Take a look at the Brazilian Serie A ou Brazil’s Cup. Brazil continental continuos land mass is bigger than the US. Also CL games can be very far away, Cyprus and Turkey games come to mind. Old school Libertadores also had Mexicans playing in it, and it wasn’t uncommom for a Brazilian team to play in São Paulo Sunday, then Tijuana Wednesday, then Recife next Sunday, just to travel again to São Paulo to train at Tuesday. Nah, I don’t think the distance matter that much. Also World Cup schedules are usually thought ahead to avoid long travels in a row.