Inter Miami are gearing up for a big season ahead here in Major League Soccer as they try to do better than they did last year. And they started doing so by adding yet another former teammate of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez.
The Herons are not the only team that has made a high-profile signing, as LAFC and Colorado scoured through the Premier League to sign a couple of veteran shot stoppers.
Staying in the Eastern Conference, momentum is on Columbus’ side after they won the Major League Soccer Cup last month.
The 2024 Major League Soccer campaign won’t start until the third week of February, so a lot can still happen in the next few weeks.
For now, check out some of the most notable Major League Soccer 2024 updates by reading today’s SBOTOP recap.
Suarez to join Messi’s super crew
Despite adding Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets last year, Inter Miami still finished nearly at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings (14th), so they missed out on the playoffs, although they managed to win the US Leagues Cup, their first trophy in franchise history.
To be fair, Messi and his super friends arrived in the middle of the 2023 season, so one can argue that if they were added to the squad earlier, they would’ve been in a better place to contend for a postseason berth.
Luis Suarez was linked to a move to South Beach before, but it was delayed since he played a season for Brazilian side Gremio.
And finally, he has arrived, which will surely bolster their frontline, which, besides Messi, currently consists of Leonardo Campana, Robert Taylor, and Diego Gomez.
Suarez will turn 37 in three weeks, but he can still score goals with the best of them. He has shown that in his lone season at Gremio, where he scored 17 goals in 33 games, guiding them to second place in the Brazilian Serie A.
But more than the goals and improving their Major League Soccer 2024 odds, the Uruguayan international adds a winning pedigree to South Beach.
Widely considered one of the best strikers of his generation, Suarez won four La Liga titles at Barcelona alongside Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba between 2015 and 2019. He also won the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2015.
LAFC and Colorado sign former Premier League goalies
After spending the last 11 years of his career in North London, Hugo Lloris has brought his time at Tottenham to an end after he completed his move to LAFC on a one-year deal with an option to extend for a further two years.
Lloris hasn’t played a single minute for Spurs this campaign since Ange Postecoglou appointed summer signing Guglielmo Vicario as the team’s first-choice goalie.
The Frenchman recorded 361 appearances and 127 clean sheets for Spurs, and his departure alongside Harry Kane’s last August represents the latest change of guard for the Premier League side.
Another Premier League goalkeeper who has made his way to the United States is Zack Steffen, who will not occupy a Designed Player (DP) spot and will instead be a Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) signing.
Steffen previously played for Columbus but eventually left for Manchester United in a $7 million deal. The Pennsylvania-born goalie, unfortunately, couldn’t carve out a consistent role under Pep Guardiola and was loaned out several times.
Adding Steffen’s experience is a huge boon for the Rapids’ defence which conceded 54 league goals last term, good for fourth-worst in the Western Conference.
Columbus win second MLS Cup in four years
Columbus won their third MLS Cup in franchise history after defeating LAFC 2-1 on December 10, as Cucho Hernandez and Yaw Yeboah scored for the Crew, while Denis Bouanga notched a consolation goal.
Hernandez’s goal came from the penalty spot for his ninth such kick across all competitions in his Crew career after LAFC defender Diego Palacios was caught for a handball at the top of the box in the 33rd minute.
Yeboah made it 2-0 when he slid a shot past goalie Maxime Crepeau after a brilliant pass from full-back Malte Amundsen in the 37th minute.
Bouanga then made it 2-1, as he scored off a rebound after Patrick Schulte made a save to take his tally to 38 goals in 49 matches in all competitions in 2023.
Prior to the final against LAFC, Columbus went through and survived a murderer’s row, beating Atlanta United, Orlando City, and FC Cincinnati.
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