mls

Larry Berg, the co-managing owner of LAFC, was chosen Monday to become the third commissioner in MLS history when Don Garber retires in December.

Berg has been with LAFC since the club’s founding, helping build the team into the league’s most successful franchise since entering MLS in 2018. He has held ownership stakes in Italy’s AS Roma and Welsh club Swansea City and has served MLS as co-chair of the league’s sporting and competition committee.

Berg, 60, also spent more than three decades in private equity, serving as a senior partner at Apollo Global Management before retiring in 2022.

“I’m honored to lead Major League Soccer into its next era,” Berg, a lifelong soccer fan and player, said in a statement released by the league. “Thanks to the vision and commitment of so many people, Major League Soccer has achieved tremendous success, but I believe our greatest opportunities are still ahead.

“We have an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen the quality of our competition, develop more world-class players, deepen our connection with supporters, and continue elevating Major League Soccer’s place in the global game.”

Berg has some big shoes to fill just as MLS enters an important stage of its development. Under Garber, who served 27 years, MLS expanded from 10 to 30 teams. Garber also oversaw multiple changes in the league’s salary structure, including the advent of the designated-player rule, which allowed MLS clubs to sign stars such as Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry while boosting the median guaranteed salary to $360,000.

Two years after Garber became commissioner, he helped save the league from bankruptcy and he’ll leave with the combined value of the league’s 30 teams estimated at $23 billion. Five teams, including Berg’s LAFC, are each valued at more than $1 billion.

Berg will face some daunting challenges with the league trying to ride the wave of soccer’s popularity following the U.S.’ just second-ever hosting of the World Cup; the change to a fall-spring competition schedule, which will debut next year; and the start of negotiations on a new TV contract to replace the streaming deal with Apple, which expires in 2029.

“Having worked closely with Larry over the past decade, I’ve seen firsthand the qualities that make him an exceptional leader, and I have complete confidence he is the right person to serve as Major League Soccer’s next commissioner,” Garber said. “His integrity, judgment, collaborative leadership, and unwavering commitment to building LAFC and the league have made him an invaluable partner.”

Before assuming his new role, Berg must divest his ownership interest in LAFC.

Lionel Messi returns to Inter Miami after Argentina’s World Cup final defeat by Spain, which led to retirement rumours.

Football superstar Lionel Messi ‌has returned to practice for Inter Miami, 10 ⁠days after Argentina’s World Cup run ended with a 1-0 extra-time loss to Spain in ⁠the final earlier this month.

The two-time defending MLS MVP missed Miami’s first two matches after ⁠the World Cup break against Chicago and Montreal, both of which the team still won, extending its winning streak to six matches.

The 39-year-old also chose not to participate ‌in Wednesday night’s MLS against Liga MX All-Star Game in Charlotte, instead taking some time off to visit his father, Jorge, who the Messi family announced during the World Cup is battling an undisclosed illness.

Messi concluded this year’s World Cup, ⁠his record sixth, with eight ⁠goals and four assists, coming one win away from leading Argentina to be the first team to win consecutive World Cups since ⁠Brazil in 1958 and 1962.

He was the first player to break Miroslav ⁠Klose’s record for career World ⁠Cup goals with his 17th in Argentina’s second match, but French sensation Kylian Mbappe finished the World Cup one goal ahead of ‌Messi, 22 to 21.

Inter Miami (11-2-4, 37 points) is two points behind Nashville SC atop the Eastern Conference ‌standings. ‌It is not yet known if Messi’s return will come in Saturday’s home match against the Columbus Crew.

There had been some speculation that Messi would not only conclude his international career following the World Cup, but that he may also call time on his playing days at club level.

The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain forward has won eight Ballon d’Or titles, the annual award for the player voted the best in the world that year.

Remember when we were sure the World Cup would suffer from all the issues that had everyone seeing red before the first ball was kicked?

And remember when we were certain soccer could never catch on in this country?

Despite controversies over visas and ticket prices and transportation, and in spite of consternation over expansion and new rules, the game has, as usual, proved too good to fail.

And we, the American people, have become unusually engrossed in it.

We’ve been tuning in on TV in record numbers and, even at exorbitant prices, helping to sell out our 70,000-some-capacity stadiums. Before group play was even finished, this tournament — staged also in Mexico and Canada — already outdrew the 1994 World Cup, which was hosted by the United States and set an attendance record of nearly 3.6 million.

We’ve been loving the healthy cultural exchange, and we’re being reminded that cultural barriers of traditional sports fandom can be breached.

So now, to keep our interest from drying out like a pitch on a hot summer day, the goal should be to keep the market saturated with soccer. That will take Major League Soccer tearing down all the walls.

It’s already turned the page on its calendar, adopting a summer-to-spring season format that will better blend with the global game.

Now MLS needs to make its games easier to watch, and to do its part to make the sport easier to play.

Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, left, celebrates with teammate Jonathan David after a 1-0 win over South Africa at the World Cup on Sunday.

