MLS somehow made it through the 2020 season, which turned out to be fairly entertaining if often bizarre and quirky even by MLS standards. Theoretically, the delayed playoff structure for the 2020 season will make for the shortest offseason we've had in a while, but that's dependent on the 2021 season starting at a normal time, which is far from certain for obvious reasons.
Some major storylines heading into the offseason:
A well-maintained list of transactions this offseason can be found in a couple of places:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Soccer_transfers_2021https://www.mlssoccer.com/transactions/2021
Today on Christmas, San Jose announced the return of club legend and all-around great story Chris Wondolowski, who had been toying with retirement. Instead, he'll return for his age 38 season.
Another aging MLS prolific-striker-turned-supersub, Bradley Wright-Phillips, has signed with Columbus.
Anyway, it will wonderful if we can get fans back in stadiums before the end of the season. I'm sensing that the rise of a strong generation of American players is something that is going to raise interest in all corners of American soccer (players abroad, USMNT, MLS) and I'd like to see the domestic league benefit from that as much as possible. Here's hoping.
Some major storylines heading into the offseason:
- Austin FC joins the league in 2021 as the 27th team. While there's some general ill will toward Austin based entirely on distaste for their owner Anthony Precourt and his attempted re-enactment of the plot of Major League in Columbus, that doesn't seem to be translating to Austin itself where, like most expansion teams, there's a ton of interest in season tickets. They should be the best-supported team in Texas next year.
- The CBA was amended in mid-2020 because of the pandemic, a process that included the insertion of a force majeure clause. As a result, there have been rumors that the owners are considering invoking it, which would dissolve the CBA and bring the parties back to the table with a fresh slate. This would be acrimonious, as the players are already unhappy with how owners conducted themselves in earlier rounds of negotiations.
- The youth movement in MLS. A few pivotal events occurred in 2020: young American players played a lot, and did pretty well! The share of total MLS minutes going to US U23s increased by 37%. Digging deeper, this effect was even stronger among the U20 subset, whose share of minutes increased by 58%. I see several reasons why this happened: (1) there are more good young US players than there used to be and clubs have better infrastructure and club culture to accommodate bringing them into the first team, (2) the COVID-shortened schedule had aggressive travel that required a lot of squad rotation. We also saw increased willingness to sell: deals were struck for Cannon and Aaronson during the season, and it seems likely that Reynolds and McKenzie will be out the door this winter. So — how will these trends fare in 2021? I'm optimistic.
A well-maintained list of transactions this offseason can be found in a couple of places:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Soccer_transfers_2021https://www.mlssoccer.com/transactions/2021
Today on Christmas, San Jose announced the return of club legend and all-around great story Chris Wondolowski, who had been toying with retirement. Instead, he'll return for his age 38 season.
Another aging MLS prolific-striker-turned-supersub, Bradley Wright-Phillips, has signed with Columbus.
Anyway, it will wonderful if we can get fans back in stadiums before the end of the season. I'm sensing that the rise of a strong generation of American players is something that is going to raise interest in all corners of American soccer (players abroad, USMNT, MLS) and I'd like to see the domestic league benefit from that as much as possible. Here's hoping.