Photo: Paul Chiasson, The canadian Press
The Montreal Impact will be part of the 26 teams that will participate in the competition.
Major League Soccer has announced that it will renew its activities by presenting a tournament modelled on the format of the world Cup of soccer, which will take place from 8 July to 11 August in the area of Orlando, Florida.
The Montreal Impact will be part of the 26 teams that will participate in the competition “MLS is Back Tournament” in the Wide World of Sports complex ESPN located in the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
The NBA will re-launch its activities at this location.
The tournament of MLS, which will total 54 meetings, will be presented behind closed doors. It will be used to relaunch the 25th season of the history of the MLS, which has been interrupted after two games on the 12th of march due to the pandemic of COVID-19.
Commissioner Don Garber has indicated that Disney has the necessary infrastructure to accommodate nearly 2000 players and support staff for the duration of the tournament.
“We are pleased to team up with Disney to revive the season 2020 the MLS and start to play soccer, said Garber. The opportunity to meet the 26 clubs in a controlled environment allows us to protect the health of our players, coaches and employees, and starting to play. “
The league hopes that once the tournament in Florida will be completed, then a regular calendar re-designed and may allow for the times of the activities in its various markets. The MLS was mentioned that the details of the schedule remodeled and will soon be passed, but said that the teams do not face each other as opponents of their association.
The tournament, which gets underway on July 8, means that the MLS will relaunch its activities at approximately the mid-point of its original timetable. To this date, the Impact would have played 20 games, in a calendar which is usually 34.
Players and team personnel will be regularly tested for the COVID-19, under a plan developed by the medical experts of the league in partnership with microbiologists-infectious disease physicians. A person who receives a positive diagnosis for the coronavirus would be immediately ” removed from the tournament “, and all the people who would have come into contact with it would be tested ” very, very regularly “, according to Garber.
The results of the group stage will count in the general classification and the team champion of the tournament, be it a canadian or american, will get the passes granted to the MLS in the Champions League of Concacaf in 2021.
The teams will arrive in Orlando as early as 24 June, in view of a ” preseason “.
The teams will compete in each of three matches spread over 16 days in the group stage. The two best clubs of each of the six groups and the four best trainings that will finish third in their group, will advance to the playoffs : eighth-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.
Matches will begin at 9 h, 20 h and 22 h 30, local time, but most of the duels will take place in the evening, said the league.
A draw to determine the groups will take place on Thursday.
The Orlando City SC, as a team hostess, will be in group A.
The other five groups will be conducted by the teams who took part in the semi-finals of the MLS in 2019 — the Toronto FC, the Atlanta United, the Los Angeles FC and the Seattle Sounders — in most of Real Salt Lake, the team that has amassed the most points in the Western conference in 2019.
The draw will be used to assign the other 20 clubs in the various groups, depending of their association.
The Association, which will host the Nashville SC for the remainder of the season 2020, will have three groups — one with six teams, and two other of the four. The Western conference will be represented in three groups, and each of them will have four courses.
According to the regulations of the tournament, each team will have five substitutions per game, and the video replay will be in effect. The training will be able to count on 24 players per match.
In the group stage, the duels, which will be tied after the 90 minutes regulation time will go directly into a shootout.
In a previous version, there was the issue that the Impact would have played 14 games in the date of 8 July. However, the number is 20.
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