The Football Reporters: Can MLS become a top-five league?

ESPN FC

ESPN

Sports, Soccer

4.2 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

ESPN FC’s Jeff Carlisle, Bill Connelly and Lizzy Becherano join Luis Miguel Echegaray ahead of the start of the 30th MLS season. They debate what the future holds for MLS and whether it can become one of the top five leagues in the world. Plus, discussion on Javier Mascherano leading Lionel Messi at Inter Miami and assess the hopes of newcomers San Diego FC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.6	Welcome to the football reporters.
0:40.2	The 30th season of MLS kicks off this weekend as the league welcomes its 30th team.
0:46.8	San Diego FC, Major League Soccer, may have Lionel Messi, but where does it rank among global leagues?
0:54.0	And what does the future hold for
0:55.7	MLS in a country that will co-host the biggest men's world cup ever in less than a year and a half?
1:02.8	I'm Luis Miguel I Che Guehara. For this edition of the show, I'm going to be joined by a variety
1:07.1	of voices to look at the state of MLS and now try and look ahead to the future of the league
1:13.2	post-F FIFA Men's World Cup in 2026.
1:16.9	We're going to kick things off by looking at the state of Major League Soccer right now with ESPN's
1:21.5	very own Jeff Carlisle and Bill Connolly. Welcome, Bo. Thank you for being here.
1:27.2	Thank you. Thanks for having me on.
1:29.6	Let's begin by using Bill's excellent piece to begin with, where he discusses where MLS ranks among other global leagues from ESPN.com.
1:40.8	Make sure to check it out.
1:42.0	So, Bill, let's begin with this.
1:43.7	A simple question with a complex
1:46.1	answer, I guess. How good is Major League Soccer? What was fun about this project or this piece was
1:52.5	that I had no idea what the answer was going to be. I had no preconceived kind of, yeah,
	...

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