PBP: 2026 MLS Season: MLS is Back!!!! PBP Thread July 16 & 17 {R}

Sooooooooo, they're gonna play for 3 weeks then shut down again for a month for the Leagues Cup.

oy!

 

Leagues Cup consumes only one weekend.

 

Have you looked at the schedule? There's one week (the first full week of August) of Leagues Cup games and otherwise there's full MLS games every weekend for the rest of the season.

 

whoopsie

 

This is the 14th week with MLS regular season games this year. I have no idea what MLS will call it.

 

I have it down as Matchday 16. We'll see what MLS says eventually, I'm sure.

Here's the series information for 5 derbies and an outlier.

THURSDAY, JULY 16

Montreal vs. Toronto
TFC lead CFM, 29-24 with 11 draws. This is the most-played MLS series this week.

Chicago vs. Vancouver
Whitecaps lead the Fire, 7-4 with 3 draws.

St. Louis vs. Kansas City
Sporting lead CITY, 4-3 with 3 draws.

Seattle vs. Portland
Sounders are on top of the Timbers, 25-23 with 14 draws.

FRIDAY, JULY 17

Nashville vs. Atlanta
Tennessee leads Georgia, 6-4 with 5 draws.

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Los Angeles FC
The Galaxy lead LAFC, 10-9 with 7 draws.

 

Information for this matchday is appearing v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y this week. Here is what we have right now:

Here is the Disciplinary Summary report for Matchday 16 (July 16-17 matches).
Here are the MLS Game Guides for Matchday 16 (July 16-17 matches).

I'm guessing we eventually will have match officials and players, too. The matches would seem a bit lonely without them.

 

Getting closer. We have referees now. The player availability report should be posted this evening.

Here are PRO's Assignments for Matchday 16 (July 16-17 matches).

 

Oh good. We have players, now.

Here is the Player Availability report for Matchday 16 (July 16-17 matches).

 

I thought the Worl Cup break would help Seattle's injury woes. Our defense is, in a word, thin.

 

Welcome to America, enjoy the wildfires.

 

I hear thermal infrared glasses may help fans trying to see the players through the smoke layers.

For serious, though, it may be respirator time (or stay-home-and-watch-Apple time) for people who have breathing difficulties. That wildfire smoke isn't good. It's really thick in many places.

 

On of Sportings new signings are already out with a Quad injury.

great start to their “playoff push”

 

This air quality rating is now at 595, and tonight’s Fire match has been postponed.

BREAKING: Tonight’s marquee MLS match between the Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps has been postponed due to unsafe air quality, per sources.

Canadian wildfire smoke has blown south to Chicago.

Robert Lewandowski’s MLS debut is on hold. https://t.co/pVFXIWJMt0

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 16, 2026

 

AQIs in St. Louis right now range from 39-49, so CITY-SKC looks good to go.

Everybody from Minneapolis to Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, and Pittsburgh has hazardous air right now, and numbers aren't much better in Philadelphia and NYC. Stay safe, friends.

 

600 AQI in Chicago, absolutely brutal.

 

It feels worse than getting stuck in the smoke from a campfire.

I just went to take the trash out and it felt like my body basically rejected breathing. It's nasty.

 

I was looking forward to Chicago vs Vancouver tonight, but I understand the need to postpone that one.

 

Finally I get to watch some good meaningful soccer (to me).

 

Toronto's formation looks like a WM straight out of the 1950s.

 

Decent crowd, but surprisingly subdued for a TOR-MTL contest. Maybe a goal will liven things up.