MLS

If you happen to find yourself at a loose end this weekend, it might not be a bad idea to fire up the Apple TV app and check out some Major League Soccer action. All 14 of this weekend's games will be available to watch for free in English and Spanish, so you won't need an MLS Season Pass subscription.Apple Vision Pro users will be able to check out MLS games on a virtual screen that appears to be up to 100 feet wide. The Apple TV app is also available on smart TVs, set-top boxes, game consoles and of course on Apple's…

Trace the timeline of Major League Soccer from its uncertain beginnings to its unquestioned success and you’ll find Greg Vanney was there at every important juncture.He played in 29 games, including the first MLS Cup final, in the league’s inaugural season in 1996, then came off the bench in David Beckham’s debut 11 years later. In 2017, he took Toronto FC to three trophies, still the only MLS treble, and last season he coached the Galaxy in front of a Rose Bowl crowd of 82,110, largest in the league’s history.But if…

Apple is getting ready to kick off its second year of MLS Season Pass, with the 2024 season about to start. It's fair to say that it's starting with a bang as well — the first game will see reigning Leagues Cup champions Inter Miami CF host Real Salt Lake at Chase Stadium with Lionel Messi in tow.While the game will be a standalone match, it marks the beginning of the second year of Season Pass as part of a 10-year partnership that's costing Apple a cool $2.5 billion. Apple was also instrumental in the deal that saw…

The MLS Season Pass is returning to Apple TV for 2024, Apple announced Monday. Sign-ups are now open in more than 100 countries for the 2024 MLS Season Pass, which gives fans all the games from the MLS as well as Leagues Cup, MLS All-Star, and Audi MLS Cup Playoffs games. As Apple notes, this is the second year in the company's 10-year partnership with the league, buoyed by the arrival of Lionel Messi in the league last year. MLS kicks off on February 21 with a standalone match between Messi's Inter Miami CF and Real…

LAFC has been fined $100,000 and supporter group 3252’s privileges have been suspended pending an investigation by MLS due to allegations of “serious misconduct,” the league announced Wednesday night.The supporter group set off flares not authorized by MLS during LAFC’s Western Conference final match against Houston, creating so much smoke it delayed the game.MLS announced supporter privileges for 3252 attending MLS Cup Saturday will be restricted. Fans could face other sanctions next season after the league completes…

The longest season in MLS history will continue one more week for LAFC.With Saturday’s 2-0 win over the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Western Conference final, LAFC earned a spot in next weekend’s Cup final with the Columbus Crew, adding a 53rd match to what has already been the league’s most exhausting schedule ever. But that’s not the only history the defending league champions hope to make in Ohio. With one more victory LAFC will become just the fourth team to win consecutive titles and the first to do so since the Galaxy…

With all eyes on Apple as it makes its foray into the world of streaming, and an exclusive revenue sharing deal locked in with the world's greatest player, veteran executive and SVP of Services at Apple Eddy Cue believes the company has a "huge" opportunity it must execute on. Speaking exclusively to our friends at ShortList, Eddy Cue described sports as "the most awesome unscripted drama." "You just don't know what's going to happen," Cue told Marc Chacksfield at Audi Field in DC last week, "and so I think it has…

Google has been targeting Apple for not supporting RCS, a new standard for messaging, that allows end-to-end encryption. But the problem with RCs is that it needs both sender and receiver to be on the same platform. The company is now taking a step forward in making cross-platform messaging more secure by adopting another standard, known as Messaging Layer Security, or MLS. MLS is an end-to-end encryption system that was recently given a go-ahead by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an organisation that is…

It’s been called ‘the retirement league’ by some detractors. But Major League Soccer, the US’s answer to the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A in Europe, is back — and this time, it means business.With multi-billion dollar backing from Apple and an impressive app that packages up the iPhone maker’s new MLS Season Pass streaming subscription, Apple is betting big on the increasing popularity of MLS not only in the US, but worldwide. And it’s got good reason to — with big-name signings like all-time great Lionel Messi…

Lionel Messi is coming to the U.S.To play soccer.I know that reads like a mistake, but it’s true: The most decorated player in the sport’s history is taking his talents to South Beach, agreeing to a multiyear deal with Inter Miami of MLS. Messi even confirmed it himself.“I made the decision that I’m going to go to Miami,” Messi said in Spanish in a brief video released Wednesday by Diario Sport, a Spanish sports daily. “I still haven’t finalized it 100%. We’re missing some things. But we’ve decided to continue on this…