MLS season split into phases?
As tournament winds down, expansion team’s next game possibly comes in late August
While Major League Soccer enters the final stages of its tournament near Orlando, Inter Miami is preparing to resume its inaugural MLS season, possibly in less than a month.
The Athletic recently reported a tentative plan for the league to resume its season after the MLS is Back Tournament concludes Aug. 11. The plan consists of teams playing 18 regular-season matches — nine at home and nine on the road — in their home markets between Aug. 22 and Nov. 8.
According to The Athletic, the regular season would be split into two phases, with teams playing six games between Aug. 22 and Sept. 13 during Phase One and playing the remaining 12 matches between Sept. 16 and Nov. 8 during Phase Two.
Nashville SC and FC Dallas — the two clubs that were withdrawn from the MLS is Back Tournament due to COVID-19 outbreaks within the teams — would play three additional matches against one another so all 26 MLS team would finish the regular season with 23 games played.
Nine teams from each conference would advance to the singleelimination MLS Cup playoffs, which The Athletic reported would start Nov. 20. The MLS Cup would take place Dec. 12.
The Athletic’s report said the league will allow teams to have fans in stadiums if permitted by local and state guidelines. Before the tournament started, Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas said the team anticipates restarting its season at Inter Miami CF Stadium in Fort Lauderdale without fans but that it ran scenarios that would involve stadiums being partially full of fans.
MLS suspended the season March 12, two days before Inter Miami’s home opener against the LA Galaxy — meaning the opener would likely be played without fans, which Mas called a “shame.” Fort Lauderdale CF — the club’s USL League One team — started its season last week and played at club’s Fort Lauderdale stadium without fans.
Winless Inter Miami have been practicing at its training facility since last Thursday after losing all three of its group-stage matches in the tournament.