On a conference call with the league's general managers on Monday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver told the top team basketball executives that "time is running out" on the possibility of starting the 2020-21 season prior to Christmas Day and potentially salvaging hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, sources told ESPN.

Discussions with the National Basketball Players Association continued over the weekend and into Monday, but the union's reluctance to agree to a Dec. 22 start and a reduced 72-game regular season has left the league fearful it has only several days left before opening training camps around Dec. 1 for a pre-Christmas tip is no longer a realistic possibility, sources said.

Optimism still exists that an agreement can be reached on the pre-Christmas start, but it has been tempered in recent days, sources said. NBPA executive director Michele Roberts and union leadership have been talking directly with players about starting the season so quickly after a mid-October finish to the Finals in the Orlando, Florida, bubble, and so far have expressed a preference for a mid-January start to the season. The NBA believes that there is somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion in revenue losses next season and beyond by failing to start the season in December, sources said.

The NBA has pushed back to Friday a deadline that keeps open the option of terminating the collective bargaining agreement, which would essentially blow up the league's financial structure that allows for a 50-50 split of basketball related income (BRI) under the provisions of the CBA. Because of the coronavirus pandemic triggering a force majeure clause in the CBA, both sides have the option of serving notice of 45 days on terminating the agreement, sources said.

The NBA is searching for ways to increase cash flow into teams, and sources say the league is hopeful to expand guidelines on sports betting, hard alcohol and casinos that could generate between $80 million and $100 million in revenue, sources said.

NBA and NBPA talks continue to include the likelihood of a play-in tournament for both the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs, a mechanism designed to incentivize more teams to aggressively pursue the late season competitively -- and an avenue for the league, players and television partners to create more lucrative revenue streams, sources said.

The play-in tournament proposal has coalesced around the structure ESPN first reported was gaining traction in early 2018: a four-team tournament among the Nos. 7, 8, 9, and 10 seeds for the final two playoff spots in each conference.

The tournament would begin with No. 7 hosting No. 8, and the winner locking into the No. 7 spot. Meanwhile, No. 9 would face No. 10, with the winner advancing to play the loser of the 7-versus-8 matchup for the No. 8 seed, sources have told ESPN.

That setup gives the teams who finish the regular season seventh and eighth two chances to secure a postseason berth. The Nos. 9 and 10 teams would have to win twice -- without losing -- in order to snare one of those two spots.

The NBA debuted a version of the play-in tournament as part of its season restart in Orlando. It included a standings trigger; the No. 9 seed had to be within four games of the No. 8 seed to qualify for a play-in tournament. The Washington Wizards, who entered the Orlando restart in the No. 9 spot in the Eastern Conference, went 1-7 and failed to trigger the play-in.

The success of that format led to speculation the NBA would add a standings trigger to the play-in proposal for standard seasons. The Dallas Mavericks, the No. 7 seed in the West in 2019-20, finished 7½ games ahead of the No. 8 team -- leading league insiders to wonder if it would be fair to include a No. 7 seed with such a huge cushion in the proposed 7-10 play-in.

To date, the league's 7-10 proposal has not been tweaked to include any standings trigger, sources told ESPN. The play-in tournament is meant to be a money-generating media property. Reducing the number of teams from four to three would reduce the number of games, and thus the overall revenue generated by the tournament, sources said.

It is possible some teams might agitate for some standings-based tweaks as the general framework for the 2020-21 comes up to a vote. Significant gaps remain between the NBA and NBPA on how the league will account for reductions in players' salaries given the significant financial losses for 2019-20 and steeper projections of losses next year, sources said.

The NBA and NBPA have discussed significant rises in the escrow withholding on players' salaries to account for the severe losses in league revenue during the pandemic. The sides have discussed spreading out the players' losses over multiple seasons -- perhaps as many as three years -- so the players don't take such a substantial financial hit in one year, sources said. To that end, the league's salary cap and luxury tax would need to be set over the next three years, sources said.

The NBA and NBPA split the BRI, and the league recently told teams that 40% of that revenue could be lost without gate receipts this season, sources said. The NBA's BRI revenue was down $1.5 billion for the 2019-20 season, according to data provided to teams and obtained by ESPN.

Most NBA cities are still unable to have public gatherings of more than 500 people. The NBA plans to start the season without fans in the arenas -- with little confidence they'll be able to return anytime early in the season as a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the United States.

