In this edition of MLS Crossbar, we'll talk about press conference ridiculousness, the World Cup Qualifiers, and some expansion news, as well as a new segment called Screen Time, where we'll highlight the national broadcast games.
Bastian Schweinsteiger
The Chicago Fire's newest designated player, German national Bastian Schweinsteiger, arrived in the city earlier this week and received some not so soccer-literate questions. During his introductory press conference, Schweinsteiger was asked if a World Cup goal was a realistic goal for the club. In case you're wondering, the answer is no, since the World Cup is played by countries and not clubs.
The 32-year-old last played for Manchester United and will probably not be the answer to the Fire's problems. Not only does Schweinsteiger not make the team that much better, he's also not the sort of name that will bring a lot more players to Fire games. The move would make more sense five years ago, but in today's MLS game this does not make much sense. The momentum has swung toward having your designated players being young, up-and-coming players instead of aging, former European stars. This move is a head scratcher, and it would be somewhat surprising if the move actually improves Chicago's playoff chances.
World Cup Qualifiers
Now onto the teams that will actually be playing in the World Cup. Over the last week, many World Cup qualifiers took place, so here we'll be highlighting how the US did and what it means. On Friday the 24th, the US took on Honduras in San Jose, and the results were beautiful. The end result was 6-0 to the Americans, with a hat trick by Clint Dempsey and a goal plus two assists by the 18-year-old Christian Pulisic. Overall this performance was impressive, and gave the United States a lot of energy after a difficult start to World Cup qualifiers, where they didn't pick up a single point.
On Tuesday the 28th, USMNT flew down to Panama City and picked up a point by tying with Panama. While a win would have been great, getting the point on the road is an excellent result for the team. The team currently sits fourth in the CONCACAF table and is a point behind third place Panama. The top three CONCACAF teams automatically make the World Cup, and the fourth team takes part in an inter-confederation playoff to secure a World Cup birth. Making their way into the top three should ultimately be the goal, since that is the ideal path to Russia in 2018.
Expansion News
This week MLS commissioner Don Garber was in St. Louis to talk about the city's bid to land an expansion club. The city is getting ready to vote on whether or not to give public money to fund the proposed soccer-specific stadium downtown. The commissioner also stated that he is confident that the city should receive an expansion team if they vote for funding the stadium. This is not new news, since St. Louis has often been seen as a favorite to land a team.
Jetting over to southern California, the group trying to bring an expansion team to San Diego held a public poll to see what the people want to name the possible club, and it did not disappoint. The winning name, with nearly 60% of the vote, was Footy McFooty Face. One suggestion to the fine folks of San Diego is that you need to class up your name selection. You can't name your team Footy McFooty Face. You have to name it Footy McFooty Face FC; that's how you name a soccer team.
Screen Time
Sporting Kansas City @ Toronto FC (7:30 on 3/31 on FS1) - Both teams are trying to get momentum going before they get too far into the season.
Atlanta United FC @ Seattle Sounders FC (10:00 on 3/31 on FS1) - The league's newest, possibly most exciting team visits the defending MLS Cup champs for the first time.
Orlando City SC @ Columbus Crew SC (4:00 on 4/1 on Facebook Live) - Recently the league came to an agreement with Univision to broadcast 22 regular season game in English on the platform's Facebook page. This move is great for the league, so make sure to check on this week's game on the page.
New England Revolution @ Portland Timbers (9:00 on 4/2 on ESPN2) - The Revs are coming off of a 5-2 win over Minnesota and are now taking on one of the league's top scoring teams.
Wrap-Up
It's been an interesting few weeks of some kind of strange news, but now the league's getting back to normalicy with a full slate of games this weekend to check out.
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