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What should I watch after the World Cup?

The club season. Europe's big leagues kick off in mid-August, MLS and Liga MX are playing right now, and the Champions League returns in September. The World Cup was the trailer — the club game is the show, and it runs eleven months a year.

The hangover is real — and it has a cure

Every four years, millions of Americans fall in love with this sport for a month… and then lose the thread, because nobody tells them where soccer livesbetween World Cups. Here's the secret: it lives with the clubs. The same stars you just watched are about to scatter back to Manchester, Madrid, Miami and Munich to play a full season against each other, every single week. Different shirts, same superheroes, way more games.

What's on, starting now

  • Already playing: MLS is mid-season, Liga MX just kicked off its Apertura, and Brazil's Brasileirão is in full flight. American time zones, soccer tonight.
  • Mid-August: the Premier Leagueand the rest of Europe's Big Five return — the weekly ritual that owns Saturday mornings in this country.
  • September: the Champions League starts, and your new club's Wednesdays get interesting.
In US-sports termsImagine the Olympics ending — and two weeks later, every athlete you just discovered shows up in a weekly league you can watch from your couch. That's August.

Pick your league (they have personalities)

  • The Premier League — the default answer: deepest league, best TV product, and the relegation drama US sports refuse to give you.
  • MLS — the local answer: a team near you, tickets you can afford, Messi in the league.
  • Liga MX — the sleeper answer: already the most-watched soccer league in the United States, and structured like American sports (playoffs! two champions a year!).
  • La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga — the flavor answers: superstars, tactics, or fan culture. Pick your poison.
  • The Brasileirão — the summer answer: while Europe rests, Brazil plays.

Then pick a team — carefully

This is the fun part and the dangerous part, because unlike American sports, you don't inherit a soccer team — you choose one, and the choice is for life. We wrote you a whole guide to doing it right. Or type any club into the search box at the top of this page and watch the map light up everything they play in.

And keep one eye on the country track

The national teams don't vanish — the USMNT plays on through the fall windows, and the club-vs-country calendar shows exactly when your new club lends its stars back to their countries. The rhythm you just learned never really stops.

Bar-ready line: “The World Cup is the trailer. The club season is the show.” Welcome to the show.
See the whole pyramid →See a player's full year →
Keep going
Start Here
How do I pick a soccer team to support?
You don't inherit a soccer team — you choose one. For life. Here's how to choose well.
National Teams
What conference is the USMNT in?
It's called Concacaf — and once you can pronounce it, the international calendar makes sense.