USA MLS campaign gets under way
Season kicks off with new teams in Miami and Nashville
Even the vaunted North American Soccer League – the league of Pele and Franz Beckenbauer – lasted only 17 years
For MLS, 2020 marks a 25th season – which is quite an achievement in the US, where professional soccer’s history is strewn with the corpses of leagues that didn’t make it.
Even the vaunted North American Soccer League – the league of Pele and Franz Beckenbauer – lasted only 17 years, from 1968 to 1984. But MLS is doing more than survive, it is expanding.
The 2020 season will see the addition of Inter Miami and Nashville, bringing MLS up to 26 teams, with more clubs on the way to what is considered the minimum of 30 – which is half as big again as most of the world’s top leagues. A large-size league is necessary for national coverage of the USA’s vast area.
It is a measure of MLS success that those next four slots have already been assigned to Austin and Charlotte (to join in 2021) and St Louis and Sacramento (2022). Commissioner Don Garber has let it be known that “32 teams will happen at some point but it is not happening any time soon”.
The growing strength of MLS is reflected in what it charges cities to purchase a franchise. Where Toronto paid $10million to join the league in 2006, the franchise fee has now risen to over $200m.
That figure came up recently in a hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Two small, secondtier American clubs were suing FIFA,
CONCACAF and the United States Federation, alleging that FIFA was acting against its own regulations in allowing clubs to buy their way in with a franchise payment into MLS. They claimed that FIFA regulations demanded instead a promotion and relegation system.
CAS disagreed and ruled that, for the United States at least, the franchise system was fine.
So MLS, unlike other top leagues, will continue to operate without promotion and relegation. Another huge difference is that MLS, using what is known as a “single-entity” structure, closely controls how much money its clubs can spend. Player contracts all belong to MLS, not to individual clubs.
This unusual system has caused trouble in the past when it has been time – which is every four years – for the league and players union to sign a collective bargaining agreement. But not so this year when negotiations were completed three weeks before the deadline.
MLS agreed to increases in spending on player salaries: from $9,225,000 per club for 2020, rising each year to $11,643,000 in 2024. The minimum salary for a senior player, currently $70,250, will be increased yearly up to $85,500 in 2024. Agreement was also reached on assuring players a percentage of the increased money expected from new contracts with television companies, which is something also handled centrally by the league.
The franchise fee was not a problem for newcomers Inter Miami. After his five
years playing with LA Galaxy, David
Beckham was granted an option to purchase a franchise for $25m. He chose Miami as the city for his club, but it has taken six years for the club to be ready to play due to the problem of finding suitable land for a stadium.
The stadium has yet to be built but the site has been purchased. For at least one year, Inter Miami will be playing at the refurbished Lockhart stadium in Fort
Lauderdale. The coach of the new team will be Uruguayan Diego Alonso, who moves from Mexico’s Monterrey.
The selection of a Latin-American boss is significant. Miami has a huge Latin-American population and has been dubbed “South America North”. And while not all – particularly the Cubans – are necessarily devoted to soccer, it is evidently felt that there is a large reservoir of fans waiting for a pro team.
Rumours of a major big-name signing have been circulating for the past year, but none has yet appeared. So far the trend for Inter Miami has been to sign promising Latino youngsters, including the highly-touted 19-year-old Argentinian midfielder Matias Pellegrini.
The other 2020 expansion team, Nashville, have been experiencing rather different stadium problems.
Their franchise was granted largely on the strength of guarantees that the mayor was giving strong support to plans to construct a new stadium. However, a scandal enveloped the mayor and forced her resignation – and the new mayor is a long-time opponent of the plan to build a new arena.
Nashville’s most important signing to date has been 32-year-old Dax McCarty, a midfielder who brings 13 years of MLS experience with Dallas, DC United and New York Red Bulls. But most of their players are newcomers to MLS, as are most of Inter Miami’s, and neither club looks capable of causing any upsets.
Atlanta United did shine as an expansion team in 2017, and won the league in 2018, but they faded last year. The departure of Tata Martinez to coach Mexico saw the arrival of Frank De Boer and a change in the team’s personality from Latin sparkle to Dutch defensiveness. The Open Cup was won in 2019 but that was all and the hope of a return to the entertaining team of 2018 seems unlikely.
But entertaining Latin football will not be lacking in 2020 and it will most surely be played by Los Angeles
FC, with the superb Mexican Carlos Vela and his scoring partner Uruguayan Diego Rossi.
Coach Bob Bradley has added more Latin talent in 21-year-old Uruguayan midfielder Francisco Ginella and Jose Cifuentes, a 20year-old midfielder from Ecuador, leaving LAFC positioned as serious contenders for the MLS title.
