US Men take on Colombia Sat 8 pm & Wed 7 pm vs Brazil on TNT
The US men continue their Copa America prep with huge match-ups today in Maryland vs Colombia at 8 pm on TNT, before playing Brazil on Wed at 7 pm on TNT. The US will of course be hosting and should be looking at a Semi-Final birth at least if we want to continue progressing on our way to hosting the World Cup in 2026.
Indy 11 Win Again play Birmingham Sun 7 pm on ESPN+.
The Boys in Blue close out a two-match road trip Sunday night against Birmingham Legion FC looking to extend its 6 match USL unbeaten streak. Indy is coming off a 2-1 win over Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and sits at 7-4-2 in third place in the Eastern Conference. Birmingham defeated El Paso Locomotive FC, 3-1, last time out, and is 5-4-3 in the Eastern Conference. The 11 return home to host San Antonio FC on June 15. Single-game tickets are available for all matches via Ticketmaster. Great Story about Carmel Dad’s Club’s own Cam Lindley and his journey back to Indy 11.
US Ladies Olympic Warm Up Successful with 2 wins – now who goes to Olympics?
New coach Emma Hayes won her first 2 games in style over Korea last week – now comes the decision time on who is cut moving forward into the Olympics this July. I was hoping Alex Morgan would have a good showing – but honestly the trio of Swanson, Smith in Rodman are deadly fast up front and simply take this team to the next level. I do think there is room still for Rosie Lavelle (who earned her 100th cap Wed) if she is healthy but the 16 year old Lily Yohannes, who was spectacular and scored this goal, may deserve the spot instead? The future looks bright for the US – the question is can Hayes put her stamp on this team with just 1 more 2 week camp to go before the Olympics start. Gonna be interesting.
Champions League Real Madrid Wins Again, Columbus falls to Pachuca 2-0.
The Madridistas did it again winning their 15th Champions League title over a game Dortmund in London last Saturday as the largest streaming audience on Paramount plus ever. CBS had decent #s as well with the largest viewership for a game with no EPL team involved of over 4 million people. The Yellow Wall of Dortmund was there and they had their chances in the first half with 4 open looks and 3 post balls in the first half. Honestly GK Courtoius kept Madrid in the game early before they finally scored in the 2nd half putting them away.
US Men
What is the USMNT’s Best XI for Copa America?
USA vs. Colombia, 2024 Friendly: What to watch for By Donald Wine II S&S
2024 USMNT Friendly: Scouting Colombia Stars & Stripes By Brendan Joseph
Top 25 players in the USMNT player pool right now
Why Uruguay can be ‘trouble’ for USMNT in Copa America
How can the USMNT replace Sergiño Dest at Copa América? ESPN Jeff Carlisle
US Women
Hayes’ first big USWNT call: Olympic roster cuts
Emma Hayes’ first big USWNT conundrum: Olympic roster cuts
16-year-old scores quickly in USWNT debut
Lily Yohannes, 16, becomes 3rd-youngest goal scorer in USWNT history in win over South Korea
An Ode to USWNT under Emma Hayes Stars & Stripes By TrebTracy
The tao of USWNT coach Emma Hayes, who ‘picks winning over everything else’
US Starts with 4-0 win – the 18
Champions League
Real Madrid, Champions League king once again, has conquered the unconquerable
Real Madrid Champions League Final: Number of titles, finals appearances, record, UCL titles in a row
Borussia Dortmund 0-2 Real Madrid: An inevitable 15th Champions League, European title
Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid player ratings: Superstars shine, in the end
Which Premier League teams qualified for the 2024-25 Champions League, Europa, or Conference Leagues?
