Müller thinks he’s better than the retirement league:
Vancouver is doing the thing.
1 Like
Going to my first Whitecaps match ever on Saturday with my son and SILs. I imagine Caps will get a good reception after their performance against Inter Miami.
White and Berhalter have been incredible this season.
Baby Beckham thinks he and his team deserve respect, cuz, well, Beckham, Messi, the others.
Ask Spicy Spice to give you back your balls.
It’s been a tough few weeks for Beckham. His club lost 5-1 in the CONCACAF semi-final and 4-1 to Minnesota. Pretty humbling for a guy like him.
But he needs to ignore stuff like this.
1 Like
He is having some family problems which is likely exacerbating this.
Been in the UK news as his bday bash was in London.
I just got an email from the local USL Championship club indicating that they’re trying to join the launch of the new USL Division One (or whatever it ends up being called).
Considering that the local team would have been in danger of relegation out of Championship if promotion/relegation were in place, that seems rather ambitious, over and above the question of whether US club football can survive MLS and USL competing with each other at multiple levels of the US football pyramid.
I don’t know anything about the USL. Is its likely aim to eventually merge, rather than compete, with MLS?
That strategy worked in hockey with the WHA but soccer doesn’t even have as large a market as hockey in the US.
Yes, but it would have to take a pretty big bite out of The MLS Soccer teams’ profits to push a merger.
A huger league would laughable – I mean more so than now – without pro/rel. And we’re still talking American billionaires and millionaire Hollywood stars who are not in it to win it, but to maximize ROI. And pro/rel risks that ROI. A Bunde-style pro/rel playoff might be more interesting at the end of the season than a straight pro/rel.
Currently, some teams in the league don’t even play each other in the regular season.
Thanks. That’s helpful insight.
The article mentions that the USL thinks there will be much more soccer interest in the US due to the US being a co-host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Not sure that is valid as the US was the sole host in 1994 and that didn’t spark an explosion in fan interest. I think soccer will have its dedicated base in the US but will never have a league approaching the NFL, NBA, MLB or even NHL-level of following.
Ditto for Canada. EPL has bigger following than MLS.
USL has primarily been the structure defining the non-top-tier of American football. I’m not in the loop beyond occasionally attending games for the local Championship club.
MLS developmental/secondary teams had been playing in USL Championship and USL League 1 (on tiers 2 and 3 of the US football pyramid), but they moved to a new MSL-controlled league, “MSL Next Pro”, which now shares space with USL League 1 on the third tier.
I assume, but don’t actually know, that there’s tension both because of the competing leagues as well as the fact that MLS owns its 30 teams, effectively locking out the individually owned clubs in USL, unless MLS buys one of the clubs / unless a club becomes an investor in the MLS (which is one interpretation of what happened with Nashville).
It’s good that football is becoming popular enough in the US that we can support multiple tiers of teams. I’m just skeptical as to how many top-flight teams (by American standards anyway) the US can support…especially if some of them are subject to the risk of relegation, constraining investor interest.
1994 World Cup still holds the record for total attendance, though there there were only 24 teams. The percentage breakdown of tourists, U.S. residents from foreign countries, and plain ol’ Americans is unknown. And with tRump, higher ticket prices, U.S. customs, etc., 1994 might still hold the record after 2026.
The attendance at the 1994 WC was an indication of fan interest in that particular event and the size of the venues. But that says nothing about the subsequent impact of it on soccer in the USA.
I expect a new attendance record will be set in 2026 despite the US now being perceived by much of the world as a less welcoming venue. WC trumps Trump.
Whitecaps have a good excuse for being humiliated in Mexico City
Caps are without their nine best players in game against Sounders today due to international call-ups, etc. Lots of second-stringers get to play today.
Sounds like the symptoms are persisting as well. Didn’t seem to affect the success of your national team yesterday though as they easily beat #25 ranked Ukraine. Classy of the Canadians to ease up after going up 4-0. Also nice to see the huge Ukraine-Canadian fan support in the crowd.
1 Like
18 players possibly unavailable for Whitecaps tonight.
https://x.com/JacksonOnRadio/status/1931868537729233035?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet
Shame the MLS Soccer League does not recognize international breaks.
To answer the headline: only when Euro and Arab billionaires start investing.
A breaking point will be when the USL teams start winning the US Open Cup regularly.
Then, USL gets a fat TV contract, they start playing their matches at noon for the live Euro feed, etc.
Then, some MLS Soccer team decides to play in the USL, starting at Tier 3, moving up in three years.
So, 100 years or so.
Inter Miami think they have figured out the formula for success: MLS regular season is irrelevant. Playoffs and Cups and CWC are relevant.
Then-Inter Miami manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino had quickly realized the team could rest 37-year-old Messi when necessary and still qualify for the most important aspect of MLS: the postseason. According to ESPN Research, teams historically have needed to win only about a third of their regular-season matches to qualify for the playoffs. With new head coach Javier Mascherano at the helm, Messi’s involvement with Inter Miami follows a similar pattern.
“The MLS season allows you to fail in certain games – the knockout phase of a continental league doesn’t; it means you’re out,” Mascherano said earlier this season, referring to Concacaf Champions Cup. “But the CCC playoffs prepare you for what’s coming in October with the playoffs. In the end, the MLS is a long season that ultimately boils down to a continental cup where knockout phases are the norm, and in the end, you can’t fail.”
As Miami prepares for the Club World Cup, which starts Saturday, the club has been saving its best player for when it really needs him.
Will see how this theory holds up if Inter Miami plays one of the top European clubs in the World Cup Club competition. A rested Messi may not make much difference; it didn’t help even in the CONCACAF Club semifinal matches against the Whitecaps.