You are here
Home > Football > Premier League > MLS Next: No draws, just PKs in inaugural season

MLS Next: No draws, just PKs in inaugural season

Major League Soccer’s new development league, MLS Next Pro, will begin its inaugural season this week and it will do so will an old twist: There will be no draws.

Games tied at the end of 90 minutes will be decided with penalty kicks.

“We think about creative ways that can engage fans and when a shootout happens, it’s one of the most exciting parts of a match,” said Ali Curtis, the league’s senior vice president of operations and competition. “At the same time, there’s also kind of this player development aspect to it.

“You have an opportunity to be put in a really stressful situation where there’s pressure, where it means something, and to have that incorporated into our competition, I think from a player development perspective is really additive.”

– ESPN+: MLS chat and more on ESPN FC Daily (U.S. only)

Unlike when MLS launched in 1996, however, the end-of-game shootouts in MLS NEXT Pro will be conducted from the spot.

It was inevitable, Curtis said, that the 35-yard shootout MLS used from 1996-99 was raised as the league discussed implementing a shootout but there was no serious discussion about bringing it out of hibernation.

Regulation wins will count as three points in the standings and if the game ends in a tie, both teams will received at least one point. The winner of the traditional penalty format — alternating shooters for five rounds; single elimination if the teams are tied through five — will get an additional point.

It’s premature to allow for the possibility that MLS would consider introducing the shootout rules at its higher level, but both Curtis and MLS Next Pro president Charles Altchek told ESPN the new league will be used as laboratory, of sorts, to experiment with new rules and concepts that could eventually filter their way up.

MLS Next Pro aims to serve as a bridge between the MLS youth academies and first teams. There will be 20 teams during the initial season — 19 affiliated with MLS clubs and one independent club, Rochester NY — before eight other MLS clubs will enter in 2023.

The first game will be held Friday in St. Louis, where St. Louis CITY2 — the future second team of the MLS team set to begin play in 2023 — will host the league’s lone independent team, Rochester New York FC. A sell-out crowd is expected at Hermann Stadium (8 p.m., ET). ESPN’s Taylor Twellman will serve as an analyst on the broadcast, which will be streamed on mlsnextpro.com.

Sourced from ESPN

FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsAppBloggerShare
Tutorialspoint
el-admin
el-admin
EltasZone Sportswriters, Sports Analysts, Opinion columnists, editorials and op-eds. Analysis from The Zone Team
Similar Articles
Top