With FC Cincinnati joining the fold, the 2019 Major League Soccer season consists of 24 teams. Next year, that number will grow to 26 with the debuts of Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC. By 2022, it’ll be 28 teams with Austin FC already one of the confirmed expansion sides. There are many cities vying for slots 28 and beyond, and the current frontrunners seem to be Sacramento, St. Louis and Detroit.
Youth soccer in America is changing. Over the past few years, U.S. soccer has moved to profoundly address the exclusivity of high-level grass roots play. Talented footballers at the high school age can get offered to play for a program known as a Development Academy (DA). Both Major League Soccer and other youth clubs all over the U.S. have Development Academy teams, from the high school age all the way down to U-12.
The long march toward the existence of Inter Miami CF technically began over a decade ago. David Beckham arrived in MLS in 2007 to much fanfare, a new designated player rule, a massive contract — and an option to be an expansion franchise for $25 million after he retired. That last piece went from interesting expansion topic to reality in late 2013 when Beckham and Simon Fuller came forward as owners for a new team based in Miami-Dade County.
Miami FC and Kingston Stockade FC of the NPSL are currently in the middle of a case challenging how the U.S. Soccer Federation is run and has set up the soccer pyramid in America. The case is on-going in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Late last week more than 100 clubs from the lower divisions signed a letter in support of the two clubs and called for the introduction of promotion and relegation in the U.S.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending a second division match in the United States, you've seen some real grassroots support. The USL Championship (formerly just the USL) has been around for quite some time, and has expanded to an eye-popping 36 teams this year. Austin Bold FC is one of the newest clubs making the rounds in the USL Championship, and the new boys travelled to Las Vegas for the start of the season.
The 2019 USL Championship season began this past weekend with the league welcoming over 90,000 fans across 17 games, including a sellout crowd of 12,896 to watch New Mexico United’s opening match at Isotopes Park (that's more than the Chicago Fire and Colorado Rapids drew to open their MLS campaigns).
In all, five clubs drew more than 8,000 spectators for their opening matches, an extremely promising sign for the health of the league as it enters its ninth season.
USL League One begins its inaugural season on March 29 with 10 clubs vying for the championship in America’s third division. One of those clubs will be Forward Madison FC, based out of Madison, Wisconsin.
The club was founded in 2018, and the 2019 season will mark its debut as a professional team. The club will play its home matches at 5,000-seat Breese Stevens Field, and back in December, Forward Madison announced a one-year affiliation agreement with Minnesota United FC.
We’ve got Mad Ants, Baby Cakes and Lights. There are Isotopes, Rowdies and Skyforce. And of course Steel, Go-Go and IronPigs.
When you’re not the best at something, you’ve got to come up with unique ways to promote yourself. I know this first hand from trying to find a romantic partner.
Minor league sports teams also know this well. It’s why lower-division clubs often have unique nicknames you just don’t find anywhere else.
So which of America’s top three lower divisions — in soccer, baseball and basketball — have the best team nicknames?
In some respects, 2018 was a marvelous year for U.S. Soccer. The USWNT went unbeaten, won its 500th game and qualified for the 2019 World Cup with ease.
In many other respects, 2018 was a poor year for U.S. Soccer. The USMNT didn’t record a single win of note and both the U-20 and U-17 women’s national teams flamed out in the group stage of their respective World Cups. Plus, U.S. Soccer had a divisive presidential election campaign, eventually settling on Carlos Cordeiro.
FC Cincinnati will make its Major League Soccer debut in 2019. While reasonably successful in the United Soccer League the last three years, MLS will present a far greater challenge for the Orange and Blue. Fortunately for fans in the 66th largest city in the U.S., a number of recent FC Cincinnati signings this week have the club trending in the right direction.