One of the hot topics in the North American soccer sphere this week involves different takes on Italian national team coach (and future Chelsea manager) Antonio Conte's serially retweeted quote about why he did not include Sebastian Giovinco nor Andrea Pirlo on Italy's roster for the Euro 2016 tournament that kicks off next month in France. Giovinco, remember, is the swashbuckling Toronto FC midfielder who won the 2015 MLS MVP award. Pirlo, remember, is the gentleman with the distinguished beard who stood in the center circle during the Red Bulls' 7-0 romp of his NYCFC/Man City-lite blues.

According to an article on football-italia.net, Coach Conte said, "We evaluated Pirlo and Giovinco, it's normal that if you choose to go and play there [MLS] then you can pay the consequences in footballing terms."

Conte's perceived dig at MLS quality instantly touched a nerve with pundits and fans alike. The Pirlo exclusion from Italy's squad is probably less a surprise than Giovinco's. Pirlo was a fantastic player of course, but to me he has looked like he's been on a beach vacation throughout his MLS sojourn. Giovinco on the other hand, is a firecracker who scores pretty much every time Jozy Altidore gets out of the way long enough to let him. Conte's quote created a stir because it picks at our collective North American soccer inferiority complex sore, which heals a little more with each MLS season, but which will likely be with us several more years. The truth about MLS quality is probably somewhere in the middle - not as poor as a Conte might think, and not as good as many of us on this side of the pond may think either.

Yesterday afternoon before the U.S. Men's National Team training session at SMU's Westcott Field, I had the rare opportunity to join the media scrum for some rapid fire "mixed zone" interviewing, in which a handful of players were made available to tolerate some questions. Since Michael Bradley is the only current USMNT player to have plied his trade in both the Italian Serie A (with Chievo Verona and A.S. Roma) and MLS, I asked him what he thought about Conte's comment. Here is the American Pirlo's response:

"Look, he [Conte] made decisions that he felt gave his team the best chance. Ultimately, any coach, that's what they're going to do. I'm lucky enough to watch Seba [Giovinco] on a daily basis and see what he puts into training, and see what it means to him to come and work and try to improve, and I think for anybody, you can't do anything more than that. So again, if that's the way the decision went this time, then unfortunately, he [Giovinco] can't do anything about it. He'll just continue to work and compete and try to have as big an impact on things as possible. Ultimately, look, everybody has their own opinion on things and the fact that he's the national team coach in this moment means that his opinion is ultimately the one that counts. It's not something that anybody can spend too much time worrying about."

So there you have it fellow MLS fans - "General Bradley" has spoken. Shrug it off. Onward and upward! Italy's loss is MLS' gain... although Toronto FC and NYCFC fans might have some differing opinions on that.

Nathan Nipper is the author of the award-winning book Dallas 'Til I Cry: Learning to Love Major League Soccer.