MLS
"THEY ALSO REMAIN AS UNPREDICTABLE AS EVER, ENSURING INTEREST IN THE LEAGUE UNTIL THE VERY LAST GAME."
BY: MARCO D’ONOFRIO
START STOP THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
THE GOOD Despite all the challenges that COVID-19 continues to present, Major League Soccer is planning to operate a full season with teams playing a total of 34 regular season games – 17 at home and 17 on the road. While it is still not ideal that the league's three Canadian teams will likely have to play all of their home games in the United States or that many stadiums across MLS will be far from full capacity, it is nice to see the league reverting back to a pre-pandemic schedule. Certainly, positive cases and outbreaks could occur and matches will likely be postponed throughout the season, like we've seen in other professional sports leagues, but there is much more hope for the current campaign than there was at this time in 2020. Last year, the league wasn't even sure it would be able to operate and get its season off the ground at all. Some creative thinking led to the MLS is Back tournament that took place in Florida, which helped re-start the campaign. Eventually, the league was able to finish out the season with teams back in their local markets playing games at their home stadiums. Like every other year, the Philip F Anschutz trophy was presented to the MLS Cup champions after a fantastic final. There was a point during the year though that few people were even sure we’d ever see a 2020 MLS Cup final.
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SOCCER360 MAY • JUNE 2021