GAMES ON TV to WATCH
Sat, June 8
12:45 pm FS2 Portugal vs Croatia
5:30 pm TNT, Tele US Men vs Colombia
6 pm Fox Desportes Argentina vs Ecuador
7:30 pm Ion TV Chicago vs San Fran NWSL @ Wrigley field
8:30 pm Univision, TUDN Mexico vs Brazil
Sun, June 9
12:45 pm FS2 for FS+? France vs Canada
7 pm ESPN+ Birmingham vs Indy 11
Mon, June 10
2:45 pm FS2 Netherlands vs Iceland
Tues, June 11
2:45 pm FS2 Portugal vs Ireland
8 pm ??? US Men U23 Olympic Team vs Japan
Wed, June 12
7 pm TNT, Tele US Men vs Brazil
Fri, June 14 Euro 2024 Begins
3 pm Fox Germany vs Scotland
8 pm Amazon Prime KC Current vs Chicago Red Stars NWSL
Sat, June 15
9 am Hungary vs Switzerland
12 pm Fox Spain vs Croatia
3 pm Fox Italy vs Albania
7 pm TV 8 Indy 11 vs San Antonio @ the Mike
Sun, June 16
9 am FS1 Poland vs Netherlands Euro
12 noon FS1 Slovenia vs Denmark
3 pm Fox Serbia vs England Euro
Thur, June 20 COPA America Starts
12 noon FS1 Denmark vs England
3 pm Fox Spain vs Italy
8 pm Fox Argentina vs Canada COPA
Sat, June 22
6 pm Fox Ecuador vs Venezuela COPA
7 pm ESPN+ Indy 11 vs OC @ the Mike Pride Night
9 pm Fox Mexico vs Jamaica COPA
Sun, June 23
6 pm Fox, Univision USMNT vs Bolivia COPA America
9 pm FS1 Uruguay vs Panama COPA
Thur, June 27
6 pm Fox USMNT vs Panama COPA
Mon, July 1
9 pm Fox, Univision USMNT vs Uraguay
Sat July 13
3 pm TNT, Tele US Women vs Mexico
Tues, July 16
7:30 pm TNT, Universo US Women vs Costa Rica
July 24 starts US U23 Men & US Women In Olympics
(American’s in Parenthesis)
How to Watch Indy Eleven USL Championship Action
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(Photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)
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Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic say USMNT aiming to win Copa America
By Pablo Maurer and Colin Millar Jun 7, 2024 The Athletic
Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic insist that USMNT are contenders to win this summer’s Copa America. Gregg Berhalter’s side hold home advantage for this year’s tournament — the U.S. reached the semi-final stage when they most recently hosted the tournament, in 2016.Defending champions Argentina and Brazil are the favourites to win this year’s Copa America, with Uruguay, Colombia and Mexico among the nations with hopes of advancing deep into the tournament.Despite having never lifted the trophy, Juventus midfielder McKennie, 25, and Milan winger Pulisic believe that the American team has the potential to win the final at Miami Gardens on July 14.“Our goal in any tournament is always to win,” McKennie said on Friday.“We want to come out with the trophy. We have players in big clubs and as a team, we are not far off the best in the tournament. We have a great opportunity to grow and develop as a group ahead of the World Cup.”
McKennie believes the U.S. are contenders for the Copa America title (John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)U.S. captain Pulisic — who has scored 28 goals in 66 international caps — also believes the team are challengers for the title.“We want to win the tournament, that is why we are playing in it,” 25-year-old Pulisic said.“We want to go as far as we can, get out of the group, then go game by game from there and at the end of the day we want to win the tournament.“With the tournament being in the U.S., this is perfect for us to showcase our abilities in a big tournament. We want the big crowds against the big teams in the big stadiums. That is what you live for as a soccer player.”McKennie added that the U.S. enjoying home advantage was “important” and believes it can provide the momentum ahead of World Cup 2026, which the nation will co-host alongside Mexico and Canada.
“One of our goals from five years ago was to change how the world views American soccer, and now it is to change how soccer is viewed within America and how we can change it forever,” McKennie said.“Playing against these teams in our home stadiums is a good starting point to bring new fans and new types of people to the games, to experience these matches and become attached to the sport.”The U.S. play Colombia in a pre-tournament friendly on June 8 before playing Brazil five days later to conclude their preparation for the Copa America.They get their campaign underway against Bolivia on June 23, before taking on Panama four days later and finalising their group stage campaign against Uruguay on July 1.(John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Christian Pulisic connection grew at Milan this year – Yunus Musah
- Lizzy Becherano ESPN – Jun 3, 2024, 05:21 PM
United States and AC Milan attacker Yunus Musah revealed the connection he established with teammate Christian Pulisic on and off the field throughout the Serie A season will serve them well as the team heads into a busy summer highlighted by the Copa América.”I’ve gotten to connect with Christian a lot over the past year, spending a lot of time with him this season on and off the field,” Musah said at the U.S. team’s availability on Monday. “It’s been great to connect, because I didn’t get the chance to do it much today at camp, so it’s been nice to do that the whole year.”Both Pulisic and Musah joined AC Milan last summer ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, playing integral parts in the team’s success at different points in a season that saw them finish a distant second in Serie A behind runaway champions Inter Milan.
