Heading to the next World Cup, MLS enters its 28th season

The road to the 2026 World Cup begins in MLS.

The United States League enters its 28th season this weekend and debuts with a new club: Saint Louis FC. It also presents a new agreement with Apple’s streaming platform for the transmission of its matches. And in the middle of the campaign will take place the so-called League Cup, a tournament that will bring together for the first time all the teams of MLS and the Mexican league.

The tournament is part of a growing collaboration between MLS and Liga MX – both professional leagues are eagerly awaiting attention as venues for the next World Cup hosted by Mexico, USA and Canada.

The World Cup in Qatar broke records, with 36 MLS players representing their country, double the number of MLS players at Russia 2018. One of them was Thiago Almada, who won the title with Argentina . The midfielder made history by becoming the first player to win the trophy with an MLS team.

LAFC is the defending MLS champion. The Western Conference team is packed with talent, including Carlos Vela, Kellyn Acosta and Giorgio Chiellini. But they lost Colombian striker Cristian Arango – their top scorer – and Mexican right-back Julián Araujo. Arango has been sold to Pachuca in Mexico and Araujo to Barcelona, ​​where he will first venture to affiliate Barça Atlètic, under Mexican coach Rafael Márquez.

LAFC’s sensational June signing Gareth Bale decided to retire in the offseason, but not before delivering some memorable moments in the league game with his extra-time equalizer to force a session of penalty shootout in which they prevailed against the Philadelphia Union.

“I think our starting XI is still pretty good and we’re happy with that. We have very good players on the bench, although we don’t have the depth of last year. So we will focus on health and try to manage the number of games in a very tight schedule,” said LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo.

Philadelphia, which finished first in the Eastern Conference, made no significant changes this winter but lost Jamaican forward Cory Burke, one of its key players, in free agency. The Union were the team that scored the most goals (72) last season and the one that conceded the least (26), a record for a 34-game campaign.

DEAL WITH APPLE

MLS begins a 10-year partnership with Apple with the launch of a subscription package including Apple TV+ this season. Apple had previously offered a few sports on its platform, but this is its first significant deal with a league.

MLS will receive at least $250 million per season from Apple. The league averaged $90 million per season under its previous eight-year contract with Fox, ESPN and Univision.

NEW ARRIVALS

St. Louis City joins MLS this season as the 29th team. They will open the road trip in Austin, but will return home to host Charlotte on March 4 at CITYPARK Stadium entirely dedicated to football. The first home game will be played in front of 22,500 people, a full house.

The league plans to add another team and it could be announced in the middle of the year.

WHAT IS SOUND IN MIAMI?

There is heavy speculation that David Beckham could bring Lionel Messi to Inter Miami, but that doesn’t seem like something that will happen in the immediate future. The club was bolstered by Venezuelan striker Josef Martínez from Atlanta United. Martínez won the league championship in 2018 with Atlanta, a season in which he established himself as MVP and top scorer.

TECHNICAL

One of the coaching changes this offseason was Wilfried Nancy, who left Montreal last season for the Columbus Crew after Caleb Porter was fired. Argentinian Hernan Losada, who managed DC United in 2021 and part of 2022, took Nancy’s place in Montreal.

Luchi González returns after serving as an assistant for Team USA during the World Cup to join the San José Earthquakes.

DERBY

The season begins on day one with the classic between LAFC and the LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

This game could break the league attendance record for a regular season game set by the Charlotte Crew with 74,479 in their first game.