By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Aug 28, 2020) US Soccer Players - Somehow, it's only August in a year that feels like it's been going for a decade. To say that 2020 has messed with our rhythms, as Americans, as sports fans, as people, would be a dramatic understatement. With a pandemic wreaking havoc on the sports schedule and massive societal issues requiring immediate attention, 2020 has done . . .
MLS Power Rankings: 2019 Season Ender
By Luis Bueno – RIVERSIDE, CA (Dec 5, 2019) US Soccer Players - The 2019 Major League Soccer season has been over for a bit now, with Seattle beating Toronto FC to lift the MLS Cup early last month. With the offseason already in full swing and two new clubs on the horizon, the focus has begun to shift to the start of a new decade and a continuation of the league's unofficial expansion era. Before . . .
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. . . .
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 . . .
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 . . .
Seattle wins the 2019 MLS Cup
The Seattle Sounders won the 2019 MLC Cup, beating Toronto FC 3-1 in front of 69,274 fans at CenturyLink Field. Finishing in 2nd-place in the Western Conference, Seattle knocked out top seed LAFC to reach the final. Kelvin Leerdam's deflected shot off of Toronto defender Justin Morrow opened the scoring in the 57th minute. Victor Rodriguez made it 2-0 Seattle in the 76th. Raul Ruidiaz added a goal . . .
Seattle in 2016 set the tone for 2019
By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON, DC (Nov 8, 2019) US Soccer Players - In 2016, the Seattle Sounders lifted the MLS Cup at BMO Field in Toronto following a tense, goalless affair against the home side. The hero on that day was goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who made several crucial saves to help his team to victory. That including a jaw-dropping stop that ascended to the top of the list of all-time great . . .
Weather counts for the Cup
The soccer news starts with Sunday's MLS Cup final (3pm ET - ABC). Home field advantage would be a bigger deal had Seattle not gotten it with a road win at Banc of California Stadium and Toronto hadn't won at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That took out the two biggest home field advantages in MLS, suggesting that a capacity crowd at CenturyLink is nice but not a huge issue for either team. Whatever . . .
MLS Power Rankings: Counting the Cup
By Luis Bueno – RIVERSIDE, CA (Nov 7, 2019) US Soccer Players - The two clubs left standing in the 2019 season are not the top two teams in these rankings. LAFC slipped from the top spot, but the club's season was so stellar. That's still better than Toronto FC's even though the Reds are playing for the MLS Cup title and not the second-year Los Angeles club. For the rest of the teams involved, . . .
