Now they give more time (not 90 min) a player can play for both games combined. We shouldn’t have the same problem as much baring Nat’l team call ups.

More importantly, did Shavar leave a 3rd center back position (i.e. whenever Garcia or Conrad were out, he played) to become a RESERVE player? Poor Mr. Thomas!

Yeah, that’s how I’d figured it. But how would you feel if you were those Rattlers, planning on the B team, and Whoa! It’s Nate Jaqua!

By my understanding that article had it pretty close. From their pool of contracted players, a team fields players for both their reserves team and their MLS team, and players can freely float between playing for one and then playing for another. There’s no formal “call up” to the MLS like one would see going from a AAA team to an MLB, they are simply penciled into the MLS team’s lineup for a given day when they are needed.

In other words, Jaqua wasn’t “sent down” to play with the reserves, he was simply inserted into the Reserve team starting XI along with, say, Johnny Bravo. Even pretty-boy Donovan could have played, he simply was not selected for the game.

Playing the “Football Manager” series of games would make you much more aware of the exact ins and outs, it’s how I finally got a handle on it.