Latest news with #MLSNext
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
St. Louis City looking up with new coach, faces Timbers
St. Louis City will try for consecutive victories under interim manager David Critchley when they visit a Portland Timbers side that returns from a well-deserved weekend off. St. Louis City's 2-1 home win over the San Jose Earthquakes halted an 11-match winless run in league play that resulted in the dismissal of manager Olof Mellberg after less than a half season in charge. Joao Klauss and Eduard Lowen each scored their second goals of the season, and Klauss also earned the penalty in second-half stoppage time that Lowen converted to give St. Louis City the desperately needed result. The matchwinner came only nine minutes after Josef Martinez leveled for San Jose. And for Critchley, who was promoted from his role as head coach of St. Louis' reserve side in MLS Next, it was the result of a more aggressive mentality. "Yes, they equalized late and gave us a little bit of adversity," Critchley said postgame. "It's OK. We're changing things around here. We don't sit back in them moments, we go and try and win a football game. And that's what they done." It was only the fourth time St. Louis had scored multiple goals in a 2025 league match, against eight times when they failed to score at all. Meanwhile, Portland is coming off a rare 10-day layoff following a 2-1 home win over the Colorado Rapids on May 28. Antony and Kevin Kelsy each scored their fifth MLS goals of the season in the win, with Kelsy's tally coming in the 76th minute and just seven minutes after Wayne Frederick's violent challenge reduced Colorado to 10 men. Kelsy's winner marked the first time in seven matches Portland scored multiple goals in a league game, a dry run stretching back to late April. And it may have come at the ideal time to boost morale. "I've got to say that it felt really good," Timbers boss Phil Neville said of the extended break. "We were on this treadmill of game after game after game, and I think after the Colorado game there was a huge sense of, one, the result was good, and two, was that the players were running on empty a little bit." Field Level Media
The South African
4 days ago
- Business
- The South African
Former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder faces uncertain future
Njabulo Blom recently completed his loan spell with Kaizer Chiefs, having rejoined Amakhosi at the beginning of September 2024 under an agreement to spend a season at his boyhood club in the Betway Premiership. After donning the Chiefs jersey for the second time in his career, the Dobsonville-born player departed Amakhosi with a Nedbank Cup gold medal, and in pursuit of a different challenge in Major League Soccer (MLS). However, his future in the MLS reportedly remains unclear. According to Soccer Laduma , St. Louis City must now decide whether to use their newly available international slot to keep the 25-year-old midfielder, and the club are weighing up another loan move or a possible buyout. The Glamour Boys recently also announced that U15 talent Chukwudi Luvuno will be joining the Charlotte Academy in the United States. 'Chukwudi Luvuno has officially joined Charlotte Academy in the United States representing Charlotte Academy U16 & U17 in the MLS Next,' a statement read. 'Chukwu continues to make us proud on international soil. Keep flying the flag high.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
New York Times
04-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Inside MLS youth league's experiment of replacing results with ‘quality of play'
Globally, competitive youth soccer leagues have become fertile ground for experimentation. Leagues have implemented rules aimed at making games safer, more competitive and more entertaining. In Germany, for example, certain age groups play without a goalkeeper, or take shots at a pair of goals along each endline. Other age groups take kick-ins instead of throw-ins, play shorter games on shorter fields and play matches without referees. All of this is done in an attempt to foster player development – and ideally create more technically gifted players. Advertisement Now, MLS Next, MLS's youth developmental league, is making its own attempt at overhauling a fundamental facet of the game. Instead of using a traditional win-loss-draw table to rank teams, the league will implement a 'quality of play' index aimed at '(shifting) the paradigm in player development to focus predominantly on the process and progress,' according to a league press release. MLS has partnered with Taka, a UK-based analytics firm, to somehow make this a reality. 'For younger age groups, we prioritize their individual development over competition, though we acknowledge competition's role in personal growth,' said former New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles, who is now the technical director of MLS Next. 'This pilot program allows us to evaluate both team and individual performance, helping us track progress while providing more support to players to achieve their goals.' This is Taka's first partnership with a professional league, though the company, which was founded about 10 years ago, says it has done consulting work for several English Premier League clubs. It is also Taka's first swing at the 'quality of play' concept, having beat out several more established outfits to win the MLS contract, which was put up for grabs about a year ago. At the Under-13 and U-14 levels, MLS Next had already moved away from using scoreboard results last year, in anticipation of installing this model. Teams will now be judged weekly on quality of play, with a handful of the top-ranked teams invited to compete at MLS Next Cup in the summer. 'Quality of play' feels inherently subjective, but Taka says it has done its best to quantify specific offensive and defensive movements and actions — on and off the ball — that will contribute to a player and team's overall ranking. The company has a team of about 40 analysts tasked with watching and analyzing every MLS Next match, which takes about 4.5 hours per encounter, according to Taka CEO Mark Shields. Advertisement 'They are a series of people with a background in scouting, coaching and more, based in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Montenegro — so the sort of Balkans hot bed of Eastern Europe,' Shields said. 'The short answer to how is quality of play defined is that it's been defined over the 200 years of soccer that's been played by an assessment of people who are knowledgeable about the game assessing the quality of the game at its source,' he added. 