Don Garber is a storyteller.

Over lunch at a Midtown Manhattan rooftop restaurant last month, as he chronicles his journey from Bayside, Queens to the NFL offices on Park Avenue to MLS commissioner, it is clear he knows it is the little details that make a story sing.

He didn’t just work at a gas station in high school, it was Barney’s Gulf, a sponsor of the Tony DePhillips Little League baseball team he played for. He didn’t just deliver newspapers, he learned how to properly fold up the Long Island Press to toss while riding his Stingray bike. He reels off the names of characters he has met along the way, like his wife Betsy’s boss at public relations firm Ruder and Finn, who told her she could find Betsy a better match “than this knucklehead”. “We’ll be married 39 years,” he notes. Or the man who ran the farmstand he worked at during summer break while a student at SUNY Oneonta.

He drops a few surprises, too. Garber’s resume may start at a vocational school near LaGuardia Airport, but his first year and a half after college was spent sleeping in a Ford van, working at bars and installing irrigation lines to pay his way across the U.S. and Mexico with some buddies.

“Old guys have great stories,” Garber says, with a smile.

Next month will mark 25 years for…

The cities of Atlanta and Charlotte are separated by less than 250 miles. It’s a straight shot down Interstate 85. The buildup to this newfound Southern derby saw both the social media teams of Atlanta United and Charlotte FC taking jabs at each other.

Bragging rights were at stake, but Atlanta United held firm that they were the true kings of the South. Golden paper crowns were handed out as fans entered Atlanta United’s state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The home supporters wore them proudly, but after Charlotte’s 3-2 win, which was Atlanta’s fifth consecutive loss at home, a procession of men, women and children exited the stadium feeling more like court jesters than Southern royalty. 

The next day, head coach Gonzalo Pineda was relieved of his duties. Another loss at home had sunk Atlanta United toward a new low.

Once a fortress for the club and an intimidating ground for visiting MLS teams, Atlanta United’s home stadium has lost its luster as Atlanta United has become a middle-of-the road team. Six years after winning an MLS Cup and revolutionizing the league, Atlanta United is now accustomed to hitting rock bottom. Once the shining example of MLS’ aggressive expansion model, the club has become synonymous with underachieving. 

To fire…

This year’s Copa América will be closely watched, but the ensuing Olympic Games in Paris will have just as much to say about the broader state of the U.S. men’s player pool. Unlike the women’s side of the Olympic tournament, the men’s competition relies on players under the age of 23, though every team is allowed to bring up to three over-age players in the 18-man squad.  

If the team that U.S. Olympic coach Marko Mitrović selects comes close to matching the program-best 4th place finish in 2000, it would be a potential indicator that the U.S. can now consistently produce top-end talent. If the U.S. is embarrassed in Group A, though, some will fear that 2026 will be the program’s high point for quite some time.

After the draw in March, Mitrović touted a “big pool of players that we are following” for potential inclusion. He stressed that he wants to bring “the best 18 players” he can, and didn’t show his hand yet about areas where he feels he can sacrifice depth given the squad limitations of an Olympic tournament.

GO DEEPER

USMNT to play France in Olympic tourney opener

With that in mind, here’s a crib sheet of Olympic-eligible players to track in the coming months. This list focuses on MLS players, and with good reason: A full half of the most recent…

Major League Soccer will kick off this season with stand-in referees when Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami hosts Real Salt Lake on Wednesday.

The MLS Players Association (MLSPA), the labor union that represents MLS players, said the lockout of the league’s match officials was a “backward step,” adding in a statement on Tuesday that “the use of replacement referees will not only negatively impact the quality and results of our matches, it may also jeopardize the health and safety of players.”

The move comes after PSRA, the union that represents professional referees across MLS, the second- and third-tier United Soccer Leagues and the National Women’s Soccer League, and PRO, the MLS-funded body that manages professional officiating in the United States and Canada, failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in January.

The Athletic explains what’s going on…

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So, who is going to referee the opening MLS games?

On February 17, The Athletic reported PRO had commitments from 66 replacement officials. Of those, 26 can be assigned as a referee or fourth official, and 29 can be assistant referees.

Cristian Campo Hernandez will be the center referee for Inter Miami vs. Real Salt Lake. The Spaniard officiated matches in the second-division USL Championship last year…

Negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement between the Professional Referees Organization (PRO) and the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA) have not resulted in a new deal and, barring changes over the next 10 days, a work stoppage feels “imminent,” said once source briefed on the negotiations. Another source characterizes the negotiations between the two sides as being “a very discouraging process so far.”

If it drags on, a work stoppage could leave MLS needing to find replacement officials at the start of its season and preseason. The current CBA between the PSRA and PRO, which has been in place since early 2019, expires on Jan. 15. The MLS season begins on Feb. 21 when Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami hosts Real Salt Lake.

The PSRA is the union that represents professional referees across Major League Soccer, the second and third-tier United Soccer Leagues and the National Women’s Soccer League. PRO, founded in 2012 by MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation, oversees the professional officiating landscape in the United States, including assigning games, assessing and educating officials, and identifying new talent. An associated organization, PRO2, oversees officiating in the NWSL, USL, and MLS Next Pro. The PSRA and PRO2 ratified a CBA of their…

“I’m watching Argentina on mute,” Inter Miami head coach Tata Martino said over the phone on Tuesday afternoon. “There’s no need to hear the broadcast to enjoy it.”

Martino lived at a hotel near Inter Miami’s training complex in Fort Lauderdale for over a month after joining the club in late June and stayed there at the start of their remarkable 11-game unbeaten run. The move to a new apartment has been a welcome change. Martino is now more settled in the city, living with his wife and son Gerardo, 27, who’s also an assistant on the Inter Miami coaching staff. 

Before Argentina kicked off their World Cup qualifier against Bolivia, Martino and his son watched Inter Miami central defender Sergii Kryvtsov start against Italy in a Euro 2024 qualifier. They then became fans and turned their attention to the current world champions as they outclassed a listless Bolivia side in La Paz. 

Lionel Messi, Argentina and Inter Miami’s captain, was on the bench for the Albiceleste, but not part of the match-day squad. The 36-year-old was a game-time decision leading up to the game after admitting that he was fatigued after Argentina’s 1-0 win over Ecuador on September 7. He’s been very busy since he started playing for Miami in late July. 

Messi and Martino will travel…

Garth Lagerwey’s office at Atlanta United’s training complex is strikingly bare. The leadership themed books on the shelf aren’t his — they belonged to his predecessor, former club president Darren Eales. Lagerwey’s desk is free of clutter, for now. 

His wife and three sons remained in Seattle while Lagerwey, Atlanta United’s new president and chief executive officer, was busy restructuring the club’s roster in January. Since his arrival, Lagerwey has been living in temporary corporate housing in the Vinings suburb of Atlanta. 

Those interim accommodations are a stark contrast to the permanent changes that Lagerwey will incorporate in Atlanta. Lagerwey is a three-time MLS Cup winning general manager. He’s among the league’s top executives, evidenced by the opinions of his peers, as revealed in The Athletic’s recent MLS executive survey. His roster strategies, negotiation tactics and his deep knowledge of the MLS’ idiosyncratic financial rules are reasons why. 

But in Atlanta, his first challenge isn’t to contend for another MLS Cup. That’s a short-term objective, of course. To start, the process-driven and self-proclaimed risk averse Lagerwey will be responsible for ushering in a new business model for the organization. 

Call it the corporatization…