A mid-January start, around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, would take the league past the July Summer Olympics and into the summer months when the league fears television ratings would plummet. The NBA is estimating significant financial turmoil if the league has to compete with the Summer Olympics for television ratings in July and then be forced to affect the return to a traditional NBA calendar for the 2021-22 season.

ESPN Front Office Insider Bobby Marks contributed to this report.

Zebre claimed their first Pro14 win of the season at the fourth time of asking as they held off an under-strength Ospreys side in Italy.

Renato Giammarioli scored the first try as the Italians bossed the first half.

Ospreys fought back with converted tries from Gareth Thomas and Olly Cracknell, but the boot of Rizzi saw Zebre over the finish line.

Zebre remain bottom of Conference A but are now just a point behind Dragons, while Ospreys stay third despite a won two, lost two record.

Ospreys arrived in Italy minus three unnamed players because of Covid-19 guidelines.

Head coach Toby Booth made three changes to the matchday squad that defeated Glasgow 23-15, with Stephen Myler, Kieran Williams and Tiaan Thomas-Wheeler not included.

That saw centre Joe Hawkins make his debut in place of Williams while 20-year-old Josh Thomas started at fly-half in Myler's absence.

Rizzi opened the scoring for Zebre with a penalty before flanker Giammarioli stormed down the left flank for a try near the corner.

Fly-half Rizzi converted to make it 10-0 with just over a quarter of an hour on the clock at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.

Rizzi in control

Continued Italian pressure kept Ospreys pinned in their own half and when the Welsh ran out of defenders, Rizzi picked up from a ruck to dart over on the blindside - brushing through Cai Evans, an early replacement for full-back Dan Evans - and converted his own try.

Back-row Sam Cross came off the bench to make his 50th Ospreys appearance, before Thomas relieved the one-way traffic with a penalty to get the visitors on the scoreboard.

Rizzi had the chance to restore Zebre's lead, but his penalty skipped off the far left-hand post to leave it 17-3 at half-time, although the fly-half did better soon after the restart to notch his second penalty.

Ospreys were much-improved after the break though and at last managed to build pressure on the Zebre line, with replacement prop Gareth Thomas bulldozing over for a close-range try converted by namesake Josh.

A third Rizzi penalty stretched Zebre away again, before Ospreys had a Matt Protheroe effort ruled out for a marginal forward pass decision.

Ospreys had a penalty advantage though and stayed patient, with Olly Cracknell scoring a converted try.

That set up a grandstand finish as Ospreys looked for another score to pinch victory, but ultimately had to settle for a losing bonus point.

Zebre: Junior Laloifi; Pierre Bruno, Giulio Bisegni, Tommaso Boni (capt), Giovanni D'Onofrio; Antonio Rizzi, Joshua Renton; Paolo Buonfiglio, Marco Manfredi, Eduardo Bello, Samuele Ortis, Ian Nagle, Lorenzo Masselli, Renato Giammarioli, Giovanni Licata.

Replacements: Oliviero Fabiani, Andrea Lovotti, Matteo Nocera, Leonard Krumov, Antoine Koffi, Nicolo Casilio, Paolo Pescetto, Michelangelo Biondelli.

Ospreys: Dan Evans; Matt Protheroe, Scott Williams, Joe Hawkins, Luke Morgan; Josh Thomas, Reuben Morgan-Williams; Rhodri Jones, Dewi Lake, Ma'afu Fia, Adam Beard, Bradley Davies, Olly Cracknell, Dan Lydiate (capt), James King.

Replacements: Ifan Phillips, Gareth Thomas, Tom Botha, Will Griffiths, Sam Cross, Harri Morgan, Cai Evans, Callum Carson.

Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU)

Assistant Referees: Gianluca Gnecchi, Riccardo Angelucci (both FIR)

TMO: Stefano Penne (FIR)

Glasgow Warriors failed to halt formidable Leinster from securing a 23rd successive Pro14 win as the defending champions eased to victory.

D'arcy Rae added to George Horne's earlier effort to cut the gap but Michael Bent dived over to secure the bonus-point in the second-half.

Tom Gordon's try proved a consolation for the home side at Scotstoun.

The win keeps Leinster top of Conference A with four wins from four, while Warriors have just one victory so far from the same number of games and sit fourth out of six teams.

