The beautiful game goes on during a trying time

By Conor McGinley & Charles Whiting
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers

“Yeah, we got in trouble for that,” said Clemson defender Tyler Hutchinson. “We all went in there and were kind of like just throwing water everywhere and running around. Then our athletic trainer came in and yelled at us. Even though we just won, he just yelled at us and then we kind of put our masks on and continued it, but yeah it was good. We had two locker rooms. There were people in one and people in another, so it was good.”

Months earlier, it was unclear whether the season would happen at all.

“In the summer, we were more on the side of not playing at all,” Hutchinson said. “We were worried about the seniors and what their season was gonna look like and how they were gonna go out.”

Winning a conference championship wasn’t easy for Clemson. There were a lot of changes to adjust to this fall given COVID-19: New safety protocols, schedule changes, and limits in who could watch games. Hutchinson said the team responded to all these changes in stride.

“I’m glad it happened because if it didn’t happen then I don’t know where we would be,” Hutchinson said. “Given the extra workouts, extra cardio, extra weight lifting. So, I kind of would say it’s a blessing in disguise. It was kind of a great experience, playing through adversity and coming out as the best team during the pandemic.

“It drove us more,” Hutchinson said. “It  gave us a reason to do what we did and the fact that we came out on top, especially in a pandemic, is just an amazing experience. The final whistle in the championship was just a crazy feeling. The whole bus ride, the whole celebration in the locker room, it just seemed like it was all worth it despite the pandemic.”

Clemson was one of many soccer teams that played — and faced major adjustments — during the pandemic. Leagues all over the world were postponed for public safety and then returned, though the beautiful game wasn’t quite the same.

Here are five ways COVID-19 affected soccer.

No. 1: Cancellations/Postponements

In December 2019, Wuhan, China, confirmed the first positive COVID-19 case, but the United States still carried on as normal — until mid-March, when sports began to shut down.

Major League Soccer began its season on Feb. 29 and announced on March 12 that it would be suspending its season until further notice. Having made its return in July, the MLS hosted a six-week “MLS is Back Tournament,” featuring 24 out of the 26 MLS teams (two withdrew due to COVID-19 outbreaks).

In order to create a bubble-like effect, the MLS played in Florida at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Once players and staff were inside of the “bubble.” they couldn’t leave except in the case of an emergency.

“There were some things such as golf outings on Disney property,” said Steven Goff, a reporter for The Washington Post. “But the hotel complex is enormous, so there was plenty of room and opportunity to get exercise. There were restaurants dedicated to MLS participants only.”

After the tournament ended, the MLS returned to regular season play in August.

Other soccer leagues within the United States had more difficulty returning to play than the MLS. The Major Arena Soccer League struggled to get back into action, according to David Bascome, head coach of the Baltimore Blast.

The Blast were looking to secure their 11th title and were on track to do so with three games remaining in the 2020 regular season. But as individual states began to install their own lockdown protocols, MASL teams were limited by state guidelines and later by the league’s decision on March 12 to shut down.

The MASL regular season starts in December and ends in April, so instead of adjusting the schedule to conclude the 2019-20 season, it was voided to prevent future scheduling issues and congestion, issues that Europe’s top soccer leagues are facing in their 2020-21 seasons. 

“Fans wanted closure,” Bascome said. “Even teams that weren’t going to make the playoffs were like, ‘yeah let them play.’ Florida was still open… so then there were conversations about having our games in Florida.” But unlike MLS, MASL did not go ahead with that plan.

With the upcoming season, there are concerns about safety.

“We have a responsibility, Bascome said. “They will be watching us especially since we’re indoors, that’s where it’s more contagious. Everyone will be watching us so we have to stay mindful.”

  

As for the U.S. Men’s National Team, COVID-19 didn’t have as much of an impact on the times the players came together. The team’s schedule worked around the initial COVID-19 outbreak. The team went on break back in February before the pandemic became widespread in the U.S. Players got back together in October for the first time since then, skipping over the spring and summer when leagues were struggling to find ways to play.

No. 2: Training During COVID-19

Matt Arrington is the founder of Arrington Training & Development Soccer and head coach of the DC United U-5 boys’ team. He has had the unique experience of coaching youth soccer at multiple levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Around two months after the return of state-affiliated youth soccer in Maryland, the youth league came back with restrictions such as no contact between players.

“It forced everyone to be much more creative,” Arrington said. “It led to us doing a lot of pattern play, a lot of passing and receiving work. Just isolated training.” 

There was a two-week period before coaches were allowed to integrate drills that led to player-on-player contact such as scrimmaging and possession.

“It got a little monotonous going into that second week just doing patterns, patterns, patterns and technical work, but everyone knew that’s what you had to do so we got through it,” Arrington said.  

