Latest news with #MLSCupPlayoffs
Forbes
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Forbes
The Vancouver Whitecaps Are A Fan's Dream — And A Marketing Nightmare
Vancouver Whitecaps striker Brian White celebrates his goal during a 3-1 victory at Inter Miami on ... More Wednesday night in Leg 2 of the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals. Vancouver advanced to the final by a 5-1 aggregate victory. There is an undeniable poetry to the nature of Inter Miami's most noteworthy tournament defeats since the arrival of Lionel Messi and several of his former FC Barcelona teammates. In the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup, the Herons exited in the quarterfinals to a CF Monterrey squad that has decisively been the best in Concacaf competition over the last decade-and-a-half, and seem intent on showing it would not be supplanted easily. In the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs, Miami fell to an Atlanta United side that would not have even qualified for the postseason without an expansion of the playoff format meant to satisfy new streaming partner Apple TV. The outcome no doubt cost the company hundreds of thousands of viewers over the rest of the postseason. Now comes the demolition of Messi's Miami over two legs of their Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal series against the Vancouver Whitecaps, a team that is the polar opposite of the Herons, in that they are a hard-core fan's dream, but a marketing professional's nightmare. For fans, there's everything to love. The Whitecaps have talent in its prime in Ryan Gauld and Brian White. They have youth and promise for the future, particularly in budding stars Sebastian Berhalter, Jayden Nelson and Ped. They have a coach in Jesper Sorensen who appears capable of getting the very best from his players. And they have a front office that was willing to pay to send several hundred of its fans to the return leg to witness what may have been the biggest moment in club history. Matches are also among the more accessible in the league, with games rarely sold out even in the lower bowl when Messi isn't in town. And yet, if you were in MLS offices brainstorming the traits you'd want the best team in your league to possess, the Whitecaps fall short in so many ways it's almost comical. Consider the following attributes – or lack thereof. That Vancouver have accomplished their run to the final without Scottish playmaker Ryan Gauld for the last two rounds is nothing short of remarkable. But even if he's the 'Caps best player, he's barely an established name in Scotland, with only six caps for a senior national team that hasn't qualified for a World Cup since 1998. Brian White is a far better forward than most people realize, but his name feels like it was lifted straight out of your 2043 Football Manager roster. Then there's the emerging Sebastian Berhalter, the second-most famous Berhalter in MLS. In North American sports, there is both Canadian bias and West Coast bias against clubs in the Pacific Time Zone and north of the border, and the Whitecaps are the lone MLS team lucky enough to combat both. Many home league matches don't finish until after midnight Eastern Time. Traveling to visit even the closest rival requires a passport. At roughly 2.6 million people, the Vancouver metro area is also the smallest of the three Canadian metros in MLS, about two-thirds the size of Montreal's and less than half that of Toronto's. The team is literally for sale, with significant concerns that it could relocate. What's more, although the current ownership group publicly confirmed its intention to sell last December, there hasn't been any reported movement in that search for a new buyer. Compare that to Real Salt Lake, whose sale was completed to a new local buyer only a few weeks after the potential transaction was first reported. The only good news on this front is that the obvious strong foundation of the current ownership group should make the club a more appealing property to investors. B.C. Place is a modern stadium and a 2026 World Cup host site. But the Whitecaps' status as the secondary tennant behind the CFL's B.C. Lions is probably the second-least-adventageous arrangement in all of MLS, behind only New York City FC's alternating baseball stadiums. And NYCFC will soon have its own venue. The CFL schedule starts two months before the NFL, meaning it intersects with a much larger segment of the MLS schedule. And of the two teams that share a venue with a CFL team, only Vancouver plays indoors and on a synthetic surface. The point of this exercise isn't to take the air out of the Vancouver balloon, although some fans will probably feel that way. Everything the Whitecaps have achieved so far has been thoroughly deserved, and the MLS league office and all of its clubs – even the Cascadia rivals – should be rooting for Sorensen's group in the June final. The lesson here – again – is that the kind of dynastic sporting brands MLS so clearly seems to want Messi and Inter Miami to become can't be syntheitcally engineered. Star power and spending power clearly play a role in pro sports, but in the end the results always have to be earned in a competitive arena that also rewards intangibles that Vancouver has in spades and Miami currently lacks. That doesn't mean Inter Miami can't or won't earn them; they did, after all, win the 2023 Leagues Cup and 2024 Supporters' Shield. But so much of how MLS (and in one case FIFA) has operated feels designed to foster such successes at the expense of using Miami's rising tide to lift all boats. We've seen the introduction of a cumbersome postseason that cheapens league play and is supposedly designed to diminish first-round upsets, the placement of the Herons in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup based on suspicious criteria, and the conspicuous absence of a Miami match during this March's FIFA international window, during which 28 other MLS teams played on. The Vancouver Whitecaps, and all of MLS' marketing nightmares relative to the Miami Messi Machine, deserve better.
