In the days after the rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout the world was declared by the World Health Organization to be a global pandemic, every major sports organization in the world shut down in the hope joining the quarantine would help prevent the disease from inflicting even greater damage.
Until recently, the only elite team sport leagues that managed to successfully return have been in soccer: among them the Bundesliga, Premier League and La Liga in Europe, NWSL here in the United States.
Major League Soccer launched its attempt this week with the MLS is Back Tournament.
The league determined the quickest route to get its players back into action and onto the field would be to create a “bubble” in one particular location with sufficient hotel space and practice fields to accommodate all its teams. That led them to Orlando, and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
However, Florida gradually (and then rapidly) became one of the hottest areas in the country relative to spread of the coronavirus, leading to concern about the ability of the officials to prevent COVID-19 from penetrating the MLS bubble.
That was not helped when multiple members of the FC Dallas squad tested positive for the virus after arriving in Orlando and several more were discovered the in succeeding days. Monday, Dallas was excused from the tournament. The league ultimately added Nashville SC to the withdrawn list, after a total of nine players tested positive and the team had to shut down training. The Colorado Rapids delayed their flight to Orlando because of two positive tests. Because of the two withdrawals, the Chicago Fire were moved from Group A to Group B, giving the tournament six four-team groups.
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