MLS will restart with format like World Cup
It’s not the season Major League Soccer anticipated, but the restart will offer fans an enticing alternative: a continuous schedule of matches in Florida nearly every day beginning July 8.
The league announced details Wednesday for its MLS is Back Tournament at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort. The tournament will be played without fans.
Teams will be sequestered at the Disney complex, and the league has announced a strict testing protocol.
Similar to a World Cup format, multiple games will be played daily, beginning at 9 a.m. ET, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
MLS suspended its season March 12 due to the pandemic after teams had played two games. NBA also has plans in the works to resume the season at the complex near Orlando with 22 teams reporting for a condensed schedule of games beginning July 31.
In MLS, each of the 26 teams will play three group stage matches, and those results will count in the regular-season standings. After 16 consecutive days of group stage matches, the top two teams from each group along with the four best third-place finishers will move to the knockout stage.
The knockout stage will include a Round-of-16, quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship match, which will be held Aug. 11.
A draw for the tournament will be held Thursday to determine the six groups. For the remainder of the season, Nashville SC will be moved to the Eastern Conference. The Eastern Conference will have three groups, one consisting of six teams and two consisting of four teams each. The Western Conference will have three groups, each consisting of four teams.
As the host club, Orlando City SC will be given the top seed in Group A, which will be the six-team group, and will play in the first match on July 8. The five remaining seeds will consist of the four semifinalists from the 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs – Atlanta United, Los Angeles Football Club, Seattle Sounders FC, Toronto FC – and Real Salt Lake (the team with the next highest points total in the Western Conference from the 2019 season).
MLS plans to continue its regular season with a revised schedule in home markets, followed by the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs and the 25th MLS Cup. The schedule will be developed at a later date.