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Javier Mascherano: Inter Miami Champions Cup exit is just not good enough
Even when their team suffers defeat, it's customary for a coach to try backing their players' effort. It's a custom with understandable intention, to keep a fanbase from turning on a team or to reassure players that their jobs won't suffer for one bad result. Still, some games make it difficult to dawdle through answers padded with such niceties. Javier Mascherano faced that reality after his Inter Miami crashed out of the Concacaf Champions Cup on Wednesday, losing the semifinal home leg 3-1 to cap a 5-1 aggregate toppling. Advertisement 'I think we competed—but let's be honest, it's hard to say that when you lose 1-5,' Mascherano said after his team was eliminated. Trailing 2-0 after last week's opening leg in British Colombia, Miami aimed to send a message early in front of their own fans. Their proactive nature led to a swift opening goal, with Jordi Alba powering a shot off of Vancouver goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka in the ninth minute. Soon after, they saw midfielder Tadeo Allende force Takaoka into a diving save. Surely, it seemed, they'd keep on pressuring until Lionel Messi made a typically brilliant and decisive mark. After all, Messi's heroics led them to a stunning victory in the 2023 Leagues Cup. So, too, was he at the fore as they claimed the 2024 Supporters' Shield with Messi winning MVP honors at season's end. And yet, with Vancouver keeping Messi from notching a goal or an assist across 180 minutes, Miami's supporting cast was unable to swing the result. The Whitecaps scored twice early in the second half, and there was never any real hope that Miami could reach this tournament's final after the 51st minute. 'In games like this, the price of mistakes is brutal,' Mascherano said. 'You're playing a team that has the edge, and they don't let you off the hook. We made errors, and they hit us with two goals in three minutes. That's just not acceptable in a semifinal — especially right after halftime. It happened to us against Dallas a few days ago, and it happened again tonight. 'I could maybe understand a lapse 15 minutes from the end, but not at the start of the second half. That's just not good enough.' Mascherano arrived in November, weeks after Miami was eliminated from the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs in a first-round upset against Atlanta United. Before that postseason even concluded, Miami was hard at work to reinvent itself and go again, having missed on winning arguably the two biggest trophies on offer in Messi's first eighteen months. Advertisement The first, MLS Cup, is the league's top honor. Even a record points haul in a regular season only gives a team so much of an advantage. Their first round opponent knows they just have to win two games of three to overcome a considerable deficit forged from the preceding 34-game season. However, it should go without saying that the field of possible winners is relatively narrow and easy to size up, no matter how often the league launches a new expansion side. The league's schedule hasn't been balanced since 2014, but the format is identical across all 30 teams in competition. The ground rules have been laid; may the most worthy team win. The second, the Concacaf Champions Cup, has historically been far more difficult for an MLS team to claim. The league's roster rules are curated to maintain competitive parity, and include facets like salary caps, international slots and a hard limit on how many players can earn above the annual senior maximum salary (as negotiated with its players union in collective bargaining). Other leagues in Concacaf aren't curated in this way. Liga MX, in particular, benefits from its far more relaxed roster rules, with its clubs' pull and historical prominence making it a marquee destination for many players on both sides of the Atlantic. Clubs like Club América, Monterrey and Tigres UANL could nearly fill a starting lineup of players exceeding MLS's senior maximum salary. As such, the talent on-hand has kept Liga MX in the regional driver's seat, winning 18 of the 19 most recent Concacaf Champions Cups. The one exception came in 2022, when the Seattle Sounders bested UNAM in the final. It was the culmination of one era for the club, one that saw the team win MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019 while finishing as runner-up in 2017 and 2020. That club earned its place among the region's elite across years of coming through on big stages. Advertisement All of which made it more notable, then, that the latter-stage storylines of the 2025 Concacaf Champions League were told with Miami at its fore. For all of the talent on the roster and the global pull that has followed, Miami had not backed up that reputation with results. That 2023 Leagues Cup was a highly entertaining oddity, the launch year of a competition that saw every game played in MLS stadiums, with both Messi and every Liga MX opponent learning how to navigate