Zlatan Ibrahimovic, last term was a huge
disappointment with Galaxy missing out
on the play-offs, just as they had
done in 2017.
New players this season
include Uruguayan defender
Diego Polenta and 21-year-
old Mexican midfielder Uriel
Antuna, who is on loan from
Manchester City, while the
Dos Santos brothers have
both re-signed.
Two big names leaving MLS are
Sebastian Giovinco and David Villa.
After winning the MLS championship
in 2017, Giovinco and Toronto slumped
badly last time out and did not even
make the play-offs and the Italian,
who was a huge fan favourite has
joined Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal.
Villa was an ever-present with New
York City since his arrival in 2015 but
he has now gone to Japan and signed
for Vissel Kobe. His replacement is
Romanian striker Alexandru Mitrita
from Universitatea Craiova, whose
transfer fee of $8.5m was the most the
club has ever paid and the third-highest
in MLS history.
Philadelphia Union are not known
as big spenders among MLS clubs but
they do appear to have come up with
the biggest bargain of the close season.
Mexico midfielder Marco Fabian will be
joining them on a free transfer from
Eintracht Frankfurt and his exceptional
technical ball skills are described by
sporting director Ernst Tanner as the
team’s “missing piece”.
San Jose Earthquakes have a lot of
catching up to do after a dismal 2018
campaign. After appointing Swedish
coach Mikael Stahre last year they then
announced a deal with Second Spectrum
under which the club would be using the
most advanced analytics, metrics and
soccer-tracking methods.
Despite co-operating with the German
national team, who also use the same set-
up, the experiment was a disaster for the
Quakes, who finished the season with just
four wins and the worst record in MLS.
They have a new coach in 45-year-old
Argentinian Matias Almeyda and there
has been no talk of analytics for 2019.
Seattle Sounders, another team that
have promised much but delivered little,
will surely be home to the year’s bestcomeback story. A year ago, Jordan
Morris was hailed as the most promising
of the young Americans. He had played
52 games for Sounders, scoring 15 goals,
and got five in 25 games for the US
national side. But a pre-season knee
injury proved so troublesome that he was
sidelined for the entire campaign.
Thankfully, the 24-year-old is once again
fit and ready to go.
Newcomers Cincinnati have acquired
several MLS veterans through the
expansion draft, but by and large they
are content to go with the players who
were successful in the second-tier United
Soccer League.
Meanwhile, David Beckham and his
group of investors’ Inter Miami side are
scheduled to join MLS in 2020.
After being unable to close a deal
on any of their first four preferred
choices for a stadium site, it appears
that land near Miami airport has now
been secured and an arena will be up
and ready for use beginning with the
2021 season.Partnership...Wayne
Rooney (left) and
Luciano AcostaFavourites...Atlanta
United (in black) and
Los AngelesKEY
DATES
Season starts
March 2, 2019
MLS Cup
November
10, 2019