During the early stages of the pandemic, Arrington was still able to utilize his 5,000-square-foot training facility by coaching individuals inside and outside.

“You just had to find a way to stay busy and keep generating revenue,” Arrington said. “It took me back to when I first started this company, doing a ton of one-on-one stuff, I haven’t done that in a very long time.”

The facility itself requires constant cleaning of weight and ball equipment, as well as keeping windows and bay doors open.

“The difficulty is not so much on our end but having the belief that the people who come back in here want to feel comfortable,” Arrington said.

In Bascome’s case, despite being unable to physically coach, his coaching workload has not lessened in the slightest during the pandemic. As the Blast prepared for fall training camp, Bascome looked for ways to train safely.

“Now they [the players] have to figure out ways [to train]. Things are open, now we’re getting ready to look at the season starting,” Bascome said. “This is now when all the performance training and pre-preseason has to be done. 

“Once you got them [players] into your house you know you can control the process. It’s once they leave that is the concern,” Bascome said. “You got to hope that players are responsible, especially the players from the outside trying out.” 

During the period in which MLS facilities were shut down, players were unable to train in team facilities.

“They were on their own,” Goff said. “There were guys I knew who just found the local park, if it was open, just to do some wind sprints and to play around with the ball, kick the ball off a wall. There was one player who had a family friend who had a soccer field in their big backyard, so he went over there and did his thing a little bit.”

Some MLS players had home gyms that they would use to try to stay in shape. MLS teams also provided equipment for the players. The players would go to their team’s training facility just to pick up the equipment then bring it home.

Players found themselves desperately trying to stay in shape, some even taking risks to maintain the fitness they needed.

“There was one player I talked to where there was a nice little park near his house, but it was closed by the authorities because they didn’t want anyone out socializing or mingling,” Goff said. “But he would hop the fence and get in as much exercise as he could before a police car came by or someone spotted him and reported him. So yeah, it was a desperate situation. You couldn’t maintain your peak level, but you tried to do a little bit just to stay in shape and keep your heart rate up.”

While professional leagues around the world were trying to figure out ways to conduct practices, games and team meetings safely, the NCAA left it up to the individual schools and conferences to decide how to proceed. Clemson didn’t miss a beat when it came to training. After shutting down for the spring, the school allowed players from soccer, football, baseball, track, cross country and tennis to come back to campus over the summer while students were on summer break.

“We had the whole campus to ourselves,” Hutchinson said. “We kind of did different groups in the gym.”

When students arrived back on campus in September, Clemson’s men’s soccer team left campus housing and stayed at a hotel so that players could get away from everybody and stay healthy.

“It was the kind of thing where even if we had positives or we continued negative, it was always structured to where we wouldn’t stop,” Hutchinson said. “We would keep doing our thing and be able to use the gym and the fields and the food places.” 

No. 3: Performance

When MLS resumed play with its MLS is Back Tournament, players throughout the league returned in rough shape to say the least.

“At first there was definitely an impact, you could see it in all players,” Goff said. “They just weren’t in great shape. They had been off for a while. It took time to get not just to get into shape but to get into that rythm of training and playing. It takes time.”

The quality of play wasn’t up to par at first, but it was a six-week tournament, so the quality grew as the tournament went on.

“Players were struggling, you could see it,” Goff said. “There were muscle injuries just because they hadn’t been conditioning for a long period of time…You could see it took some time for the players to get up to speed again. But these are world-class athletes. Within a few weeks, the sharpness returned, the cohesion, the chemistry between players was there.”

As MLS enters the playoffs, the starts and stops throughout the year aren’t noticeable in their play and the players seem to be back in their regular form.

As for Clemson men’s soccer, Hutchinson said the pandemic affected the team emotionally more than physically.

“I think it gave us more time to prepare and get together and do right,” Hutchinson said. “It kind of gave us more time to kind of realize what we’re going through, and we’re kind of like okay this is gonna happen, accept it.”

No. 4: COVID-19 Protocols/ Testing

Soccer players, like all other athletes, have had to undergo extensive testing and other safety protocols.

“We do have to go through some more extensive protocols, it’s not just following CDC guidelines,” Arringston said. “We also had to get clearance from the MLS directly.

“You had a lot of teams from Maryland and Virginia who were training months before we got back to training just because we had to detail a full return to play protocol, a COVID protocol, where we were going to check players in and monitor,” Arrington said.

DC United players were also required to fill out a health self-assessment before practice and any health concerns were followed up with a test and cancellation of practice. Thankfully, Arrington’s team hasn’t had any issues thus far.

“We had a lot of back and forth with the MLS and their legal offices that they had to clear everything before we could step on the field,” Arrington said.

