Major League Soccer postpones matches, players show solidarity with NBA movement
Just over five months after professional sports were forced to an abrupt halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, a significant portion of the sports world again shuttered Wednesday. This time in protest of racial injustice and police brutality following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The movement, led by players on the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, has since led to game cancellations across the NBA and the WNBA, as well as in Major League Baseball. Late Wednesday evening, Major League Soccer teams joined those leagues in postponing games in a show of solidarity with the Black community.
Six matches were scheduled to take place starting at 7:30 p.m. with a game between Orlando City and Nashville FC. That match kicked off on time and was completed. But as teams reached the half in Orlando and the second match of the evening between Inter Miami FC and Atlanta United was gearing up to start, team captains for Miami, Luis Robles, and Atlanta, Brad Guzan, met and discussed how to proceed, according to Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald.
The match was ultimately delayed and then officially postponed, as were the four other matches scheduled to take place Wednesday between FC Dallas and Colorado, Real Salt Lake and LAFC, San Jose and Portland and the LA Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders.
“We want to let all of the fans know that we made a collective decision between both lockers rooms to not play tonight to stand-up and fight for social change,” Atlanta United midfielder Jeff Larentowicz said in a statement released by the team.
Not all teams voted to not play, according to Steven Goff of the Washington Post. Shortly after 9 p.m., the league released a statement saying it had made the decision to postpone the five matches remaining.
“We as players made the decision,” LAFC midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye tweeted in response to the MLS statement. “Fix this, please give the right narrative.”
Earlier in the evening, Kaye also tweeted roughly an hour before his match was scheduled to start: “We not playing tonight. #EnoughIsEnough.”
Just before kickoff in Miami, MLS released a statement: “The entire Major League Soccer family is deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless shooting of Jacob Blake and events in Kenosha. We continue to stand with the Black community throughout our country — including our players and employees — and share in their pain, anger and frustration.”
“The entire Major League Soccer family unequivocally condemns racism and has always stood for equality, but we need to do more to take tangible steps to impact change,” the statement continued. “We will continue to work with our players, our clubs and the broader soccer community to harness our collective power to fight for equality and social justice.”
According to MLS, each match will be rescheduled, although no time table was given. The MLS Players Association also gave no indication of when play would resume in its statement.
“Some things are far more important than sports,” a tweet from the MLSPA said in part. “Change must happen and athletes are committed to leading the way.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 10:01 PM.
