By Luis Bueno – RIVERSIDE, CA (Nov 20, 2019) US Soccer Players - In 2004, MLS was a much different league. There were all of 10 teams playing in the league then, and the still-fledgling league was very much in flux. There were legitimate questions regarding the sustainability of the league and whether the team could support more than 10 teams. Enter Jorge Vergara. Despite attendance and support . . .
Thierry Henry takes over in Montreal
The soccer news starts with the Montreal Impact officially introducing new coach Thierry Henry. It's an interesting move for a team that finished 9th in the Eastern Conference and fired a coach. Add in the Champions League for 2020, and it's a difficult job trying to rebuild in Montreal regardless of how many years a coach has working in this league. Henry has exactly zero, leaning on his playing . . .
Nashville and Inter Miami in the expansion draft
By Clemente Lisi – NEW YORK, NY (Nov 18, 2019) US Soccer Players – Moments after the Seattle Sounders lifted MLS Cup, that was also the official start to the offseason. The upcoming Expansion Draft will be the focal point once again this month, a process that culminates with the SuperDraft in January. In this case, it's Nashville SC and Inter Miami that are looking to build competitive rosters . . .
Zlatan, Rooney, and MLS’s pesky relevance quandary
By Charles Boehm – WASHINGTON, DC (Nov 14, 2019) US Soccer Players - Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his departure from the LA Galaxy this week after two seasons packed with scoring exploits on the pitch and headline-grabbing quotations off it. David Villa, an MLS icon of similar proportions with NYCFC before spending the past year in Japan with Vissel Kobe, revealed his impending retirement as well. . . .
Revamping in Chicago and Montreal
The soccer news starts with a coach leaving in Chicago and a surprise hire in Montreal. The Fire announced that MLS classing "parted ways" with coach Veljko Paunovic. The situation for the rest of the coaching staff and trainers is up to the next coach, though the Fire has "discontinued" their services for now. Chicago is in a partial revamp, moving from Bridgeview to Soldier Field and losing . . .
Who was the MLS team of the 2010s?
By Luis Bueno – RIVERSIDE, CA (Nov 13, 2019) US Soccer Players - The final MLS match of the 21st century's second decade played out on Sunday in Seattle. When the Sounders toppled Toronto FC in the 2019 MLS Cup, they also put the 2010s to rest. Next season ushers in a new decade full of new teams and new challenges. It is anyone's guess who the team of the 2020s will be. It could be a team that . . .
Seattle is the MLS community club
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Nov 13, 2019) US Soccer Players - Over in England, where the weather is wet and the soccer is pure, there exists the idea of the "community club". In a very general sense, the label applies to clubs that can count numerous locals among its administrative, coaching, and player ranks while also being responsive to the community it represents. Rather than the toy of a . . .
Inter Miami in Fort Lauderdale
The soccer news starts with a familiar MLS story. The league expands to Miami and ends up playing in Fort Lauderdale. Stop us if you've heard this one before, but the old Fusion scenario is now playing out again with David Beckham's Inter Miami. We already knew that the team would start life in a rebuilt version of the Fusion's old home Lockhart Stadium. Now, the team is talking about their . . .
5 things from MLS in 2019
By Clemente Lisi – NEW YORK, NY (Nov 11, 2019) US Soccer Players – This is the time of year where the MLS champion, and congratulations to the Seattle Sounders, becomes the center of a debate over whether they are in the conversation for the best team in league history. It's also perhaps the first time in a decade that the post-playoff debate isn't about who's the best ever. MLS revamped the . . .
Garber’s state of the league and the arrival of MLS
The soccer news starts with Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber doing his job during his annual state of the league press conference. Garber told anyone interested in listening that MLS isn't "a league on the rise, but a league that's arrived." Mixing that with his favored "league of choice" description for where he wants MLS to be, it's a message that doesn't cost the league much of . . .
