NEW YORK, NY–Major League Soccer announced at 9:11pm ET that five of their six matches scheduled for Wednesday night (Inter Miami-Atlanta, FC Dallas-Colorado, Real Salt Lake-LAFC, San Jose-Portland, and LA Galaxy-Seattle) had been postponed in the wake of protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI. The only match that went on was between Orlando City and Nashville SC which kicked off at 7:30pm ET and was halfway through their game before Inter Miami’s game against Atlanta United, scheduled for 8pm ET, was postponed.
This follows the Milwaukee Bucks boycotting Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal with the Orlando Magic earlier in the afternoon and led to the eventual postponement of all NBA playoff games on Wednesday in Orlando. Several baseball games and the WNBA have also cancelled their games for the night.
Major League Soccer issued the following statement:
Major League Soccer has made the decision to postpone the remaining five matches — Miami-Atlanta, Dallas-Colorado, Real Salt Lake-LAFC, San Jose-Portland, LA Galaxy-Seattle — scheduled for this evening. Each match will be rescheduled.
Several MLS players including LAFC’s Mark Anthony Kaye and Toronto FC’s Jozy Altidore tweeted support for the decision to postpone and maintained it was their decision not to play on Wednesday:
We as players made the decision. Fix this, please give the right narrative. https://t.co/0Qhb8L7dMc
— Mark-Anthony Kaye (@MarkThEwizz) August 27, 2020
Proud of sports tonight and all of my guys in MLS. ✊?
— Jozy Altidore (@JozyAltidore) August 27, 2020
Silence is violence. This fight is so much bigger than sports
— Jordan Morris (@JmoSmooth13) August 27, 2020
We made a decision together as players and staffs to not play our game tonight because there’s more happening in our country to distract our minds to soccer. This is the first time I can agree to the saying “it’s just a game” #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/bdQs2ZXcKb
— KEI KAMARA (@keikamara) August 27, 2020
BLM. pic.twitter.com/XcYCKR6vWA
— Stefan Frei (@Stefan24Frei) August 27, 2020
FC Dallas loves and supports our players. We join them in raising awareness for racial injustice against the Black community. pic.twitter.com/Bak0Lny8QL
— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) August 27, 2020
The Portland Timbers released this statement:
“The Portland Timbers stand in support of our players and their decision not to play tonight. Racial injustice and police brutality towards Black people in our country must end now.”
No word on when or if these matches will be played.
Eastern Conference
