MLS tournament bubble is working: 9,235 tests since July 12, zero positives
The MLS is Back Tournament in Orlando heads into the semifinals Wednesday and Thursday with its bubble intact.
After Nashville SC and FC Dallas were sent home in early July due to virus outbreaks, the MLS tournament bubble has been a success. Since July 12, a total of 9,235 COVID-19 tests have been conducted on players, coaches and staff, and there has not been a single positive result.
Philadelphia Union plays the Portland Timbers in Wednesday’s semifinal and Orlando City plays Minnesota United on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in Fort Lauderdale, Inter Miami players continue to undergo COVID-19 testing every other day, and there have been no new cases. The team is training daily, preparing to resume the regular season in late summer.
The league is expected to announce later this week that the season will continue at home stadiums, likely without fans at first, sometime after August 20. Details are being worked out, including how Nashville SC and FC Dallas will make up their three lost games. The three group games in the MLS is Back Tournament counted toward the season standings.
Inter Miami, which lost all three tournament games, still is awaiting its home debut. COVID-19 interrupted the season two days before the scheduled opening of the club’s 18,000-seat Fort Lauderdale stadium.
Paul McDonough, Miami’s chief operating officer, planned to add a few attacking players to the roster before the season resumes, but so far there have not been any signings. Rumors continue to swirl about Miami offers to Chelsea’s Willian and Manchester City’s David Silva, but neither has indicated plans to move to MLS.
The team is also still missing No. 1 draft pick Robbie Robinson, who left the Orlando bubble on July 6 for personal reasons to be with his family in South Carolina and has yet to rejoin the team. At the time, McDonough stressed that Robinson did not test positive for COVID-19 and his departure was for other reasons.
“Something came up, we discussed it, and for personal reasons Robbie decided to leave the bubble,” McDonough said at the time. “It made more sense for him to leave the bubble and sort it out. Once you leave you can’t come back in, so we thought this maybe was something we could have taken care of from there, but we decided it was better for him to sort it out by leaving.”
McDonough said then that they expected him back after the tournament. Robinson was looking forward to playing after recovering from a knee injury sustained during the team’s second game at D.C. United on March. 7.
The club had no comment Tuesday on when or if Robinson plans to return.