“The easiest way to look at it is creating your own bubble more or less,” Arrington said. “Even though you can’t control what everyone is doing outside of the field, everything was done with everyone understanding the responsibility that once they went home or went to school or whatever they had to do that they were being responsible, wearing their masks, monitoring how they were feeling. We’re putting a lot of faith in the players and the staff.”  

The same concept applies to players of all ages, like those looking to make the Baltimore Blast team for the upcoming season.

“After they leave training, they have to follow protocols, it is so crucial,” Bascome said. 

Bascome said he has very high standards and loves accountability, which is necessary for the game to safely return under his watch. 

The advice of medical partner MedStar Health is what led the Baltimore Blast to reject the idea of having an enclosed end to the season like the NBA and MLS.

“We couldn’t afford to put our players in any more harm,” Bascome said. “Let’s just look forward and see what that would look like.”

Medstar Health is a longtime partner with the Blast and is providing health guidance. Precautions include players being tested twice a week for COVID-19, wearing masks in between sessions and bringing their own training gear. Some of these protocols existed pre-COVID-19, which has left the Blast in good shape for their return in December. 

“First thing we thought about was safety,” Bascome said. “It was disappointing that we weren’t continuing, but it was more like we wanted to know more, be better educated so we can take care of families.” 

“We also want fans to feel safe,” Bascome said. “Our players in the past, they go and sign autographs, we have to make sure everyone is comfortable with these new norms for now.”

The U.S. Men’s National Team comes together, and then the players part ways back to their club teams, each of which has its own guidelines. The U.S. players do, however, still get tested when they come together for a national team game. The team recently played a game in Swansea against Wales.

“All of them had to get tested upon their arrival,” Goff said. “All of them had to get tested upon their arrival at national team camp.”

The national team couldn’t start training until all of the COVID-19 test results came back. If any player tested positive, he would have had to sit out. Luckily, all of the results came back negative for the Wales game, so they were able to go forward with training the way that they planned.

Clemson men’s soccer set up protocols in a way in that maximized changes of playing even the virus took hold.

“The team wouldn’t shut down if a player tested positive,” Hutchinson said. “If a player got it, then your roommates were direct contacts, so they take all of them away to make sure that the roommates or the player that got it don’t go out with other teammates and share it. They would isolate them for two weeks and then test everybody else again when somebody gets it and then if we’re all good, we keep playing and the process repeats.”

At one point the team was being tested three times a week, but the school eventually cut the tests back to twice a week.

While players and staff were inside of the facility, they were held to less than 10 people in a room for social distancing and masks were required. When they were outside on the field, the only thing required of the players was to wear a mask.

Team captains took it upon themselves to implement rules for when the players are off campus.

“They did tell us that we can’t go downtown and we can’t eat in restaurants,” Hutchinson said. “Partying wasn’t allowed, if you have girlfriends, kind of minimize the time that you’re with them. If you want to sit at the cafeteria, kind of space yourself from everybody, but if not then just go home.”

The athletic trainer kept the same rules throughout the season and never swayed.

“He’s been on us a lot about it,” Hutchinson said. “There’s certain things where like in games you have to have your own water bottle and if you share it, he goes off.”

Toward the end of the season, closer to the championship, the team tightened up its rules. Hutchinson remembers a game at the end of the season when he couldn’t even see his family. 

“My family came down and they were tailgating and I wanted to go see them,” Hutchinson said. “But my coach was like ‘I mean you can see them when they leave but no you can’t see them unless they come to you.’”

No. 5: Travel/Logistics

MLS allowed youth teams to start competing against other MLS youth clubs shortly after the return in late August. Travel, however, remained limited.

“Various states, some were allowing more things to take place, some were more restrictive,” Arrington said. “What we saw was a lot of teams at our stadium [in Virgina], just because there’s less restrictions, just easier to comply with things down here.

“A big conversation… has been to make sure that teams are playing within their region, in their neighboring states, to avoid any further risk to traveling players and their families,” Arrington said.

MLS team travel has also been impacted by COVID-19. Teams typically will fly commercial, but since the outbreak, every team has had to fly charter. MLS also implemented a rule that teams have to travel the day of the game in order to avoid staying in another state that may have different regulations and higher rates of COVID-19 cases. They arrive in the city they’re traveling to the morning of the game and they leave directly after.

“It’s in and out quickly to reduce exposure to the virus,” Goff said.

The U.S. Men’s National Team doesn’t get to explore the countries it travels to anymore due to the pandemic.

“They were tested at the hotel and they didn’t leave the hotel,” Goff said. “Everything was in-house. It was really a bubble environment.”

COVID-19 has also had an impact on the recruitment process for professional teams. The Blast has had a recent recruiting line in Brazil, but the pandemic has forced Bascome to stay local to find talent.