Paul Gardner MLS is Back Tournament
Back in March, the coronavirus crisis and the total shutdown of professional sports in the USA was met by Major League Soccer with an imaginative, response. They called it MLS Is Back.
The plan was to assemble all 26 MLS teams at the vast Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The resort houses the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, a 220-acre sporting Xanadu that includes17 playing fields, many of them full-size football pitches. The area is also rich in hotels – little used at the moment.
Each team would be isolated within a hotel “bubble”, emerging only to get on a bus to take them to the playing fields. No spectators, of course. Game over, the teams would board their bubble buses back to the hotels. Regular virus testing was required of all players.
The risks surfaced at once. Two teams, Dallas and Nashville, were found, on arrival in Orlando, to have over six players already testing positive for coronavirus. Both teams were withdrawn from the tournament, which went ahead with 24 teams, divided into six groups of four.
Group play was scheduled from July 8-23, when the top two of each group, plus the four best third-place finishers would advance to a knockout format.
The three games that each team had played up to that point were to be counted as “regular season games”, once the regular season could resume, while the knockout tournament became a separate event with only one prize – the winner would gain automatic entry into the CONCACAF Champions League.
A crucial part of the scheme was that all 51 games of MLS Is Back would be nationally televised on ESPN.
The games began, still suffering from a glitch or two. One early game, with a team on the field ready to play had to be postponed. It was found that neither of the teams involved had undergone the required tests.
Scorching weather didn’t help.
Even though two breaks per half for drinks were permitted, the dreaded midday sun had to be avoided. The five-substitution rule was much in use. All of which meant that some games kicked-off at 9am, while others waited until 10.30pm to get under way. Another Florida weather specialty – storms with dangerous lightning – delayed one kick-off until 11.30pm.
The tournament opened with several lacklustre, low-scoring games – it seemed that the players, confronted with so many unusual circumstances, opted for caution. The careful mood did not last long. On Day 5, one of the favourites, Sporting Kansas City, were upstaged in a dramatic game that saw10-man Minnesota storm back to tie the game, scoring a 97th-minute winner.
The following day saw another remarkable comeback. DC United, also playing with ten men, scored twice in the final ten minutes to draw 2-2 with Toronto. The game ended with scuffles, pushing and shoving, yelling and finger-pointing – unpleasant to see, but the fracas brought relief for MLS: teams were taking this synthetic tournament seriously.
Early results did not look good for the supposedly stronger teams. New York City FC, having lost their first two games, were perched on the brink of elimination. Atlanta United were in the same boat. One of their defeats was a spectacularly embarrassing1-0 loss to Cincinnati, the weakest of MLS teams with only one win in its past17 games. Current champions Seattle Sounders, with one draw and a loss, hung in there with a 3-0 win over Vancouver.
Another spectacular comeback – this time by San Jose, scoring three late goals to beat Vancouver 4-3 – maintained the excitement level. Los Angeles FC kept up the pace with a sparkling 6-2 win over the LA Galaxy in “El Trafico” (the cringe-provoking term used to define the Los Angeles derby). The crunching win affirmed LAFC as favourites to win the tournament.
MLS Is Back had succeeded as a lively tournament. The plan to quickly resume the regular 2020 season remained in place – but clearly, it would involve games without spectators. Coronavirus hovered as an ever-present reminder that even defining “regular season” is no longer straightforward.