Carles Gil scored in the first minute of second-half stoppage time to give the New England Revolution a hard-fought 3-2 road win over the Chicago Fire on Wednesday night, clinching an MLS playoff spot in the process.
Gil's third goal of the season, assisted by Tajon Buchanan, went past Fire goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina and also gave the Revolution a franchise-record 18th win of the year.
While the USMNT is dealing with the travails of Concacaf World Cup qualifying, MLS play continues on, because international breaks are for the weak, or something. But MLS is still seeing its share of Concacafy nonsense, if this Henry Kessler time wasting is anything to go by.
On Wednesday, Major League Soccer announced its 28-player roster for the 2021 MLS All-Star Game. On Wednesday, Aug. 25, this group will play a highly anticipated match against the Liga MX All-Stars at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.
Some of the players have been here before (LAFC’s Carlos Vela, Orlando City’s Nani, Nashville’s Walker Zimmerman), but a number of players have been selected for the first time, including rising stars like San Jose’s Cade Cowell, Dallas’ Ricardo Pepi and New England’s Tajon Buchanan.
Former Argentinian forward Gonzalo Higuaín had low expectations coming to MLS but now is learning to respect the competition. The 33-year-old exclaimed he expected to play with a cigarette in his mouth, it was going to be that easy.
Through seven matches in the 2021 MLS season, Higuaín has four goals and one assist. He was quoted on Christain Vieri's Twitch live stream a few days ago saying, "I thought I would come to MLS and play with a cigarette in my mouth and instead it is difficult."
The year that was 2020 disrupted a lot of the financial models for Major League Soccer and resulted in a new Collective Bargaining Agreement ratified back in February, but the 26th season of MLS is now underway while looking largely similar to previous editions, particularly with regards to the MLS Designated Players list 2021.
The 26th season of Major League Soccer begins on Friday, April 16, with a nationally televised match between the Seattle Sounders and Minnesota United on FS1 (a rematch of last year’s unbelievable Western Conference final). The MLS national TV schedule 2021 grows from there with FOX Sports, ABC/ESPN and TUDN all broadcasting a historic amount of games.
The 2021 MLS season marks the return of fans to stadiums across the league and, God willing, the death of fake crowd noise. Beginning with the start of the regular season on Friday, April 16, teams across the country will welcome back supporters at grounds with capacity generally limited to somewhere between 10 and 50 percent.
Jozy Altidore is sick of listening to Taylor Twellman.
The Toronto FC striker took to Twitter on Wednesday to call out the former USMNT forward and current ESPN commentator, saying Twellman’s international career was “laughable.”
Monday, March 1 marked the first official day of preseason with all 27 teams reporting for a seven-day quarantine period and medical exams ahead of full training on March 8 and the start of the 2021 MLS season on April 17.
One team looking to improve on an exciting 2020 campaign that ended at the Eastern Conference Final stage is Bruce Arena’s New England Revolution, which began voluntary preseason training back on Feb. 22 at the club’s Revolution Training Center in Foxborough, Mass.