Francis Jacobs became the youngest soccer player to sign a professional contract with a U.S. club when he joined Orange County SC, the club announced Monday. Orange County competes in the USL Championship, the second division of U.S. soccer.
The world’s premier club competition is back for another edition and you’re all Googling "how to watch the Champions League" and scrambling to figure out if you have the right channels.
Well, you’ve come to the right place to learn how to watch the Champions League and every other major soccer league for the 2019-20 season, iterating on our similar story from last year.
Atlanta United set all sorts of Major League Soccer attendance records in its second year in the league, from highest average attendance to biggest MLS Cup crowd. It was impressive to see more fans at the 2018 MLS Cup final in December than the Super Bowl at the same stadium two months later. But how does Atlanta stack up to the highest attended soccer matches in U.S. history?
Last night in U.S. Open Cup play, the two remaining Cinderella clubs fell by the wayside at the quarterfinal hurdle. Saint Louis FC and New Mexico United — both of the second division USL Championship — couldn’t overcome MLS opposition, but not before issuing a firm statement on what makes the oldest ongoing competition in the United States so special.
Prior to the start of the 2019 season, the USL launched its new league brand as the organization looks to expand its reach over U.S. soccer. The USL was renamed the USL Championship, a new USL League One (third tier) was created and the Premier Development League (PDL) was rebranded as USL League Two — straight out of the FA playbook in England.
And while expansion across all three tiers will continue, the USL's next focus is formalizing academy competitions for the next generation of players.
This past week MLS announced that expansion was formally approved to hit 30 clubs over the coming years. In a country with a relatively young soccer community, interest continually growing, and a number of small to large sized untapped markets, expansion is a fundamental part of the soccer landscape. Not just for MLS but across all the leagues.
Here is a brief look at the new clubs set to debut in 2020. Expect this list to double by the time we reach November.
Major League Soccer held its annual Board of Governors meetings in Los Angeles this week. Along with allowing MLS clubs to collect solidarity payments in the future, one of the major outcomes of the meetings was the announcement that MLS expansion will increase the league to 30 teams in the near future.
MLS announces plans to expand to 30 teams in the coming years. More: https://t.co/P71gdJhogy pic.twitter.com/mlnLDNd7x1
Without having ever made the jump to MLS, 31-year-old Colombian striker José Angulo has been a constant source of goals in the USL Championship over the years, including a league MVP and Golden Boot-winning campaign back in 2013.
Angulo has bounced around the American lower divisions for 10 years now, but he’s currently on the books at Hartford Athletic, a club enjoyed its inaugural season in the USL.
Hartford has suffered six defeats in its first six matches, but Angulo registered his first goal for the club yesterday during a 3-1 loss to the Pittsburg Riverhounds.
Promoting a club in the United Soccer League can be tricky. It’s always an uphill battle for any lower-tier sports team, especially in soccer. But Austin Bold FC has what may be the greatest (or maybe worst, we’re not sure yet) promotion we’ve ever seen to get fans into the stadium.
The 106th U.S. Open Cup will kick off next week with 84 teams from MLS to the amateur ranks dreaming of lifting the trophy. Last week we looked at where the participants this year are coming from and the announcement that the entire tournament will be available on ESPN+. On Wednesday, the first 38 clubs to enter the competition found out their opening-round draw.