Five days before MLS begins a league-wide tournament in Orlando, one of its 26 teams, FC Dallas, is locked in hotel rooms. About half of the other 25 have not yet arrived. Some have sat on buses waiting for the results of the COVID-19 test. Others have hesitated to travel.
The virus, meanwhile, is within the MLS bubble. It is inducing anxiety. He is already overturning carefully crafted plans. And he’s hinting at how messy US team sport will be in 2020.
That is, if they happen at all.
At the heart of the problems leading up to the MLS tournament are the COVID characteristics that every sport and every American institution must face. As the month begins, Florida’s burgeoning case features dominated headlines. But the virus did not penetrate the MLS bubble of the surrounding community. It came from Dallas. And now from another side. And now it is not known how far it has spread.
‘It just shows you how vulnerable we all are’
The Dallas players have been quarantined in their rooms for three days, communicating through Zoom, sending messages of support, because when they arrived in Orlando on Saturday, two players tested positive for the coronavirus. On Sunday and Monday, four more positive tests raised the team to six. On Wednesday, according to a report by The Athletic, three more Dallas players and a coach tested positive.
Luchi González, the Dallas head coach, was not one of the 10. But as he said in a remarkable interview with 105.3 The Fan, “That doesn’t mean he can’t [test positive] morning. Or in the next few days. … I’ve been exposed to the players, we’ve all been exposed to each other.
“We have followed every step ordered by the government, the league, the doctors. And we are really proud of the steps we have taken. But it just shows how vulnerable we all are. ”
It shows how vulnerable any individual, any team, any league, bubble or non-bubble is. According to the team, each member of the Dallas touring delegation tested negative “before the club left.” Upon arrival, that changed. The two isolated positive players. When two became six, the entire team was isolated. Quarantine throughout the club will stop the outbreak.
But as González mentioned, that does not mean that more positives do not emerge. The virus takes time to incubate inside people. After someone has contracted it, experts say, he or she probably won’t test positive until 4-7 days later. To be absolutely certain that there will be no further spread within the team, Dallas players will have to be quarantined until Tuesday, July 7 or so. Their first game is scheduled for Thursday, July 9. Multiple players will not be available. The rest would have been locked up, unable to train, for a week.
That game, as of Friday morning, is still underway. But “the party is secondary,” said González. “I don’t know if it will keep its current date. I don’t know if it will be postponed. I don’t know if we will continue in the event. “
Training vs. Human health
And now Dallas is not alone. The Columbus Crew arrived in Orlando on Sunday. They trained Monday and Tuesday. All the first tests were negative. Then on Wednesday and / or Thursday, a player tested positive.
And now the crew, eight days before their first game, faces a dilemma that many American sports teams will face.
This, again, is probably a case of infection in the domestic market. The player presumably contracted the virus late last week. What league officials can’t know, and won’t know for sure until next week, is whether the player infected his teammates this week.
What the team and the league must decide is whether those potentially infected teammates can continue training. If they are quarantined and do not train until next week, they will be at a competitive disadvantage when matches begin. If they resume training, they could pass the virus on to more teammates. They could become FC Dallas. They may have to withdraw from the tournament.
The Crew said in a statement they would resume training “pending MLS approval.” We will see if the league grants it. The decision is very clear between the competitiveness of a soccer tournament and the health of a dozen human beings.
This, in 2020, is what American sports has come to.
“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring”
The NBA is not MLS, and its own plan should Provide more coverage. While MLS teams arrive in Orlando a week before their first games, NBA teams will arrive three weeks before the restart. Players will be evaluated on four consecutive days, twice before departure, twice on arrival. According to the league’s “Health and Safety Protocols” document, which was obtained by Yahoo Sports, players will be quarantined in hotel rooms for “approximately 36-48 hours” before team training can begin.
However, this does not eliminate the possibility of an FC Dallas or Columbus Crew situation. A player could contract the virus a day before the game. He would not test positive until a few days after his arrival. You could pass the virus on to your teammates during the second half of that interim period.
More importantly, these scenarios could emerge at any time in the coming months. Chances are good that they will pop up in baseball and football without stationary bubbles. A player will test positive. Health authorities will have no idea who else, or how many others, were subsequently infected before the case was detected.
That is the scary part. That is why uncertainty flourishes. “Every day we wake up and we don’t know if there will be a case on our team or someone we have been in contact with,” Minnesota United goalkeeper Tyler Miller told ESPN’s Stefano Fusaro on Thursday. “Trying to manage that has been a challenge for many guys I’ve spoken to throughout the league.”
There have also been reports of false positives surrounding the MLS. The inconsistency of the evidence accentuates the unknown. The unknowns make it difficult to focus on soccer.
“Right now we have a roster that can still compete mathematically,” Gonzalez said of FC Dallas. “But then again, there is evidence every day. Let’s see if there are more positive aspects. I don’t know what tomorrow or the day after tomorrow will bring.
Trapped in his hotel room for three days, González said he had had time to reflect. And maybe we all should too. Uncertainty, illness, fear … is it really worth it? Will sports be so enjoyable?
The stories, if the games begin, will not be fighting, rivalry, or revenge. They will be COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 and the coronavirus.
Perhaps everything is financially preferable to the alternative. But it will be scary. And exhausting.
More from Yahoo Sports:
