US faces Ecuador Tonight at 8:30 pm on TNT, HBO Max, Tues vs
Ah poor Potchitino may not have all of his players healthy this week as he prepares for his next to the last run out before the World Cup – Boo the Flip Hoo. Maybe you should have thought of that when we played really good teams in the last 2 camps man. Five Million Dollars completely wasted on this poor excuse for a soccer coach in my mind – but lets see if this decent club coach can pull it together despite having some of his better players in Pulisic, Zendejas and Robinson nursing injuries. Wow guys were all healthy last run out — and before the Gold Cup back in June when we played really good teams – but hey Botch was touring Europe doing nothing then – spending US money. Anyway back to this weekends games – he’s finally brought in a decent roster FINALLY. Hard to Say who will start with the injuries. I still think the 3 Centerback thing is questionable when we only have 2 decent centerbacks – but what do I know. He’ll run out 3 tonight to see what it looks like I presume – the question is — is it CCV or Miles in the middle of the three with Ream on the left and Richards on the right? Or does Richards move to the center and McKensie slide to the right? I think McKinney & Tessman play the double 6 with Pulisic & Tillman beneath Ballagon and Robinson & Weah on the outside backs. Ecuador is actually decent – has qualified for the World Cup and will give us a game – perhaps we slide thru 2-1 if Pulisic plays – 1-1 if not.
Goalkeepers(4): Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Matt Freese (New York City FC), Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew), Matt Turner (New England Revolution). Defenders(8): Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic), Alex Freeman (Orlando City), Mark McKenzie (Toulouse), Tim Ream (Charlotte FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati). Midfielders (8): Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Aidan Morris (Middlesbrough), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), James Sands (St. Pauli), Tanner Tessmann (Olympique Lyonnais), Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen). Forwards(6): Patrick Agyemang (Derby County), Folarin Balogun (Monaco), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Tim Weah (Olympique Marseille), Haji Wright (Coventry City), Alex Zendejas (Club América).
US U20s Beat Italy 3-0 to Advance to QFs vs Morocco Sun 4 pm
Awesome to see the US U20’s pound Italy 3-0 (Highlights) just a week after pounding France in the U20 World Cup. Miami’s Ben Cremasche scored the Brace as he now has 5 goals to lead the tourney in goals. The win sends the US to the Quarterfinals where they face Morocco Sun at 4 pm on Telemundo. Not sure why this game is not on FS2 at least as Fox is covering the Tourney?
Indy 11 face Pittsburgh Riverhounds & former Carmel & Butler GK Eric Dick pm Sat 7 pm on ESPN+
The Boys in Blue travel to Pittsburgh tonight with the playoff hopes on a thin line as they face former Carmel Dad’s, Carmel High & Butler GK Eric Dick on ESPN+. They have their final regular season home game with Fan Appreciation Night on Saturday, October 18 at 7 p.m. at Carroll Stadium vs. Loudoun United FC.
A Reminder Carmel FC is Looking for High School Players to fill out some teams – including my 2010 Boys Team. Come on out Thurs Oct 16 for Supplemental Tryouts.
The U20 US Boys-are on to the QuarterFinals vs Morocco Sun 4 pm on UnivisionReffing the High School Rec Championship Game at Atleto with these guys always fun. Thanks Tori for all you do for us Carmel Dad’s Cup Refs.
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FULL TV GAME SCHEDULE
Fri, Oct 10 2:45 pm FS2 France vs Azerbaijan 2:45 pm Prime Germany vs Luxenberg 8:30 pm TNT, Max USA Men vs Ecuador 10:45 pm Seattle Reign vs Bay FC NWSL Sat, Oct 11 9 am FS2 Latvia vs Andorra WCQ 12 noon Prime Norway vs Israel WCQ 2:45 pm FS2 Spain vs Georgia WCQ 2:45 pm Prime Portugal vs Ireland WCQ 4 pm FS2, Tele U20 World Cup Quarterfinal 7 pm FS2 U20 World Cup Quarterfinal 7 pm ESPN+ Indy 11 @ Pittsburgh (Carmel’s -Eric Dick) 7:30 pm Para+ North Carolina vs Washington Spirit NWSL 10 pm CBSSN Utah Royals vs San Diego Wave NWSL Sun, Oct 12 9 am FS2 San Marino vs Cypress 12N FS2 Netherland vs Finland WCQ 2:45 pm Lithuania vs Poland WCQ 4 pm FS2, Tele U20 World Cup QF USA vs 5 pm ESPN Angel City vs Houston NWSL 7 pm FS2 U20 World Cup Quarterfinal Mon, Oct 13 2:45pm FS2 Northern Ireland vs Germany WCQ 2:45 pm Prime Iceland vs France WCQ 8 pm PAra+ Honduras vs Haiti WCQ Tues, Oct 14 2:45pm FS2 Latvia vs England WCQ 2:45pm Prime Spain vs Bulgaria WCQ 2:45pm Prime Portugal vs Hungary WCQ 9 pm TNT, Max USA Men vs Australia 10:30 pm Prime Mexico vs Ecuador
Thurs, Oct 23 9 pm TNT, Max USA Women vs Portugal Chester PA Sun, Oct 26 4 pm TNT, Max USA Women vs Portugal Hartford CT Sat, Nov 15 5 pm TNT, Max USA Men vs Paraguay Chester PA Tues, Nov 18 7 pmTNT, Max USA Men vs Uruguay Tampa, FL
Love doing the Adult ladies games down Kuntz on Tuesday nights. Here with
USA vs. Ecuador (TONIGHT, 8:30 p.m. ET, TNT) Roger Bennett & the Boys
Brace yourself, this is going to be some stern test. Ecuador are the footballing equivalent of one of the 12 Labors of Hercules. Fresh off beating Argentina and finishing second in CONMEBOL qualifying, tonight will rank somewhere between slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra and Capturing the Erymanthian Boar. Yes, La Tri will be without Chelsea’s ultimate fighter Moisés Caicedo and Arsenal defender Piero Hincapié, but this team is fast, furious and physical. Mauricio Pochettino has asked us to trust his process. Tonight should be a true test of our progress, identity and collective belief. Here are the questions I am looking forward to seeing real answers to…
i. Can We Set Up Christian Pulisic to Hurt Opponents in a U.S. Jersey as He Has Done for Milan?
Christian Pulisic has been in the form of his life for Milan with a league-leading four goals and two assists. When we spoke this week, he identified the source of his potency: the tactical freedom he’s been given by coach Max Allegri,which reminded me of what Jack Grealish said in this incredible clip about how he plays at his best. Pochettino still must crack the code within his system to set Christian up to do similarly in a U.S. lineup. He has too often cut a frustrated figure, but if we can create the freedom for Pulisic to acquire possession in space to hurt opponents with a striker running ahead of him, we can soar.
ii. To That End, Do We Play Three or Four at the Back?
In our last-game victory against a Japan XI, Poch moved Christian to play under the striker in a 3-4-2-1 lineup, and CP linked up with Balogun for his goal with a flourish. I believe it will be three at the back again. Our nation’s great tactical experiment must continue.
iii. Can Weston McKennie Assert Himself and Win a Place in Poch’s Good Book?
There is the Weston McKennie of our dreams: the Texan bowling ball capable of knocking down all-comers. There is also the McKennie of this cycle—a capricious player whom Poch does not trust to fit into the hard-grind, all-in, always-on culture he expects and demands.
It has incredibly been seven long months since Weston was last in a U.S. national team camp—since the darkness of the Nations League slumping defeats to Panama and Canada. In that spell, he somehow managed to both captain Juventus at the Club World Cup, lose his place in the team, then fight his way back in. At club level, Weston has consistently proved he is never more focussed and effective than when he is on the brink of exile—a truth which is a reflection of his mentality, rather than his potential skill, which is not in doubt. Can he do the same again for us tonight?
iv. How Long Can Antonee Robinson Go?
That electric left-back/footballing can opener Antonee Robinson is back in the squad for the first time in almost a year. The Fulham star is returning from a long-term knee injury and is yet to start a Premier League game this season. He will be on a severe time restraint, yet the U.S. are truly only a three-dimensional team when he is flying down the flank.
Also, who is on the right? Twenty-one-year-old Orlando City speed freak Alex Freeman is the only natural right-back… Does he play or does Tim Weah play wingback?
v. Who’s Up Top: Flo Balogun or Haji Wright?
I hope Haji gets some playing time, gent has been the man for Frank Lampard’s unbeaten Coventry. Here is Herc Gomez explaining what has changed for the Los Angeles striker whose confidence has gone next level.
vi. Who’s in Goal?
Harvard Donnarumma Matt Freese is the heir apparent. Matt Turner is back in the squad. Freese has the form, Matty T. the experience. Can we play them both at the same time?
vii. Where Are We Between Experiment and Reality?
This is one strange cycle. The steady diet of friendlies has offered Poch the chance to experiment and audition with no consequences. He has asked us to trust his process without truly articulating what that is. I asked both Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic what matters in these games. As highly competitive athletes, they both had the same answer: winning and the results. At what stage will the open auditions and tactical experiments cohere? The World Cup is 244 days away. There are just a handful of games left before we play before the teams, who as in the Ryder Cup, are all going to want to do us. Close by, the train is waiting…
PS – Really lovely piece on the incredibly inspiring Diego Luna.
