There’s no shortage of attacking talent across MLS, but five clubs have assembled groups that are a cut above the restAttacking talent across Major League Soccer is plentiful. The recruitment of wonderful goal scorers and goal makers kept pace with expansion, then entered another stratosphere. Most clubs have curated their attacking display with multiple stars and the best clubs have seen those individuals connect seamlessly with their teammates. So, which sides in MLS have formed the best attacking trios?The top trios below are comprised by individual greatness and placing a premium on how they combine collectively; in part by rewarding past work and part by projecting forward this season as many teams will continue to evolve, despite being more than...
The teams are decided for the post-season. But who will have the biggest say on the destination of this season’s MLS Cup?Josef Martinez (Atlanta United) Nothing in Major League Soccer is as thrilling as an Atlanta United game at their new Mercedes Benz Stadium home. Tata Martino’s men have scored more goals than any other side in becoming the first expansion team to make the play-offs in their debut season since the 2009 Seattle Sounders. Much of that attacking success has been down to Josef Martinez.The Venezuelan is United’s master of chaos, scoring 18 goals in just 16 starts. If Atlanta are to make a play-off run, keeping Martinez firing will prove critical. Of course, without the supply line of...
How did the Five Stripes become MLS’s most popular team five months after their first ever game? Shifting attitudes towards football in the US explain a lot Two Major League Soccer expansion clubs first took the field in March 2017, both bearing the moniker United. One in Minneapolis, the other in Atlanta – a city in that lower-third of the American map which, conventional wisdom holds, stands in stark opposition to the globalist concerns of either American coast, and could therefore never deign to care about a sport as preposterously effete as soccer, where flopping is rewarded. Five months later, Atlanta United boast the highest average home attendance in Major League Soccer history (46,318 fans per game, more than any...
There was a time when US soccer was a storm of Rowdies and Cosmos, but now United is the name of choice. What’s going on?Once, pro soccer in the United States firmly embraced the country’s sporting culture. Teams that came to prominence in the 1970s in the North American Soccer League (NASL) had names that wouldn’t sound out of place in the NFL: the New York Cosmos and and Tampa Bays perhaps being the most notable. Cheerleaders roamed the sidelines, and even the foundations of the game – such as the offside rule and the draw – were changed to appeal to an audience accustomed to traditional American sports.But over the last 15 years, Major League Soccer has evolved from...
Patrick Vieira and Tata Martino’s teams meet this weekend and they both provide a look at the future of football in the USWhen New York City FC host Atlanta United on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, it will mark the first ever meeting between the clubs and an opportunity to show just how much MLS has developed. Two teams, filled with depth, diversity and ambition, are the perfect advertisement for Major League Soccer and if there was ever a fixture that can speak for the face of America, this is it.Here’s why.¡OLA KAMARA! #CLBvNYC 2-1 pic.twitter.com/0dRL1aFg1h Continue reading...