Relentless Leinster

These sides are generally the hardest hit when it comes to the number of players lost to international duty, but while Glasgow's squad is thinner than it has been for a number of seasons, Leinster's depth is the reason they have been untouchable for two seasons in the Pro14.

Their efficiency in attack is a sight to behold and in the first half they came away with points from almost every visit to Glasgow's 22.

O'Brien sauntered in from inside the 22 after latching on to Harry Byrne's offload on the visitors' first visit, Byrne added a penalty on their second, and McGrath's quick tap and lunge resulted in their second try on their third trip deep into enemy territory.

Horne's 16th-minute try briefly levelled the match at 7-7, but Glasgow were overpowered on all fronts, demonstrated perfectly when Penny rumbled over at the back of a driving maul to ensure Leinster led 22-7 at the break.

Glasgow response futile

Glasgow's response at the start of the second-half was exactly what head coach Danny Wilson will have asked for.

Out with a renewed vigour, a line-break by Niko Matawalu set up a run of effective phases, which resulted in Rae battering over for his first score for the Warriors after just two minutes into the new half. Pete Horne's conversion narrowed the gap to eight points.

But their resistance was fleeting, as Huw Jones was sent to the sin-bin for an illegal intervention on his own try line after Rory O'Loughlin's searing break, and Michael Bent smashed his way over from the resulting penalty to secure a bonus point for Leinster.

Despite hauling themselves into good positions, Glasgow failed to turn possession and territory into points until Gordon's finish from a maul with eight minutes left.

That came too little too late, as Byrne knocked over a late penalty to end with a 12-point haul and continue Leinster's frightening run.

Glasgow Warriors: Aki Seiuli, Grant Stewart, D'arcy Rae, Rob Harley, Hamish Bain, Ryan Wilson, Tom Gordon, TJ Ioane, George Horne, Pete Horne, Niko Matawalu, Sam Johnson, Nick Grigg, Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones,

Replacements: George Turner, Alex Allan, Enrique Pieretto, Chris Fusaro, Fotu Lokotui, Jamie Dobie, Brandon Thomson, Ratu Tagive.

Leinster: Jimmy O'Brien, Cian Kelleher, Rory O'Loughlin, Tommy O'Brien, Dave Kearney, Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath, Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Michael Bent, Ross Molony, Devin Toner, Josh Murphy, Scott Penny, Rhys Ruddock.

Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Michael Milne, Tom Clarkson, Jack Dunne, Scott Fardy, Hugh O'Sullivan, David Hawkshaw, Dan Leavy.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – In six days, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will compete in his final race as a full-time NASCAR driver in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

On Monday at Barber Motorsports Park, he took the next step in his new career as an NTT IndyCar Series driver in a full-field test session.

The private test session was arranged by Chip Ganassi Racing, but open to all competitors in the series. Johnson, who tested a Chip Ganassi Racing Honda on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on July 28, was on track with other Indy car drivers for the first time Monday.

“First of all, I just want to be courteous on track, not be the rookie that makes mistakes,” Johnson said in response to a question posed by SPEED SPORT. “I feel like I’ve probably been a bit too worried about my mirrors, making sure I let guys by.

“Now that I’m closer on pace, it takes them a lot longer to get to me, catch me, they can pass me in a traditional braking area. Everything is sped up, it’s so much quicker, from the car speed everything, so much quicker, closing rate, braking distance. All those things just compound, things happen a lot quicker.

“Each time I go on track, things seem to slow down a bit more for me. I’m able to work through all that stuff to get faster and get more comfortable.”

Because of chilly temperatures in Central Alabama on Monday morning, the test session was delayed until ambient conditions allowed on-track action. Once the track went green, it created a high-speed traffic jam.

“There’s so many cars here, to get there out on the track, find a clean spot to run, take my time getting up to speed has been a bit challenging with the heavy traffic and how fast these guys are,” Johnson said during a break Monday at the road course located in Leeds, Ala. “I was able to get probably 20 and 30 laps this morning.

“I’m shaving seconds off at a time, so I’m still a ways off. I’m looking forward to the second half of the today, getting down to a much smaller window on track.”

For a veteran Indy car driver, the goal is to trim tenths of a second off their lap times. But for a newcomer such as Johnson, his improvement level is measured in seconds off the fastest driver.