USMNT injuries complicate Mauricio Pochettino’s October camp and Ecuador friendly
USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino has injury concerns to contend with. Robin Alam / ISI Photos
AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino indicated Thursday that Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson and Alex Zendejas are all doubts for Friday’s friendly against Ecuador.
Pochettino, speaking at a news conference here ahead of the match at Q2 Stadium, said that Pulisic and Robinson didn’t train Thursday, and Zendejas “(felt) something, and it’s an issue. We don’t believe that Alex will be part of the game tomorrow.”
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Neither Pochettino nor a team spokesman would give more specifics about the “issues” hampering Pulisic and Robinson.
Robinson underwent knee surgery at the start of this past offseason and has been working to regain fitness and playing time at his club, Fulham.
“We need to assess tomorrow (if) they can be available or not,” Pochettino said.
Antonee Robinson (left) and Christian Pulisic are both in doubt for Friday’s USMNT clash.Stephen Nadler / ISI Photos / USSF / Getty Images for USSF
Their status could complicate Pochettino’s plans for this October international window, the third-to-last before he’ll pick a World Cup squad in the spring. He is already without fullback Sergiño Dest, midfielders Tyler Adams and Johnny Cardoso, and striker Ricardo Pepi. If Pulisic and Robinson are unable to play, or if they are held out of the starting lineup as precautions, the USMNT would be without roughly half of its presumed first-choice starting 11 for what would otherwise be a valuable tune-up for 2026.
Pochettino took a rosier view. The “circumstances,” he said, could “give the opportunity to different, maybe, players to play.”
Many of the players who would naturally step in for Pulisic and Zendejas, including Malik Tillman and Diego Luna, and for Robinson, such as Max Arfsten, are players Pochettino and his staff have already seen often throughout 2025.
One player he hasn’t seen often, Tanner Tessmann, could be pushed into a more advanced role in midfield.
Brenden Aaronson could also get another chance to impress Pochettino, having failed to do so at the CONCACAF Gold Cup this past summer. Haji Wright could, in theory, move up the pecking order for playing time on the wing, though a forward line of him, Tim Weah and Folarin Balogun would lack variety.
Weston McKennie, back with the squad for the first time since March, could also play higher up the field. Pochettino did not name names as potential replacements for Pulisic, Zendejas and Robinson, but later spoke about McKennie as a player who could be an “important” one for both Juventus and the national tea
“He has arrived very well, with very good energy,” Pochettino said of McKennie.
He first mentioned the injury “issues” in response to a question about the importance of these October games — first against Ecuador, then next Tuesday in Colorado against Australia.
Alex Zendejas has been in sparking form in Liga MX.Hector Vivas / Getty Images
“It’s difficult to convince you all, [but] the most important [thing], today, is not really the games,” he said. “The most important is what we are building here in the camp.”
Throughout his 30-minute news conference, he continued to speak at length about his “process.”
“Of course we need to play, and we need to perform, and we need to win, because that is going to give us the credibility in our work,” he said. But there was more value, he insisted, in the precious little time they get to spend together.
He again spoke about March, when the U.S. lost to Panama and Canada, as a “wake-up call” that compelled him to change his approach to the job.
“The moment that we identified the problems, we started to destroy the things that we need to destroy, and start to build the house from the ground up,” Pochettino said. (He did not specify what the “problems,” or the things that needed to be “destroyed,” were.)
Doing so, he continued, “takes time.” It also takes “a lot of problems, because it’s difficult for the people to understand, sometimes, that process,” Pochettino said. “But, I think we are on time.”
After the friendlies against Ecuador and Australia, the USMNT will have two more against Paraguay and Uruguay in November to close out 2025. They’re in advanced discussions to then play Portugal and Belgium in March, in the last two games before the World Cup team gathers in May and June.
“I am so happy, so positive, in the way things are going,” Pochettino said. “I am respecting the plan. It’s on time. It’s true that (there are only) a few camps until the World Cup, but the base is really strong now, after one year of working. It’s not too much time, but it’s time enough to build what we wanted to build.”
Christian Pulisic arrives in form, but status in sudden doubt for USMNT vs. Ecuador
AUSTIN, Texas – U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino said Christian Pulisic did not train on Thursday and is a question mark for Friday’s game against Ecuador.
“I need to communicate that we have some issues in some players, like Christian [Pulisic], who didn’t train today,” Pochettino said, not offering any other further specifics but also indicating that Alejandro Zendejas and Antonee Robinson sat out Thursday as well. “We need to assess tomorrow [if] they can be available or not.”
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Pulisic had spoken to the media earlier in the day but did not mention any issues, injury or otherwise. Instead, he focused on the importance for the U.S. team to come out of this international window with not just good performances, but also good results. After meeting La Tri, the U.S. will host Australia, another World Cup-bound opponent, next Tuesday in Colorado.
“It’s as simple as that,” Pulisic said. “We want to kind of understand and know where our team is at and have a good feeling going forward as we get closer to the summer.”
Pulisic arrived in Austin in strong form with AC Milan. The U.S. No. 10 was named Serie A player of the month and has six goals and two assists for Milan across all competitions. Pulisic missed a penalty kick in Sunday’s draw with Juventus, but he remains one of the most important players for both club and country.
On Thursday, he made sure to point out that he didn’t just spend his summer on the beach.
“I worked really hard this summer,” Pulisic said. “It’s not like I just took a break. I wanted to make sure that my body was in the perfect spot coming into the season, and I wanted to start really strong, and I worked really hard. And it’s just been consistency and the work I’ve put in, and it’s good to see it come to fruition and (to be) playing well. But it’s just the start of the season. I have so much more I want to accomplish.”
The U.S. will need Pulisic to be at his best if it’s to advance in next summer’s World Cup.
“I think I can do well in a lot of the attacking positions, but I’ve always felt comfortable coming off the left side, but also being in sort of pockets in behind the striker,” he said. “I’ve always been pretty comfortable in that position. It allows me to use some of my strengths, get in the box, make runs in behind. So I think it’s a good spot.”
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The key for the U.S. now isn’t just unlocking Pulisic’s club form on the international stage, but continuing to build momentum from the Japan win into this window. While friendlies are a proving ground in which the result isn’t as important, the American team is in need of some validation to the process under Pochettino.
Wins now build trust and momentum, and piling up those results is crucial as the World Cup nears.
“I think we’re settling in well,” Pulisic said. “Now it’s about building good performances one after the other. After last camp feeling good, now it’s a great opportunity.”
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After years of winning back his Juventus place, Weston McKennie aims to do same for USMNT
AUSTIN, Texas — It has been seven months since Weston McKennie was last here in U.S. men’s national team camp, simultaneously competing and joking, building toward a World Cup.
It has been seven months since March, since the Concacaf Nations League losses to Panama and Canada, since a week-long camp that head coach Maurico Pochettino recently described as a “wake-up call.”
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In those seven months, McKennie has captained Juventus at the Club World Cup, then seemingly been pushed out of the Juve starting 11, only to fight his way back in. He’s been left off a USMNT roster and missed 10 national team games for multiple reasons.
So, when he spoke here Thursday, and when a TV reporter asked him, as “a key leader in this group,” what his “message for the younger players” would be, McKennie paused.
“Ah, for the young players coming into this camp?” he said. “I mean, I’ve been gone for seven months, so it feels like I’m a new player.”
He chuckled, then gave his serious answer: “I would say: just put your head down and work, and really immerse yourself into the environment, into the group, into the guys and the ideas.”
That, in a way, is what McKennie has been doing, or must do, this week. He took part in Pochettino’s first three A-team camps, but missed a summer of culture-building that Pochettino and players have hailed as a crucial part of the coach’s “process.”
Weston McKennie last played for the USMNT vs. Canada in the Concacaf Nations League third-place match in March 2025Michael Owens / Getty Images
When asked Thursday about the team’s first year under Pochettino, McKennie said: “I mean, I’ve only spent a couple camps in with the group. So, probably a better question to ask someone else.”
McKennie did start all four Nations League matches in November and March. The latter, though, convinced Pochettino that “we needed to start a different process and different approach.” It wasn’t just the losses to Panama and Canada. “All that happened helped a little bit to realize that the most important thing is the national team; it’s the federation, and [the U.S. Soccer crest,]” Pochettino later said. “This is more important than any single name.”
Over the coming months, he omitted several notable names from rosters, in an apparent attempt to create internal competition, by sending a roster-wide message that nobody’s place in the USMNT is guaranteed.
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McKennie wasn’t one of the discretionary omissions in June; he was, rather, with Juventus at the Club World Cup and unavailable for selection. But he was then left off Pochettino’s roster for September friendlies against South Korea and Japan.
Pochettino, when asked to explain McKennie’s omission at the time, indicated that McKennie’s delayed offseason, and his precarious place in Juventus’ squad, were two factors. “We wanted to give him the possibility to be more settled in his club,” Pochettino said.
But, at the same time, he did call in Tim Weah, who had also been with Juve at the Club World Cup, then transferred to a new club, Marseille, just weeks before the roster was named.
McKennie was asked Thursday about his interpretation of and reaction to the omission. How did it hit him? Did it motivate or inspire him?
