Major League Soccer announced Charlotte, North Carolina, will be home to the 30th franchise in the league on Tuesday. The Charlotte MLS expansion bid was led by Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, with a reported expansion fee of $325 million.
Kicking into gear in pic.twitter.com/woFr645A45
— charlottemls (@CharlotteMLS) December 17, 2019
Major League Soccer announced Charlotte as Major League Soccer’s 30th club on Tuesday. Awarded to Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, the team will begin play in 2021.
Charlotte. 2021.
You got next, @CharlotteMLS! pic.twitter.com/bSJPP0vJJX— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 17, 2019
I don’t care much for the NFL. As a Texan by birth, I’m required to at least have a team (hint: it’s not the Cowboys), but other than that the Super Bowl is nothing more than an excuse to eat guacamole and queso.
But one thing caught my eye in the NFL on Sunday night as the Buffalo Bills beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-10 to clinch a playoff berth, just their second trip to the postseason this millennium.
It was one of the wildest NCAA soccer games in recent memory, and it was the perfect way to close out 2019 in U.S. soccer.
Georgetown outlasted top-seeded Virginia to claim the Hoyas’ first-ever men’s College Cup title in an epic match on Sunday in Cary, North Carolina. The teams were tied 3-3 after regulation before Georgetown keeper Tomas Romero, a freshman, came up with the only save of a penalty kick shootout to lift his side to a 7-6 win.
Sports and politics have long been intertwined. For as long as athletes have had a platform, they’ve used it to speak up for their beliefs and ideals, from Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Tom Brady and LeBron James.
But when it comes to American politics, soccer players have long been on the periphery, too obscure for anyone to really notice come election day. That began to change somewhat in 2016, and based on an announcement on Friday, 2020 could be a big year for American soccer players in politics.
U.S. Soccer announced Julie Ertz as the 2019 USWNT Player of the Year on Friday morning, the 27-year-old powerhouse beating out teammate Megan Rapinoe, who had been honored by FIFA and the Ballon d’Or as the best in the world.
Ertz has dominated wherever she plays for five years now, whether it’s anchoring a back line as a powerful center back or holding down the middle of the park as a box-to-box midfielder. Ertz was named to the Women’s World Cup team of the tournament as the USWNT won a second straight world championship.
When Jim Frank first started volunteering as a Withrow High School soccer coach in Cincinnati, he and head coach Tyler Barrott had to base their substitution pattern on the players’ shoe size.
The soccer program had 40 players, almost all international students and most of them refugees, but only 23 pairs of cleats.
“The disdain or pity on our opponents’ faces as we had to take the time to remove shoes and shin guards during substitutions was the emotional ‘aha’ moment that told me that I needed to do more than just coach these players,” Frank said.
The Portland Timbers Twitter account has won the internet. Everyone else can delete all their social media apps from their phones because there won’t be anything better on there ever.
After Netflix tried to be fun with a leading question seeking clever innuendo, the @TimbersFC admin came up with the best (worst?) reply of them all.
We have two DP slots open.
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) December 6, 2019
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is just saying what we’re all thinking, and, often, talking, writing and complaining about. Soccer in America is broken because of one key aspect: pay to play.
Ibrahimovic has left the United States, trading Beverly Hills for Milan after one-and-a-half years with the LA Galaxy. But his time in America left a mark on the Swedish striker.
For fans of Major League Soccer, the offseason is entirely too long. It’s a point that Vancouver Whitecaps manager Marc Dos Santos was recently fined for expressing with some decidely colorful language.
“Players at the top level, they have three weeks, one month maximum, on break,” Dos Santos said. “I’m telling you, three months and a half of a break in a soccer season is Mickey Mouse. It’s amateur. It doesn’t happen in the world.”