Skip to main content

akkoma - Link to source

Today, Vancouver Whitecaps are taking on Atlante FC of #LigaMX.

I’m quite excited about this because any excuse to take on a Mexican pro #soccer team is positive in my books.

Mexico has, by far, the best soccer league in North America.

mlssoccer.com/competitions/lea…

#MLS

VANvsAFC 08-04-2026 | MLS Match Recap

Official MLS match recap for VANvsAFC 08-04-2026 with stats, highlights, and analysis
mlssoccer
#mls #soccer #ligamx
in reply to Chris Trottier

Bill Reese
mastodon - Link to source
Bill Reese
• •
Spare a thought for the Mazatlan fans, who Atlante used to be until they moved to Mexico City this summer. Of course, Mazatlan stole the team they had from Monarcas Morelia in the middle of the damn pandemic. Whenever people tell me that pro/rel will make MLS incredibly popular, I point out that they eliminated it in Mexico 6 years ago and the league remains as popular as ever.
in reply to Bill Reese

Chris Trottier
akkoma - Link to source
Chris Trottier
• •
@reesecommabill We’re all going to find out what will happen next year when USL rolls out their Premier league, which will have pro-rel.
@Bill Reese
in reply to Chris Trottier

Bill Reese
mastodon - Link to source
Bill Reese
• •

I'm all for the USL's bold move (though they haven't been forthcoming on exactly when and how it will work).

But the USL Championship in its current incarnation hasn't had a season without at least 1 club folding. Sometimes 2+. I have a feeling that it'll look like Mexican pro/rel when it existed. Clubs would often "buy the license" of a club to move up… sometimes to stay up. There's plenty of bad stuff to say about MLS, but the league is incredibly stable.

USL… not as much.

in reply to Bill Reese

Chris Trottier
akkoma - Link to source
Chris Trottier
• •

Being a Whitecaps fan, I’m not exactly thrilled with MLS’ “stability”—especially when they want to move our team to Las Vegas.

We’ve had our team since 1974. That’s 52 years of history. We were NASL champs, winning the 1979 Soccer Bowl.

And we got a great fanbase. Last game, 35,000 fans came out. And MLS wants to take the team away.

Las Vegas already has a team: the Lights. They will likely play in USL Premier. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think it’s likely that MLS wants to move the Whitecaps because they don’t want USL Premier to take off.

Really, what should happen is that MLS and USL should merge, with MLS adopting a pro-rel system to grow US soccer.

And maybe there’s a case for all Canadian teams exiting MLS to play in the CPL. But taking away our teams isn’t a good way to go about doing that.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
⇧