“Nah, I just stayed at my club, focused on what I had to do there,” he said. “And, yeah, just waited to have the opportunity to come back in.”
USMNT teammates Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie vie for possession during a recent Serie A match between AC Milan and JuventusMarco Alpozzi / LaPresse / AP
At his club, meanwhile, he was once again battling to prove his worth. Offseason after offseason, he has been pushed “out of the project” at Juventus — and, on at least one occasion, stripped of a locker and parking spot. But he has always played his way back in, and 2025 felt no different.
“The summer is always a roller coaster for me. So, nothing’s really changed,” McKennie said Thursday with a smile. “I’m kind of used to it now.”
When asked about the mentality required to win back his place, again and again, he grinned and said: “It’s year after year, so it’s years of practice.”
He is, it seems, en route to doing that at Juve. After struggling for minutes over the season’s first few weeks, he has now started four games — including two in the Champions League — and played five over the past month.
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The one difference, now, is that his place in the national team seems less secure than ever. The player pool, at least in midfield, is deeper. And the coach has been willing to call upon less-accomplished, less-heralded and arguably less-talented players ahead of established figures if the stars don’t perform.
When asked if, having been away from the team for several months, he now feels like he has to win back a starting spot here, too, McKennie said: “That’s for the outside people to think, and the coaching staff to feel like. I just come in and do my best. If the coach thinks it’s a good fit for the starting 11, it’s a good fit. If it’s not, then it’s not.”
When asked about the March “wake-up call,” and whether he saw it as such, or whether Pochettino has explained that to him, McKennie began with a “nah,” and reiterated that he hasn’t been around the group enough to “know how people are taking what they take, or how they do what they do, or what not.”
“I’m just here to do my job whenever I’m called upon,” he said. “And that’s that.”
USA U-20s book World Cup quarterfinal place, rout Italy behind Cremaschi’s double
The United States advanced to the quarterfinal round of the U-20 men’s World Cup for the fifth straight competition after a comprehensive 3-0 win over Italy on Thursday, with Benjamin Cremaschi’s double sandwiching a free kick from Niko Tsakiris in Chile. The Americans were the better side on the day and were never in any sort of danger against a poor Azzurri team, who had two late shouts for penalties go uncalled, even after VAR review.Cremaschi scored his fourth and fifth goals of the tournament on Thursday to take the competition’s scoring lead. His first came in the 15th minute following a scramble in front of goal from a U.S. corner kick, as he poked the ball into the net from close range. His second goal, in second-half stoppage time, was a lovely dink over the goalkeeper from the center of the box after receiving a cross in stride on a run down the center.
The on-loan Parma midfielder, who earlier in the tournament became the second American to score a hat trick in a U-20 World Cup (Freddy Adu did so in 2007), had his strikes complemented by Tsakiris, who curled in a wonderful free kick from just outside the Italian penalty area to put the U.S. 2-0 up in the 79th minute. Marko Mitrović’s side, which has benefited from playing every match thus far at the Estadio El Teniente in the city of Rancagua, will face Morocco in the quarterfinals on Sunday. The African side topped its group by beating Spain and Brazil before being edged 1-0 by Mexico, and it beat South Korea 2-1 in Thursday’s round finale. It’ll mark the second straight year the two sides will have met on the youth stage, with Morocco knocking the U.S. U-23s out of the 2024 Olympics with a 4-0 quarterfinal thrashing in Paris.
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These U-20 Americans will hope for a better fate and as they seek to advance to the final four of the competition for the second time in program history – and the first since 1989. Norway and France, the latter of whom the U.S. beat in group play, are in the other quarterfinal on the U.S.’s side of the bracket, while Mexico, Argentina, Spain and Colombia make up the other half.
While the football has not always been pleasing on the eye, this U-20 World Cup in Chile has had a vintage feel. At the senior men’s level, World Cups have become opulent global events. There is the rustic feel to this youth tournament that is being played at the aging concrete stadiums in cities like Santiago, Talca and Viña del Mar. Whether it’s a crisp spring night or a breezy sunny afternoon amidst the Andes Mountains, the aesthetics of the tournament lend itself to the nostalgia of past competitions. It’s fitting that the last U-20 World Cup that was played in Chile in 1987 featured Yugoslavia’s Robert Prosinecki, one of the biggest stars of the 1990s and that tournament’s Golden Ball winner that yeaThis year’s tournament has been marked by Brazil’s failure to reach the knockout stage for the first time in their nation’s history. Brazil finished at the bottom of Group C with just one point, which led to the dismissal of head coach Ramon Menezes. Chile’s footballing crisis continues, too.
Chile’s senior side finished last in the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign, and the host nation’s U-20 squad was jeered off the pitch after losing 4-1 to Mexico in the round of 16. The Mexicans have been one of the most talked about teams. They’ve played well and have been led by young midfield prodigy Gilberto Mora, the tournament’s most highly-touted player.
Mexico’s Gilberto Mora (11) has played as advertised and is a breakout star of the FIFA U-20 World CupRaul Bravo /AFP / Getty Images
Mora, a central midfield playmaker, was part of Mexico’s Gold Cup team that defeated the U.S. in the final in July. The 16-year-old, who plays his club football with Tijuana, is expected to be part of Mexico’s 2026 World Cup squad. Mora’s agent Rafaela Pimenta told TUDN on Wednesday that top European clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona are tracking him, and when discussing a potential transfer fee for Mora, Pimenta said that “$15 million wouldn’t buy one of Mora’s legs.”
The American squad may not have a future global star like Mora, but there is plenty of technical ability on the team. On Thursday, standout performances from Cremaschi and defensive midfielder Brooklyn Raines powered the U.S. toward a potentially historic tournament run.
While past U.S. sides at the U-20 level included future senior national team legends like Michael Bradley, DaMarcus Beasley, Carlos Bocanegra, Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan and Kasey Keller, among others — the 2025 team is an understated side that may just be gelling at the right time.
Three of Europe’s top five leagues return on Friday, with the Premier League, La Liga, and Ligue 1 kicking off for Matchday 1; the German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A will start a week later on Aug 22/23 they both have League cup games this weekend. See La Liga (Spain) games (More) and Ligue 1 (France) fixtures (More) – full season previews below for all 3 leagues. In the EPL my Final 4 are Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea – hoping Crystal Palace or Fulham can make a top 6 run. Premier League Fri 3 pm USA Network Liverpool vs. Bournemouth, Liverpool haven’t lost their opening league game in any of the last 12 seasons, winning nine of them. Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah is the Premier League’s top goal scorer and leading player for goal contributions on Matchday 1. Adding to this, Bournemouth and American midfielder Tyler Adams have just one point from their eight Premier League visits to Anfield. See the full list of Premier League fixtures here.
Notes
Chelsea players will give an equal portion of their $15.5M Club World Cup bonus to the family of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva, equating to around $500,000 (More). Cute look at new Everton Stadium. Funny Wrexham Fans left too early – I have to admit I am watching these games on Para+ now that they are in the Championship – Ollie with the brace.
US Players Abroad Begins Seasons this Week – Richards Palace Wins Community Shield What a thrill to see Chris Richards and Crystal Palace win the Community Shield 3-2 in PKs over Liverpool on Sunday (Palace Hi-lights), just months after winning the FA Cup at Wembley over Man City – Crystal Palace looked the better squad vs the defending EPL Champs. Palace plays at Chelsea at 9 am on Sunday on USA, while Fulham hosts – while Complete rundown on American’s Abroad below. Man I am not sure who is advising Christian Pulisic but I wish he would just leave well enough alone on the criticism from Landon Donovan & Tim Howard here’s what was said. Not sure if he’s doing it to get more people to watch his Series on Golazo Network (see Pulisic Docuseries Trailer) or what. Tim Weah, speaking on the CBS Sports series Pulisic about criticism by former USMNT stars now working as television and podcast commentators of Christian Pulisic‘s decision not to play in the 2025 Gold Cup. (Golazo Network). At this point lets just get to early September play our friendlies – Pulisic can come score a couple of goals and we can put this all behind us. Oh by the way the US men are coming to Columbus, Ohio Lower.com Field on Tuesday night Sept 9th for a 7:30 pm match up with #17 ranked Japan. The Ole Ballcoach is going along with some buddies to the game sitting in section 129 ($50) – close to the American Outlaws who will be in the Nordic Section 127. Visit http://ussoccer.spinzo.com/CarmelFC this special link to get discounted tickets. Let me know if you plan to join – feel free to send on to friends.
LEAGUES CUPfour MLS vs. LIGA MX quarterfinals Wed Aug 20.
Quarterfinal matchups
Inter Miami CF (MLS 2) vs. Tigres UANL (LIGA MX 3) 8 pm on FS1, Apple TV Free Seattle Sounders FC (MLS 1) vs. Club Puebla (LIGA MX 4) 11 pm FS1, Apple TV Free
LA Galaxy (MLS 3) vs. CF Pachuca (LIGA MX 2) 11:45 Apple TV Free
Orlando City (MLS 4) vs. Toluca FC (LIGA MX 1) 9 pm Apple TV Free
High School Soccer Season Kicks Off!
High school soccer officially starts this weekend across the state, and Carmel FC wants to send a huge congratulations and good luck to all our current players representing their schools this season. We’re proud to see you take the field, wear your school colors, and continue to showcase the skills, hard work, and sportsmanship you’ve developed here at Carmel FC. The Carmel High Girls Come in Ranked 3rd with new head coach John Simmons and Asst Coach and former Carmel FC Coach Carla Baker in charge replacing long time coach Frank Dixon at the helm. The CHS Boys are unranked after a 7-8-3 record but reached the Regional Semi’s last year.
ISCA Class 3A girls soccer poll
Hamilton Southeastern
Noblesville
Carmel
Crown Point
Evansville Memorial
Brownsburg
Cathedral
Castle
Center Grove
Homestead
Penn
East Central
Westfield
Zionsville
FW Carroll
Northridge
Fishers
Bloomington South
Lake Central
Mt. Vernon
ISCA Class 2A girls soccer poll
Lawrenceburg
Brebeuf Jesuit
Mishawaka Marian
FW Bishop Dwenger
SB Saint Joseph
Bishop Chatard
Guerin Catholic
Evansville Mater Dei
Bellmont
Hanover Central
Heritage Hills
Highland
Washington
FW Concordia Lutheran
West Lafayette
Hamilton Heights
Roncalli
Park Tudor
Gibson Southern
Madison
ISCA Class 3A boys soccer poll
Harrison (West Lafayette)
Hamilton Southeastern
Center Grove
FW Carroll
Zionsville
Fishers
Bloomington South
Noblesville
Concord
Evansville Memorial
Brownsburg
Cathedral
Columbus North
Goshen
Warsaw
Castle
Westfield
Chesterton
Crown Point
Penn
ISCA Class 2A boys soccer poll
FW Concordia Lutheran
Park Tudor
Hammond Bishop Noll
Bishop Chatard
Illiana Christian
Heritage Hills
FW Bishop Luers
Washington
South Bend St. Joseph
West Lafayette
Cascade
Hanover Central
Leo
Bethany Christian
FW Bishop Dwenger
Speedway
Culver Academy
Charleston
Heritage Christian
West Noble
Mike S, Shane & Scott F last preseason High School Scrimmage at Bishop Chatard Thurs Night. Excited to hit the fields Saturday at @ Heritage Christian & Guerin. Had a blast training new Carmel Dad’s Club Refs Ryleigh, Fred, & Noah last weekend at Badger Field.
TV GAME SCHEDULE
Fri, Aug 15 EPL Starts 12 noon ESPN+ Grobaspach vs Bayer Leverkusen German Cup 3 pm USA Liverpool vs Bournemouth (Adams) 8 pm Amazon Prime Washington Spirit (Rodman) vs Racing Louisville NWSL 10 pm CBS Golazo Utah Royals vs Angel City (Thompsons) NWSL Sat, Aug 16 7:20 am Para+ Wrexham vs West Brom 7:30 am USA Aston Villa vs New Castle United 10 am USA Brighton vs Fulham (Robinson is hurt) 12:30 pm NBC Wolverhampton vs Man City 1:30 pm ESPN2 Mallorca vs Barcelona 2:30 pm ESPN+ Stuttgart vs Bayern Munich 4 pm CBS KC Current vs Orlando Pride (Marta) NWSL 7 pm TV6, ESPN+ Loundoun United vs Indy 11 7:30 pm Apple TV free Inter Miami (Messi) vs LA Galaxy 7:30 pm ION NC Courage vs Portland Thorns NWSL 8:30 pm FS1 Minn vs Seattle Sounders 9 pm ESPN2 Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Phoenix Rising 10 pm ION Bay FC vs San Diego Wave NWSL Sun, Aug 17 6:50 am Para+ Ipwich Town vs Southampton 9 am USA Chelsea vs Crystal Palace (Richards) 11:30 am NBC Man United vs Arsenal 3 pm Para+ AC Milan (Pulisic) vs Bari Copa Italia 3:30 pm ESPN2 Espanyol vs Athletico Madrid (Cardoso) 4 pm Para+? NY Gothem vs Houston Dash NWSL 5 pm Apple TV NYCFC vs Nashville 7 pm Apple TV San Jose vs San Diego 9 pm Apple TV Vancouver (Mueller) vs Houston Mon, Aug, 18 3 pm USA Leeds United vs Everton 10 pm CBSSN Seattle Reign vs Chicago Red Stars NWSL Weds Aug 20 Leagues Cup MLS vs Liga MX Inter Miami CF (MLS 2) vs. Tigres UANL (LIGA MX 3) 8 pm on FS1, Apple TV Free Seattle Sounders FC (MLS 1) vs. Club Puebla (LIGA MX 4) 11 pm FS1, Apple TV Free LA Galaxy (MLS 3) vs. CF Pachuca (LIGA MX 2) 11:45 Apple TV Free Orlando City (MLS 4) vs. Toluca FC (LIGA MX 1) 9 pm Apple TV Free Sat, Sept 6 5 pm TNT, Tele, Max USA Men vs Korea Tues, Sept 9 7:30 pm TNT, Tele, Max USA Men vs Japan in Columbus, Ohio Fri, Oct 10 8:30 pm TNT, Max USA Men vs Ecuador Tues, Oct 14 9 pm TNT, Max USA Men vs Australia
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Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb has suggested that VAR could be expanded to include reviews for yellow cards and corners. The technology is currently only used to review potentially match-changing decisions such as goals, straight red cards, penalties, and mistaken identity. The case in favour argues that second yellow cards, which result in red cards, can significantly influence a match. Webb revealed that the game’s law-making body, the International Football Association Board (Ifab), is considering changes to VAR’s scope, including discussions around possible extensions for the technology. This comes after Uefa recently opposed measures to widen VAR’s powers to intervene in corner kicks and yellow cards, arguing it would increase delays. In related news, Webb said it would be “tough” for David Coote to return to top-level refereeing after being sacked for making derogatory remarks about Liverpool and then manager Jurgen Klopp. “Under the circumstances, it’s difficult [for him to return],” said Webb. “We stay in contact and care about him, but it would be tough.”
Americans abroad
Dest, Morris, Corboz, Pittman stand out, Jedi shelved, & Much More
ASN’s Brian Sciaretta writes up his thoughts from the weeekend amongst Americans abroad. Sergino Dest looked terrific, while Scott Pittman, Aidan Morris, Marlon Fossey, and Mael Corboz are also standout performers. Plenty of good and bad to go through.
BY Brian SciarettaPosted August 11, 2025 9:00 AM
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IT WAS A BUSY weekend for Americans in Europe, despite the top divisions in Germany, England, France, and Italy still at the tail end of preseason. Many U.S. players, in including USMNT hopefuls, were in action in both regular season and preseason games.
For now, let’s just get right into it and we will start with the Eredivisie opening weekend.
Dest shines vs. PSV
One of the big stories this weekend for American in Europe was the big statement made by defending champion PSV, who sold a lot of talent this summer (including USMNT midfielder Malik Tillman) but also spent money on new players.
Despite playing well at times this preseason, Ricardo Pepi was not deemed fit enough to be in the squad for Saturday’s opener against Sparta Rotterdam. But Sergino Dest, who mist most games this calendar year, including the Gold Cup, did start.
The news could not have been any better for Dest, who played in top form and did not show any indication of his ACL tear or subsequent injury at the end of the season. He played like the high level player he is.
Dest scored the third goal in a 6-1 win over Sparta that featured PSV having five different goal scorers. That is what makes this team difficult to beat – numerous scoring options.
Overall, Dest played 82 minutes and had three shots. He was consistently dangerous. This bodes well for both PSV and the USMNT as it heads into the fall.
Rest of Eredivisie
In the rest of the Eredivisie outside of PSV, Taylor Booth started and played all 90 minutes for Twente in a 1-0 loss to PEC Zwolle. It was a disappointing result for Twente, who is expected to be in contention for a top five finish, because Zwolle is typically in relegation battles.
Booth, 24, wasn’t one of Twente’s problems on the day and he did create a few chances. He had his own shot in the box blocked in the first few minutes and then he set up two chances later in the game with crosses.
Booth is still likely a long way off from the USMNT but a good season could put him into the picture next year, likely after the World Cup.
The younger Booth brother, Zack Booth, had a tough game in Excelsior’s opener as he came off the bench in the 71st minute in a 5-0 loss to NEC Nijmegen. The game was 4-0 when he came on. The best news for Booth, 21, is that Excelsior will likely have to make changes after such a poor result.
Championship: Morris impresses for Boro
There are a lot of Americans in the Championship this season and we could see a few involved in the promotion races.
Aidan Morris, 23, was solid in central midfield for Middlesborough in a 1-0 win over Swansea to open the season. He was good at setting the pace and helping Boro win the possession battles.
It wasn’t a flashy performances, but he is very important to the Boro midfield moving forward.
After a big 2024/25 campaign, Josh Sargent scored his first goal of the new season in Norwich’s opening day win. The 55th minute goal was an equalizer in what eventually turned out to be a 2-1 loss at home to Millwall.
The goal was all hustle as Sargent blocked a goalkeeper clearance directly back into the goal. It was more seen as a goalkeeper error, but Sargent hustled on the play.
