MLS's CCC run comes to an end | Thursday Round-Up

You probably noticed there was no Wednesday column this week. Turns out writing is hard and I needed to give myself a little break before I burn out. I've been recharging a little bit this week.

Back at it fully next week.

On Monday's episode of Soccerwise we previewed this week's MLS semifinals: Nashville at Tigres and LAFC at Toluca. Consensus among the group was that it'd be an all-Liga MX final, and that's what we got. Nobody's surprised

Along the way I made the point that MLS is still not really serious about winning this competition. If they were, then at the very least they'd have added two more DPs and $2m more of budget space per team. The two extra DPs would allow MLS teams to sign center backs the caliber of – to pick two names completely at random – Bruno Méndez or Rômulo. The extra cap space? That'd go to signing and keeping high-quality back-ups for guys like, oh, I don't know, Sam Surridge or Stephen Eustáquio.

We're near the tail-end of what was a four-year opportunity to turbo-charge the growth and perception of the league, a window that opened with the Sounders winning CCL back in 2022 and closes with this summer's World Cup.

• Spring 2022: Sounders win CCL
• Autumn 2022: Landmark MLS Cup final (LAFC v. Philly)
• Winter 2023: Apple deal starts
• Summer 2023: Messi arrives
• Summer 2024: US hosts Copa America
• Spring 2025: Three MLS teams play in the Club World Cup
• Summer 2025: Son & Müller arrive
• Summer 2026: US, Canada & Mexico host the World Cup

Literally any point during that stretch would've been a good time to loosen the pocketbook and make ours a league of choice – more of the world's best players, more wins over the region's best teams, more trophies soccer fans actually care about.

MLS stood pat. It was a mistake. This week's results were yet another reminder.

If there's one guy in the states who's really equipped to talk about what 'Caps fans are facing, it's veteran journalist Mike Arace of TheDisrespected.com. I went on his pod on Tuesday and we got to talk a lot about relocation, relationism and everything else MLS:

Latest episode of The Crewcible, featuring Matt Doyle, The Armchair Analyst at TacticsFreeZone.com, is up at Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other pod platforms, including my YouTube channel. Good stuff here. Have a nice day. #Crew96 open.spotify.com/episode/46ZB...

[image or embed]

— Michael Arace (@michaelarace1.bsky.social) May 5, 2026 at 9:35 PM

I also got to talk cocktails and colonialism with Susannah on Kickback Committee this week:

Plus two other pod appearances that are coming out today:

• The usual Thursday Soccerwise, where me & Gass take a look at the USMNT pool (Dest's return, Alex Freeman rising) and break down Paraguay a little bit.
• An appearance on the Chromaniacs, a SDFC pod, where I try to give the noobs a bit of perspective on their team's Year 2 struggles.

Happy weekending, everyone.