The midfielder initially kicked off strong, before suffering an injury in December that forced him to be sidelined before gradually returning to the squad.”My season went really well in the beginning until December when I got a little injury,” Musah said. “I played a lot of games in the league and Champions League so that was really great, so that’s when you expect things will go like that for the whole season. But things happen and you have to adjust.”Towards the end of the season I started being involved in some important games again, Europa League and the derby. It’s been a good season, I was always there pushing and staying around the team. It’s been a good first season.”Meanwhile, Pulisic had a stellar first season with the Italian side, scoring 12 goals to shatter Kaka’s 18-year-old record of most goals scored by a midfielder — not including penalties.”On the field, he’s grown so much playing on the right-wing,” Musah added. “Being so effective this season in scoring goals and assists, he’s been the best attacker on our team. The manager has given him confidence and had faith in him, it was a mutual thing, and the confidence the manager gave him was reflected on the field.”The two will now come together as the U.S. prepares to face Colombia and Brazil in friendlies ahead of the 2024 Copa América. The American side is in Group C alongside Bolívia, Uruguay and Panama.”Colombia is a complicated rival. Every game they play with a lot of intensity,” Musah said. “They are very physical, especially their defense. I think they have a lot of talent in the attack also, like Luis Díaz, so this game will help us a lot in the preparations. We are facing a really good opponent and they will get the best version of us.”Testing ourselves against the best is something that is really important for us because we are only going to get better when playing against the best. Before Copa América it’s great to test ourselves and see what we need to work on. And also try to win these games and get momentum.”The international tournament kicks off on June 23 for the American team, starting with the match against Bolivia at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
USWNT auditions are over; now Emma Hayes must pick her Olympic squad
- Jeff Kassouf ESPN sun 5, 2024, 01:02 AM ET
ST. PAUL, Minnesota — United States women’s national soccer team coach Emma Hayes is still learning some of the American sports lingo in her first weeks on the job.On Tuesday, under a steady rain at Allianz Field that reminded the British coach of home, Hayes implored her team to finish off a South Korea team that rarely threatened the Americans but trailed by only one goal at that point.”‘I want you to put your pedal to the metal,'” Hayes recalled telling the team. “And [assistant coach Denise Reddy] said to me, ‘Don’t you ever say that again!'”As awkward as it might have been, it worked. The USWNT scored two more times — including a debut goal for 16-year-old midfielder Lily Yohannes in her first cap — to win 3-0.Now comes crunch time for Hayes, to borrow another uniquely American sports phrase. After two games in charge and just over a week of training, she must select her 18-player Olympic roster in the coming weeks. Some players’ performances on Tuesday made the job that much harder.Yohannes shot up that list after making an immediate impact in her much-anticipated debut. Her late goal punctuated a solid 20 minutes of distribution in midfield, including a pass to Trinity Rodman moments earlier that led to Rodman ripping a shot off the crossbar.
EDITOR’S PICKS
- Yohannes, 16, scores minutes into USWNT debut11hJeff Kassouf
- The last hurrah? One final chance at honours for this Matildas generation15hMarissa Lordanic
- The midfield, though, already was crowded even before Yohannes saw the field. The team’s starting trio of Korbin Albert, Rose Lavelle and captain Lindsey Horan helped control the game against a South Korea side that once again sat in a low block of five defenders. Hayes has praised Horan throughout this camp as a team leader. And Lavelle is a known entity who earned her 100th cap on Tuesday; she is arguably the team’s most creative player.Albert is much newer to the mix, but the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder has quickly proved she can compete at this level.On Tuesday, Albert and Horan combined to dictate the pace of the game, patiently waiting for the right moments to pull South Korea out of its defensive shape. It wasn’t always perfect, but it was effective in the right moments. Above all, it was patient.”I think a big thing for us is just being more patient on both ends of the ball, not just going forward every single time,” Lavelle said. “I think it’s just [being] patient with our movement, patient with our shifting side to side with the ball, and finding different ways to beat their forwards, beat their midfield and break them down.”Hayes made nine changes from the lineup that defeated South Korea 4-0 three days earlier in Colorado. The goal, Hayes said on Monday, would be to give new players an opportunity to process the information “overload” that the staff had thrown at them all week and show that they can apply it in a game setting.Among those ostensibly on the bubble to make Hayes’ Olympic roster, Albert did that as well as anyone on Tuesday.There is context, however, to her on-field success. Albert’s prior social media activity — which surfaced in March — appeared to support anti-LGBTQIA+ content and make light of an injury to former U.S. winger Megan Rapinoe. Albert apologized, and the team held internal discussions in an April camp that were not shared publicly. Albert remained on that roster and was called up again for this camp.