Sargent remains an interesting player for the rest of the month. Norwich is still hopeful of selling him, as they could use the money. But for Sargent to get interest, he needs to keep scoring in any way possible. But where does Sargent want to go? Turning down Wolfsburg two weeks ago shows signs of a limited options.
Damion Downs played the final 31 minutes for Southampton and was on the field as they scored two very late goals to turn a 1-0 loss into a 2-1 win over Wrexham in the season opener. It was a good shift for Downs as he was involved in the final goal where he slightly touched a pass to Jack Stephens, who smashed in the winner from close range.
Downs, 21, is in a good spot. He will continue to get chances and he will contribute to a team that should be in contention to bounce right back up.
George Campbell came on in the dying minutes for West Brom to help see out a 1-0 victory over Blackburn. It marked his debut for the club after moving from Montreal earlier in the transfer window.
Charlton defeated Watford 1-0 on Saturday. Charlie Kelman, 23, started and played 71 minutes for Charlton. He is coming off a season where he won the third-tier League One scoring title with Leyton Orient. Caleb Wiley was out with a back injury for Watford. Kelman had a good chance to score in the 59th minute but his close-range shot was saved. Charlton found a stoppage time winner to earn all three points.
Scotland: Pittman & CCV stand out
Scott Pittman, 33, has scored goals in Livingston FC’s first two games of the Scottish Premiership season. The latest in a 3-1 win over Falkirk on Saturday.
The all-time appearance leader for Livingston opened the scoring in the 18th minute with a shot from inside the box for a 1-0 lead.
After earning promotion last season, Livingston is looking to pull away from a relegation battle early.
Celtic dominated its way to a 2-0 win over Aberdeen on Saturday. Cameron Carter-Vickers completed 139 passes in the win. Auston Trusty completed 51 passes in just 24 minutes when he came on to see out the win.
Those passing numbers reflect Celtic’s domination in possession which typically began with the central defenders.
Coincidentally enough, Aberdeen’s best chance of the game came from American midfielder Dante Polvara in the 75th minute – two minutes after he subbed on. His right footed shot from close range was saved.
Belgium: Fossey scores in big Standard win
Standard Liege defeated Genk 2-1 on Sunday to move to seven points from three games to start the Belgium First Division season. Standard captain and USMNT hopeful Marlon Fossey scored in the 54th minute to give Standard a 2-1 lead – which he then celebrated with a back flip.
On the play, Fossey, 26, moved into the attack and was able to pounce on a ball from close range and beat the keeper with a shot into the top of the net.
Will Fossey make it back into the USMNT picture? It seems difficult. With Dest now back, Alex Freeman continuing to impress in Orlando, and Joe Scally continuing to be the starter for Borussia Monchengladbach, there is a crowded field. But performances like this don’t hurt.
Also in Belgium, Westerlo dropped a 1-0 loss at home to KV Mechelen at home after conceding a goal in the 84th minute. Griffin Yow started at right wing for Westerlo but was subbed out after the first half as part of a tactical change. Despite the loss, Bryan Reynolds had a strong 90-minute shift at right back. Both Yow and Reynolds could move before the end of the month as they have likely done all they can do for a small club like Westerlo. The club could also use the money but it comes down to offers.
2.Bundesliga: Corboz impresses again
It was the second matchday in the 2.Bundesliga season where several Americans play their trade. This week, there were two games that saw multiple players involved.
Holstein Kiel dropped a 2-0 decision to Arminia Bielefeld and it was a big setback for Holstein Kiel, which has no points from the first two games in a season where they are coming back down from the Bundesliga.
John Tolkin, 23, started for Holstein Kiel but was subbed out at halftime for tactical reasons as both wingbacks were removed. The tactical shift did not help at all. Tolkin was okay in his 45 minutes, but the team overall was very poor and does not want to have a poor start to the season. Such starts only create relegations battles.
On the flip side, Arminia Bielefeld was excellent and now has a perfect six points from two games – immediately coming off promotion last year. Led by American captain Mael Corboz, Arminia Bielefeld is off to a great start. Corboz has done well to add maturity to a team that looks ready for the 2.Bundesliga. Corboz, 30, is one of the best “under the radar” stories in American soccer.
Eintracht Braunschweig defeated Greuther Furth 3-2 and Johan Gomez enjoyed one of his best performances in years when he came off the bench in the 61st minute. He was dangerous, assisted on goal that was called back, won a lot of duels, and built a case to start for the club.
For Eintracht, the club has six points from two games. This is huge after narrowly avoiding relegation last season.
On the flip side, Furth sits on three points from two games after the loss. Both Julian Green and Max Dietz both started. Green was subbed out in the 86th minute while Dietz went the whole game. Neither stood out.
On Friday, Paderborn drew Preussen Munster 1-1. Santiago Castaneda, 20, started in defensive midfield for Paderborn but did not stand out in his 78 minutes. Both of the Tampa native’s first two games have been quiet.
Richards wins Community Shield
Chris Richards can now add a Community Shield to his trophy case as played the entire game at Wembley as his Crystal Palace defeated reigning Premier League champions Liverpool on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
Richards had a “hockey assist” on his team’s second goal and saw his header off a corner saved in the 61st minute.
Richards looks to be in great shape to start the Premier League season next week. His great calendar year of 2025.
Elsewhere abroad
In Poland’s Ekstraklassa, Jagiellonia Bialystok defeated Cracovia 5-2 with Aziel Jackson making his first start for Bialystok in the win. Leon Flach also played the final 12 minutes in the win. Kahveh Zahirolelam made his debut for Cracovia when he came on in the 79th minute.
In Croatia’s HNL, Hajduk Split defeated HNK Gorica 2-0. The win was helped by a Gorica red card in the 50th minute when the score was 0-0. Rokas Pukstas returned to the starting lineup after struggling to break in recently and he was helped by injuries that made him needed. He was active in the attack, despite no goal contributions. Was it enough for him to remain in in the starting lineup? That is an open question.
In the Austrian Bundesliga, George Bello scored in the 50th minute for LASK in a 3-1 loss to WSG Tirol. Sam Adeniran started for LASK but was ineffective. It was good news for Bello to have scored but LASK is winless after two games and has work to do in the weeks ahead.
Quincy Butley, 23, meanwhile started and played well for WSG on the right side of the midfield where he won duels and passed effectively. WSG has won its first two games of the season.
In the Swiss Super League, Lausanne dropped a 2-1 decision at home to FC Zurich. Konrad de la Fuente played the final 18 minutes in the loss.
In the Danish Superliga, Matthew Hoppe started for SonderjyskE but was held in check by Viborg in a 1-0 loss. Hoppe was subbed out in the 71st minute.
In Uruguay’s Primera, Agustin Anello played 82 minutes for Boston River in a 1-1 draw with Montevideo City Torque. Anello was subbed out with his team trailing 1-0 and down to 10 men. Boston River now has four points from two games.
Preseason & Transfer updates
Robinson on the shelf
Antonee Robinson has not played at all this preseason and will not be available for Fulham to start the season. Once figured to be the subject of transfer rumors this summer to big clubs, everything with Robinson has been quiet.
Every year, McKennie is on the brink of falling out of favor with Juventus and has always pulled himself back into the mix. But eventually this will end. Perhaps now is a good time for him to make a break and Roma is still a very high landing spot. McKennie knows Serie A well and likely wouldn’t need as much adjustment.
Also in this game was Cole Campbell, who played the last 15 minutes for Borussia Dortmund. This comes after interest from VfB Stuttgart was shelved – at least temporarily as Dortmund assess its winger situation. The speedy U.S. U-20 attacker has been on the edge of BVB’s first team and has made his debut. But works remains for him to be a consistent presence.
As expected, there was no Gio Reyna for BVB and there has been no breakthrough on the transfer front.
Captain McKenzie
Toulouse played Sevilla to a 1-1 draw in a preseason friendly and the big takeaway is that USMNT central defender Mark McKenzie wore the captain’s armband for Toulouse – a sign of his growing importance to the Ligue 1 club.
Chelsea smashed AC Milan 4-1 over the weekend with Yunus Musah starting and playing 73 minutes for Milan. It was 3-1 when Musah departed the game. Musah remains a player to watch in the weeks ahead as his preseason has not gone well. Milan might opt to drop their asking price and move on.
