It's All About to Happen for the First Time, Again
2024 MLS Season Kick-Off Essay
It feels like we’re right on the edge of a moment, doesn’t it?
2024 will be the first year of a historical era for soccer in the United States, containing the first summer of a stretch that should define the 2020s as The Soccer Decade in the US. From our vantage point in February 2024, we stare down (FIFA's decision about 2027 pending) five-summers, during each of which, a globally-significant tournament is hosted on American soil: Copa America in 2024, the expanded Club World Cup in 2025, the Men's World Cup in 2026, the Women's World Cup in 2027, and the Olympics in 2028. These summers will have a significant effect on the sport in this country. Future generations will not be able to tell the story of this sport in this country without considering the effect of the summers of the mid-2020s, for better and worse.
Every American soccer league should be understood through his lens during this period. These tournaments will represent a watershed era for the sport in the United States, bringing immense attention and interest to the sport internationally and domestically. Every domestic professional league will have an exigence to capitalize on this. Because of its status as the top men’s league and the signing that brought about a paradigmatic shift within the league last year, I’m particularly drawn to view MLS through this lens this year.
Regardless of whether one would like to admit it, or necessarily enjoys this effect, there are more eyes on MLS because of the Lionel Messi signing than there ever have been. These viewers may or may not remain around once Messi leaves Fort Lauderdale, and they might not watch more than a single match each week, and might not buy more than one ticket this year, but this is a level of interest around Major League Soccer that we've never seen before. No MLS team has ever had the metrics in online support that Miami has, no MLS team has swung season ticket packages the way that Miami has, no MLS team has done an international series of friendlies at the scope that Miami has, and no MLS team has caused international incidents at the level that Miami has. This is the first full season to be imbued with that notoriety.
These two aspects -- the potential of the upcoming soccer summers on the international level and the suffocating intrigue of the league's new darling franchise -- make this moment feel unique, and big, and bright, and significant, and new. It's never been like this before.
Yet, it's always been like this, hasn’t it? Soccer is the sport of the eternal future in the US, always the next big thing to overtake what's there, a sport with, in the eyes of many, no history, no roots, but so much delicious potential. It's been the next big thing, just a generation away from taking over for each of the past four generations. The 2020s are to be the American Soccer decade just as the 1990s, 1970s, and 1920s were. The show-stopping international megastar is playing on our shores in a moment as unprecedented as it was in 2007 and 1976. It's all happening for the first time again.
It's not just those things: Chunks of this season will be affected by the best players leaving for the Euros, Copa America, and the Olympics. MLS and Liga MX will have to deal with an inter-league tournament, made popular by the new overseas signing who scored phenomenal free-kick goals, entering its second iteration without the novelty of the first. The referees are involved in a work stoppage. Charlotte is starting the year with a new coach from outside of the league. The Revolution are making progress on having their own stadium. New York City is making progress on having its own stadium. Inter Miami is making progress on having its own stadium. Arrowhead Stadium will host soccer. Frank Klopas has to parlay a relatively successful interim stint as head coach of the Chicago Fire into a long term role. Eduard Atuesta will be in the midfield for LAFC. Sam Vines will play fullback for the Colorado Rapids. The top division of American Men's soccer is trying to leave the US Open Cup. A team will wear a jersey that reminds everyone of Charlie Brown. The college football team representing an institution that awarded Joe Bush a diploma will travel outside of city limits to play games at an MLS stadium during the MLS season due to construction on their home stadium.
There is also newness that should be noted - For the first time ever, we'll see Minnesota United play MLS matches without Adrian Heath at the helm, LAFC play matches without Carlos Vela, and a team under the Sporting Kansas City name play with neither Graham Zusi nor Roger Espinoza on the roster. We'll see more teams than ever, over a third of the league, playing in Concacaf. We’ll also see eras quietly ending: We’ll see Seattle without Lodeiro and an MLS season taking place without a new expansion team for the first time since 2016, an Open Cup without full MLS participation for the first time since 2011, and a full BC Place sellout for Whitecaps soccer for the first time since 1983.
These contradictions: The sport's eternal potential, the league's ever-replenishing novelty and its concealed glories -- They are a part of what draws me in so deeply. That's what I seek to illuminate on this site in 2024. There is a lot to see here, a lot of fun to be had, laughs to be shared, frisson to be felt, and I will do my best here to help illuminate it, wherever it is.
Shout out to me for taking a photo of my TV on the MLS logo two years ago
Carlos Vela isn't with LAFC? Since when?