Major League Soccer returned Wednesday after four months away, just like it’s monthlong “MLS is Back” tournament that kicked off at Walt Disney World resort says.
It did so with Orlando City’s 2-1 injury-time victory over Inter Miami – home-state teams each – that was as much virtual-reality TV as soccer match, that was both heartfelt comeback and solemn protest.
MLS’ first game in 122 days made it the biggest men’s pro sports league in the U.S. to play since March 11. Shut down by the coronavirus pandemic since then, it returned in Orlando without supporters on Field 17 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex that’s also housing the NBA’s return.
The last one numbered in an expanse of athletic fields, it has been converted into a mini stadium that now doubles as television studio, too.
ESPN used a 160-person crew and 20-plus cameras – double a typical game telecast -- attached to drones, towering cranes and locker-room stall. Microphones placed everywhere from attached to goals to six embedded in the field captured players’ chatter and the sound of cleats striking balls crisply enhanced.
Bluescreens erected along sidelines and behind each goal – like your TV news weatherperson might use – cycled corporate-partner ads and supporters’ video throughout the game on a evening when a Nashville-Chicago nightcap was postponed after nine Nashville players tested positive for the virus. On Monday, FC Dallas withdrew from the tournament after 10 players tested positive.
A large Adidas logo was superimposed at midfield. It was a reminder that this 54-game production set to end Aug. 11 is a made-for-TV event intended to get both play and revenues flowing again
Germany’s Bundesliga began playing games again in empty stadiums in early May. England’s Premier League followed in June. Both leagues piped crowd noise and the sound of supporters singing and chanting into games and broadcast, a laugh track of sorts that MLS and ESPN ignored.
Instead, Wednesday’s telecast opened with a video montage that started with images of past sporting celebrations, both MLS and otherwise. It segued into footage of front-line hospital workers and Black Lives Matter protestors -- including Minnesota United’s Ike Opara and his teammates – who called for social justice and police reform.
Then players – each wearing a protective mask with a message – gathered on the field in silence for approximately the same 8 minutes, 46 seconds that a Minneapolis police officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck, killing him on Memorial Day. Starters knelt around the midfield circle. More than a hundred Black MLS players lined up around them, each a fist raised in the air in a protest organized by MLS players’ recently formed “Black Players For Change.”
A message on one of the boards read: MLS is Black.
“This is how it was, what it did, what it meant, how it felt,” a narrator spoke over the changing images. “It can feel that way again, but in a different light, a different world, a new day. So much has happened: a global pandemic, an economic collapse, an uprising in protest of injustice. There is no going back from here, so we won’t be returning to normal. We will move forward and stake a claim to the future.
“Sports were gone, but never far from our thoughts, never from our hearts. So tonight, we celebrate their return and feel the presence and power of sports once more. Welcome back to Major League Soccer.”
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July 09, 2020 at 10:24AM
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Pro soccer returns as MLS is Back tournament begins - Minneapolis Star Tribune
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