20. Los Angeles FC
Total revenue: $155 millionEBITDA: $13 millionDebt as a percentage of value: 17%
Match day: N/ACommercial: N/ABroadcasting: N/A
Country: United StatesLeague: Major League SoccerLeague championships: 1Owner(s): Bennett Rosenthal, Brandon Beck, Larry BergStadium: BMO Stadium – 22,000 seating capacity
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
The most aggressive set-piece team in the world plays in Minnesota
Not many soccer players are as passionate about dead balls as Anthony Markanich. Then again Minnesota United, under the 33-year-old first-time head coach Eric Ramsay, don't play soccer like most teams. 'All the guys get really excited about set pieces, especially myself,' Markanich gushed last Friday after scoring a goal off a long throw-in by the center back Michael Boxall for the second time in a week. 'I told Boxy I love when he has the ball for throw-ins and stuff – I get so excited about that.' The wingback's match-winner against FC Dallas marked the third straight game Minnesota have scored from a long throw into the penalty area. It was their sixth throw-in goal before the MLS All-Star break – which falls about two-thirds of the way through the season. That's as many as Brentford's famous long throws produced all last season in the Premier League. Even though they're chucking more balls into the box than any Major League Soccer side in at least a decade, long throws might not be the Loons' most distinctive set piece routine. They've also borrowed a page from Sean Dyche's playbook by bringing their goalkeeper up to wallop free kicks into the opposition's box from around the halfway line, where almost any other team would tap the ball sideways to resume ordinary midfield possession. Minnesota's oddball tactics aren't just outliers in MLS. According to an analysis by Soccerment, a soccer data company, they take more long throws and deep free kicks than any other club in 30 of the world's top leagues, from the Bundesliga to the Brasileirão. The low-budget overachievers sitting third in the MLS Western Conference just might be the most aggressive set piece team on the planet. Ramsay's commitment to putting any possible dead ball into the mixer may look strange, even old-fashioned, but there's evidence to support continuing to do it. Across leagues, seasons and playing styles, long throws into the box are twice as likely to lead to a goal in the next 30 seconds as other throw-ins in the final quarter of the pitch. The same goes for deep free kicks into the 'Dyche Zone' at the top of the opponent's box, which are twice as valuable as other free kicks taken between the edge of a team's defensive third and the halfway line. Like the Moneyball-era Oakland A's, Minnesota found an analytical edge out of financial necessity. Ramsay's squad ranks 26th out of 30 MLS teams for player compensation, which has put an expensive passing game all but out of reach. 'It's not that we're a club that is unwilling to spend, but since I've been here, there's been a real efficiency drive,' he said. 'Ultimately where we use set plays, it comes from wanting to squeeze every advantage that we possibly can from the group of players that we've got.' Ramsay joined the MLS side last year from an assistant role at Manchester United, where he studied how teams like Brentford, Newcastle and Dyche's Burnley used direct set pieces to punch above their weight in the Premier League. 'Obviously it's not escaped my attention that teams with smaller budgets can out-compete teams right at the top end through set plays,' he said. 'It was one of the things I looked at from afar and thought prior to coming in that we could find an advantage.' In the Twin Cities, he found a squad well suited for long set pieces. Their strengths are a sturdy defensive line and a pair of tall strikers who excel on fast breaks, so there hasn't been much downside to bypassing midfield possession for booming free kicks from the goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair or throw-ins from the New Zealand international Boxall, who can hurl the ball 30 yards from a near-standstill. 'I think particularly when it comes to how we use throw-ins and deep free kicks, we probably give away between five and 10% what would be very easy possession in order to be high value in those situations,' Ramsay explained. 'If we wanted to have 47% of the ball consistently, we could do it like that. We would just choose to use set plays in a different way.' Their unstoppable long throw-ins can look hilariously easy. Markanich's two goals last week came from near-mirror image throws to a trio of Minnesota players jostling for position at the near corner of the six-yard box while he waited behind them in the center of goal and the striker Kelvin Yeboah peeled off from the penalty spot to help hunt for a flick-on header. 'Everyone's just wanting to flick the ball on,' Markanich said. 'I think everyone knows their roles, especially on set pieces.' Deep free kicks have more tactical variety depending on where they're taken, but every set piece starts from principles that Ramsay rattles off like a pop quiz: 'Do you have the right number of players in the contact area? Is the thrower or the set piece taker able to, with a real degree of accuracy, put the ball into a certain spot? Are you really well set for the second contact, and are the players on the move for the second contact? 'How is it that when the ball breaks to the edge of the box for a second, third or fourth phase, you can recycle the ball in order to get a second or third chance and continually upgrade the quality of your opportunity as you go?' This is the big idea behind Ramsay's set pieces: not that they'll score every time from a perfect routine, but that by using each stoppage to cram a bunch of bodies and the ball into a small area around the opponent's goal, his side can force errors, win second balls and string together chance after chance, set piece after set piece, always ratcheting up the pressure. New phase-of-play data from the livescore app Futi supports this line of thought. (I co-founded Futi with the data scientist Mike Imburgio, who consults on Minnesota's recruitment but isn't involved with set pieces.) Though only 14% of Minnesota's throw-ins into the box produce a shot, they lead to another set piece 20% of the time. Similarly, 45% of the team's deep free kicks reach a second phase where the ball bounces around the box while the defense is still disorganized. The Loons haven't managed a single shot in the first phase of a Dyche Zone free kick but they've scored three goals during those dangerous second phases, plus another from a subsequent corner kick. Add it all up and the value of Minnesota's aggressive set pieces is astonishing: their 10 goals within 45 seconds of a long throw or deep free kick represent nearly a third of the team's season total. Though their entire squad earns about half of Lionel Messi's salary at Inter Miami, Minnesota are perched above Miami in the Supporters Shield standings and doing a pretty good job of recreating Messi in the aggregate just by lobbing dead balls into the box. Related: The Club World Cup has shown MLS the cost of capping ambition Fans have bought into a style that might have been a tough sell if it weren't so hard to argue with results. 'There's a bit of an aura around us in set plays, particularly at home,' Ramsay said. 'Our crowd are wild for set plays. At corners, every single member of the crowd is swinging the scarf around.' After years of decline, long throws into the box are on the upswing in MLS and the Premier League. A new generation of managers such as Eddie Howe and Graham Potter are reconsidering deep free kicks, which like Dyche himself had fallen out of fashion as too 'pragmatic.' What looks exotic now may one day be as normal as putting kickoffs out of bounds near the corner flag or building out of the back from a short goal kick. 'I don't think anything we do is rocket science. I don't think it will take the opposition long to work out what sits behind our success,' Ramsay said of his team's extraordinary set piece record after the win in Dallas. 'But stopping it is very different.'