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Antonee Robinson’s injury timetable underscores his importance to USMNT
By Jeff RueterAug. 14, 2025Updated 12:47 pm EDT The Athletic
No doubt, Fulham will feel a bit up against it heading into the club’s Premier League opener, away at Brighton.The 2024-25 season saw Antonee Robinson cement his place as one of Marco Silva’s most vital charges, arguably the best pure left back in the Premier League. Nicknamed “Jedi,” he’s proven capable of containing Bukayo Saka and Mohamed Salah on one end before dependably squaring crosses right into his striker’s stride. He gutted out an injury to his right knee until season’s end, finishing third in the fan-voted Player of the Season pageant after a 10-assist campaign.On Thursday, 48 hours before a trip to the AmEx, Silva confirmed that Robinson would not be available for selection as he works back from an offseason surgery on that vital plant-leg knee. So, too, would Ryan Sessegnon, leaving the Portuguese manager without his two top options at left back.Mauricio Pochettino may still be envying Silva’s situation. At least the Fulham boss has a viable alternative in the role to Robinson.It’s hardly a new phenomenon that the U.S. men’s national team is dangerously thin at left back. In fact, the program went over a decade with makeshift solutions, forcing players like DaMarcus Beasley and Fabian Johnson to own the role despite spending their careers up until that point further afield. While U.S. Soccer can’t take credit for Robinson’s development, his commitment was a clear end to holding the left side of the back line together with duct tape and chewing gum.While Robinson has amassed a tidy 50 caps to date, he’s been absent for the last four camps under Pochettino, a 12-game sample from which the coach has learned plenty about his player pool. He’s had his initial trust in Diego Luna validated by a star-making turn at the Gold Cup. That same tournament gave reason to think Matt Freese could be a shot-stopping alternative to Matt Turner in goal.There have been frustrating realizations, too. Mexico is back on the ascent, although that’s a bit more of a subplot than usual as both nations will abstain from World Cup qualifying this cycle. His faith in the core that helped qualify for the 2022 installment has potentially been rocked by Christian Pulisic and others opting out or missing out on the Gold Cup. And, more relevant to today’s news via Silva: he doesn’t have a clear alternative to Robinson at left back.
USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t have many options behind Antonee Robinson at left back (Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
Unlike other USMNT mainstays like Gio Reyna, Pochettino and Robinson have already logged a bit of collaboration. The left back was on Pochettino’s first squad last October, and started both legs of the Concacaf Nations Leg quarterfinal against Jamaica the following month. In the second, Robinson assisted on the second goal of a 4-2 win that sent the U.S. through to the final four. Since then, however, Pochettino has had to play alternatives to Robinson. When an ailment kept Robinson out for the Nations League’s business end in March, it became a calamity: Panama targeted out-of-position Max Arfsten and, later, Joe Scally, exploiting the latter’s lack of awareness to score a last gasp winner in a 1-0 semifinal upset. Scally went on to start the third-place game, putting in such a poor shift that he got a halftime hook.In the 12 games that have passed since Robinson’s last U.S. appearance, four players have been called upon in his absence. Arfsten has been Pochettino’s most relied-upon alternative, appearing in nine of that dozen, most often as starter. John Tolkin, of recently relegated Holstein Kiel in Germany, has made five appearances, while Scally and DeJuan Jones have each appeared twice in the role. None have made a terribly compelling case for further looks.Throughout the Gold Cup, Arfsten and Tolkin — as indicated by their higher utilization — were the two options on Pochettino’s squad.Arfsten, a winger with the possession-dominant Columbus Crew, has fared about as you’d expect for a player who usually sees the game from a vastly different perspective. His attacking contributions were that of an ideal wingback, logging assists and chipping in goals as an auxiliary threat from wide. His defensive performances were riddled with the kinds of mistakes coaches have to drill out of defenders in the youth ranks, taking the bait and making needless fouls (like one just inside the box against Costa Rica that resulted in a penalty).Tolkin, largely as a substitute, has at least spent his career in the role since debuting with his boyhood New York Red Bulls. His issues more closely mirror the struggles recently seen from young left backs George Bello, Kris Lund and Sam Vines: bona fide left backs, but unable to prove themselves at the international level.There’s a paucity of alternatives, too. Unlike other spots, there’s no alternative who hasn’t been tested and is flying under the radar. The closest to matching that mold is Caleb Wiley, the Chelsea prospect who earned three caps in 2023 and 2024 but hasn’t been in a national team camp since Pochettino took charge. While it’s impressive for a 20-year-old to have amassed 135 club appearances, mostly with Atlanta United before the club from London came calling, his first loan with Strasbourg was inconclusive. He’s at Watford now, and could very easily work into the fold in the months to come. The other alternatives to Scally are, in the program’s grand tradition, playing out of position. There’s Arfsten, still tapping into his winger’s instincts at the expense of his team’s defending. There’s Scally shifting over from right back (and Sergiño Dest before him, the first-choice option in that spot), who fancy themselves to put in a shift on the left. Even then, it weakens the right back contingent that is seemingly three players deep: Dest, Scally, Alex Freeman. If Robinson’s recovery timetable will keep him out of the next international camp spanning from Sept. 1-9 (the fifth-to-last camp before the 2026 World Cup), those speculative alternatives may get another chance to log starts and fortify their cases for inclusion. Pochettino and a fanbase starved for optimism will rightfully hope for a pleasant surprise. As it stands right now, it’s a bleak reality for the USMNT: against ideal operational standards, this is a Jedi without a worthy padawan. (Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
La Liga season preview: Our predictions on Barcelona, Real Madrid and much more
The new La Liga season gets started later on Friday, with defending champions Barcelona opening at Real Mallorca tomorrow and Real Madrid welcoming Osasuna on Tuesday.
As usual, there is no shortage of storylines, including Barca again struggling to register their new signings, Madrid once more battling against La Liga’s authorities and Atletico Madrid spending big to try to challenge the Clasico duo for the title. There’s also plenty of political intrigue, controversy, figures under pressure and the possibility for history to be made on and off the pitch.
The Athletic has taken its annual stab at predicting how things will go (which will hopefully turn out better than last year, when we predicted Barcelona would sack new manager Hansi Flick by Christmas)…
Who will win La Liga and why?
Flick had a phenomenal first season in charge at Barcelona, winning the domestic treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Supercopa.
His squad is arguably stronger this year. Defender Inigo Martinez has left, but on-loan Marcus Rashford brings another option in attack, and most importantly, the team’s young core should be even better — centre-back Pau Cubarsi, midfielders Pedri and Gavi, and especially emerging-superstar attacker Lamine Yamal.
Can Flick’s Barca build further on last season’s success? (Judit Cartiel/Getty Images)
Madrid also look to have significantly improved, with a rebuilt defence and fresh energy and impetus under new coach Xabi Alonso. Atletico have spent a lot again to try to mount a challenge, and Diego Simeone arguably now has the deepest squad of his 14 seasons in charge. But Alonso’s impact across the capital could be hampered by minimal pre-season preparation time after going to the final four of the Club World Cup last month, while Simeone’s new signings might take a while to settle in.
Barcelona, Madrid and Atletico have finished among the top four in Spain every year since 2012-13, and they will again this time. But the race for the fourth Champions League qualification spot looks wide open.
Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal are playing in that competition this season, so their domestic form could suffer as they juggle the extra eight games. That might open up an opportunity for Real Betis, who continue to make progress year on year under veteran coach Manuel Pellegrini. Betis’ top-four challenge will be especially strong if they can secure the return of Brazilian attacker Antony from Manchester United after his impressive loan spell in the second half of last season.
Mallorca could potentially challenge for a European spot, while Valencia improved tremendously after Carlos Corberan took over as coach in January.
Who will be the biggest underperformers?
One of the biggest questions is how Madrid’s Club World Cup exertions, tacked onto the end of last season, will affect how they start this new campaign.
Madrid’s players finally got to go on holiday on July 10, after losing 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals in the United States. They then returned for pre-season training on August 4, just 15 days before they welcome Osasuna to the Bernabeu for both sides’ opening La Liga fixture.
Managing that situation is a huge challenge for new coach Alonso, who also has to integrate three new defenders in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen and Alvaro Carreras.
Alonso was appointed as Madrid coach back in May (Sara Gordon/Real Madrid via Getty Images)
Their games at the Club World Cup suggested that Alonso’s biggest issue will be how to fit both Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior into his XI while implementing a version of the high-energy, high-pressing style he used at previous club Bayer Leverkusen.
Midfielder Jude Bellingham will be missing until mid-October at least, following a summer operation to fix a long-running shoulder issue, and players could also still leave in the summer transfer window, including Brazilian attacker Rodrygo.
Alonso could well end up being a success at the Bernabeu – he has the experience and nous to deal with the challenge of the job – but there might be some bumps along the way, and Madrid could be playing catch-up in the 2025-26 title race from early on.
How do you expect the promoted clubs to do?
Levante, Elche and Real Oviedo would all see a 17th-place finish in the 20-club table, so avoiding an immediate return to the second tier, as success.
The three promoted clubs are working with limited finances, having spent around €10million (£8.6m; $11.7m) between them so far on new players (for comparison, the three teams promoted to the Premier League this summer have spent over €300m combined).
Levante’s players, coach and staff played a big role in providing crucial supplies and support when the team’s home city of Valencia was badly flooded last October. Elche owner Christian Bragarnik’s CV includes experience as a striker in fifth-tier Argentine football, time spent as a video-store assistant, and working as an agent to Diego Maradona.
Who will be the best young player this season?
Yamal only turned 18 in mid-July and could already be the best player in Spain, if not the world, so he’s a good candidate for this section.
Already a senior Argentina international, Mastantuono is used to dealing with pressure and expectation. He has already played 64 senior games for River, scoring 10 goals and providing seven assists. Some of those goals were spectacular, especially the tremendous free kick scored in a 2-1 derby victory against fierce local rivals Boca Juniors in April.
Many kids have arrived at Madrid with big hype and have taken a long time to settle, or just never made it at all. But people who know Mastantuono reckon he can hit the ground running and quickly rival Yamal as the hottest teenager in La Liga.
