Of all the major sports leagues, it appears Major League Soccer has beat all others to restarting their season. Since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports throughout the United States, in March, sports fans have been anxiously awaiting several leagues to resume.
The “MLS is Back” tournament began on July 8, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World, in Orlando, Florida, with the league attempting to keep its players in a protected bubble.
However, two of the league’s 26 teams are not participating due to several players having tested positive for the corona virus; Dallas and Nashville.
With these two teams being forced to withdraw from the MLS tournament, it has raised new questions about sports resuming competition during the pandemic.
FC TULSA
The United Soccer League Championship, the top-level minor league of MLS has also restarted its season. This is the league in which FC Tulsa competes.
The USL schedule resumed last Saturday, and FC Tulsa played its first game of the revised schedule on Monday at Oklahoma City. The next home match for the Tulsa club will be on August 12, when San Antonio comes to town for a 7:00 p.m. match at ONEOK Field.
Prior to the league shutdown in March, FC Tulsa had played only one game of the 2020 season, a 1-1 draw at Sacramento Republic FC. The resumed schedule will feature 15 games; eight at home and seven on the road.
Michael Nsien is in his third season as head coach of FC Tulsa, and he leads a very talented team, with several veterans, including Defender Cyprian Hedrick, midfielder Cristhian Altamairano, and forward Tobenna Uzo.
Hedrick, a native of Cameroon, is in his second season with the club and his eighth season in the USL. He is 15th all-time with 166 regular season USL Championship matches played.
Last year, Hedrick, the team captain, played every minute of his 33 appearances for Tulsa, and missed only one match due to a yellow card suspension.
Altamirano, from Honduras, turned a lot of heads last season, his first with Tulsa, scoring seven goals and seven assists.
Uzo, from Nigeria, scored five goals in his 1,014 minutes last season for Tulsa.
Three of those goals came in his last four starts of the 2019 season.
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
The NBA is set to return on July 30, and like MLS, it will host all teams at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, at Disney World.
The top 22 of the league’s 30 teams will play eight games to finish the regular season. From these, the top seven teams in each conference will advance, with the final eighth seed in each conference being determined by a potential play-in tournament before the traditional 16-team playoffs.
Even though the Walt Disney World theme park reopened last week, fans will not be in attendance for any of the NBA games.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
MLB announced a few weeks back, a 60-game season will begin with each team playing season opening games on July 23 and 24. MLB will play in each team’s respective ballparks, however, the divisions have been shuffled and combined between the American League and the National League to play teams in a more regional alignment and cut down on travel.
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
When the NHL shutdown in March, there were only a few games remaining on the regular season schedule, and during this time off, the league has decided to just jump to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the league’s restart.
The 24 teams that qualified for the expanded Stanley Cup playoffs began formal training camps this week in preparation for the Aug. 1 start to the postseason.
The NHL is utilizing a hub city system to isolate the players and reduce travel. Eastern Conference playoff games will be played at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, while the Western Conference matchups will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
The Stanley Cup Finals will likely be played in one of the hub cities, but the final decision hasn’t been announced yet.