For the first time since 1994, the World Cup is back in North America. Sixteen cities — 11 in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada — will be holding matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The host sites for 2026 World Cup games will be finalized in the first half of 2022, and, to no one's surprise, the games being contested in the United States will be played at rather large football stadiums.
Andre Blake stopped the first two shots of a penalty kick shootout and the No. 2 seed Philadelphia Union advanced to the Eastern Conference final for the first time with a 1-1 (2-0) result over third-seeded Nashville SC on Sunday at Chester, Pa.
After a remarkable Decision Day that ended with Colorado atop the Western Conference and Salt Lake in the postseason at the expense of the LA Galaxy, it’s time to begin our countdown to the Cup final on Dec. 11 with some MLS playoff predictions.
Thankfully, this season’s action begins after the November international break so there’ll be no awkward space between the first round on Nov. 20 and the conference semifinals on Thanksgiving.
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.
Hany Mukhtar recorded the fastest hat trick in MLS history and Nashville SC extended their home unbeaten streak to 11 games with a 5-1 victory over the visiting Chicago Fire on Saturday night.
Mukhtar tallied all three goals in the first 16 minutes.
Mukhtar, who entered with a team-leading four goals, took advantage of breakdowns on Chicago's back end to open the scoring in the 10th minute, and he came through again three minutes later.
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.
As Major League Soccer’s 26th season begins this weekend, a record 27 teams will compete for the MLS Cup. That number will expand to 29 by 2023, with a 30th club in the works. While there are plenty of critics who say expansion is diluting the quality on the pitch and merely enriching current owners’ pockets with expansion fees, I for one want to see MLS expansion continue well beyond 30 teams. If you’re going to go big, go really fucking big. I’m talking 40, 50, 60 teams even.
The 2021 Major League Soccer season begins on April 17, which is just over 50 days away. It’s been a hellish winter for Texas, the Plains and New York, but there are better times ahead — heralded by the 2021 MLS jerseys that are now being released.
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.
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