Now that I got my nerdy opening done (don't worry you'll probably get that joke soon enough), it's time to start this week's MLS Crossbar. Let's go ahead and take a look at the CONCACAF Champions League, World Cup 2026, and the Premier League possibly playing in America.
CONCACAF Champions League
Another year, another disappointment for the MLS. Last night marked the conclusion of the Semi-Final round of the CONCACAF Champions League, where both MLS clubs fell short. FC Dallas lost on aggregate to Pachuca 3-4 and the Vancouver Whitecaps lost to Tigres 1-4.
An MLS club has never won the league in its current format, and only two have even made the finals (Real Salt Lake in 2011 and Montreal Impact in 2015). The Whitecaps were never truly in this series against Tigres. On the other hand, FC Dallas had a real shot at advancing to the finals. Dallas was up on aggregate through 86 minutes until Pachuca scored, forcing extra time to determine a winner, where Pachuca delivered, ending FC Dallas's run.
World Cup 2026
According to CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani, the US, Canada, and Mexico are finalizing to have joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup. All three countries have been heavily rumored to make bids to host the World Cup with different pairings of those countries to host jointly. The only other time the World Cup has been hosted by multiple countries was in 2002 when Japan and South Korea hosted together.
This proposal has a good chance of being selected for different reasons. First is that the region has long been the favorite to host the World Cup after the past few World Cups being hosted in other regions instead of the CONCACAF. Secondly is the scale of the 2026 World Cup. This will be the first time that the World Cup expands to 48 countries competing. With this, there is more infrastructure needed to host, something that could be more easily accomplished when it is hosted by three separate nations that are also easily connected to each other.
The Premier League's 39th Game
Recently Charlie Stillitano, chairman of the International Champions Cup, was on ESPN FC's Max and Herc Podcast, where he mentioned that he does not think that the Premier League hosting a 39th game for each club in the United States is that crazy or far off. The world's most prominent clubs already come over to the US every year for the ICC, so many clubs are no strangers to America.
The reason why doing so would require adding the extra game is that it would prevent taking away a home game from any team. This differs from what the NFL has been doing for years, where they take away a home game and replace it with a game in London. International series have worked well for other of the world's top leagues, such as the NFL and MLB. The ICC always draws large crowds, so adding an America game to the Premier League season could be a home run.
Screen Time
NYCFC @ DC United (4:00 on 4/8 on Facebook Live) - DC United is looking to overcome a slow start to the season against a strong NYCFC club.
New York Red Bulls @ Orlando City SC (4:00 on 4/9 on ESPN) - A matchup of two teams that are currently in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff seeding and are looking to stay there.
Colorado Rapids @ Sporting Kansas City (7:00 on 4/9 on FS1) - Both clubs are looking to gain some early season momentum to go strong into the summer.
Wrap-Up
Thank you for reading and we'll see you next week on MLS Crossbar.
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