Short takes
Jon Marthaler's soccer short takes
April 14, 2018 at 12:50AM
• It feels like it's now or never for Major League Soccer in the CONCACAF Champions League, with Toronto FC the big favorite going into its two-legged matchup in the finals with Chivas. Toronto is the best team in MLS history, while this edition of Chivas has struggled, barely scraping through to the finals. The first leg is Tuesday, with the second leg the next week. If MLS can't win this one, it may never win one.
• Kudos to the Premier League for leading the fight against instant replay in soccer. The league announced it will not use instant replay in 2018-19, leaving it as practically the only holdout against the deeply flawed replay systems currently in use.
• The 2026 World Cup was originally scheduled to be the first tournament to expand from 32 to 48 teams, but FIFA is reportedly pushing to move up that expansion to the 2022 tournament in Qatar. The move should make it even easier for the United States to qualify. But then again, it seemed impossible that Team USA would be sitting out this summer's tournament in Russia.
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Minnesota started only two strikers against Seattle, leaving Sang Bin Jeong and Joseph Rosales to provide the width behind Teemu Pukki and Kelvin Yeboah.