Which under-the-radar figure have the big clubs been sleeping on?
Athletic Club’s Mikel Jauregizar had a real breakout season in 2024-25 and is fast developing into one of the top defensive midfielders in La Liga. Only 18 months on from his senior debut, the super-combative and mobile 21-year-old has established himself as a key member of coach Ernesto Valverde’s team.
Jauregizar, pictured in pre-season for Athletic (Joris Verwijst/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
He is not the biggest at 177cm (5ft 10in), but Jauregizar ranked third-highest among all midfielders for tackles in La Liga last season. That ability to regain possession and then launch attackers such as brothers Inaki and Nico Williams was key to Valverde’s team’s success in finishing fourth.
Jauregizar did not help himself with his performance in Athletic Club’s biggest game of the season, being embarrassingly dribbled past by Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire in the Europa League semi-final first leg at San Mames. But his career so far suggests he is a very quick learner, and playing in the Champions League this season should bring plenty more experience and exposure.
For much of last season, Atletico appeared set to seriously compete on all fronts, but their season shuddered to a stop in March with a series of disappointing defeats by Barcelona and Madrid across La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Champions League.
Atletico’s subsequent summer spending of around €150million looks directly aimed at fixing issues in the squad highlighted during that tough spell. Slovakia defender David Hancko and United States international midfielder Johnny Cardoso bring more physicality, while Italian Matteo Ruggeri and Spain’s Alex Baena form an all-new left flank.
United States international Cardoso in action for Atletico in pre-season against Newcastle (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)
On paper, they all look like excellent acquisitions. The question now is how Simeone integrates all his new players and whether he can get them to buy quickly into his trademark super-intense style of play.
If it all clicks, Atletico’s challenge could go a lot further this season.
Which club have had the worst transfer window?
Villarreal supporters had known that Spain international Baena was set to leave, and the club banking €42million from Atletico and signing Las Palmas’ Alberto Moleiro as a replacement for €16m was not such bad business. Similarly, selling inconsistent forward Thierno Barry to Everton for €30m and getting Spain Under-21 international centre-back Rafa Marin on loan from Napoli look like smart moves.
Less easy to understand is bringing in former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey on a free transfer.
Partey’s experience and ability could be useful on the pitch as Villarreal return to the Champions League this season, but for many, it is just unacceptable to sign a player who has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in England. Partey denies the charges, and club president Fernando Roig said on Tuesday: “We respect the presumption of innocence and of course we condemn any kind of violence, inside or outside football.”
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Tell us one great storyline we might have missed…
Barcelona’s issues around registering their summer signings with La Liga are eye-catching due to the size of the club and the regular drama involved, but they are far from the only ones struggling in this area ahead of the new season.
Just days before the games kick off this weekend, more than 50 new arrivals had yet to be officially registered with La Liga. Clubs still looking to make room within their budget included the three promoted clubs, as well as Sevilla, Celta Vigo, Espanyol, Getafe, Real Sociedad, Betis and Alaves.
So some well-known names are likely to watch their new team’s opening game from the stands, while a frantic couple of weeks of wheeling and dealing are likely until the end of the transfer window.
What will be making headlines as the season progresses?
La Liga president Javier Tebas has been openly trying to stage official Spanish top-flight games in the United States since 2018, but until now has always been denied by a mix of political and practical factors.
Tebas is nothing if not dogged, however, and many of the big hurdles have now been removed — including the settlement of a U.S. legal case between world football’s governing body FIFA and promoters Relevent, and improved relations with the Spanish FA in the post-Luis Rubiales era.
The biggest opposition domestically comes from Madrid president Florentino Perez, while green lights are still required from the European game’s rulers UEFA, Concacaf (the regional federation that includes the U.S.) and the United States Soccer Federation.
Though it’s not yet fully sorted, sooner or later, Tebas’ signature project looks certain to happen.
(Top photos of Rashford, left, and Alexander-Arnold: Getty Images)
FourFourTwo Premier League Season Previews 2025-26
Our legendary previews on all 20 teams set to grace the Premier League this season is here, brought to you by expert journalists and hardcore fans at the heart of each club
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool, lifts the Premier League trophy after his team’s victory in the 2024/25 Premier League (Image credit: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
We’re not far away from the start of the 2025/26 Premier League and all the twists, turns and drama that comes with it.
The transfer market has been going into overdrive as teams look to do battle once again, with some mouthwatering spectacles set to light up the pitch again from August to May.
Read on for FourFourTwo’s preview on all 20 Premier League teams in the 2025/26 season…You may like
Bukayo Saka celebrates with Gabriel Martinelli after scoring for Arsenal against Real Madrid (Image credit: Getty Images)
After finishing second for a third season in a row last year, Arsenal are looking to go one better and finally lift the Premier League title. Preseason has been strong, with several new signings through the door, and now, Mikel Arteta is ready to take his side over the line and lift silverware this season.
FourFourTwo has your complete season preview ahead of the new campaign, with the lowdown on star players, what to expect and predictions of what’s to come over the next few months, along with Arsenal’s full fixture list, too.
Aston Villa
Aston Villa celebrate (Image credit: Getty Images)
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa missed out on Champions League football on the final day of last season. After another impressive campaign, in which they qualified for European football, reached the quarter-final of the Champions League, and the semi-final of the FA Cup, they will be looking to continue finishing inside the top six and make a serious play for one of the cups.
FourFourTwo has everything you need for the new term with our season preview. Get the inside scoop on star players, what to look forward to, and our predictions for the coming months, along with Aston Villa’s fixtures.
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Brentford
Nathan Collins of Brentford (Image credit: Getty Images)
Brentford are entering uncharted waters. For the first time in the Premier League they will not be led by Thomas Frank, and Bryan Mbeumo will not be in the squad. They have attempted to negate too much disruption by appointing former set-piece coach Keith Andrews, while they’ve brought in Caoimhin Kelleher and Jordan Henderson as they look to solidify their mid-table status.
Your essential guide to the new season is here. FourFourTwo brings you the full preview, including key players, team expectations, our final predictions and Brentford’s fixtures.
This will be Brighton’s eighth season in the Premier League and they enter with significant expectations. 18-year-old Charalampos Kostoulas has become their third highest transfer of all-time as they look to push for European football for the second-time in their history.
Ahead of the new campaign, FourFourTwo offers your complete season preview. We’ve got the lowdown on the biggest stars, what to expect, and a glimpse into our predictions for the next few months – plus Brighton’s full fixture list.
Burnley
Josh Brownhill of Burnley (Image credit: Getty Images)
Burnley finished second in the Championship last season with 100 points, the most ever for a team in second place, only beaten to the title on goal difference. Across the 46 games, they conceded just 16 goals, but shot-stopper James Trafford has returned to Manchester City. Scott Parker will be hoping they can build on their strong defensive performance and stay up this season.
Fresh off the back of their record points tally, Bournemouth will be looking to go one further and reach European football for the first time. Adoni Iroala’s side however, will be without much of their defence from last season, including Kepa Arrizabalaga, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez making their task slightly more difficult.
FourFourTwo’snew season preview is out now. Dive into our analysis of key players and our predictions for what’s to come over the next few months – and check out Bournemouth’s fixture list, too.
Chelsea
Chelsea star Cole Palmer (Image credit: David Ramos/Getty Images)
Club World Cup champions Chelsea head into the season with lofty expectations. Their impressive performance in America this summer shows their scatter-gun transfer approach has worked and after spending north of £250 million again this summer, the Blues fans will be hoping they can make a serious bid for the title.
And the new season is almost here: FourFourTwo has your complete preview, covering everything from top players to our final predictions, and even Chelsea’s fixtures.
The mood is mixed at Selhurst Park. On the one hand, Oliver Glasner has delivered nothing that any Eagles manager has ever done before and won a trophy: the good feeling isn’t going to disappear any time soon, and Crystal Palace fans are hoping to push on up the league – but on the other, the cloud of the European football debacle and what competition they’ll be dropped into still lingers.
We’ve got everything you need to know ahead of the start of a new campaign with our comprehensive season preview, delving into what to look forward to and where Palace will be in another year’s time – plus, see Crystal Palace’s fixture list.
Everton
Everton manager David Moyes (Image credit: Alamy)
David Moyes is back at the wheel at Everton and the Toffees are under new ownership, as they look to buck the recent trend of fighting the drop and push on up the league: it’s arguably the most exciting time to be on the blue side of Merseyside for quite some time – and that’s before you factor in the small matter of a new home.
Find out what to expect from the new campaign: FourFourTwo provides a full season preview, including insights on star players and our predictions for the months ahead, along with Everton’s fixture list.
Fulham
Alex Iwobi of Fulham battles with Yegor Yarmolyuk of Brentford (Image credit: Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Fulham are looking up in the table. Marco Silva has been in charge since 2021 now and with the Cottagers having kept key stars over the summer, now could be the time to mount a serious charge up the Premier League.
Leeds United are back in the big time – but can they remain there? Things are going to be tough for the Championship winners but after strengthening this summer, they’re in a good position to give it a whirl.
Be prepared for what’s to come: FourFourTwo offers you a full preview with the lowdown on star players and our predictions for the months to come, plus Leeds’ complete fixtures.
