The road to the 2020 World Cup in Qatar for the U.S. Men’s National Team begins in Austria on March 29 when Gregg Berhalter’s side will meet Jamaica in the rematch of the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup Semifinal. The U.S. will follow up that friendly with a trip to Belfast on April 1 where they will play Northern Ireland.
Major League Soccer
Phil Neville will reunite with former Manchester United team-mate David Beckham at Inter Miami after being appointed the new manager of the MLS club.
Miami announced earlier this month that they had agreed to mutually part ways with Diego Alonso, the Uruguayan coach who oversaw their inaugural season.
The club finished 10th in the Eastern Conference on their MLS debut, making it to the playoffs play-in round, where they were beaten 3-0 by Nashville.
Now Neville, who left his role as head coach of England’s women’s national team with immediate effect earlier on Monday, will take his first leading job in the men’s game.
There’s no shame in losing to a team as good as Tigres UANL, but that doesn’t make Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat in the Concacaf Champions League Final any less painful for LAFC, considering how close they came to pulling off the upset.
In a game that most pregame predictions had Tigres winning handily, it was LAFC that were in the driver’s seat following Diego Rossi’s 61st-minute opener that put his team just 30 minutes from history. Then, there was a golden opportunity just four minutes later after Kwadwo Opoku beat his defender down the right side and found an open Carlos Vela in the box for the type of look the standout Mexico international has finished so many times before.
Columbus Crew SC delivered on their lofty aspirations from a 25th Major League Soccer season like no other, winning the 2020 MLS Cup in convincing fashion in what’s likely the last major game at MAPFRE Stadium, the first soccer-specific ground in league history.
Behind an inspired performance from club-record signing Lucas Zelarayan, the Crew resoundingly beat the Seattle Sounders 3-0 on Saturday night, denying Seattle a championship repeat and returning to MLS’s peak for the first time since 2008. The Crew, who entered new ownership in 2018 after a fan-led movement to keep the club in Ohio, overcame incredible adversity to lift the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.
Major League Soccer (MLS) announced today that it has lost almost $1bn during 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
MLS was only two weeks into its historic 25th season when a halt was called to the campaign in March. It did not resume until July, with the MLS is Back competition in Florida, before a revised regular schedule resumed on 12 August.
“The overall [financial] impact is going to be deeper than we expected,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber.
This summer’s International Champions Cup was supposed to include an El Clasico match between La Liga rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona. But unfortunately, due to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak in the United States, not aonluy this event, but all international soccer games in USA in 2020 have been cancelled.
Without the lucrative preseason tournament, Real Madrid and Barcelona are expected up lose around €15M in revenue. That is a huge hit for clubs that are all facing the financial implications of the Coronavirus which has halted football across Europe, forcing clubs to lay off non-playing staff and asking players to take hefty pay cuts. Barcelona players for example, took a 70% pay cut.
Spain’s La Liga, the Dutch Eredivisie, Portugal’s Primeira Liga and USA’s Major League Soccer have been suspended over coronavirus concerns.
There will be no action in the Spanish top flight for “at least the next two rounds of matches” as a result of the quarantine of the Real Madrid squad.
Netherlands’ top two leagues have also been suspended for the same period.
The 2020 Major League Soccer season – which started less than two weeks ago – has been suspended for 30 days.
David Beckham says there were times he thought his Inter Miami Major League Soccer franchise “might not happen” as his Inter Miami get set to play their first official match when they visit LAFC on Sunday.
It is six years since Beckham exercised an option to own a franchise – included in the deal that brought him to MLS from Real Madrid as a player in 2007.
In the intervening years Beckham was embroiled in arguments over a stadium site, with the club playing 30 miles from Miami before it relocates in 2022.
Inter Miami CF have appointed Diego Alonso as their first ever head coach. The former Uruguay international most recently served as head coach for CF Monterrey in Liga MX, where he led them to the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League title.
“In Diego we found a manager that fits our culture and has a strong desire to build a winning club for our fans,” the club’s sporting director Paul McDonough said in a statement.
“He brings a lot of experience and championship-winning mentality as we begin our drive to be among the best clubs in the Americas. We have big aspirations for our club and believe Diego has the right drive, passion and leadership to accomplish our goals.”
PSG striker Edinson Cavani will reportedly leave the club next summer, with Atletico Madrid and Inter Miami interested in signing the Uruguayan on a free transfer.
The La Liga club has identified Cavani as a potential transfer target in January following their struggles in front of goal under Diego Simeone this term.
With Alvaro Morata the club’s only fit striker, Atletico are sixth in La Liga and have scored just 16 goals from 16 games.
Atletico would be keen to push through a deal in January, but would struggle to cater for Cavani’s wage demands given his current salary worth over €18m in Paris.