Players and coaches among those who favor seeing MLS shift to an international calendar
As Major League Soccer readies to open its 30th season, some players and coaches are advocating for a fall-to-spring calendar, a major move that would align the league with its international counterparts.
Such a shift would give MLS a more competitive position for player transfers, while also freeing up players for club duty during the summer, when many major global tournaments take place.
But there are obvious challenges, like the weather during a season that begins in late February and runs through the playoffs to December.
Teams like Minnesota United and the Chicago Fire already face downright hostile weather during the winter months. On Tuesday night, when the Colorado Rapids beat LAFC in a CONCACAF Champions Cup match in Denver, temperatures hovered in the single digits. Frigid temperatures were expected for the Champions Cup match on Wednesday in Kansas between Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami and Sporting KC.
“We experienced the game in Chicago last year at the beginning where it was 15-10 degrees cold. But I think once the players got going, you still saw a game with intensity and tempo and, you know, I don’t think you see it at the same level in a lot of those summer matchups. I know it’s not (popular) across the board, but I like the idea,” said FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan.
With a warming climate, some of those midsummer games in places like Texas become difficult, too. Last season, a match in Austin was pushed back because of extreme heat.
MLS opens its new season Saturday, and it certainly won’t be balmy in those northern states. But the current schedule allows the league to mostly avoid the months when the NFL and the college football postseason rule.
“MLS has done a great job of understanding what the United States is like,” Seattle Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. “It’s just bigger and it’s got more diversity and climate and all of those things. And you have to take all that into consideration, because we won’t be able to play in some markets during those winter months.”
If MLS aligned with Europe, the season would probably open in mid-August with a break in mid-December before resuming in February. The championship would likely be in May.
Noonan and Houston Dynamo general manager Pat Onstad both said aligning with international leagues would make it easier for teams to bring in top talent.
“This is a difficult time of year to go get players. As our league gets better and better, we’re trying to get now the best players from other clubs. And if you do that in the January window, you’re destroying the other club’s season. So it becomes really difficult until we match up with the rest of the world. So from a recruitment stand, it’ll be a big change if we can do this as a league,” Onstad said at the league’s media day.
Complicating matters is Major League Soccer’s already crowded schedule — and top players called in and out of their national teams during the busy summer months.
The United States will host the Club World Cup from June 15 to July 13. Inter Miami and the Sounders will represent MLS in the 38-team field, with games to be played across 11 U.S. cities.
There’s also the ongoing CONCACAF Champions Cup and this summer’s Leagues Cup featuring teams from MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX. League teams will also participate in the U.S. Open Cup.
St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Bürki said he is in favor of aligning with the European schedule. Barring that, he suggested that perhaps the Leagues Cup — played in the thick of the summer — could be moved to the preseason and most players could be given more time off during the summer.
Before the MLS final between the LA Galaxy and New York Red Bulls in December, Commissioner Don Garber was asked whether the league was considering an international calendar.
“Making those changes is something we’ve got to be very, very thoughtful about. I do think that we are considering, more than ever before, this opportunity to change. But it’s not something that we’re ready to talk about right now,” Garber said.
Such a move, which the league also considered in 2013, would require extensive advance planning, but there have been rumors around the league that the shift could come following the 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. MLS plans to break for the tournament.
Former U.S. national team goalkeeper and Hall of Famer Tim Howard, now an investor in the Houston Dynamo and its National Women’s Soccer League counterpart, the Dash, is among those in favor of the idea.
“I tend to think being on the international calendar is important. It has challenges, like every major change and shift has its challenges. But leagues have done that since the beginning of time,” Howard said. “Oftentimes you’ve got to pivot, and it’s a hard pivot, and that comes with growing pains.”
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Soccer Writer