LA Galaxy also have championship hopes and will be looking to avenge the 5-3 drubbing they took from LAFC in last year’s semi-finals. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has gone and his remarkable goals – if not his self-admiration – will be missed. Even so, optimism is in the air as Galaxy have picked up Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, the all-time leading scorer for Mexico with 52 goals who had an 11-year European career that included stints with Manchester United, West Ham United, Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen.
Hernandez’s arrival at Galaxy has been called the most important MLS signing since David Beckham.
Latin players – Nicolas Lodeiro (Uruguay) and Raul Ruidiaz (Peru) – also played a big part in the Seattle Sounders’ winning of the 2019 title. This year coach Brian Schmetzer has strengthened the team’s Latin ties by signing Colombian defender Yeimar Gomez and Brazilian midfielder Joao Paulo. Add in the growing confidence of young American striker Jordan Morris and Seattle have hopes of becoming the first MLS team to successfully defend their title since Galaxy in 2012.
Toronto, despite finishing a lowly ninth in the overall 2019 standings, advanced through the play-offs to the Final. Even though that ended with a 3-1 loss to Seattle it was a remarkable achievement, though one they can hardly expect to repeat again as star players Michael Bradley (32), Jozy Altidore (30) and Pablo Piatti (30) aren’t getting any younger. New blood is needed, but no
important signings have been made.
The New York teams, Red Bulls and NYCFC, continue to promise much and achieve little.
The Bulls, formerly the MetroStars, were one of the founding teams back in 1996 but they have never won the title. They have now lost key striker Bradley Wright-Phillips who, after six years and 108 goals, departed as a free agent for LAFC and the Bulls appear to be banking on home-grown players coming up through their academy.
NYFC is yet another team with a stadium problem. They have spent their first five years as an MLS team playing home games at Yankee Stadium, which is an excellent modern facility but one designed for baseball. A soccer pitch does not fit easily into a baseball stadium as it is a yard or more too narrow, so some of the fans are seated at quite a distance from the field. However, a
solution may be at hand if, as rumoured,
Optimism is in the air at Galaxy due to the signing of Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, the all-time leading scorer for Mexico with 52 goals
a deal to build on land nearby has been reached. The site is ideal as it is in the Bronx, is part of New York City and it has a subway stop right next to it.
But NYCFC’s frailties can hardly be blamed on the stadium problem. Results have been good, with the team finishing once in third place in the Eastern Conference, twice in second place, and, in 2019 in first place. But each year they have been knocked out of the championship race in the semi-finals. This is a team that was never quite good enough, that always had a weak link, and there is no reason for thinking things will be any better in 2020. New coach Ronny Deila seems a strange appointment in a league that until now has had virtually no Norwegian involvement.
The lack of major signings leaves about half of the MLS teams making only slight revisions in playing strength, which means there is little to suggest that such as Philadelphia, DC United, Dallas, Cincinnati, Colorado, Kansas, Columbus or Real Salt Lake can offer more than they did last time out, when none of them looked like a serious challenger.
Coaching, however, could make a difference at four clubs.
Bruce Arena has had a year at New England Revolution in which to shape a team to his liking so they should not be ruled out as potential champions.
At Houston, the new boss is Tab Ramos, who was one of the USA’s most outstanding players between 1988 and 2002. Since 2009 he has been a US Soccer staff coach, mostly with the national under-20 team and – although at 53 he has left it rather late to join a pro team – his enthusiasm, knowledge of the game and ability to identify and get the best from skilled players may be just what Houston need to get back to winning ways.
At Montreal Impact a really big name has moved into the coaching position. Thierry Henry is no stranger to MLS, where he played for four-and-a-half seasons with the New York Red Bulls, but his short managerial career has not been a great success story, lasting only three months in his most recent job with Monaco. Montreal have shown a liking for skillful soccer, so Henry’s declared wish to have his teams play like Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona makes him a fitting choice. He will be the seventh Montreal coach in eight seasons, but the club has to know it is taking on a temperamental character.
At Chicago Fire the new man in charge is Raphael Wicky, and thereby hangs a curious tale. In March 2019, Wicky – a Swiss coach unknown to most Americans – was suddenly put in charge of the US under-17 team. In October of that year he led the team in a disastrous performance at the Under-17 World Cup in Brazil, where the USA were quickly eliminated after two losses and one draw. Barely two months later Wicky takes over at Chicago, who will be without former German international Bastian Schweinsteiger who has announced his retirement.
All of which leaves Los Angeles FC as the most likely winner of MLS Cup 2020. To succeed they must get another extraordinary season from Vela, who last year broke the MLS single-season scoring record with 34 goals. But if his 2020 season is half as good as 2019, it should also do the trick.