Category: MLS Soccer

Supporters have marched in protest at a number of Premier League grounds. It’s not hard to see why they believe their game is being taken away

On Sunday, thousands of Manchester United fans marched in protest at the club’s ownership. The week before last, there was a (much smaller) march against their club’s owners by fans at Chelsea. A couple of weeks earlier there were protests at Tottenham. Fulham fans are deeply unhappy. There have been grumblings at Manchester City. In total, at roughly three-quarters of the Premier League clubs, there is significant supporter discontent.

In some ways, the protests are distant background noise. Television viewers could quite easily have watched United’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Sunday and not known about the march. How big a deal is it, anyway, that around 5,000 people walked about a mile from a pub to a stadium, with most wearing black and chanting? The demonstrations are often incoherent. The one at Chelsea featured chants for Roman Abramovich, which suggested what they were really angry about is the club’s lack of success since the oligarch was sanctioned. It’s true that dissent would be rapidly quelled by a proper title challenge; nobody wants to disrupt that.

• Portions of sell-out crowd did chant despite warnings
• Head coach calls actions ‘unacceptable’

San Diego FC coach Mikey Varas and sporting director Tyler Heaps expressed disappointment and anger after their club’s inaugural home match was marred in the second half by three occurrences of the homophobic chant frequently heard at the Mexican national team’s soccer matches.

The club uniformly decried the notorious one-word Spanish chant both during and after San Diego finished a scoreless draw with St Louis City on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium, which was packed with 34,506 fans celebrating the arrival of Major League Soccer’s 30th team.

• Argentine star not listed as injured but did not make trip
• Match was set to be sell-out with expensive resale tickets

MLS club Houston Dynamo have issued an apology to fans after Lionel Messi was revealed by various outlets to not be in the Inter Miami traveling party for Sunday night’s game between the sides. The Texas club also promised free tickets to a future match to all in attendance due to Messi’s absence.

In their statement, the Dynamo indicated that they believed Messi would be fit to play the match based on his name not being listed on Inter Miami’s player status report. The player status report, released before matches, is traditionally where teams will list players that are carrying injuries or who are otherwise out of action.

• Allegations delayed match in the 85th minute
• Concacaf has yet to announce an investigation

Colorado Rapids defender Chido Awaziem has alleged that an opponent used a derogatory term towards him on the field during his team’s Concacaf Champions League second leg match at Los Angeles FC on Tuesday night.

The incident in question came towards the end of the match, after Awaziem and LAFC defender Sergi Palencia were matched up on a set piece with LAFC leading the game 1-0. After the play Awaziem, a Nigeria international, complained to referee Pierre-Luc Lauziere, seemingly pleading with the official to take some sort of action. The match was paused for around five minutes as the referee engaged in discussions with Awaziem, Palencia, his fellow officials and both teams’ coaches. He then allowed play to continue with no discipline handed out. Awaziem later confronted Palencia after the final whistle.