The month of July has been very eventful for me here in the States. As Major League Soccer begins the process of returning to play, we took to the pitch for the MLS is Back Tournament. It’s been strange, but given the circumstances in today’s world, it has been an excellent opportunity for the league and players to get back to competitive games.
Each team in the league has been quarantined in a “bubble”, staying at the Disney World Resorts in Orlando, Florida. The same resort hosts all the games of the tournament. For those of you who may not be familiar with the states, Florida during the summer months is about as hot as it gets. Therefore, all our games in the group stage have taken place at either 9 AM or 8:30 PM, or 10:30 PM, all this in order to avoid the worst of the heat.
When each team first arrives, they are immediately tested for Covid-19 and quarantined for 24 hours until all test results return. Once everyone has been cleared, they can move freely about the hotel – while wearing facemasks and credentials at all times. Every other day all teams are retested to ensure safety.
Coming into the tournament, very few people expected our club to do well – we were coming off a difficult season last year with three powerful teams in our group. Our first game seemed as though people’s expectations might prove correct, with a disappointing result against derby rivals Columbus Crew. But we immediately bounced back with back to back shutout wins against Atlanta United and New York Red Bulls, 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. With the new appointment of head Coach Jaap Stam, you could see the team identity take form rather quickly. We advanced to the round of 16, finishing second in the group.
We faced a strong Portland Timbers side in the next round, showing another resilient performance after finding ourselves trailing 1-0 in the second half. We battled back to 1-1, forcing penalties to determine the winner. Unfortunately, we made our exit in the competition after finding ourselves on the wrong side of the shootout. Still, we have much to be proud of after our performance in the tournament. Coming in with many people writing us off, we proved we are more than capable of winning and finding success. As we look forward to the future, we are excited about the future of the club and look to build off what we accomplished in our tournament run.