The Daily Dirt, December 20: MLS to Nashville

MLS and Nashville

Later today, MLS commissioner, Don Garber, has a “significant announcement about the future of soccer in Nashville”. For more information check out Sydney Hunte’s take.

When Nashville does, in fact, get an MLS team, it will be interesting to see how (if) the rivalry grows between them and Atlanta. The teams will be just 250 miles apart, nearly half the distance of Atlanta to Orlando.

Soccer in the south is just getting started. It’s great to the growth of the sport throughout America in general but to be breaking the stereotype, that soccer in the south would never work, is all the more impressive.

#BarcoWatch becoming more of #CanIndependienteConvinceBarcoToStayWatch?

Two days ago we had TyC Sports reporting that Barco will be going to ask Independiente coach, Ariel Holan, and VP, Hugo Moyano, to accept the offer from Atlanta.

Yesterday, as reported by John E. Rojas on Twitter, the VP of Independiente said “Tomorrow we will have a meeting, we are still trying to convince him and his agent to stay with us and play Copa Libertadores. Let’s see what we can finish tomorrow”.

To sum up, Independiente doesn’t want to give up Barco. However, it seems that Barco wants to move on to Atlanta, either because he believes it will advance his growth or money or both. You can’t blame him either, at 18 it’s hard to pass up a chance to earn more money, play in front of (potentially) 70,000, and play/learn from Tata Martino.

Domestic

First two Atlanta United matches of 2018 announced (DSS)

MLS announces 2018 home openers for all 23 clubs; season kicks off March 3 (MLS)

LA Galaxy sign Venezuelan defender Rolf Feltscher on free transfer (MLS)

International

Antoine Griezmann: Atletico Madrid report Barcelona to Fifa (BBC)

Bidding for Premier League TV rights nears with tech giants Amazon, Google and Netflix set to enter the fray (Mirror)

Opinion: VAR is here to stay — despite a rough Bundesliga start (DW)