MLS: MLS Unites creates common platform through pandemic

MLS Unites wants to highlight the work of heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two former players, now doctors helping coronavirus patients, are already there on the frontlines.

The new platform MLS Unites wants to make the public aware of all that the players, coaches, clubs and league are doing to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Listen to the latest episode of the MLS Multiplex podcast here! — A look at the USSF

Announcing the platform on March 30, commissioner Don Garber emphasized that MLS Unites shines a light on what can be done by volunteers and health professionals to get through the pandemic. And that light is shined by the MLS family — fans, players, teams and partners.

Some fans have questioned whether this measure wasn’t superfluous at best — busy work at worst during the league suspension. After all, MLS teams regularly assemble contributions for their local charities and, in more normal times, visit hospitals and community projects.

More from MLS Multiplex

However, as Major League Soccer communications started highlighting the early medical professionals as heroes in the face of the pandemic, two of them were discovered to be former MLS players.

Former New England Revolution defender Marshall Leonard now opposes COVID-19 in a New York-area hospital emergency room. He played for the team from 2002-2007.

Dr Leonard has had to reorient his focus on teamwork during these battles. As much as he instinctively wants to get close to patients and fellow medical professionals in this fight, distance from the illness is a vital part of the strategy.

Then there is Robbie Russell, who played in MLS between 2008 and 2013 for Real Salt Lake and DC United. Dr Russell now serves as a first-year resident at University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, where he focuses on emergency medicine that will deliver him to the same frontlines as Dr Leonard.

As the aim of MLS Unites, Dr Russell and his colleagues work to slow the infection rate of coronavirus while effectively treating those victims in their care. He brings to his colleagues the sense of keeping their strategy straight as they oppose the disease, as well as that same emphasis on solid teamwork.

Recently, FIFA president Gianni Infantino amplified what the former players and Commissioner Garber said. He added that football leagues are doing the right thing, taking any measures available to engage supporters, players, and teams in pandemic awareness, not to mention encouraging actions that lead to reducing the rate of COVID-19 infection and ultimately end the pandemic.

Infantino says the importance is to expand soccer’s concept of teamwork. That means including the public in an even deeper role than the traditional supporter, because, once we emerge from the pandemic and kick-start the 2020 season, there will be some immediate changes to make the competitions meaningful, and some of the changes will become permanent Infantino insists. Supporters, players and team front offices have an obligation to keep everyone connected so that the sport survives until it’s safe to start the restart season.

With the shortened seasons, Infantino expects that some of the temporary reforms used to tighten competition will become permanent. Fewer and more competitive matches will ensure the safety and health of the players, he said.

MLS Unites will provide an effective platform to prepare league followers for those temporary reforms as leagues return to action. And the platform provides us with a forum to let MLS know which ones work for us — and how well they’d work — if they became permanent.

dark. Next. MLS: Top 5 Italian players in league history

But first, there is a lot of work to do. Sports and business policymakers have enacted plans on what those actions will be. In the meantime, MLS Unites supports and communicates those policies and celebrates those that are saving lives.

Home/MLS News