“They handed me a sheet that compared me to, I believe, Scott Dixon,” Johnson said of his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate. “The slow-speed stuff I was really trending well, didn’t have a lot to work on there. It was the high-speed corners, the flat-out corners where you have to trust the vehicle, trust the downforce that the vehicle provides. That’s where I had my biggest gap. I assume that’s still the case.

“I look forward to more reps really to help close that gap today.

“I would love to be within a second of the guys. I’m not there quite yet. Taking big chunks out of it each time I’m on track. There’s really no runoff. If you go off, you’re in the grass, into a barrier. More important to me is logging every lap I can just because I’m starting at ground zero.

“I feel like that’s more important than anything, although I’m eager to look at the sheet, see how far I’m off, how much ground I need to make up. I’ll keep a close eye on that.”

Johnson has another test coming up at California’s WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but won’t be able to test again until January at Sebring Int’l Raceway.

“Those are only one-day events, not two-day events for testing,” Johnson said. “The weekend schedules are getting more and more condensed. They released some data how these practice sessions are going to be less next year even if we have a traditional style weekend.

“It’s a bad time to be a rookie, even a 45-year-old rookie with all the years I have in racing. To learn these cars and tracks, it’s going to be a real steep learning curve for me.”

Meantime, he is using Tuesday’s test session at Barber Motorsports Park to adapt to the new environment, team and competition.

“Honestly I’m just trying to find my own approach and rhythm right now, set a realistic pace,” he said. “It’s easy to overwhelm yourself with information, get lost in the details.

“On the Cup side, I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time there, understand exactly what I’m looking for. Much more detail oriented. I’m not there yet. Looking for big pieces and broad strokes than getting into those fine details.”

Throughout his career, Johnson has been a regular visitor to Alabama, having raced at nearby Talladega Superspeedway 38 times in the NASCAR Cup Series. Monday was the first time he has driven a race car at Barber Motorsports Park, located about 40 miles west of Talladega.

“It’s a beautiful facility,” Johnson said. “I’m highly impressed. It’s a very technical track, very attractive. It rewards bravery and aggression. I just don’t have that yet. I’m still trying to get comfortable in these cars.

“These blind corners, the approaches to turns that are on an uphill, you can charge them a lot harder, extract a lot more speed out of the car.

“I’m trying to figure out where the edge is, where to push the car. But it’s a beautiful track. It really is a one-of-a-kind race track.”

CONCORD, N.C. – Only one 410 winged sprint car race was held this past weekend and only a handful of events remain.

Kyle Larson remains solidly at the top of the National Sprint Car Rankings heading into this weekend’s Last Call World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series weekend at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

Larson’s average finish of 1.580 in 63 starts this season on the strength of 32 winged sprint car victories keeps him far ahead of the pack with only a few weeks of racing remaining.

World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series point leader Brad Sweet ranks second with a 3.840 average finish in 58 races.

Larson also leads the Eastern region standings.

Other regional leaders are Cap Henry (Great Lakes), Billy Balog (Great Plains), Steve Short (Mid-America), Carl Bowser (PA-OH) and Dominic Scelzi (Western).

One hundred drivers have won the 317 features run this season.

National Sprint Car Rankings

1. Kyle Larson, 1.580 (63 starts)
2. Brad Sweet, 3.840 (58 starts)
3. Logan Schuchart, 4.500 (60 starts)
4. David Gravel, 4.680 (58 starts)
5. Jade Hastings, 5.190 (21 starts)
6. Donny Schatz, 5.240 (58 starts)
7. Aaron Reutzel, 5.241 (69 starts)
8. Brent Marks, 5.320 (63 starts)
9. Cole Duncan, 5.393 (28 starts)
10. Sheldon Haudenschild, 5.480 (59 starts)

To view regional rankings and the feature winners list, click on.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – As the laps wound down Sunday at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville, Chandler Smith could see the rear bumper of Casey Roderick’s No. 25 getting further and further away from him.

He wasn’t happy about it.

Smith felt that Roderick cost him a legitimate shot at winning the 2019 All American 400 at the .596-mile oval, after Roderick raced among the leaders while being three laps down in the closing stages of the event.

Mason Mingus went on to win last year’s All American super late model feature and the iconic guitar trophy that came with it, while Smith was left fuming over what might have been.

Sunday night, Smith again had to simmer at falling short in the All American 400, but this time there was no sense of “what could have been.” Smith just flat out got beat.

