Believe it or not, the 25th season of MLS begins tomorrow. My earliest memories of watching soccer are from the 1994 World Cup and it's mind-boggling that that was 26 years ago now.
MLS has once again expanded in 2020, taking membership to 26 teams: Inter Miami and Nashville SC have joined the league. The Southeast region, which had no representation between the 2001 and 2015 seasons, now has four clubs and Charlotte will be a fifth in 2021.
This offseason, clubs have been more aggressive with their spending. Incoming transfer fees have been rising and more than half of the league broke their transfer record this winter. The biggest "name" signing of the offseason is Chicharito, who joins LA Galaxy on a huge salary. Most of the spending is directed at young South American talent and established Liga MX talent. There's always a potpourri of European players coming in as well.
A big part of what interests me personally about MLS is the opportunity to see the evolution of American players. In that vein, there's a pretty solid array of interesting young players who are in line for good years as they work toward the USMNT. FC Dallas in particular provides intrigue in this regard: Cannon, Ferreira, and Pomykal have been capped, and they have other young guys of interest as well. I think that the whole developmental process from academy recruitment and coaching to USL reserve teams to first team integration has gotten a lot better in recent years, though there is still a lot of work to do.
Matt Doyle, whose work I always enjoy, did a massive team-by-team preview the other day. It's a good way to familiarize yourself with the contours of the 2020 season, if you have time (it's long!).
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/02/27/armchair-analyst-frontrunners-pack-all-26-mls-teams-ranked-tier
ESPN+ remains a very good deal if you watch games from around the league (it's often not a good deal if you only watch your local team, depending on blackout rules).
MLS has once again expanded in 2020, taking membership to 26 teams: Inter Miami and Nashville SC have joined the league. The Southeast region, which had no representation between the 2001 and 2015 seasons, now has four clubs and Charlotte will be a fifth in 2021.
This offseason, clubs have been more aggressive with their spending. Incoming transfer fees have been rising and more than half of the league broke their transfer record this winter. The biggest "name" signing of the offseason is Chicharito, who joins LA Galaxy on a huge salary. Most of the spending is directed at young South American talent and established Liga MX talent. There's always a potpourri of European players coming in as well.
A big part of what interests me personally about MLS is the opportunity to see the evolution of American players. In that vein, there's a pretty solid array of interesting young players who are in line for good years as they work toward the USMNT. FC Dallas in particular provides intrigue in this regard: Cannon, Ferreira, and Pomykal have been capped, and they have other young guys of interest as well. I think that the whole developmental process from academy recruitment and coaching to USL reserve teams to first team integration has gotten a lot better in recent years, though there is still a lot of work to do.
Matt Doyle, whose work I always enjoy, did a massive team-by-team preview the other day. It's a good way to familiarize yourself with the contours of the 2020 season, if you have time (it's long!).
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/02/27/armchair-analyst-frontrunners-pack-all-26-mls-teams-ranked-tier
ESPN+ remains a very good deal if you watch games from around the league (it's often not a good deal if you only watch your local team, depending on blackout rules).