What you need to know about the new MLS season

Welcome back, MLS! America’s first division men’s soccer league kicks off its 25th season on Saturday. If you were checked out during the offseason, here’s what you need to know to get caught up.

MLS is now so big that some teams don’t play each other in the regular season. There are still 34 regular-season games, but thanks to the additions of Inter Miami and Nashville SC there are a whopping 26 teams.

Both new sides are looking like classic expansion teams, with a lot of decent MLS veterans and very few star players. Nashville will be playing a classic expansion team style as well, with former MLS Cup winning head coach Gary Smith focusing on defensive solidity first. Nashville’s ceiling isn’t very high, but they won’t embarrass themselves either.

Miami is going to be quite a bit different. The David Beckham-owned team doesn’t have star power yet, but is going to pretend it does before the stars arrive anyway. Head coach Diego Alonso is expected to install a high-pressure, attack-minded style. It could see Miami turn some heads and make a playoff run in season one, or it could backfire horribly.

During his time with the New York Red Bulls, Henry was famous for studying tape on all of his opponents and having nuanced opinions on every player in the league. Unsurprisingly, he’s made his way back to the league as a head coach. He’ll be tasked with turning around a Montreal Impact franchise that’s been stuck in the mud for a few seasons.

Hopefully the Montreal brass will show some patience, since Henry’s record doesn’t suggest he’s the right hire for a quick fix. A team should only be hiring him if they believe in him long-term, and his ability to learn on the job. Henry’s first head coaching gig didn’t go well — he won four games, drew five, and lost 11 before he was sacked by Monaco.

Montreal also haven’t given Henry much to work with. He has arguably the weakest roster in the league following the departure of club legend Ignacio Piatti. But his team ground out progression in CONCACAF Champions League by playing a very defensive 5-3-2 system, so he might have a few tricks up his sleeve.

The player MLS has coveted for over five years has finally arrived. Star Mexico striker Javier Hernandez finally decided that the time was right to stop bouncing around Europe and take a big paycheck to be a superstar in Los Angeles. He’s tasked with replacing the goals and marketing power of the departed Zlatan Ibrahmovic for LA Galaxy.

How much Chicharito produces probably depends on the team around him. The Galaxy have a lot of decent midfielders and wingers to pass him the ball, but there are still a lot of questions about whether the team is adequate defensively. He won’t be able to do much if opponents go ahead early, then bunker.

During preseason, former FC Cincinnati head coach Ron Jans allegedly used a racial slur in front of players while singing along to a song, and subsequently resigned. As a debate raged on about whether this is a severe enough offense to cost someone their job, the MLSPA revealed it was part of a pattern of unacceptable behavior, not an isolated incident.

FCC is now in search of a new head coach at the worst possible time, with 29-year-old Yoann Damet taking over the interim gig for the second time in less than a year. He has a lot of new players to work with, but a tough task ahead of him as he tries to turn around a team that finished comfortably in last place in its debut season. One of America’s biggest and loudest fanbases is wondering when the organization they support is going to start looking like a professional one.

Most of this offseason’s biggest transfers came from Liga MX. The big ones:

Rodolfo Pizarro — $12 million, Monterrey to Inter Miami
Alan Pulido — $9.5 million, Chivas to Sporting Kansas City
Lucas Zelarayan — $7 million, Tigres to Columbus Crew
Lucas Cavallini — $6 million, Puebla to Vancouver Whitecaps
Edison Flores — $5 million, Morelia to D.C. United

These players are all in their mid-to-late 20s, so they’re unlikely to go up in market value. All might help sell tickets to Liga MX fans, but none are huge-name stars. Their teams did not buy them to sell them on at a profit. They were bought to help their teams win now, and hopefully for the next five years. There’s some debate about whether or not this is a sound business strategy, but it signals that MLS clubs aren’t as cheap as they used to be.

Why Liga MX players, rather than players from somewhere else? My guess is the teams’ confidence in scouting knowledge. Most teams have scouts monitoring South American leagues and Eastern Europe, but there’s a lot more institutional knowledge about Liga MX than there is about any other foreign league in MLS. Teams are confident they know what they’re getting when they buy players from the Mexican league.

If you watched MLS last year, you can pick up right where you left off. Out-of-market games are on ESPN+, while national TV games are on Univision, ESPN and Fox networks. The Univision game is usually on Saturday afternoon, and the ESPN and Fox games are usually on Sunday night.