A generation ago, when someone or something hit the age of 30, all thoughts of it being anything but adult were banished forever. These days, depending upon how enabling one’s supporters are, there seems to be no such assuredness.
So it might depend upon how liberally or harshly you may judge how impactful or important Major League Soccer has been to the world’s most popular game–where just about everywhere else it’s known as football, thank you. And it’s somehow apropos that as its 30th season gets under way this weekend it is expanding yet again to a total of 30 teams. Per USA TODAY’s Safid Deen’s preview dropped earlier this morning, the newbie will be baptized under fire:
Major League Soccer officially welcomes San Diego FC as the league’s newest franchise Sunday. The club will face a stiff challenge in its inaugural match.
San Diego FC will visit the reigning MLS Cup champion L.A. Galaxy at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) on MLS Season Pass and Apple TV+ in the league’s first “Sunday Night Soccer” showcase.
San Diego FC features U.S. national team standout Luca de la Torre and Mexican international Hirving “Chucky” Lozano. Head coach Mikey Varas hopes to implement an aggressive style of play to help the club compete immediately in the MLS Western Conference.
San Diego FC plans to honor the local community, which showed massive support at a recent fan event at the club’s new home, Snapdragon Stadium.
The league has been judicious and savvy in where they’ve been rolling out their most recent franchises. Much like team #29, St. Louis City, San Diego has a long history of success in smaller soccer leagues, especially the wild and crazy times of the MISL in the 80s and 90s. And Snapdragon Stadium is already home to a successful NWSL expansion team from last year, the Wave. It should be more than enough to offset the fact that this will be no less than the sixth MLS team to feature FC in its name, seven if you transliterate CF Montreal. There’s almost as much originality shown here in naming entities as there is among streaming services adding a plus sign to theirs.
But on a more serious note, this is a pivotal year for soccer in North America as a whole. They will host next year’s World Cup and for better or worse MLS is how the U.S. as a whole is represented to the rest of the world. So for as much as this season of maturity plays out with storylines involving veteran presences like Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi and the San Jose Earthquakes’ comebacking coach Bruce Arena, it’s incumbent that new names and stars become prominent. A cadre of reporters who cover the league for THE ATHLETIC pointed to a few such possibilities that could venture onto the scene this summer in their preview piece:
Antoine Griezmann to LAFC. This one has been rumored for some time and I don’t think LAFC is keeping a DP spot open for the sake of it…Griezmann to MLS is inevitable. He’s an avid NFL fan (with a Spanish-language NFL podcast) who recently made his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans. He seems to be looking forward to life in the U.S., specifically in L.A.
Gio Reyna to… anywhere other than the Chicago Fire. This one may feel far-fetched, but Reyna simply needs minutes. Dortmund’s asking price has likely decreased significantly over the last year, bringing him into range for an MLS side. Whether Reyna would want to come back to the States is an entirely different story. Few would blame him.
Importing star talent from more competitive leagues overseas has been a staple of U.S. professional team soccer ever since its first iterations in the 70s, when the New York Cosmos brought in a superteam that once included Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff and filled to the brim the then-state of the art 76,000-seat Giants Stadium on a regular basis. These days, more modest, European-level venues such as Snapdragon Stadium are the target, and the fact that those stands will apparently be filled is a good sign.
But will these teams ultimately be competitive and worth watching? Perhaps a better test than the league matches themselves will be the Club World Cup contests that will feature both the Seattle Sounders and Messi’s Inter Miami FC. There’s open debate how successful they’ll be among the ATHLETIC’s experts:
Cardenas: Miami might scrape through, but if the Sounders make it out of Group B, well, the U.S. might win the 2026 World Cup. And we know that’s not happening.
Maurer: MLS has always craved the opportunity to prove itself a “league of choice,” but it still has a long way to go. It’ll be fun to watch either way.
And if last night was any indication, Messi and Inter Miami both have a ways to go. Still, they did provide opening night excitement, as Deen added in yet another piece last night:
All it took was five minutes for Lionel Messi to make his mark at the start of Inter Miami’s 2025 Major League Soccer season.
It took about 95 more minutes before Messi shined again.
Messi found new teammate Telasco Segovia, trailing on his right side, and delivered his second assist of the game in the 100th minute to help Inter Miami escape with a 2-2 draw at home against New York City FC on Saturday at Chase Stadium.
A sellout crowd at yet another compact venue was relieved that there was such an extended extra time period for these heroics to occur. But against an NYCFC team that finished a mediocre sixth in its conference, and on the heels of their shocking upset at the hands (feet?) of bottom-feeder Atlanta United in last fall’s playoffs, it was a reminder to both the team and the league that Inter Miami and Messi may be the Lakers of MLS, but there’s no Luka Doncic trade out there to propel them to superstardom any time soon.
So the next best thing might be to focus on Southern California, where the current champs are, the summer’s potential next hot thing may wind up and where yet another team is entering the fray. And since that’s where I am for now, yes, I’ll be watching. It’s the mature thing to do.
Courage…