each round on the fly. The Supporters' Shield is a good indicator of each season's greatest team, but the trophy doesn't have the same caché as MLS Cup. To wit, MLS itself didn't officially recognize the Supporters' Shield as a major trophy until its fourth season, in 1999. When FIFA president Gianni Infantino crashed last year's presentation after a Miami win, the decision to use the Shield as justification to include Miami (and Messi) in the 2025 Club World Cup was met with derision. However, Miami would be forgiven for thinking they'd found a lucky break in the bracket. Although the Vancouver Whitecaps have been the league's best team to date this season, this was another team operating under MLS's roster guidelines. With the two semifinalists from Liga MX facing each other, even the top-ranked team in their own league was perhaps built from a more level standing. And besides, they didn't have Messi; their headliners were far more anonymous domestic players, like Brian White and Sebastian Berhalter. Well, reputation and bona fides only get one so far in a street fight. The Whitecaps were motivated for the task at hand, with coach Jesper Sørenson instilling belief in his players to back themselves against any opponent. When Miami failed to equalize before halftime, Vancouver still had the advantage in the series with just 45 minutes left to retain it. The visitors scored twice and never looked back. 'What we didn't expect was to be knocked out of the tournament by two moments right after halftime,' Mascherano said on Wednesday night. 'We should've been more composed. We were only one goal down, we'd done the hard part by scoring first, and what was needed then was calm, calculated football. But that's not how it played out. 'Football, especially in semifinals, is about details. When you make small mistakes, teams at this level—teams that are in a semifinal for a reason—will punish you. And that's what happened tonight, clearly.' While Mascherano referred to Miami as 'a young club' in his press conference, it's worth remembering that both teams were relatively untested at this stage of continental play. It was Miami's first Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal, but Vancouver's only appearance at this stage (and no further) came in 2016 — a year when a 15-year-old named Alphonso Davies was just making his senior debut. For both clubs, reaching the final would have represented a historical first, let alone winning it all. Now, that's the Whitecaps' trend to buck. Miami is left to focus on MLS. 'We have to move forward,' Mascherano said. 'Right now, our main focus is the MLS. I'm not even thinking about the Club World Cup yet—we've still got a month and a half before that. It would be a major mistake to shift our attention there now. All that matters at this moment is the league. 'Yes, we won the Leagues Cup, but we know the most prestigious tournament in the Concacaf region is the Champions Cup. We wanted to establish ourselves among the best. But sometimes, you have to admit when the opponent played the better hand. Tonight, we couldn't beat them—they won more individual battles, more one-on-ones—and that tells the story of this match.' Advertisement While Mascherano is a first-year club head coach, he inherited with immense expectations. The roster has been finely curated to acclimate Messi at this stage of his career, with friendly veterans who've played alongside him and youthful players around them to do the hard yards. He's made a couple of crucial changes to last year's Shield side. Before the opening match, he dropped longtime starting goalkeeper Drake Callender for 38-year-old Oscar Ustari. He also left Julian Gressel, a two-time MLS Cup winner who trailed only Messi and Jordi Alba for chances created in 2024, out of his 20-man squad entirely. The veteran was waived by the club after they were unable to trade him, with Minnesota United eagerly claiming him and highly promoting his arrival. For all of the chopping and changing, the story of Miami's season will still be defined by its headliners. Messi has now gone four straight games (in MLS and Concacaf) without a goal contribution. Luis Suarez hasn't scored in his last nine games, all of which were starts. Both legends of the game are valuable designated players, two of three possible players above the salary limit who often make or break a team's chances in the biggest moments of a season. Miami would be forgiven for not expecting two of the modern era's most prolific big-game players to not make such a difference — but that's the hand Mascherano was dealt at this stage. So now, it's up to Miami to back up its reputation and the changes from last year's squad with results. As Mascherano said, another Leagues Cup won't do it. Nor, likely, will defending the Supporters Shield. In order to be 'among the best,' it means winning the biggest competitions on offer. MLS Cup is roughly seven months away. Perhaps no team is more desperate to win it and change their big-game reputation than the side with the league's biggest stars.
