The MLS returns from Wednesday, with a tournament style World Cup. This one will be played behind closed doors in the Disney World bubble in Florida, where the coronavirus has already upset the program. While waiting to be able to possibly resume the course of its championship, suspended after two days since mid-March, the MLS has opted for the “bubble” option. Like the NBA, which will end its season there on July 30, and the NHL, which hopes to do the same this summer a priori in Toronto or Edmonton in Canada.
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These two leagues will obviously be scrutinizing how things will turn out on the Orlando side where this “MLS is Back” will serve as a life-size test for the concept of a competition taking place on a single site supposed to be protected from the world. outside. However, for a week since most of the teams have taken up residence in the huge ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, where the MLS has implemented a protocol aimed at preventing them as much as possible from contamination with Covid-19, the first positive cases have been recorded.
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MLS
Chicago Fire positive for Covid-19
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08/22/2020 At 03:24
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Dallas-Vancouver postponed
Fourteen members of delegations including 12 players contracted Covid-19 upon arrival at their hotel, according to more than 2,700 screenings carried out between June 28 and July 4. The pandemic is also on the rise elsewhere than in Florida, around twenty other positive tests were identified in certain clubs before their departure for Orlando, in particular nine players from Dallas FC. This prompted MLS to reschedule the Texans vs. Vancouver Whitecaps game at a later date. The situation therefore necessarily gives rise to concerns.
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“A player in the bubble told me his team must be in quarantine after testing positive, but no one is delivering meals to their rooms, which is supposed to be protocol. So they have to go down to the dining room, take the elevator and get their food back“, tweeted Diego Rubio, forward for the Colorado Rapids, who are due to arrive in Orlando on Monday.”They are told to be careful and to use more hand sanitizer gel. We were only supposed to think about football there and now we have all these problems! How are we going to play knowing that it is dangerous to leave our room? What will our families think of all this?“, he added.
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This tournament, which is to open with a Florida derby between Orlando City SC and Inter Miami, owned by David Beckham, will consist, like a World Cup, in a group stage – the results of which will also count for the championship – followed by knockout matches. A winner will be crowned on August 12. After four months without competition, it is difficult to name favorites if not among the semi-finalists of the last championship: the Seattle Sounders, reigning champions, Toronto FC the finalist, as well as Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC.
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I don’t know what we will or will not be allowed to do to support the cause. There is something that I wanna do but I keep it to myself
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“MLS is Back” will also certainly be an opportunity for players and coaches to show their support for the “Black Lives Matter” movement in the fight against racial injustice, following the death of George Floyd. “I don’t know what we will or will not be allowed to do to support the cause. There is something that I wanna do but I keep it to myself“, warned Impact Montreal coach Thierry Henry.
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MLS
MLS backs players booed for kneeling during US anthem
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08/14/2020 At 7:00 AM
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MLS
Matuidi, new challenge in Miami
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08/13/2020 At 11:18
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