Promotion and Protest: MLS Week 3 And USL Labor Strife
I cannot emphasize this point enough: United's quest to mine for new fans in Baltimore feels quixotic when Baltimore sports fans' prime directive (other than root for Baltimore if possible) is never to support teams from DC.
The Tuesday newsletter is a look back at the weekend: Week 3 in MLS on- and off-the-field and Week 1 on the USL with a special focus on labor strife and player action.
MLS, you flighty mother--
The greatest trick the devil MLS ever pulled was making us forget that parity is a base state. For whatever we think about a handful of flashier, fancier clubs spending what they can under the MLS budget rules to open an advantage on the rest the pack, and/or for whatever conclusions we jump to after a few weeks of soccer, MLS never fails to humble us. We don't know shit.
That reality punched us in face in Week 3.
The Red Bulls, a team that missed the playoffs last year, fired their manager, and rebooted their plan with a first-time coach and bunch of kids, only to zoom out of the 2026 gates looking like one of the season's best new stories, were embarrassed by the worst team in the league through two weeks.
Red Bulls 0, CF Montreal 3.
Michael Bradley made some odd choices with his lineup and just as two good results don't mean much, one bad one shouldn't have everyone jumping off the RBNY bandwagon. They are still playing the kids, after all. There are bound to be ups and downs.
I also didn't have FC Cincinnati dropping points at home against Toronto FC on my bingo card. Josh Sargent didn't dress but another of TFC's new additions, former Sporting Kansas City man Daniel Salloi, delivered the winning goal for the Reds.
It's not a mystery that FC Cincinnati built its Eastern Conference contenders repuation not on attack, but on defense. In the past, Pat Noonan's team leaned on a next-level playmaker to provide the goals needed to win games. Luciano Acosta won an MVP in Cincinnati as essentially a one-man show (with apologies to Brendan Vázquez) and Evander's arrival ahead of last year suggested a relatively simple plug-and-play continuation of the model.
But Cincy's defense is no longer league elite and while Evander is a very fun player, there are serious questions over his ability to elevate FCC's attack to the levels necessary to compete with the elite in the East.
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I wasn't a fan of DC United's decision to move a home date against Inter Miami to Baltimore for a host of reasons. I'm generally ideologically opposed to club's taking games out of their home territory because it usually means either shorting your fans a home date or exploiting them by asking them to travel to support the club in someone else's building.
The second part wasn't much of a reach for United fans on Saturday and the club made all the right moves to take care of its most ardent fans by providing buses up to Baltimore but that doesn't make the exercise less silly.
DC certainly made a lot more money packing 72,000 (a club "home" attendance record) into M&T Bank Stadium in Charm City than it would have playing Inter Miami at Audi Field. In a different sort of soccer structure, the club could sell that windfall as a tool in putting together a more competitive team. This though, is MLS, and that dog won't hunt. Not when DC could spend millions more and still not hit the top half of the league in spending.
What about the rhetoric about connecting with Baltimore? United CEO Danita Johnson said plenty about that part of the plan ahead of the big day.
"One of the reasons we really looked at Baltimore, and we love our neighbors, the Commanders, was really about taking it into Baltimore itself. For us at D.C. United, we have a lot of ties in Baltimore, we're talking about our other Baltimore projects in the future, from MLS Next Pro, how we want to develop a women's soccer team in that area, and, in addition to that, it's been a hotbed for us from a youth perspective," Johnson said.
When you can't even capture the attention of the immediately local fanbase, should you be trying to colonize the city 45 minutes up the road? Never mind that Baltimore is a place and a culture distinct from DC, often resentful of DC, and very much not inclined to support sports teams from DC.
I cannot emphasize this point enough: United's quest to mine for new fans in Baltimore feels quixotic when Baltimore sports fans' prime directive (other than root for Baltimore if possible) is never to support teams from DC and the club isn't getting traction with the untapped wealth of soccer fans in its own backyard.
I'll be interested to see how the Carmelo Anthony-backed MLS Next Pro effort goes if and when it gets underway. If the branding is good and soccer fans in Baltimore don't mind the minor league affiliation—two big "ifs"—maybe it will all be worth it.
For the scene on the ground, with plenty of informed exposition from a guy who knows the failures of DC United over the last 15 years, read Pablo Maurer.
Pablo Iglesias Maurer
Friday was fraught for fans of clubs in the USL Championship. With no new CBA signed and the USLPA membership having authorized a strike, there was real concern that the opening match of the season might be cancelled.
Instead, the curtain-raiser in Lexington began with a protest. At the opening whistle the Lexington and Louisville players stood completely still for the first minute, creating a surreal scene. The in-stadium PA system blasted Daddy Yankee's reggaeton classic "Gasolina" as fans awkwardly looked on. USL broadcaster Mike Watts called the 60-second action a "delay"—because what else could someone calling the game under the auspices of the league itself say?
With a CBA deal still pending, Lexington and Louisville begin the season with a minute-long moment of stillness.
— John Morrissey (@usltactics.com) March 6, 2026 at 7:41 PM
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The first minute protest happened across the league in every USL Championship season opener. In Brooklyn the fans joined the fight, chanting "stand with players" at Brooklyn FC's first-ever USL Championship match at Maimonides Park in Coney Island (a game Brooklyn won 1-0 over Indy Eleven).
Players of Brooklyn FC and Indy Eleven stand still for the first minute of their game to highlight ongoing CBA negotiations with USL and requests for fairer working conditions. Fans of both teams chant "stand with players".
— James Nalton (@jdnalton.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 3:50 PM
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As I said on Morning Kickaround on Monday, the players don't have a ton of leverage here. Striking is a nuclear option that could mean missing several paychecks at a level where salaries are often barely livable and the USL can make a reasonable argument that most of the league's paying customers wouldn't notice the difference if the league was to replace the current group with scabs and replacement players.
I'd like to believe that wasn't the case and I hope it doesn't seem like I'm talking down American soccer fans, but the (still) nascent nature of the pro sport in this country means we're not there culturally. A significant portion of any soccer club's pool of potential match attendees (notice I'm pointedly avoiding the word "fans") doesn't know the difference between USL Championship-caliber players and a roster full of temps.
Among the tuned-in, the protest made an impression. I'm just not sure how it matters when most of the tuned-in are already on the player side.
The two sides held a call on Monday and the next bargaining session is set for Wednesday. Let's hope a resolution is coming.
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Catch you next time.
