - and he's completely right.

Said Pirlo: "It’s a very hard league to play in. It’s very physical, there’s a lot of running. So there is a lot of physical work and to me, in my mind, too little play."

He said - accurately - that U.S. players are not trained in the technical skills of the game - unlike the European academies.

"They (European teams) pick them and they train them in much more than just running," commented Pirlo. "They train them in stopping the ball. Here that doesn’t happen.

"So when a young man becomes a professional in the United States he still has some gaps that need to be filled when playing on the field."

Pirlo is 100 percent right and it's nice to see one of the game's legends speak the truth to the American public - unlike a know-it-all like Jurgen Klinsmann.

In other U.S.- based football news, it has been confirmed that FC Cincinnati will host FA Cup finalist Crystal Palace in July. Get your tickets now!