(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)

While the proverbial iron is hot, it needs a strike like Stephen Eustáquio’s winning rocket in the 92nd minute of Canada’s 1-0 victory against South Africa on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

Eleven players on the two teams were MLS representatives — including Eustáquio, who spent the last six months in LAFC’s midfield.

Goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, who played two seasons with LAFC and now plays for Orlando City, stopped the only shot he saw for his second clean sheet this World Cup, which saw the Canadians succeed in their first knockout stage appearance.

There’s been no avoiding MLS players in this World Cup. The greatest of them is piling up goals for Argentina: Lionel Messi, the Inter Miami superstar, is now the all-time World Cup goal-scorer (with 19).

MLS has set an attendance record too, with 44 players participating. It ranks as the league with the second-most players apart from the top five European leagues. LAFC had three current players in the mix.

But wait. Record skip. Before you celebrate the MLS’s contributions to this soccer spectacle, check with the VAR. Yep, without the 13 MLS players representing nations that rank 40th or lower in FIFA’s world ranking, there actually would be fewer than the 37 MLS participants at the World Cup four years ago.

A baby’s first steps are for celebrating, but three decades after the league’s formation, MLS is still searching for a giant leap. It’s still having a mean time of trying to make “fetch” happen for real.

It would help to make its games more readily available — not to the already converted, but to fans who didn’t even know what they didn’t know about soccer until the World Cup began in their backyards.

MLS has already brought MLS from behind Apple’s season pass paywall. And the league and streaming service also reportedly have agreed to a revised media rights deal that will end at the end of the 2028-29 season, three and a half years earlier than expected.

But the hat trick would be to remove the need to subscribe to streaming service to watch MLS games altogether, and then get those matches onto the networks people know to tune into for their sports.

Normalize watching American soccer.

And stop gatekeeping. MLS’s developmental programs are too restrictive and exclusive — they’re not developing more soccer players, they’re curtailing who can play.

It’s in the league’s interests, and the sport’s in this country, to encourage as many players to play as much as they can — including for their high school teams, which MLS Next bars.

They’ve got people in the tent; the goal should be to make them want to stay.

To make them want to join the world’s circus, not to let it pack up and move on, out of sight and out of mind, until it swings back through years from now.

Timothy Tillman scored in the 86th minute, his first goal in more than two years, Thomas Hasal had five saves, and LAFC beat the Seattle Sounders 1-0 on Sunday night in the final MLS match before the 2026 World Cup break.

LAFC (7-5-3) ended a three-game losing streak and a four-game winless stretch.

LAFC has won six straight and is 9-0-1 at home against the Sounders in the regular season. Seattle has two wins at BMO Stadium in the MLS Cup playoffs, most recently a 2-1 victory in extra time to advance to the 2024 Western Conference final.

Tyler Boyd played a cross from the right side to the back post, where Tillman put away a sliding half-volley to give LAFC a 1-0 lead.

Hasal, who had his first shutout since 2022 for Vancouver, made his second consecutive start (his third this season) in the place the injured Hugo Lloris, who is out (leg) indefinitely. Lloris leads MLS with eight shutouts, including an MLS-record six straight to open the season.

Andrew Thomas had two saves for the Sounders (7-3-3).

Seattle has given up 11 goals this season, tied with Nashville — the points leader in all of MLS with 33 — for the fewest in the league.

The Sounders are 3-2-2 and have conceded just four goals on the road this season.

Seattle’s Danny Musovski subbed on for Paul Rothrock in the 69th minute and hit the crossbar with a shot from the center of the area in the 76th.

The Sounders lost 2-0 at home against the Galaxy on May 16 to snap a nine-game unbeaten streak dating to a 2-1 loss at Real Salt Lake on Feb. 28. The loss to the Galaxy also snapped Seattle’s 22-game home unbeaten streak across all competitions.

Lionel Messi remains the highest-paid player in Major League Soccer with an annual base salary of $25m (£18.5m) – more than double that of the North American league’s next-highest earner.

Figures released, external by the MLS Players Association reflect the contract extension that Messi, who turns 39 next month, signed with Inter Miami in October.

The Argentina forward’s base salary has doubled, while overall the deal is worth $28.3m (£20.9m) in guaranteed compensation.

LAFC’s Son Heung-min is the second-highest earner on a base of $10.4m (£7.7m), with $11.2m (£8.3m) guaranteed.

The former Tottenham forward, 33, earns slightly more than Inter Miami’s Rodrigo de Paul and San Diego FC’s Hirving Lozano.

The salaries do not include income from endorsement deals, or Messi’s option to acquire a stake in Inter Miami – co-owned by David Beckham.

Messi joined the Florida franchise in 2023 and has scored 59 goals in 64 regular-season MLS games, helping Miami win the MLS Cup in 2025.

He led the league with 29 goals last season and has been Most Valuable Player in each of the two full MLS seasons he has played so far – 2004 and 2005.