US Open Cup: FC Cincinnati, Houston Dynamo march into semifinals | MLSSoccer.com MLS Clubs FC Cincinnati And Houston Dynamo Advance On First Night Of 2023 U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals | U.S. Soccer Official Website (ussoccer.com) THEY'RE SEMIFINAL TOUGH: Cincinnati, Houston win Open Cup quarterfinals - Front Row Soccer Riverhounds' Open Cup run ends with 3-1 loss at MLS leader FC Cincinnati | Pittsburgh Soccer Now Chicago Fire FC Falls 4-1 to Houston Dynamo in Quarterfinals of 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at SeatGeek Stadium | Chicago Fire FC Vancouver Whitecaps, CF Montréal rivalry hits different in Canadian Championship final | MLSSoccer.com Power Rankings: FC Cincinnati eclipse LAFC, Columbus & Orlando surge | MLSSoccer.com Concacaf rebrands premier regional competition, increases prize money | MLSSoccer.com Atlanta United needs better defense because schedule getting tougher (ajc.com) ‘LAFC’ Is The New Los Angeles Lakers For A-List Celebrity Sightings! (yahoo.com) Miami's Kamal Miller, Montréal's Matko Miljevic fined by Disciplinary Committee | MLSSoccer.com NYCFC center back Thiago Martins out after knee surgery | MLSSoccer.com MLS and sponsors prepare package to convince Lionel Messi - AS USA Who will Messi join? Barça, Miami, Saudi target has two more suitors - AS USA San Diego Loyal to play German giant Borussia Dortmund - The San Diego Union-Tribune (sandiegouniontribune.com) New MLS team coming to San Diego needs your help (fox5sandiego.com)
The only current setback I see with the Messi to Miami deal is that their team plays in DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale with a capacity of only 18,000. They should be playing in 64k seat Hard Rock Stadium in Miami as they would surely sell out at least until the novelty of his signing wears off.
when Miami fired head coach, Phil Neville, i surmised that something BIG is in the works- after years of disasterous seasons, the firing was longggg overdue Tata Martino would make sense as a replacement Messi coming to Miami (maybe in 1 more year in Europe) would be the supreme icing on the cake - it would be as HUGE as david beckham coming to MLS in 2007- the league would get world-wide attention and viewing audiences would majorally shift upwards- what a lead-in to the 2026 World Cup - we can expect MLS expansion plans for 2027, probably to markets 31 and 32
Only if they bury Steve Ross in the center circle. Suing US Soccer and FIFA and trying to bring in games to overshadow and compete with Inter Miami isn't a good way to go about getting Messi games. He's spent 20 years promoting his international soccer exhibition games. He's like the anti-Garber. Plus, he's an asshole.
I'm curious what impact Ronaldo has had on the Saudi league and whether people feel Messi would have a bigger impact on MLS. I know for myself, I have not paid one bit of attention to Al-Nassr even after they signed CR7.
Other than beating Messi and Argentina in the first game of the 2022 World Cup, I don't think many people ever notice Saudi Arabian professional football.
Now they've added Benzema at Al-Ittihad. Still not sure how it's supposed to make any real difference for them.
Why do I get the feeling that THE Miami FC may have an exhibition match or two at Hard Rock in the next couple years?
I'm really dating myself here, but I remember when Germany spanked Saudi Arabia, 8-0 in a World Cup group stage match in 2002. At the time, the announcers were saying that each member of KSA played in the Saudi professional soccer league, and Saudi-born players were not allowed to play professionally outside the country. I looked up the national team's profile on Wikipedia, and the article said nothing about the restriction. I'm guessing it's still in place, not that Saudi Arabia have produced players that may have been deemed good enough to play for a high profile club in other parts of the world.
The Saudi-born national team players are most likely being paid a lot more than they would by playing abroad sitting on a bench (especially if they are with Al Nassr) so that is probably why they don't want to leave home. Al-Nassr Football Club 2023 Wages | Player & Team totals (salarysport.com)