February 20, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS) News Release
MLS is Back: Season 29 Kicks off in the 305
The 2024 Major League Soccer regular season kicks off on Wednesday, Feb. 21 when Inter Miami CF hosts Real Salt Lake (8 p.m. ET, MLS Season Pass) before heading into a full slate of weekend action highlighted by reigning MLS Cup presented by Audi champion Columbus Crew taking on Atlanta United on Saturday, Feb. 24 (2 p.m. ET, MLS Season Pass on Apple TV).
This season marks the first full MLS campaign for Lionel Messi in Miami, who, alongside generational forward Luis Suárez and decorated MLS head coach Tata Martino, will look to add to last year’s Leagues Cup victory with more trophies in 2024. Messi has missed out on league titles in back-to-back seasons just twice in his career, and the Argentine forward will not be inclined to make this the third instance.
Messi will face stiff competition from several game changers throughout the league, though, as reigning Landon Donovan MLS MVP Luciano ‘Lucho’ Acosta will be reenergized for another run at MLS Cup with FC Cincinnati while Cucho Hernández mounts his own MVP campaign while aiming to make the Crew the first back-to-back MLS Cup winners since the 2011-12 LA Galaxy.
Columbus Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy is not one for complacency, and there is no sign of that this offseason. Every year is a new story for Nancy, and he has challenged the likes of four-time MLS Cup winner Darlington Nagbe, 2023 MLS Cup MVP Cucho Hernández, and former MLS Golden Boot winner Diego Rossi to continue adding to their MLS stories.
The journey starts this weekend against Atlanta United, where the club’s MLS Cup title defense and the Crew’s quest to become the fourth club in MLS history to win consecutive titles begins. It’s been 12 years since the LA Galaxy went back-to-back in 2011 and 2012 and following in those footsteps would undoubtedly put this current crop of Crew players in the conversation of MLS dynasties.
Nagbe and Homegrown midfielder Aidan Morris are chasing individual glory as well, as they could become the first players in club history to win MLS Cup three times with the Crew. Nagbe, who played at the University of Akron prior to being drafted in 2010, and Morris, who came through the Crew Academy, have some of the deepest roots among the current roster and are two of the most fitting players in Crew history to potentially accomplish the feat.
For Nagbe, a fifth MLS Cup title would go another step further in…
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