Exciting start to MLS

The MLS his 2023 season began this Saturday with great emotion and some clear heroes: the Argentine Thiago Almadawho signed two great goals for the return ‘in extremis’ of atlanta is united (2-1); the defeat of Philadelphia Union (4-1); and the successful debut of the new team in the league, the City of St.Louis (23).

Atlanta lost to the San Jose Earthquakes but Almada, the world champion with Argentina at Qatar 2022, popped up with two spectacular goals to turn the game around. The first from the young Argentinian came in the 93rd minute with a great shot from outside the box that bounced off the crossbar and the second in the 99th minute with a spectacular free kick.

For their part, St. Louis City their MLS career in the best way: with a big 3-2 victory over Austin, one of the most powerful teams in the league. Tim Parker scored the first goal in St. Louis history. Louis City, Argentine Sebastián Driussi and Jon Gallagher rounded off the scoring for Austin, and Jared Stroud -after a mistake by Kipp Keller- and Brazilian João Klauss sealed the comeback and the first three points for St . Louis.

Last year’s MLS Cup finalists, where they lost to Los Angeles FC (LAFC) in a painful finale, the Philadelphia Union began their 2023 season adventure with a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Crew. The Philadelphia team, which last year was a devastating offensive machine, began losing to the Columbus Crew but rebounded with a brace from Argentina’s Julián Carranza and another pair of goals from Dániel Gazdag (both from penalties).

For his part, the Venezuelan Josef Martínez, after leaving Atlanta United in January where he became a star, made his debut in between miami with a 2-0 win over Montreal.

Toronto not only lived a terrible night before the DC Unitedwho sealed an impressive comeback with two goals in stoppage time in the second half (3-2), but also saw Lorenzo Insigne go off injured.

The epic and last-minute tension experienced in Atlanta-San José and DC-Toronto also echoed in Charlotte–New England Revolutionwhere the visitors scored 0-1 with a goal in the 89th minute by Henry Kessler.

In another sense, the Nashville and the New York City they had the honor of playing in the first game of the course and the locals, despite the fact that Hany Mukhtar (MVP of 2022) came off the bench due to hip discomfort, achieved a solid 2-0 victory.

Finally, the cincinnati beat 2-1 in Houston Dynamo with a goal from Brazilian Sergio Santos Gomes, the City of Orlando beat the new york red bulls with a penalty goal from Uruguayan Facundo Torres, the Minnesota United won 0-1 in Dallas with the target of the Colombian Ménder García and the Royal Salt Lake exceeded the Vancouver Whitecaps by 1-2.

The new year of MLS includes three important incentives: the debut of the rookie team of St. Louis City; the premiere of the Leagues Cup, a new official competition in which all MLS and Liga MX teams will participate; and the entry of Apple, which bought the rights to stream MLS worldwide for 10 years.

The ‘traffic’ between the two Los Angeles teams was postponed

Eleven MLS games were played on Saturday but a good MLS opening day was slightly marred by the postponement of two games due to bad weather: Portland Timbers-Sporting Kansas City, to be played on Monday; and the highly anticipated LA Galaxy-Los Angeles FC (LAFC), pushed back to July 4.

With Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández at the helm of the Galaxy (although he will not be able to play due to injury) and with Carlos Vela at the helm of LAFC (current MLS champions), the Los Angeles derby (known as ‘Traffic’) He will play at the iconic Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena (USA) with the goal of breaking the attendance record for an MLS match (the current mark is held by Charlotte-Galaxy in 2022 with 74,479 people).

However, the heavy rains falling these days in Los Angeles forced the delay of this special rivalry for the start of the league.

First day results

Nashville SC – New York City FC 2 – 0

Orlando City SC – New York Red Bulls 1 – 0

Atlanta United FC – San Jose Earthquakes 2 – 1

Charlotte FC – New England Revolution 0 – 1

Philadelphia Union – Columbus Crew 4 – 1

Inter Miami CF – Montreal Impact 2 – 0

DC United – Toronto FC 3 – 2

FC Cincinnati – Houston Dynamo 2 – 1

Austin FC – St. Louis CITY SC 2 – 3

FC Dallas – Minnesota United FC 0 – 1

Vancouver Whitecaps – Real Salt Lake 1 – 2