Good morning! We hope you enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend during which there will be plenty of soccer action. (Soccer on TV listings are here.) Soccer America Daily will return on Tuesday with a look ahead at what will be a busy week that will end with Emma Hayes’ debut as USWNT head coach and the USMNT in camp to start preparations for the Copa America.
Soccer America Daily is edited by Paul Kennedy and Mike Woitalla.
MLS
Anticipated Messi no-show puts major damper on Vancouver’s big soccer weekend
Since he joined Inter Miami midway through the 2023 season, Lionel Messi has drawn record crowds just about everywhere he has played. And even when he didn’t play.
In 2023, injuries limited to six appearances in 12 MLS games. So far in 2024, he has played in 10 of 15 MLS matches for Inter Miami. When he has not played, various injuries have prevented him from suiting up, at least putting fans on notice of his impending unavailability.
The news that Messi (and Luis Suarez and Sergio Busquets) didn’t travel to Vancouver on Thursday for Saturday’s match at BC Place is a different situation. No reason was given for their unavailability, but it is assumed they are being rested. Of course, within the prerogative of head coach Tata Martino.
• Messi effect: The ‘Caps have seen a sizable increase in average attendance (up more than 62 percent to 26,444 per game) due in part to the sale of a “Golden Era Match Pack” of tickets for four games, including the Miami match. They were expecting a record crowd of 55,000 fans on Saturday, and unprecedented activity had been planned around the match with street parties they organized.
• Reaction: The Province’s J.J. Adams on the response of Vancouver fans: No Messi in Vancouver? Anger, dismay and schadenfreude from Whitecaps fans
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: EMMA HAYES
“It’s fair to say I’ve been collaborating with Twila ever since November. I’ve asked to see players that weren’t in the World Cup last year. I’ve watched Korbin [Albert] play for PSG. I was hugely impressed by Sam Coffey when Chelsea played against the Thorns in a tournament in Portland. The Mexico defeat certainly gave us another opportunity to put together some of the players that I’ve really wanted to see.”
— Emma Hayes on working in the background — “I feel like I’ve been able to quietly get to know the job without being in the job,” she said Thursday at a media event in New York — with interim coach Twila Kilgore, now one of her assistants, in the months after her hiring as new USMNT head coach while still concentrating on her day job at Chelsea. In her interview with ESPN’s David Hirshey and Roger Director, she said a turning point was the 2-0 loss to Mexico at the Gold Cup, after which six lineup changes were made. (ESPN)
SOCCER MEDIA WATCH
U.S. Open Cup final rounds to air free on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass
U.S. Soccer and Apple reached an agreement for the final three rounds of the 2024 U.S. Open Cup to be streamed live for free on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
The agreement only covers 2024. Early round games in 2024 were carried on U.S. Soccer, MLS and USL streaming channels.
In 2023, CBS Sports Network and the Golazo Network as well as U.S. Soccer’s Spanish-language partner, Telemundo, aired the final won by the Houston Dynamo over Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.
• Comparison: Warner Bros. Discovery holds U.S. Soccer’s English-language media rights but passed on an option to broadcast the 2024 Open Cup. WBD paid £264 million ($337 million) for a four-year UK rights deal to air FA Cup on pay-channel TNT Sports (which has since done sub-licensing deals).
By the Numbers: NBC Sports’ coverage of Premier League:
• 2.9 million, average audience across the 10 broadcasts for “Championship Sunday,” marking the most watched final day ever in the U.S.
• 546,000, average audience per game during the 2023-24 season across NBC, Peacock and USA Network, marking the most-watched Premier League season ever in the U.S.
• 244,000, average audience per game on Spanish-language Telemundo, marking its most watched season since 2014-15.
AMERICANS ABROAD
Alejandro Zendejas has shot at back-to-back Liga MX championships
Alejandro Zendejas started for Club America in a 1-1 tie with Mexico City rival Cruz Azul in the first leg of Liga MX’s Torneo Clausura final.
Zendejas’ throw-in started the play that led to Julián Quiñones’ first-half equalizer for America. The 26-year-old Zendejas has nine goals and six assists in 43 games in 2023-24 but was not called up for the USMNT’s June camp.
• Trivia: America already won the Apertura championship last December, putting Zendejas in line to become the second American to win both halves of a Mexican season. Goalkeeper William Yarbrough won the 2013 Apertura and 2014 Clausura with Leon. America will host the second leg of the 2024 Clausura final on Sunday night.
USL SUPER LEAGUE
Home openers announced for summer launch
The new USL Super League will kick off on Aug. 17 with the first home openers for the Division I women’s league’s eight inaugural teams.
2024-25 USL Super League home stadiums:
Brooklyn FC: Maimonides Park
Carolina Ascent: American Legion Memorial Stadium
Dallas Trinity: Cotton Bowl
DC Power: Audi Field
Fort Lauderdale United: Nova Southeastern University
Lexington SC: Lexington Stadium
Spokane Zephyr: One Spokane Stadium
Tampa Bay Sun: Riverfront Stadium
UEFA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Lyon vs. Barcelona: Lindsey Horan seeks to become first American to win two titles
With American Lindsey Horan in midfield, record eight-time winner Lyon faces defending champion Barcelona in a tantalizing UEFA Women’s Champions League final on Saturday in Bilbao.
After Lyon dominated the competition for the better part of a decade, Barcelona emerged to shake up the status quo, although it has never overcome the French side.
• American UEFA Women’s Champions League winners:
Ali Krieger (FFC Frankfurt) 2008
Gina Lewandowski (FFC Frankfurt) 2008
Alex Morgan (Lyon) 2017
Lindsey Horan (Lyon) 2022
Catarina Macario (Lyon) 2022
ENGLAND
Man City vs. Man United: Three key FA Cup final battles
Manchester City faces archrival Manchester United in the FA Cup final on Saturday in a repeat of last season’s showpiece at Wembley. Three key battles that will help decide the match:
• Alejandro Garnacho (Man United’s precocious 19-year-old Argentine winger) vs. Kyle Walker (the 33-year-old England right back who still has pace to burn).
• Rodri (Man City’s Spain star who has not lost any of the past 50 EPL games in which he played) vs. Bruno Fernandes (Portugal midfielder looking to lift just his second trophy during his four-spell with Man United).
• Erling Haaland (Man City forward who finished as the EPL’s top scorer for a second successive year) vs. Andre Onana (Cameroon goalkeeper who has made a series of costly blunders.)
GERMANY
Bayer Leverkusen hopes to rebound in DFB Pokal final after stunning loss
Bayer Leverkusen faces second-division Kaiserslautern in Saturday’s German Cup final licking its wounds after a first loss in almost a year, 3-0 to Atalanta in the Europa League final on Wednesday
Beating Kaiserslautern would make Leverkusen just the sixth team in German history to do the double — an incredible achievement for a team that had only two major trophies (1988 UEFA Cup and 1993 DFB Pokal) to its name before this season started.
FRIDAY MORNING: WHAT WE’RE READING
1. Club America president open to playing Liga MX games in United States By Seth Vertelney (Pro Soccer Wire)
2. Talking it out: NY/NJ 2026 World Cup Host Committee says it has found willing partner in FIFA By Tom Bergeron (roi-nj.com)
3. An A for Villa to an F for Man Utd: how U.S. owners have fared in European soccer By Graham Ruthven (The Guardian)