USA Today
5 hours ago
- USA Today
Lionel Messi won't play in MLS All-Star Game. Will he face suspension?
The biggest star in Major League Soccer won't play in the All-Star Game. Lionel Messi will skip the festivities for the second straight year. Messi and Inter Miami's Jordi Alba did not travel to Austin, Texas, with MLS releasing an updated All-Star roster before the match. The 2025 MLS All-Star Game will be played Wednesday, July 23 at 9 p.m. ET (MLS Season Pass on Apple TV), with the MLS All-Stars facing off against standouts from Mexico's LIGA MX at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas. It's unclear whether Messi or Alba would miss Inter Miami's next match against first-place FC Cincinnati on Saturday, July 26, due to a MLS rule that stipulates players who miss the All-Star Game must sit in their next match. That decision could come later this week. MLS commissioner Don Garber will address the media during a press conference before the match, where he will likely be asked about Messi's absence. 'Messi has been such an incredible part of the MLS story the last couple of years and playing so well. It's just been a gift to have the best player in the world in Major League Soccer,' MLS commissioner Garber told USA TODAY Sports on Friday, July 11. Messi, 38, is the reigning MLS MVP and the oldest player named to the MLS All-Star roster. But his considerable workload this season certainly warrants some time off. Since April 2, Messi has played every minute in 22 of 23 matches for Inter Miami across all competitions – the MLS regular season, the Concacaf Champions Cup tournament and the FIFA Club World Cup. The Argentine World Cup champion has logged well over 2,000 minutes during that span. His last match off was April 30 when Inter Miami lost 4-3 at home to FC Dallas. Messi has also been dynamic during a recent stretch of matches: He has scored two goals in six of his last seven MLS regular-season games, including a five-game streak to set an MLS record. Messi scored two goals with two assists (one of the hockey variety), in his last match against the New York Red Bulls on July 19. Jordi Alba, who was also named an All-Star for the second straight season and played in the exhibition last year, has started the last six matches for Inter Miami. He was substituted off in the 85th minute against the Red Bulls. 'The players are called up, I would like them to be able to rest but that is not my decision,' Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said of Messi and Alba before the Red Bulls match. 'I know how important the All Star [Game] is, and as far as I know there is no decision from the club, everything is as normal.' Along with Messi's recent scoring stretch, he helped Inter Miami make history at the Club World Cup before being eliminated by Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain in the Round of 16. Messi's free-kick goal against Portuguese side FC Porto delivered the first win for a North American team against a European club in a major international competition. Inter Miami finished as a runner-up in their group, while LAFC and Seattle Sounders were eliminated before the knockout stage. Messi and Inter Miami return to regular-season action on Saturday at home against FC Cincinnati, which beat them 3-0 on July 16. After the match, MLS and LIGA MX clubs will begin the 2025 Leagues Cup tournament. Inter Miami will host Atlas FC on July 30, Club Necaxa on Aug. 2 and Pumas UNAM on Aug. 6 in the first phase of Leagues Cup, which they won in 2023. Messi missed the 2024 MLS All-Star Game in Columbus, Ohio due to his Copa America ankle injury, which caused him to miss two months after the tournament.
Hamilton Spectator
7 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
As losses pile up, CF Montréal pledges rebuild in open letter to fans
MONTREAL - As CF Montreal languishes at the bottom of the Major League Soccer standings, the club says it is entering a rebuild. Montreal has a 3-15-6 record in MLS play — for 15 points in 24 games — and dropped out of the Canadian Championship with a quarterfinal loss to lower-tier Forge FC of the Canadian Premier League in a bleak season. In an open letter to fans Wednesday morning, Montreal's executives acknowledged the team's shortcomings and stated the club would begin a new chapter rooted in ambition, pride and winning. President and CEO Gabriel Gervais, managing director of recruitment and sporting methodology Luca Saputo and managing director of academy strategy and roster management Simon Saputo signed the letter. It did not specify any tangible changes coming but did say supporters would see concrete steps toward that goal in the upcoming transfer windows. The MLS summer window opens Thursday. Montreal had the league's lowest payroll last season. Full letter: 'We have not met the standards we set for ourselves, nor those you have the right to expect. That is why we felt the need to communicate with you directly today. We share your dissatisfaction with the Club's results, and it is our responsibility to build a winning team that we can all be proud of. That is why we have decided to undertake a rebuild and launch a new chapter at CF Montréal. A chapter based on ambition and pride. A new era with victory at the heart of our sporting ambitions, while also honouring our rich history and the connection with you, our 12th player. We know that trust is regained through actions. As such, during the upcoming transfer windows, you will see concrete steps, a committed team, and strong initiatives aimed at rebuilding, together, a Club that deserves your loyalty.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2025.
