San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
‘Weird feeling’: MLS leads sports’ return
Earthquakes players admit to having concerns as they head to virusstricken Florida to train and resume play in a bubble
The first Bay Area sports team will take initial wobbly steps toward normalcy this week.
The San Jose Earthquakes will head to Orlando on Wednesday, to begin training for a Major League Soccer “World Cup”style tournament slated to start July 8. The league hopes that, following the end of that tournament on Aug. 11, some sort of season can take place.
But even before 26 teams convene in Florida, where they will be housed in the massive Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotel, there are so many questions. Coronavirus cases are spiking in Florida, where more than 4,000 cases were recorded Saturday. Four MLS teams have players who have tested positive.
All players will be tested twice before they depart. Each team can bring 45 members: 30 players and 15 staff. Players will each have their own room and be tested every other day for two weeks and prior to every game. If a player tests positive, he will be isolated in a designated area of the 2,270room hotel, but his team can continue to play. Each team will have its own dining area and bus to transport it to training and games. No family or other guests will be allowed into the MLS bubble.
“I think that there are definitely concerns,” said Earthquakes captain Chris Wondolowski. “I can only speak for myself. They’re still ironing out the details and putting a lot of science behind it.
“But it is a leap of faith, putting ourselves in the hands of the league.”
Wondolowski, 37, had an
nounced this would be his last season. It isn’t unfolding the way the league’s alltime scoring leader had hoped. Just two games into the season, the league shut down. Losing most of a season is hard on all athletes but particularly trying for those, like Wondolowski, near the end of their careers.
“My plan is to wait until I know the final answer,” he said of retirement. “I told my wife before the season that I had a full tank to spend and wanted to make sure there was nothing left. Do I spend it all in Orlando? Hope for a season?
“I don’t want to go out like this. It’s most likely I’m done. But I’m leaving the door, if not open, at least unlocked.”
On the other end of the spectrum, 23yearold Jackson Yueill was looking forward to his second full season in MLS. In March he was in Guadalajara with the under23 national team that was trying to qualify for the 2020 — now 2021 — Tokyo Olympics. The tournament was canceled and the team was called back home as the sports world shut down.
“It was really sad,” Yueill said of the U.S. men missing the chance to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since Beijing in 2008. “We were super excited to prove that youth soccer in America is a lot better.”
Like his teammates, Yueill has tried to keep fit on his own. He works out with his roommates who are all on the team, including Nick Lima. Lima has been taking online classes.
Wondolowski, who spent part of the shutdown at a second home in Arnold (Calaveras County), joked that he’s fit, “but maybe for a crosscountry meet.” He relished the chance to spend so much time with his two daughters, 4yearold Brynlee and 6yearold Emersyn.
San Jose has been drawn into a group with Seattle, Vancouver and Dallas. Seattle and San Jose are located in early coronavirus hot spots that shut down quickly and have been restrictive. FC Dallas was allowed back to individual training earlier and was set to reopen for full training when a player tested positive earlier this month. The Earthquakes will not have trained as a team until they get to Orlando.
“It does put us behind a little bit, but Santa Clara County was a bit of a hotbed, and I totally respect the decisions that were made,” Wondolowski said. “We have to use it as motivation.”
Temperatures in Orlando will soar over 90 degrees, so games will be held early in the morning and late in the evening — those will likely be the West Coast teams’ slots.
With baseball still mired in its eternal infighting and the NBA tentatively scheduled to restart in late July, MLS will have the stage mostly to itself. (NWSL, the women’s nineteam league, is also launching a tournament in Salt Lake City in late June, scheduled to end in July.)
“Any time we can get in front of a mass audience, it gives us the opportunity to showcase MLS and show it’s a really competitive league and quality play,” Lima said. “This format is accessible to the fan. I think it should be exciting.” Wondolowski, who spent a onegame red card suspension last season sitting in the stands with Earthquakes fans, says he will miss the excitement of playing in front of spectators.
“But this is going to be a great platform,” he said.
It may be a platform for more than soccer. A group of MLS players formed a coalition this week to address racial inequities in the sport. Earthquakes players say that messages of social justice will be coming from the Orlando bubble.
“Absolutely, we all feel strongly and want to use this platform to spread a message we believe in,” Wondolowski said. “There’s a lot of racism in soccer. I’ve seen it with the national team when we travel, and it turns my stomach. We want to send the message that cultures can come together and respect everyone.”
A serious sports fan, Wondolowski is excited that NBA teams are also scheduled to be in Orlando, though somewhere else in the vast Disney complex.
“I’d love a sneak peek,” he said. “A private NBA game.”
And he’d love for NBA players to attend MLS games. But that’s not likely to happen.
What actually does unfold in Orlando is anyone’s guess.
“I like having an end goal,” Wondolowski said. “It’s such a weird feeling not knowing what lies ahead.”