Roderick drove away to a 2.6-second victory in his self-owned No. 25, while Smith’s Wilson Motorsports-prepared No. 26 faded to a distant runner-up finish and the 18-year-old Georgia young gun walked away frustrated.

“This sucks, especially with what happened last year, I did not want to get beat by Casey to be completely honest with you,” Smith said. “That’s what I’m the most pissed off about. It is what it is. He’s worked hard on that race car, so I have respect for him for that.

“On the other side of it, I remember what happened and it sucks.”

Smith passed Roderick briefly for the top spot on the night’s final restart with 28 to go, but Roderick retook command four laps later and sailed off into the Tennessee night.

“I knew if I stayed calm, I would pass him back,” Roderick said. “I just drove into 1 too hard and got loose on the restart. My car was free all night and I just drove in too hard trying to stop him from getting too far ahead.

“We banged doors a little bit going into 3 when I passed him back. I thought I gave him enough room.”

Told what Smith said about losing to him, Roderick nodded before offering his take.

“I don’t blame him for (saying) that,” Roderick said. “We’re racers, man. We don’t like losing. That’s my internal thoughts too.”

With back-to-back runner-up finishes in the All American 400 and a part-time NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season that has been nondescript at best on his recent scorecard, Smith’s attention now turns toward his final two scheduled races of the year – the Lucas Oil 150 at Phoenix Raceway Friday night with the Truck Series and the Snowball Derby in December in Pensacola, Fla.

Regarding the Derby, specifically, Smith is hoping to improve on a record which includes four top-seven finishes in four starts, but no victories in the year-end super late model classic.

“I hope we have a good car for the Derby,” Smith said before walking away. “I really hope.”

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- North Dakota is the consensus No. 1 team in college hockey with the sport set to restart after an eight-month pause due to the pandemic.

The preseason USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, conducted in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association, was released Monday. The Fighting Hawks also took the top rank in the USCHO.com poll published last week.

North Dakota was followed by Boston College, Minnesota Duluth, Denver, Minnesota State, Cornell, Massachusetts, Clarkson, Penn State and Ohio State. The Big Ten had four teams ranked in the top 15, with three each for the ECAC, Hockey East and NCHC.

The Fighting Hawks, who received 22 of 35 first-place votes, were in the news last week for the dismissal from the team of freshman defenseman Mitchell Miller after an accusation of bullying from a junior high school classmate in Ohio came to light. Miller also had his NHL rights renounced by the Arizona Coyotes.

Cornell was ranked first in the 2019-20 postseason poll, compiled after the NCAA tournament was canceled because of the virus outbreak. North Dakota was second and Minnesota State was third.

Argentina legend Diego Maradona has been hospitalized in the city of La Plata, sources told ESPN Argentina.

The 1986 World Cup winner, who manages first-division side Gimnasia La Plata, is being treated for something that is not considered an urgent physical issue, sources said.

Maradona, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Friday, was in attendance of Gimnasia's 3-0 win over against Patronato before leaving at kickoff.

Maradona sat out Gimnasia's first days of training in August as a precaution to avoid the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 as he is considered in the risk group.

Since ending his playing career in 1997, the ex-Napoli, Barcelona, and Boca Juniors star has battled a series of health issues. He admitted to hospital in January 2019 with internal bleeding in the stomach. He also fell ill at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he was filmed passing out in an executive box at the Argentina-Nigeria game.

In 2004, he was hospitalized with severe heart and respiratory problems related to a long battle with drug addiction. He has undergone two gastric bypass operations to control his weight and also received treatment for alcohol abuse.

There was so much that was new and dynamic about Jesse Marsch's first year in charge of FC Salzburg. For Marsch, it was a new team in a new country in one of Europe's most iconic cities. And even amid sky-high expectations, he delivered a league title, as well as qualification to the group stages of the Champions League. The Racine, Wisconsin native managed a budding superstar in Erling Haaland, now of Borussia Dortmund, and even gained notoriety with a viral video of his German/English halftime speech against Liverpool.

But the game waits for no one, as Marsch knows all too well. The compensation, in terms of both praise and money, has already been paid. And a manager's reservoir of trust from the players, in terms of decisions both on the field and off, eventually has to be refilled.

