By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Dec 21, 2022) US Soccer Players – Major League Soccer’s wait for success in the Concacaf Champions League was long for many reasons. The league spent years chasing a trophy in the revamped version of the competition, one that Liga MX teams dominated. Coming up short against those Liga MX clubs time and time again also meant missing out on a chance for MLS teams to share the field with the biggest clubs in the world at the Club World Cup.
With seven teams (six confederation champions and one host club) playing a short-form knockout event, FIFA formatted the tournament so that the UEFA and CONMEBOL champions were granted byes to the semifinal round. Two games were always enough to win a title since no team from outside of Europe or South America has managed to come out on top.
With the Seattle Sounders finally wresting the crown of Concacaf away from the Mexican clubs last season, Major League Soccer was ready for a chance to test a club against Real Madrid, Flamengo, Wydad Casablanca (CAF), Auckland City (OFC) and the still-to-be-determined champion of the AFC.
Word came on Friday from FIFA President Gianni Infantino that the Club World Cup will take place in Morocco in February. Plenty of details were missing from the announcement, but the Sounders would get their chance to represent Concacaf on the world stage come February.
The timing could be better for Seattle. For an MLS team a few weeks away from the start of the 2023 MLS season, set for February 25 per the league’s Tuesday schedule release), playing in February means still being in preseason form. The Sounders might not even be a complete team when they head off to Morocco, depending on how quickly new general manager Craig Waibel moves to fill some holes in the club’s roster. While Seattle achieved what no MLS team had done before in lifting the Champions League trophy, the club also missed the playoffs for the first time in its history and entered the offseason with significant questions.
There’s no doubting the talent available to head coach Brian Schmetzer, despite the playoff disappointment. Injuries hampered the Sounders in 2022 and Schmetzer should have a healthy squad as the calendar turns over and Club World Cup preparations begin. Raul Ruidiaz, Cristian Roldan, Stefan Frei, Jordan Morris, Nicolas Lodeiro, and Joao Paulo all missed time in 2022 and should be ready to go from the start of the campaign in 2023.
Seattle will make history as the first MLS team to play at the Club World Cup, but they’ll also be fighting against Concacaf’s history in the tournament. Tigres in 2020 is the only Concacaf representative, all of them from Mexico, to reach the final. They fell to Bayern Munich 1-0, delivering another Club World Cup title to UEFA. Of the 17 tournaments played, European clubs have won 13 times, with Brazilian clubs representing CONMEBOL winning the other four. The last was Corinthians in 2012.
The 2022 Club World Cup taking place in 2023 will be the only time an MLS team will participate in the format as it currently exists. That was the other part of Infantino’s announcement on Friday. After the final 7-team version of the Club World Cup in Morocco in February, FIFA will move to an expanded 32-team tournament starting in 2025 and occurring every four years thereafter.
World soccer’s governing body wants to apply to the club game the approach that has turned the World Cup into the planet’s marquee sporting event. The planned move to a 32-team tournament is a leap forward from a planned 24-team event scheduled for China in 2021 that never happened because of COVID-19.
From a practical perspective, the massively expanded Club World Cup should open more spots for Concacaf and nearly guarantee MLS participation in the quadrennial event, pending confirmation on how qualification will work.
Whatever happens then, here’s what we know now. With the tournament finally scheduled, the Seattle Sounders will be the one and only MLS team to play in the seven-team version of the Club World Cup. That means it’s Major League Soccer’s only chance to play the giants of the sport in games that actually matter over a short-run tournament. February will be fascinating.
Jason Davis is the founder of MatchFitUSA.com and the host of The United States of Soccer on SiriusXM. Contact him: matchfitusa@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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Photo by Howard C Smith – ISIPhotos.com