'Typically, the mathematicians have tried to approximate that by a series of things that are well defined — OPTA, StatsBomb, Wyscout.' Some of those providers will define a successful pass as one that simply ends up finding a teammate. Taka's analysts, Shields said, look at the pass from a more holistic perspective. Taka's interface feels robust, with each player's graded action represented on a map by green and red circles — green for positive, red for negative. The circles vary in size based on the importance of each action. Players, coaches and scouts can examine each of these actions by clicking on the map, which brings up a corresponding video clip. 'The bigger challenge for players, I think, is 'are they willing to press the red dot?' And see themselves make a mistake. Because there are multiple perspectives on that red dot … Some players will lean into this, so that they can be better today than they were yesterday,' Robles said. MLS Next offered access to all of its players, and about 80% have created an account. Access to the match interface is free, but use of the clips — for social media, or to send to coaches and scouts elsewhere — is a paid service. 'What we provide as part of our commitment to player development is that they get several clips (for free),' added Robles. 'They don't get all of them. This was a major investment by Major League Soccer and MLS Next. For coaches, it's free — we want to give that to coaches, knowing that time management can be very difficult to them. So, there's no additional cost to them.' Advertisement MLS Next is hoping that open access to video will allow for more rapid player development. Robles was quick to point out that his own development only truly accelerated when he had open access to video, later in his career. The league will also be able to track player development more accurately, Robles said, and keep tabs on players who progress to the professional level. Taka and MLS Next's expansive video database will provide a comprehensive archive of every on-field movement in a player's youth career, a far cry from the handful of grainy camcorder clips available of some of today's biggest stars. Teams with a high quality of play index don't always win, of course. The system was first trialed last year, at MLS's annual Generation Adidas Cup. Using Taka's metrics, several of the highest-ranked team performances, in terms of quality of play, were not winning teams. 'We are aiming to recognize success at a team level,' Shields said. 'In a world where an MLS GM isn't at GA Cup, and he's saying, 'We lost this game,' this system provides, both in data and video, a way for him to see the game and say, 'Hold on, there is another story here.' All of this comes down to using data to recognize success, whether from a team or individual point of view.' This isn't the first time MLS Next has experimented with rule changes. Even MLS Next Pro, MLS's professional third-division league, has proved to be fertile ground for trialing new rules, with the league pioneering initiatives aimed at combatting time wasting and even eliminating the use of ties. As an aside, they also have a rule where you have to have your shirt tucked in. Robles is hopeful that prioritizing quality of play will have knock-on effects far down the line. 'We are just trying to develop the next generation of talent that will lead the pro game,' he said. 'Whether that's coaches, referees or in this case players, everything we focus on is about how we develop players who are going to impact first teams, and eventually national teams.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
MLS Preview: Nashville SC
Nashville SC started as an USL expansion franchise back in 2016, whose ownership group worked with another pre-existing local club called Nashville FC to further the game in the area. In 2017, plans were already underway to elevate from the USL to the MLS, which were confirmed in December of that year. Between 2017 and 2020 the club played in the USL while the construction of their home field progressed. Geodis Park was ready by the club's 2020 debut, but was only host to one game before the league was shut down by COVID. Known for their tough defense, Nashville has a strong track record of postseason qualifications but has yet to win a major trophy. They did finish as runner-up in the 2023 Leagues Cup, losing to fellow 2020 expansion sibling Inter Miami (who had added Lionel Messi to their roster earlier that season). The game was tied 1-1 and decided by ELEVEN penalties. In the final round the goalkeepers had to face each other; Nashville's Elliot Panicco missed. Though John Ingram is generally acknowledged as the 'owner' of the franchise, in reality there are many different partners involved. Reese Witherspoon is reputedly an investor, and there might still be a 1% stake owned by the original fan-based NFC club that sold the name, logo and color scheme to the USL entity who eventually won expansion into the MLS. Given the club's youth, there aren't many to pick from. All of these are still currently active. Walker Zimmerman (United States) – Defender Scored Nashville's first ever MLS goal. Alex Muyl (United States) – Winger Was traded to Nashville from New York Red Bulls. Holds the record for most appearances (170) Hany Mukhtar (Germany/Sudan) – Midfielder The club's first Designated Player Top goal scorer of all time (76). Won the MLS MVP in 2022. Sam Sturridge (England) – Forward Has 14 goals and 2 assists since transferring from Nottingham Forest in July 2023. Geodis Park is the largest soccer-specific stadium in the U.S. It hosted the 2024 MLS Next finals. The club's colors of electric gold and wavelength blue reference Nashville's flag. The vertical lines on the crest are said to reference sound waves (I personally don't see it). Their supporter group are known as The Roadies (yes another music reference) and was founded back 2014. 9W – 9D – 16L for 36 points. 13th in the Eastern Conference; 25th overall. They did not qualify for the postseason for the first time in the club's history. After the sting of missing the playoffs, the club traded three players (Sean Davis, Shaq Moore, Randall Leal [DP]), put one (Woobens Pacius) on loan and dropped ten others. Gastón Brugman (Uruguay) – Midfielder Part of a player swap for Sean Davis. The 32-year old was the 2024 MLS Cup final MVP. Edvard Tagseth (Norway) – Midfielder Former Liverpool academy player who transferred from Rosenborg. Bryan Acosta (Honduras) – Midfielder The final piece in a triumvirate that looks to address stability and creativity in the midfield. Nashville will host New England Revolution on Feb. 22 Inter Miami CF FC Cincinnati D.C. United Columbus Crew Chicago Fire FC Charlotte FC
