Major League Soccer’s 27th season is set to kick off with the Philadelphia Union hosting Minnesota United as part of a nine-game MLS slate on Saturday.
Reigning champion New York City FC, who qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals, kicks off its title defense on Sunday in Southern California against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
MLS Cup has also been moved up, with the final set to be played on November 5 after the regular season concludes October 9.
What can we expect in 2022?
NYCFC trying to run it back
Very few teams have repeated as MLS Cup champions. It hasn’t happened since the Galaxy in 2011-12, but as long as 2021 Golden Boot winner Taty Castellanos is around, for however long that might be, NYCFC has to feel confident.
There are rumblings of Castellanos perhaps moving on in the summer, but Maxi Moralez still remains the focal piece of the offense and promising youngsters Thiago Andrade and Talles Magno will get a lot more shine this season. Defensively NYCFC remains solid and added 26-year-old Brazilian center back Thiago Martins to the fold as a Designated Player. Oh, and Sean Johnson is still in net. Ronny Deila’s squad should be one of the better teams in the East.
Life after Valeri for Timbers
Diego Valeri was the heart and soul in Portland, and filling the void after his departure for Lanus in his native Argentina is going to be tough. Key players like Sebastian Blanco and Diego Chara are still there, but can they still play those consistent, high-intensity roles?
The Timbers are going to need more players like Felipe Mora, Dairon Asprilla, Santiago Moreno and maybe even newcomer David Ayala to step up throughout the season. Portland fell just short of the Cup last year and is used to always being relevant in the chase, but that task seems a bit more daunting this season for coach Giovanni Savarese.
What’s going on in Charlotte?
Two weeks before kicking off their inaugural season, Charlotte FC coach Miguel Angel Ramirez made a shocking comment. When asked about what expectations should be, he told the media to wait a bit until the roster is fully filled out and said in Spanish “ahora estamos jodidos,” which translates, in polite terms, to “right now, we are screwed.”
Add that to the fact that they got into a fight in a so-called “friendly” vs. Columbus just days later, and it was quite an eventful preseason for the expansion team, for all the wrong reasons. Off to a rough start before even playing a real…