Hayes made pointed comments on Saturday that she expects a tolerant environment in the locker room, and her words about players needing to feel supported when they take the field came in the aftermath of Albert being booed by the home crowd in Colorado on Saturday.
“I want everybody to be patient,” Hayes said Saturday. “There are a lot of younger players. On the pitch, they are learning, but they want to give everything for their shirt, and they want to give everything for their country. Off the pitch, some make mistakes. Some have to learn. My job as a coach is to help teach them and guide them.”In pure soccer terms — an oversimplification, no doubt — Hayes and her staff appear to rate the versatile Albert, and the midfielder’s performance on Tuesday will have reaffirmed that. How Albert, Yohannes and others potentially fit into the Olympic roster is the mental gymnastics that will occupy Hayes in the coming weeks. Horan and Lavelle are veterans with World Cup titles. Defensive midfielder Sam Coffey has become a regular, including alongside Albert in the team’s Concacaf W Gold Cup triumph earlier this year, and is the best pure defensive midfielder in the pool.Then there are the questions of where to play versatile attackers Catarina Macario and Jaedyn Shaw. Macario started as the USWNT’s No. 10 on Saturday, while Shaw started in a hybrid winger role on Tuesday. Shaw struggled to find the game in the first half before coming alive in the second half, including when she moved into the No. 10 role. That reiterated a trend: Shaw is clearly best suited to the No. 10 role, but the same can be said for several equally talented players.Defensively, Hayes got further affirmation on Tuesday that Jenna Nighswonger is the real deal as a left-footed, left full-back who can press high up onto the forward line. Nighswonger assisted on the opening goal — scored by Crystal Dunn, who started at forward for the team for the first time in nearly seven years. Nighswonger was magnetic on the ball and one of only two players, alongside Horan, to start both games against South Korea.Left-sided center-back Sam Staab earned her first international start. Staab’s steady play in the National Women’s Soccer League seemed to long warrant a call-up, but that did not come until the most recent camp. She stepped into the role seamlessly on Tuesday, nearly scoring on a set piece in the first half.”I think it was worth it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Staab said of the long wait for her first cap.Hayes is not short of talent to choose from. She has spoken frequently about the need for balance between this rising group of young stars and the veterans who got the team to where it is now.That includes forward Alex Morgan, who started in the No. 9 role on Tuesday and earned Hayes’ praise for working hard despite limited touches against South Korea’s low block. Morgan’s spin-turn sparked the transition play that led to Dunn’s early goal.A wave of USWNT substitutions at the hour mark opened up the game. The connection between Rodman, Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson was easy to see, though they all came on with fresh legs against a tired South Korea An exhausted Hayes appeared to be losing her voice after Tuesday’s match. She has been going for 10 months straight, she said, referring to how she spent the entire European season with Chelsea before joining the USWNT a few days after that job ended in May. She said she will meet with her staff on Wednesday morning and that she then needs the rest of the week to rest before heading to U.S. Soccer’s headquarters in Chicago to plan the road to the Olympics.”[The group’s] not afraid of letting go of things we have to let go of,” Hayes said Tuesday, among a chorus of praises for players. “Bold enough, brave enough to want whatever it takes to improve. I’ve been so impressed with them as people.”Hayes must now choose which of those people she’ll invite along for the ride to the 2024 Olympics and press down on the gas pedal. The Paris Games begin next month.