Fox Sports
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Yeboah's brace helps Minnesota United draw with LA Galaxy, 2-2
Associated Press SAINT PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Kelvin Yeboah scored two goals for Minnesota United but LA Galaxy answered each time as the teams played to a 2-2 draw on Saturday. Yeboah scored first, his right-footed shot from the center of the box giving Minnesota a short-lived 1-0 lead in the 19th minute. Seven minutes later Christian Ramirez got the Galaxy even when he connected on a header from the center of the box. The score remained 1-1 deep into the second half. In the 87th minute, Yeboah scored on a penalty with a right-footed shot to the bottom right corner. Again, the lead didn't last long. Emiro Garces scored with a right-footed shot from the center of the box in the 90th minute. The assist on the free kick came from Miguel Berry. Minnesota had nine shots on goal to LA's four. The tie denied Minnesota United (2-1-2) the club's 100th regular-season win since joining MLS in 2017. Defending champion LA Galaxy has not won a match this season. The Galaxy (0-3-2) defeated Minnesota 6-2 in the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference semifinals last season. Both teams play at home in their next matches on Saturday. Minnesota takes on Real Salt Lake and LA faces Orlando. ___ AP soccer: in this topic
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Yeboah's brace helps Minnesota United draw with LA Galaxy, 2-2
SAINT PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Kelvin Yeboah scored two goals for Minnesota United but LA Galaxy answered each time as the teams played to a 2-2 draw on Saturday. Yeboah scored first, his right-footed shot from the center of the box giving Minnesota a short-lived 1-0 lead in the 19th minute. Seven minutes later Christian Ramírez got the Galaxy even when he connected on a header from the center of the box. The score remained 1-1 deep into the second half. In the 87th minute, Yeboah scored on a penalty with a right-footed shot to the bottom right corner. Again, the lead didn't last long. Emiro Garces scored with a right-footed shot from the center of the box in the 90th minute. The assist on the free kick came from Miguel Berry. Minnesota had nine shots on goal to LA's four. The tie denied Minnesota United (2-1-2) the club's 100th regular-season win since joining MLS in 2017. Defending champion LA Galaxy has not won a match this season. The Galaxy (0-3-2) defeated Minnesota 6-2 in the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference semifinals last season. Both teams play at home in their next matches on Saturday. Minnesota takes on Real Salt Lake and LA faces Orlando. ___ AP soccer:
Associated Press
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Yeboah's brace helps Minnesota United draw with LA Galaxy, 2-2
SAINT PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Kelvin Yeboah scored two goals for Minnesota United but LA Galaxy answered each time as the teams played to a 2-2 draw on Saturday. Yeboah scored first, his right-footed shot from the center of the box giving Minnesota a short-lived 1-0 lead in the 19th minute. Seven minutes later Christian Ramírez got the Galaxy even when he connected on a header from the center of the box. The score remained 1-1 deep into the second half. In the 87th minute, Yeboah scored on a penalty with a right-footed shot to the bottom right corner. Again, the lead didn't last long. Emiro Garces scored with a right-footed shot from the center of the box in the 90th minute. The assist on the free kick came from Miguel Berry. Minnesota had nine shots on goal to LA's four. The tie denied Minnesota United (2-1-2) the club's 100th regular-season win since joining MLS in 2017. Defending champion LA Galaxy has not won a match this season. The Galaxy (0-3-2) defeated Minnesota 6-2 in the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference semifinals last season.