So now an even greater challenge awaits, that of keeping the momentum going. This is trickier than it sounds, even for a team as relatively well heeled (at least by Austrian Bundesliga standards) as Salzburg. Keep things too much the same, and the message gets stale. Change too much, and information overload begins to hamstring the players. And so Marsch has set out on a quest to find balance and move Salzburg forward, with Tuesday's Champions League clash with Bayern Munich his latest opportunity to do so. Even during his vacation, he found himself taking notes on how to improve the team.

"My message at the beginning of preseason was: How good can we be at the things that we're good at?" Marsch told ESPN via telephone. "And then also add a few other things that we think can still make us even better. But I find that you can't get too cute with trying so many new things because you have to understand also how to be true to yourself and in the past what's made you good."

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Marsch is keen to have his side play even more aggressively, and at a higher tempo -- not exactly easy given the high-pressing style his team already uses. But he'd also like to see his team do more in possession, while also continuing to incorporate more young players.

"And then the daily work is to keep the individual motivated and getting better and getting better," he said. "That's everything from a top player or captain to academy players."

With a year under his belt as a manager in Europe, Marsch's tactical plan and way of training are already well established. For that reason, he finds about 70% of his time is devoted to man-management and the mentality of the group.

That process has required some tweaking over the course of Marsch's career, especially as he's encountered different cultures in different locker rooms. There are times when a player that comes from nothing feels more allegiance to his family than the team. There are other times when the impulse of a player is to lash out at everything around them -- including the coach -- rather than to look within. There is also the reality of where Salzburg fits in the global game. It's very much a club that players are hoping to use as a stepping stone to bigger stages, much like Haaland did last year with Dortmund and Takumi Minamino did with Liverpool.

That pressure can create more of an inward focus.

"I found that creating a group mentality was a lot easier to do in the U.S. than it has been here in Europe," said Marsch. "They don't do a lot of personal reflection and think about how their actions actually affect the group. And so my way is always to try to create a responsibility within the player pool to each other, not to necessarily the coach.

"That's even a new concept here. When I would talk to players when I first came here, whether it was Leipzig or here in Salzburg, about how when they behave selfishly, [I'd say] they're not just letting themselves down, but they're letting the group down. Forget about the relationship with the coach. That should be one of their last motivations. If the players are proving themselves to see each other and giving of themselves to each other every day, then they're all going to be successful.

"That's one of the things you have to do: convince the group that it benefits all of them to give to each other because when the group succeeds, the individual succeeds."

One way Marsch addresses this is through a heavy amount of squad rotation, especially with the Champions League once again taking a prominent place in Salzburg's schedule. Marsch adds it's important to spread the wealth early in the season, the better to keep players engaged. Through just six league games, 23 players have made at least one appearance.

"Then [squad rotation will] benefit you later in the year, when a player's suspended or an important player is hurt," he said. "You know now you need one of these players that maybe isn't in the normal 11. When you need him in the most important games, he's ready. And we certainly found that out with our group last year when it came to the championship round."

That emphasis on the collective has long been at the forefront of Marsch's philosophy, and it was a light that went on for him when he served as an assistant under Bob Bradley with the U.S. men's national team. As a player, all Marsch -- a ball-winning midfielder in his playing days -- thought about was winning. When he started coaching, he realized that he was missing a lot of small details that could help players, and the team, over time.

"I started to see that actually creating the process, and creating clues for each player as to how to move themselves along on a daily basis or weekly basis, then they would be more able to commit to what we wanted them to do and thus help the team more," he said. "When you do that as a team with each individual, then typically what happens is you control results more."

Marsch has also long had a desire to develop young players, and it was this philosophy that created friction with his bosses during his first head coaching job in 2012 with the Montreal Impact. In Montreal, Marsch's knowledge of MLS meant he was brought in to establish a foundation. But there was a strong impulse from upper management to bring in established stars like Alessandro Nesta and Marco Di Vaio. Marsch is well aware that it was his job to adapt, but the club's approach still made him uncomfortable.

"My way of leading is about engaging everybody and treating everybody like they're on the same level," he said. "And [Montreal's] was a little bit more about prioritizing certain people or certain situations. For me, that always puts the team in stress."

Marsch is clear that if he had the opportunity to do things over again, he would "100%" go to Montreal because he learned so much. But in retrospect it's obvious that philosophically there was a disconnect between the club and the manager.

