Royal Roundup: Tigres UANL advances to Club World Cup final!

Hope everyone made it through the hand-egg weekend! Here’s what happened in the world of soccer while everyone else was watching the other game...

But first, the MLS lockout has been averted with an announcement by the league late on Friday:

Major League Soccer and the Major League Soccer Players Association today reached a tentative agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The agreement, covering the next seven years from 2021 through 2027, is subject to the approval of the MLS Board of Governors and the membership of the MLSPA.

No details were provided, but MLS appears to have held firm on having the CBA run through 2027 instead of the Players Association’s counter of ‘2026 (World Cup year). We’ll have to wait and see if any of the player’s wishes were accepted by the league.

INTERNATIONAL

• On Friday CONCACAF announced the schedule for the upcoming Men’s Olympic Qualifying tournament. All games will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico between March 18th and 30th. [FRS]
• Tigres UANL beat Brazilan side SE Palmerias 1-0 to become the first North American team to advance to the Club World Cup final. They will face the winner of Bayern Munich vs Al Ahly (Egypt) which is played Monday. [Concacaf]
• The plague of racial abuse in the UK has also started to affect the Women’s league. [Guardian]
• The French Ligue 1 television rights have managed a stop-gap agreement with Canal+ group to air the remaining matches for the current season. [LFP (in French)] An interesting note for fans of the league, Amazon Prime was one of those bidding for the rights; it was rejected as too low, but could be promising if they raise the stakes in the future. [RMCSport (in French)]
• Manchester City has widened the gap atop the Premier League table with a commanding win over Liverpool. [NBC]
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his 500th career goal over the weekend. [Guardian]

Photo by Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images

USA

• Erika Tymrak’s year off from playing helped her rediscover her love for the game. [Equalizer]
• A group in Rhode Island hoping to become a future USL Championship expansion location, and gained approval and a financing plan for a 7,500 seat stadium (expandable to 11,000) in Pawtucket. [USL-C]
• NWSL’s ambiguous Sky Blue FC may be considering a re-brand to include a geographic moniker. [OnceAMetro]
• US International players got a workout in the weekend’s games. Here’s a rundown of all their activities. [SBI]

MLS

• USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter says that thanks to the numerous young players who have been succeeding abroad, the perception of MLS and US Soccer is improving. [MLS]
• David Beckham has pumped an additional £11.2 ($15.3) million into Inter Miami’s development. [DailyMail]
• Austin FC is aiming to be the “most exciting MLS team in Texas”. Can they pull it off? [MLS]

FLASHBACK

• RSL tied the Seattle Sounders 3-3 in a preseason friendly. [2/9/11]
• Fabian Espindola and Ned Grabavoy have their contracts renewed, [2/9/12]
• RSL beat LA Galaxy in a preseason friendly. [2/8/13]
• RSL’s roster breakdown as the season is set to start. [2/8/16]
• Top 5 RSL players of all time (is this list still accurate?). [2/8/17]

And finally your video of the day courtesy of Brian Dunseth for sharing and commenting on the Real Salt Lake Superbowl commercial.