MLS CBA extended to Feb. 7 amid ongoing negotiations

Negotiations are ongoing for the Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLS and the MLS Players Association, and with the current agreement due to expire tomorrow, the parties announced Thursday morning they would be extending the current CBA to Feb. 7 while the sides continue negotiations.

This seems promising, but we’ll only know in hindsight, really. Indications from people willing to talk are foggy, at best, so it’s a wait-and-see pattern for the time being. On the bright side, the deadline before a work stoppage is considered on the players’ side is Feb. 29, opening day of the MLS regular season, so there is still time to hammer out an agreement to avoid any direct impact on games. Stay tuned.

More news for your Thursday:

• Important birthday cake update: With Vako and Luis Felipe celebrating their birthdays in Cancun on Wednesday, the club showed us each player got his own birthday cake in celebration.

• I watched the tape far too many times, and it appears the cake is likely a light sponge with strawberries adorning it for sweetness. Makes sense! Instead of 50 grams, they get a bit more to indulge in while not undoing all that preseason hard work at the dinner table.
• Sinclair breaks world scoring record: History was made by Christine Sinclair on Wednesday, as she scored goal No. 185 in her career to surpass Abby Wambach in Canada’s commanding win over St. Kitts & Nevis to open Concacaf Women’s Olympic qualifying. Sinclair now has more goals than any player in history on the international side of the game, male or female.

• Casey Walls adjusting to pro life: Only 17, new homegrown signing Casey Walls is in his first preseason as a pro. On the Earthquakes website, Walls talked about making the adjustment to pro life and his first trip to Cancun.
• What to make of this Carli Lloyd: The USWNT star is still going strong, fueled as ever by the haters, but Kim McCauley argues in this terrific column on SB Nation that the aging Lloyd is a conundrum — not good enough to start consistently at this point, but coming off a strong 2019 and capable of pulling out magic at any moment, even in the midst of a bad game.

Today’s question: How closely are you paying attention to the MLS CBA situation? Big deal, no deal, whatever? Let’s chat about it in the comments!