Major League Soccer was feeling pretty good about itself after the 2019 Concacaf Champions League Round of 16. Although Toronto FC crashed out to Panama’s Independiente, four U.S.-based MLS clubs advanced to the quarterfinals.
Then reality struck this week and last, yet another case of MLS failing to stack up to Liga MX.
One half of the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League semifinal bracket is filled, and it’s an all Liga MX affair pitting Tigres against Santos Laguna. Tigres took care of the Houston Dynamo 3-0 on aggregate despite the absence of injured star Andre-Pierre Gignac. Santos defeated the New York Red Bulls 6-2 on aggregate, but not without receiving something of a scare at Estadio Corona on Tuesday night.
There was a time when Brek Shea a lanky winger from the great city of College Station, Texas — home of the Dixie Chicken and the greatest football stadium in the country — looked like the next big thing for U.S. soccer. The Cockatrice, as no one but myself calls him, had a combination of skill, panache, size and athleticism that earned him a move to Stoke City after five seasons with FC Dallas.
If you enjoyed the 2016 Copa América Centenario, you’re gonna love what U.S. Soccer is trying to do next.
U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro sent a letter to the heads of each of the 10 South American football associations on Tuesday, inviting them to join Concacaf for a quadrennial international competition in the United States, the New York Times reported.
`The CONCACAF Champions League's return has fully kicked off now, will all eight matchups in the Round of 16 through the first leg. Earlier in the week, Toronto FC embarrassed in Panama by Independiente, while the Houston Dynamo and New York Red Bulls both won their games and kept clean sheets.
The 2019 MLS season is right around the corner, and the buildup to it has been filled with news of growth: new MLS teams, new exciting young players and the new kits they’ll be wearing.
Mixed with the old and the new of MLS is the stadia. In MLS, a good portion of the league's teams now have their own soccer-specific stadiums. Some clubs are currently going through the process of building a stadium, some are renovating and others are still waiting to leave their baseball fields behind.
Here’s a roundup of new stadiums coming to MLS this year and a few years down the road.
In 2017, Toronto FC won the MLS Cup, Supporters Shield and Canadian Championship. That year, Club Atlético Independiente won promotion to the top flight in Panama.
Just over a year later the two sides met in the opening match of the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League. It was Independiente's first time in the tournament and the club's first time to represent Panama in an international tournament. After Tuesday night, it's safe to say Toronto FC and MLS fans will remember the name.
Legendary American wide man DaMarcus Beasley began his 20th year as a professional on Tuesday, and the 36-year-old started with an almighty bang.
The oddly obscure, yet important CONCACAF Champions League returns this week as 16 of North America's best clubs compete for a spot at the (potentially hugely revamped) 2019 FIFA Club World Cup. While the competition remains on the sidelines for U.S. soccer fans, access to watch the matches just got slightly easier.
After preaching the verb “compete” as one of the mantras of his new leadership, Gregg Berhalter began his reign as USMNT manager with a 3-0 victory over Panama on Sunday night. The first starting eleven of Berhalter’s tenure included five players making their international debuts, and three of them — Real Salt Lake’s Corey Baird, Chicago’s Djordje Mihailovic and San Jose’s Nick Lima — played huge roles in the opening two goals.
The third was created and finished by two more players making their international debuts — NYCFC's Jonathan Lewis and LAFC's Christian Ramirez.