And so, the two sides agreed to part ways. Marsch, still under contract, took the opportunity to travel the world with his family. But eventually, that trip (and his old Montreal deal) came to an end, and the extent of the leap he had taken into the unknown by leaving became apparent. There were interviews aplenty. Marsch recalls as many as seven and yet he wasn't finding the connection, the philosophical alignment he wanted.

"My wife and I had many conversations where I contemplated leaving football, coaching college, what to do next," he said.

When it finally came time to interview with the New York Red Bulls, Marsch felt it was more of the same given the Red Bulls' history of signing big stars like Thierry Henry. Little did he know that a philosophical sea change was afoot.

"The first thing I said to them is, 'I don't think I'm your guy because the ideals of the club and the superstar overspending don't seem to match what I think about a team in football, which is all about teamwork, and people being together and everybody giving to each other,'" he recalled. "And actually, that conversation is exactly why they hired me. So that was the key for me.

"Without Red Bull, I don't know where I'd be, honestly."

Marsch's subsequent success in New York, winning the Supporters' Shield in 2015, made him a rising star within Red Bull's global soccer hierarchy. He also stayed true to his ethos of bringing along young players, with the likes of Tyler Adams and Matt Miazga eventually heading to Europe.

At Salzburg, Marsch has continued that approach, although it has its drawbacks. In the middle of last season, Haaland was sold to Dortmund and Minamino was transferred to Liverpool. But Marsch acts more like a proud parent. In his view, if he creates the proper environment, if he pushes and engages with the player in the right way, then he is going to end up on a bigger stage.

"If you do your job, well, they're going to leave, because that's the way it works," he said. "When Erling Haaland leaves, and now when people ask me, 'Can he be the best player in the world?' I say, '100%, absolutely he can,' and I believe that. And so that's partly pride but it's also just pure joy of having a chance to work with such wonderful young men who have so much potential."

A one-year spell as an assistant under Ralf Rangnick at RB Leipzig followed his time in New York, and beyond what Marsch learned in terms of tactics, the real benefits came from learning German and the street cred that came with already being in Europe under such a respected manager. The link to Leipzig worked against Marsch at first, with the banner "Nein zu Marsch" -- meaning "No to Marsch" -- sparking to some early challenges. But the Salzburg fans have since been won over, so much so that the fact that Marsch is an American rarely, if ever, enters the conversation.

"I feel like I'm much more now judged on how the team plays," he said. "A big reason why I learned the language and I worked hard to adapt to who we are and what we do with our fans and everything is so that they don't judge me for anything other than how the team plays. That's the goal. But to get to that goal, I mean, I even understood that pedigree meant something. So when I went to Leipzig for a year, and we had a successful year in Leipzig, and I work here with Ralf Rangnick. Did I learn a lot? Yes. But the pedigree of doing that maybe was as important if not more important than actually what I learned."

That process of assimilation and gaining acceptance is one that every American that heads overseas has to go through. And with Weston McKennie landing at Juventus and Christian Pulisic already at Chelsea, there is a sense that attitudes are changing toward American players as well. Marsch detects progress, but feels there is still a way to go.

"I still think that we're caught in a day and age where the American is thought to be tactically not great, technically not great, but an incredible mentality and a work rate, that competitiveness, that's higher than most," he said. "But we're slowly evolving to where we have more and more young players that are more technically gifted, and that are more tactically sound, along with the athleticism that we have and the will to compete. The key is can we keep driving more and more the things that some of our weaknesses and match them with some of the things that are some of our strengths? Christian is doing well. Tyler's doing well. Weston's doing well. We just need to keep moving that needle."

As for Marsch, the early returns so far this season are positive. Salzburg is a perfect six out of six in the league and once again qualified for the group stage of the Champions League. After tangling with the likes of Liverpool and Napoli last season, Marsch's side have been placed in Group A alongside Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Lokomotiv Moscow -- with a draw against Lokomotiv and a valiant 3-2 defeat to Atletico in the books so far. Marsch relishes the test, one that is intense on all fronts.

"You have to be really sharp in game preparation to know what you're going to need on that day and how to make adjustments," he said. "But the other part is, especially with a young team, making sure that you're confident in your presence and in your messaging that when the big games come, that they know that their leader believes that they can manage the game, that they can win the game. So I think that it's a test in football acumen, but also a test in courage and the ability to help a group believe."

For now, the reservoir of trust in the manager remains full.