Say this for the Major League Soccer return-to-play tournament – it wasn’t boring. Before it started, two teams had to withdraw due to a series of positive COVID-19 tests. In lieu of pomp and normal pre-tournament circumstances, the league opened with a ceremony honoring the Black Lives Matter movement. Once it started, there has been no shortage of featured performances.
The MLS is Back Tournament now begins the knockout phase with the Round of 16 on Saturday before ending on August 11 and potentially entering some sort of regular season after that.
Here you will find everything you need to know to be prepared for the rest of the tournament:
The tournament started with six groups of four teams that played three games each. The advancement of the top two teams in each group was guaranteed, along with the top four ranked third.
While the results weren’t exactly chalk, most teams you’d expect to advance did … with a few notable exceptions.
The greatest was undoubtedly the perennial power of Atlanta United, who managed to lose the three games he played and did not even score a goal. Perhaps predictably, that manager costs Frank de Boer his job (yes, THAT Frank de Boer).
Also notable among that group were the 2019 New York Red Bulls, DC United and LA Galaxy playoff teams, which replaced world superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Mexican superstar Javier Hernandez during the offseason.
It wasn’t so surprising that Inter Miami’s expansion pulled out of the tournament, but it was notable that they became the first MLS team to lose their first five games despite spending a lot of money to complete their inaugural roster and sign up for the League. MX veteran Diego Alonso as his coach.
The biggest reveal of the group stage was probably the Columbus Crew, which didn’t even make the playoffs last year. The crew was the only team to win all three games, as well as the only team that did not allow a goal. They opened their tournament with a 4-0 victory over FC Cincinnati in the “Hell is Real” rivalry and have generally played some of the most inspiring football matches in the tournament.
After that loss, almost everyone ruled out Cincinnati’s chances, especially since they had hired Jaap Stam just a couple of weeks before the tournament. It would be overkill to call Stam’s team “inspiring,” but they managed to bounce back with a couple of wins over Atlanta (1-0) and the Red Bulls (2-0).
The other big surprise was Orlando City, who never made the playoffs, but managed to go undefeated and finish at the top of his group. Chris Mueller’s three goals have led the way and even earned him some mentions as a potential player for the United States national team.
The Portland Timbers finished at the top of the so-called “Group of Death”, facing Los Angeles FC in the final of the group stage. In addition to being one of the leaders of the league’s Black Lives Matter Movement, Jeremy Ebobisse has also been one of the best players in the tournament.
The San José Earthquakes were only able to train together as a team for less than two weeks before the tournament began and play a men’s tagging system that lends itself to poor communication at best. They still managed to win their group despite doing things like this:
That’s what a lot of people thought, and the odds of gambling greatly favored them. The reigning MVP who was missing, Carlos Vela, who decided to stay home with his pregnant wife, definitely hurt, but their presence doesn’t seem to have been lost too much as they were easily the team with the most goals in the group stage with 11 goals.
Diego Rossi has been almost unstoppable, including a five-goal performance at El Trafico, and his Uruguayan teammate Brian Rodríguez has been one of the tournament’s leading stars. They also bring someone like Mohamed El-Munir from the bench, a player capable of this:
Where they have fought is on the defensive. They have given up the first goal in their three games and only one team allowed more than their seven goals. There’s something admirable about Bob Bradley’s first attack mindset, but it’s unclear whether his midfield and defense will be able to return to the level that made them so good last year.
They will face reigning MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders, the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last year, in the Round of 16. That game is on Monday.
Like almost all teams, it was difficult to know what to expect from the Sounders. They opened with a 0-0 draw against the Earthquakes and looked quite flat against the Chicago Fire in a 2-1 loss. But they flew off in their group stage finale, beating the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-0 behind a dominating performance by Jordan Morris. The tournament has so far been a microcosm of many of his seasons under Brian Schmetzer: slow start, medium slow, and strong finish. If they follow the script, they will organize a strong race in the knockout stages.
No one has been particularly consistent, which is probably to be expected given the long break and short lead-up to games, and there have been plenty of surprises along the way. If you are looking for a team that seems capable of warming up and increasing, the Philadelphia Union is a good bet. Jim Curtin has quietly transformed them from an afterthought into one of the league’s hottest teams despite a roster virtually devoid of recognizable names.
Another team to pay attention to is Toronto FC. They have many “names”, but their most impressive player in the group stage was the little-known Ayo Akinola. The Detroit-born product TFC Academy scored five goals in three games, including a hat trick against the Montreal Impact.
Fortunately, kickoffs at 9am are now a thing of the past. The games were designed as a way to prevent games from being played at the same time, avoiding the hottest part of the day. But temperatures still routinely crawled into the high 80s and 90s and were accompanied by intense humidity. The players hated them and, apparently, they were a rating bomb.
Going forward, all games will start at night with the earliest start at 7:30 pm and the latest at 11 pm
In addition to the retirement of FC Dallas and Nashville SC, there have not been too many notable incidents. A handful of players from other teams tested positive, but the league has gone 12 days in a row without any other. That suggests that the positive tests were likely limited to players who contracted coronavirus before entering the Disney World bubble. Although there were some notable complaints from the start, the players and coaches seem to feel that things are relatively safe now.
