Major League Soccer starts tomorrow with 46 Argentines

The MLS will start tomorrow with a strong presence of the Argentines in the 27 participating teams: 43 players and three coaches.

San Jose Earthquakes, Matthias Almeida’s team, will visit the Houston Dynamo in the season opener to be played from Argentina at 21.

At 10:30 pm, he will play Minnesota United, with Ramon Abela making his debut and Emmanuel Reynoso appearing, as a visitor, against the Seattle Sounders.

Both games will be streamed on ESPN Play.

Gabriel Haynes (Atlanta United) and Hernan Losada (DC United) complete the Argentine coaches’ trilogy in the Major League Soccer which will once again have a strong Argentine presence.

Losada, the former Independiente player, will be the youngest coach in the competition at the age of 38 and his coaching staff will include Nicholas Frutos as assistant.

Argentina is the country that contributes the most foreigners to the MLS with 43 soccer players.

Our country will have five fewer representatives than Canada, which is participating in the tournament with three of the 27 franchises: Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Whitecaps.

Argentine footballers also double the number of Brazilians and Mexicans.

From Rosario Mario Gori – the first Argentine to play in the US in his MLS debut in 1996 – until today, 146 players have passed and Argentina is the country that contributed the most players in history, even surpassing Canada.

The Argentine player with the most matches is Javier Morales (formerly Lanos and Arsenal) with a score of 255, but that number can be reached this season by three players who are still active: Diego Valerie (233), Federico Higuain (221) and Maximiliano Orotti (208).

Heinz leads the team with the most Argentines in the squad and will seek to replicate the title won by Gerardo “Tata” Martino in 2018.

The former Velez coach has joined Lisandro Lopez, Santiago Sosa, Franco Ibarra and Alain Franco, who have joined Rocco Rios Novo, Ezequiel Barco and Marcelino Moreno.

The other team that will have a strong national presence will be Inter Miami with six people: brothers Gonzalo, Federico Higuain, Nicolas Figal, Leandro Gonzalez Perez, Matthias Pellegrini and Julian Carranza.

The podium was completed by San Jose, the Almeida team, which includes Luciano Abecasis, Christian Espinosa, Eric Remedy, Andres Rios and Daniel Vega.

Two footballers with roots in our country can be added to the extensive list of Argentine players: Sebastian Leggett, from Los Angeles Galaxy, plays for the United States team but has an Argentine father and mother; Lucas Cavallini, the Vancouver Whitecaps striker, was born in Canada, has an Argentine father, and has spent most of his football career in Uruguay.

The tournament is divided into two regions, on the one hand, the Eastern Conference with 14 teams, and on the other hand, the Western Conference with 13 teams.

The first of each group qualifies directly to the quarter-finals, while from second to seventh they will play to the eighth finals.

The title holders will be Columbus Crew, followed by Argentine Lucas Zillarian and Milton Valenzuela.

Here are the details of the first appointment program and the Argentines who will be on each team:

-Tomorrow-

At age 21, Houston Dynamo (Matteo Bagamic, Maximiliano Orrotti and Matias Vera) – San Jose (DT Matthias Almeida, Luciano Abecasis, Christian Espinosa, Eric Remedy, Andres Rios and Daniel Vega)

10:30 pm, Seattle Sounders – Minnesota United (Ramon Abela and Emmanuel Reynoso).

-Saturday-

At 15, CF Montreal (Emmanuel Maciel and Joaquin Torres) – Toronto FC

At age 16: Orlando City (Rodrigo Schlegel) – Atlanta United (DT Gabriel Heinz, Rocco Rios Novo, Alan Franco, Ezequiel Barco, Franco Ibarra, Marcelino Moreno, Santiago Sousa and Lizandro Lopez)

Nineteen years old, Los Angeles FC-Austin (Thomas Pochettino).

At 21, DC United (DT Hernán Losada and Yamil Asad) – New York City (Valentin Castellanos and Maximiliano Morales)

A las 21, New York Red Bulls- Sporting Kansas City

AT 21: FC Dallas (Franco Yara) – Colorado Rapids (Brian Galvan)

9:30 pm, Chicago Fire (Ignacio Aliseda and Gastón Giménez) – New England Revolution (Gustavo Bou)

9:30 pm, Nashville Cincinnati (Luciano Acosta & Alvaro Barial)

-Sunday-

At age 16, Inter Miami (Nicolas Figal, Leandro Gonzalez Perez, Gonzalo Higuain, Matthias Pellegrini, Julian Carranza and Federico Higuain) – Los Angeles Galaxy

6.30pm Columbus Crew (Lucas Zillarian and Milton Valenzuela) – Philadelphia Union

Las 23, Vancouver Whitecaps-Portland Timbers (Eric Godoy)

Free: Real Salt Lake (Pablo Ruiz). (Telam)