Emma Hayes’ USWNT surgery has started well – but bigger tests await with an Olympic roster looming
By Meg Linehan Jun 6, 2024 THe Athletic
By the time new U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes slid into her seat at Tuesday night’s press conference, following the 3-0 win over Korea Republic at Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota, a whirlwind first week with her players looked to have caught up with her.Hayes looked ready to be done for the day, but there was no sense of relief at her first camp, even after two victories. There is still far too much work to do for that.Twenty-four hours earlier, she sat in the same seat and said that she felt like “a heart surgeon in the middle of emergency surgery,” a simile that she had used already during the training environment. Hayes hastened to clarify that nothing was “drastically wrong,” but that she found it difficult to teach and do emergency surgery at the same time as her first major assignment, the Olympics, draws ever closer.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/0mHlaiWjwETJNSfPYfo3vq?utm_source=generator
Hayes did not share any shocking discoveries about the state of the team this week — something which felt almost depressingly reassuring. The USWNT has been in a holding pattern since last summer’s early World Cup exit. Two key players, Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz, retired, and there were some consistent performances through the spring while awaiting Hayes’s arrival from Chelsea (with the one notable exception, the CONCACAF W Gold Cup loss to Mexico). But the wait for a paradigm shift under their new head coach has been a lengthy one.Hayes said before this camp that she wanted to assess the gap between the USWNT as it is now, and their potential. While she never shared that assessment with the media, there were glimpses of how that gap has clarified for Hayes, who is setting about her work of reframing expectations.
Emma Hayes knows the hard work has only just begun for the USWNT. (Photo by Brad Smith, Getty Images)“It’s a group that’s had a lot of learning since the last World Cup,” she said Monday. “I always like to look externally, these really fatal moments, from my perspective, I don’t believe they could grow without that. You need those setbacks sometimes — on the biggest stages it’s not ideal, but the team wasn’t ready. The expectation in this country is (to) win every game, every week, every tournament, every trophy. It just isn’t gonna work like that I’m afraid.”Maybe that point is more of a gut surgery for this team, one that has been driven by external pressure to win and win big, on and off the field. Hayes said she feels like the group is ready to move on. Can the USWNT keep its hunger to win following the brutal World Cup round of 16 exit last summer, while still evolving into something greater? Players have been saying they can for months, but now Hayes has joined the chorus on an official basis.
Based on everything Hayes said about the caring nature of the USWNT environment that she saw first hand over the past week, led especially by the team’s veterans, she doesn’t have too much to worry about in terms of its motivation. This is a group driven by legacy.
“You won’t believe how much these women value the history of the program and how important the shirt in that history means to them. It is so palpable in the environment here,” Hayes said. “I almost get a little bit teary sometimes listening to them when they talk about those things.”
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The care and emotions were on full display on Tuesday night following 16-year-old Lily Yohannes’s first cap and goal for the USWNT, where her teammates swarmed her first on the field (with the bench running to get in on the celebrations) and then again at the final whistle, with center back Naomi Girma leading the charge for another round of massive hugs.
Teammates surround Lily Yohannes after her goal against Korea Republic (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
If heart is not a concern for this squad, then neither are their heads. Hayes had promised her players would have tired brains back in Colorado after trying to get across a massive amount of information on the field, in video sessions and meetings. But they have absorbed her messages quickly.“Exceptionally bright,” she called the players on Tuesday night. “They can articulate concepts and ideas in a way that really challenges me so I’m enjoying that. Real cerebral group, thoughtful, but really considerate of everyone. Not afraid of letting go of things we have to let go of; bold enough, brave enough to want whatever it takes to improve.”To be fair, the players were never the patient on the table in Hayes’s extended simile of herself as chief of cardio at a teaching hospital who is stuck in an ER room. (It’s impossible to not think of the players as a new crop of interns on a season of “Grey’s Anatomy”.) The final product on the field is that patient — and it’s hard not to be encouraged about the prognosis after the first two games.
Bigger, and far more meaningful, tests await in only a few weeks. For now, though, Hayes had achieved her priorities of introductions and methodology, the day one stuff she can’t afford to fast forward through even though she might like to. The core of her work over the past week, she said, was to teach as much as possible. Now the team simply has to go to the next level.“Between now and the next camp,” she said, “it’s about bringing everybody up to that level where everybody can do the surgery.”(Top photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images)
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