Your Monday Kickoff: Transitioning from the World Cup to the Club World Cup 

Vázquez rejoins Toronto FC after departing LA Galaxy

Toronto FC have signed veteran Spanish midfielder Víctor Vázquez through 2023 with an option for 2024. The 35-year-old begins his second stint with TFC after spending the last two seasons with the LA Galaxy, who declined his option after the 2022 campaign. That made Vázquez eligible for the Re-Entry Draft, where Toronto then selected him. A product of FC Barcelona's famed La Masia academy, Vázquez enjoyed his best years in MLS with Toronto, tallying 18 goals and 28 assists in 65 total appearances. He was a key member of the club's historic 2017 treble season.

Seattle Sounders learn dates, location for 2022 FIFA Club World Cup

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has confirmed details for the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup, announcing Friday the global competition will maintain its seven-team format and be held Feb. 1-11, 2023 in Morocco. Matchups and schedule specifics are to be announced. The tournament will start nearly a month before Seattle play any league games, as the 2023 Major League Soccer season begins Feb. 25 – with matches available on the new MLS Season Pass on Apple TV platform.

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There are all sorts of trophies being won and signings being made and other trophies being won that lead to the chance of more trophies and signings that might be on the way because of all those trophies being won. A beautiful cycle. It might be hard to understand, but basically what it means is everyone can shake off this year’s World Cup and finally get back to worrying about MLS again. Like, the SuperDraft is This Week. Y’all remember the SuperDraft, right? It’s the World Cup of seeing blurry video of college soccer players’ family living rooms. That’s right, we’re jumping right back into the Major League Soccer of it all. Welcome home.

Before that though, we have some things to discuss from this weekend.

On Sunday, Atlanta United midfielder Thiago Almada became the first active MLS player to win a World Cup. Yeah, he only played about six minutes. That ain’t going to make the winners’ medal any less shiny though. And it certainly can’t hurt his standing among clubs worldwide to see him make the roster of the world’s best international team at just 21 years old. His stock is at an all-time high just by association. It’s the group attractiveness effect in action.

If you’re Atlanta, you probably want to go ahead and cash in. Is Almada, a player who’s already very much on the radar of major European clubs (and anyone who’s ever played Football Manager), really going to become more valuable with an extra year in MLS? It’s not that Atlanta necessarily need the money, it’s that you’re only going to get one extra year at most anyway. Even before the actual transfer announcement, Almada said publicly he wanted to be in Europe. This was never going to be a long-term deal. You might as well get the highest return on your rental while you can.

From there, it would be fascinating to see what Atlanta do with their third DP spot. They technically have four U22s on the roster right now. They would need to get that number down to one to be able to bring in a DP that doesn’t qualify as a “Young DP.” Seems unlikely in the short term. And it seems just as unlikely they’ll find someone as skilled as Almada. But maybe that means they can work on finding a player that has a little more long-term potential in MLS (see: Not as good). Tough call. In the end though, if Almada gets the offer he’s looking for, I doubt Atlanta will say no.

The Reds gave us a couple of things to touch on from this weekend. First up, they’ve officially brought back Victor Vazquez. Vazquez is somewhere near club legend status already for Toronto, and that alone would generally make this move intriguing. But what’s really interesting about this deal is, to me, Vazquez is a player whose numbers and eye test fit in exactly with 2022 Toronto and all the good and bad that comes with that.

He’ll be 36 at the start of next season, and he plays like the guy in your pickup game who does nothing else but sit deep and ping passes because he’s both really good at pinging passes and because he will absolutely not move beyond walking pace to get closer to anyone. In this case, Vazquez plays further forward, but basically, he’s not going to fix Toronto’s defensive struggles anytime soon. What he should do though is provide a genuine depth piece that can come on and unlock defenses. It can’t hurt to have a player like that.

It also can’t hurt to have actual defensive help. Tom Bogert has reported Toronto and free agent center back Matt Hedges are close to a deal. We talked the other day on here about Toronto’s offseason wishlist including a DP-caliber center back. Hedges isn’t that, but he is a very good center back. Most importantly, he’s a valuable center back. Toronto likely won’t break the bank and will immediately get better at a position of need. These are the kinds of moves you look back on after a team has a successful season and say, “Oh yeah, that turned out well, didn’t it?”

I mean, probably, right? How hard can it be?

Even if it doesn’t happen, it should be special to see an MLS club in a competition like the Club World Cup. They’ll have to win their first-round game to advance and play a big name like Real Madrid or Flamengo, but it seems possible. And it’s not totally out of the realm they can even advance to the final.

In the past decade, four teams from outside of UEFA and CONMEBOL have made it to the Club World Cup final. That includes Liga MX’s Tigres in 2020. A healthy version of the Sounders – even one that will basically still be in preseason mode – will have a chance to at least match that. Never count out the Sounders, right?

Real Salt Lake re-sign center back Silva: Real Salt Lake have re-signed center back Marcelo Silva after he was eligible for free agency. The 33-year-old Uruguayan defender’s new deal runs through the 2023 MLS season and an unspecified length beyond that.

CF Montréal re-sign goalkeeper Pantemis: CF Montréal are bringing back goalkeeper James Pantemis, announcing Friday they’ve agreed to a new contract with the Canadian international with options in both 2024 and 2025. The 25-year-old homegrown was eligible for free agency.

• Take a look at the 13 MLS players who have won the men’s World Cup. Thiago Almada became the first active MLS player to win a World Cup title on Sunday.

• Tim Ream says the USMNT Gio Reyna controversy is a "non-story.”

• Tom “Scoopstine Chapel” Bogert took a look at all the roster news and rumors around the league.

Good luck out there. Bigger competitions are on the way.