On the sixth day of MLS’s restart last month, an ambitious tournament teetered. A week earlier, two teams had been expelled from the Disney World bubble because of novel coronavirus outbreaks, further unnerving the delegation of 1,300-plus players, coaches, staffers and referees staying at the same Florida resort.
Two other teams had confirmed cases and, minutes before a July 13 match that had already been postponed once, D.C. United boarded a bus for the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex while its opponent, Toronto FC, remained behind.
A D.C. player had tested positive, a result that was subsequently revealed as a false positive, and a Toronto individual had received an inconclusive result. Toronto players refused to play; D.C. called for a forfeit.
Rocking in uncharted waters, the league postponed the game 24 hours.
Ultimately, the teams played. And ultimately, MLS did not encounter any further turbulence, proving, along with the NWSL Challenge Cup in Utah, that bubbles can work.
Four-plus weeks, thousands of swab tests and 41 virus-free matches later, MLS on Tuesday night closed the curtain on a successful tournament when the Portland Timbers defeated Orlando City, 2-1, on Dario Zuparic’s 66th-minute goal.
Then the riskier work begins. Starting Wednesday, and barring major setbacks continuing into December, MLS will attempt to resume the regular season and conduct the playoffs in home markets. That’s more than 250 games with travel and, in some cases, spectators in places ranging from relatively healthy to searing hot spots.
Some U.S. pro leagues are finishing seasons in bubbles; others are starting with in-market competition. Emboldened by the Florida tournament, MLS is doing both.
Commissioner Don Garber bristled at the suggestion of quitting while MLS is ahead.
“Quitting is never an option,” he said Saturday. “Think of all the challenges MLS has had throughout its history. I never believe … in quitting when we are ahead, and we have not been ahead a whole lot.”
That comment reveals MLS’s inferiority complex: We know we don’t have the history or TV ratings of the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball; we know many U.S. soccer fans prefer watching the Premier League or Liga MX, but, darn it, we can do this. We have to do this.
MLS says it has consulted with infectious-disease specialists in implementing policies to prevent and mitigate outbreaks. The players say they are disciplined enough to avoid dangerous settings in their daily lives.
But as MLB has learned, it takes only a few infections to trigger concern and postponements. MLS does have an advantage in that its road trips differ from those in MLB: While baseball teams are holed up in a city for a few days, MLS squads, in many cases, will not stay overnight.
MLS will fly exclusively on charters after years of stuffing into commercial flights and waiting out delays in airport terminals.
Still, Garber is not expecting to replicate the hermetically sealed environment the league created in central Florida. “We are going to have challenges,” he said.
MLS will take lessons from not only MLB but U.S. soccer’s lower-tier leagues, which for a month have been playing in home markets. Some teams are allowing spectators; travel sometimes involves commercial flights.
Loudoun United, D.C. United’s second-division squad, has bused twice to Hartford, Conn., 375 miles each way. As part of the pandemic protocol, the bus must stop every two hours to air out the interior.
Like in MLB, the second-flight USL Championship and third-tier League One have had to postpone several games because of health concerns.
As MLS pivots to the next stage of a troubling year, it can reflect on a five-week tournament that included rising stars (Toronto’s Ayo Akinola and Philadelphia’s Brenden Aaronson); a stand for social and racial justice among a diverse workforce; heat-defying starting times (9 a.m. and 11 p.m., in some cases); and, in ESPN’s coverage with natural sound, every player interaction and coaching instruction.
Because the group stage counted toward the regular season, the Columbus Crew was the unofficial winner. Caleb Porter’s squad won all three Group E matches with a plus-seven goal differential before losing in the round of 16 to Minnesota United in a penalty-kick tiebreaker.
Having won once and tied once before the pandemic shutdown, the Crew will reenter the regular season undefeated (4-0-1) and well-rested.
Four others earned seven of a possible nine points at the tournament, while Inter Miami and Atlanta United went home with none. Fear not: MLS expanded this fall’s playoffs by four to 18 of 26 teams.
That is, of course, if MLS successfully navigates the next three harrowing months. Each team is slated to play 18 additional matches between Aug. 20 and Nov. 8. (FC Dallas and Nashville SC, which were booted from the bubble, have three makeup matches to play against one another, starting Wednesday.)
The Disney experience, as Disney things are, was pure fantasy. The pandemic’s realities carry harsher truths.
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