Liverpool
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah (Image credit: Pic Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Liverpool have refused to stand still. After winning the title last term, big money has been spent on improving Arne Slot’s side, as Florian Wirtz joins for a British record fee and two new full-backs join the side.
Are the Reds set for the new season? FourFourTwo has you covered with our complete preview, featuring key players, what’s expected, and our predictions, along with Liverpool’s fixture list.
Manchester City
Pep Guardiola instructs his players (Image credit: David Ramos/Getty Images)
Manchester City failed to win the title last year for the first time in five seasons. Now, armed with new recruits across the pitch and newfound fire to get back on top, Pep Guardiola is looking to wrestle back his crown.
FourFourTwo’scomplete season preview is here to get you hyped for the new campaign. We break down the star players, what you can expect, and our predictions for the campaign, ahead of Manchester City’s full fixtures.
Manchester United
Bryan Mbeumo trains with Manchester United (Image credit: Getty Images)
Last season was a generational low for a Manchester United side that finished 15th and lost the Europa League final. There’s certainly hope, however, that complete with a new-look frontline, the Red Devils can go again and that boss Ruben Amorim can start to get this side clicking under his system.
Before the new campaign kicks off, check out our full season preview from FourFourTwo. You’ll get the inside scoop on top players, what to anticipate, and what we think will happen over the next few months – and check out Manchester United’s complete fixture list.
Newcastle United
Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe (Image credit: Getty Images)
Newcastle United may have had a tough summer but they go into the new season having lifted a trophy last term and with Champions League to look forward to. Despite the struggles in the transfer market, Eddie Howe has built a side to be feared on the pitch: and this is a club that will be looking to go even further in their ambitions.
Ready for the new season? FourFourTwo has you covered with our in-depth preview. We give you the lowdown on the players to watch and share our predictions for the coming months, ahead of Newcastle’s fixtures.
Nottingham Forest bucked all expectations last term with a finish in the European places – and after the unexpected bonus of Europa League football to look forward to, the Tricky Trees are welcoming European football back for the first time in a generation. There’s plenty to be excited by.
The new season is just around the corner, and our complete preview is finally here. FourFourTwo gives you the essential details on star players, a rundown of expectations, and a look at our predictions, plus Forest’s fixture list.
Sunderland
Sunderland fans (Image credit: Getty Images)
Sunderland’s dramatic promotion in the play-offs sees the Black Cats returning to the Premier League and wanting to do far more than make up the numbers: if summer business has anything to go by, they could be about to spring a few surprises, too.
What’s in store for the new season? Find out with our complete preview from FourFourTwo. We’ve got the scoop on key players, what to expect, and our predictions for the months to come – and we’ve even got Sunderland’s complete fixture schedule.
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham boss Thomas Frank (Image credit: Copyright (c) 2025 Shutterstock Editorial. No use without permission.)
Optimism at Tottenham Hotspur is unusually high for a team that only scraped 17th in the table last season: that will be because Thomas Frank has arrived, preseason has been positive and the Europa League triumph last season means that the trophy curse has finally been banished. Now, Spurs can start looking upwards again.
The wait is over: FourFourTwo presents our comprehensive season preview, complete with a close look at the most exciting players and our predictions for the next few months., along with Tottenham’s fixture lists.
West Ham United
West Ham man Tomas Soucek (Image credit: Getty Images)
West Ham United are quietly going about their business this summer and with a highly-rated coach in Graham Potter, they’ll be hoping to cause some upsets and return to battling for Europe.
Anticipation is building, and so is our new season preview: FourFourTwo brings you all the essential info on players to watch and our bold predictions for the season – plus, West Ham’s fixtures.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves boss Vitor Pereira (Image credit: Getty Images)
Wolverhampton Wanderers enjoyed a remarkable turnaround under Vitor Pereira last season – but having lost star players Rayan Ait-Nouri and Matheus Cunha, can the Old Gold expect another campaign like last, or can they push on up the Premier League?
Get a head start on the new campaign with the FourFourTwoseason preview: we’ll give you a full rundown on the top stars and offer our predictions for the season ahead, along with Wolves’ complete fixtures.
Premier League Predictions: Liverpool vs Bournemouth, Man Utd vs Arsenal and the rest of Matchday 1
Welcome to the first edition of The Athletic’s new Premier League Predictions game.
This is where you (our lovely subscribers) have the opportunity to join a data algorithm, a six-year-old boy, and me in putting our credibility on the line on a weekly basis.
Every week, we will give score predictions for each of the 10 Premier League games, with a correct scoreline gaining three points and a correct result gaining one point. To make things more interesting, there will be a bonus point if a player is the only one to get a scoreline or result correct. You’ll be able to see the standings from next week.
We will have a different subscriber each week, chosen from those who have replied with their interest (see here for how to get involved and for other general information), but I will be a constant throughout the season until May, along with the algorithm and, of course, six-year-old Wilfred.The more I talk about this, the more convinced I am that The Athletic are setting me up for a fall here, exposing not only my inability to predict the outcome of football matches but, even worse, my blatant bias against your team.Ah, let’s brush away these pangs of insecurity. Three hundred and eighty Premier League matches lie ahead of us from now to May 24, so let’s get cracking.For the opening weekend, the subscribers will be represented by Vaageesh, a Manchester United supporter who hails from Chennai, India. Will he tip his beloved team to hit the ground running against Arsenal? Will any of us? This is already causing me more stress than I thought it would…
Our subscriber’s match of the week
Manchester United vs Arsenal, Sunday 4.30pm BST/11.30am ET
Vaageesh says: “I don’t have much time; I’m writing this moments after entrapping my battling optimistic and pessimistic selves in a bunker. Here’s the rationale: Manchester United’s ability in transition will cancel out Arsenal’s confidence when in possession and neither will quite have the fluidity required to pull ahead despite the fact that both teams seem to have improved over the summer.”
Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal
Oli says: I’m old enough to remember Arsenal, as champions, being obliterated on the opening day in 1989-90 by a new-look Manchester United team, for whom it proved a classic false dawn. United’s prospective new owner, Michael Knighton, was on the pitch beforehand, ball-juggling and blowing kisses to the crowd, and Neil Webb smashed one in from 25 yards on his debut — wild stuff, honestly (yeah, get on with it, Grandad).If I close my eyes, I can imagine a scenario where something similar happens — this new United front line looks perfect for a balmy Sunday afternoon in August — but… no, not quite. This Arsenal team strike me as too serious to be rolled over on day one. I’ll try not to sit on the fence too often, but I’m going to have to go for a very lively draw here.
Manchester United 2-2 Arsenal
Bryan Mbeumo (left), Benjamin Sesko (middle) and Matheus Cunha (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Oli’s other predictions
Liverpool vs Bournemouth
Oli says: If I describe this as an awkward start for Liverpool, it’s in part because Bournemouth are unconventional opponents. Nobody seems to have it easy against them. I’ll go for a home win, but not a comfortable one. It might be a tight, nervous one, requiring a lively cameo from Rio Ngumoha and a late winner from Mohamed Salah, that kind of thing.
Liverpool 2-1 Bournemouth
Aston Villa vs Newcastle
Oli says: They have both had challenging summers, but stylistically this is one of my favourite match-ups in the league. The past six meetings have seen four wins for Newcastle (4-0, 5-1, 3-1, 3-0) and two for Villa (3-0 and 4-1), and I could see this one swinging violently one way or the other. Which way? I’ll say Villa this time.
Aston Villa 3-1 Newcastle
Brighton vs Fulham
Oli says: Another nice match-up, another that could certainly go either way. Why am I going with Fulham to hit the ground running against a Brighton team I rate? Not sure, but perhaps because of their quiet summer in the transfer market, rather than despite it.
Brighton 1-2 Fulham
Sunderland vs West Ham
Oli says: I’ve missed having Sunderland in the Premier League — or certainly the notion of what Sunderland should or could be. The place will be rocking on Saturday and even though I like the look of a couple of West Ham’s signings, it’s a winnable opening game for Sunderland.
Sunderland 1-0 West Ham
Tottenham vs Burnley
Oli says: I don’t know what to expect from Tottenham this season, but I will at least predict a winning start. Burnley had an outstanding defensive record last season, but facing Dominic Solanke, Mohammed Kudus, etc, represents a step up in class for Scott Parker’s team.
Tottenham 2-1 Burnley
Wolves vs Man City
Oli says: The Wolves fans I know are all worried after another summer dominated by departures. As opening games go, this looks more likely to intensify the gloom rather than lift it. Manchester City always seem to hit the ground running — Erling Haaland in particular — and I expect that to continue.
Wolves 0-2 Manchester City
Chelsea vs Crystal Palace
Oli says: I don’t know how Chelsea’s Club World Cup exertions will affect them in the long run, but I fancy them to start well. Palace, incidentally, have been slow starters and excellent finishers over the past few seasons. There’s no reason to expect that pattern to continue, but Chelsea away on the opening weekend is tough.
Chelsea 2-1 Crystal Palace
Nottingham Forest vs Brentford
Oli says: Looking at how the fixtures have fallen, Forest are another team I fancy to start well — at least until the European commitments kick in, which will test their squad depth — whereas I’m slightly concerned for Brentford. I’m expecting a home win and a Morgan Gibbs-White goal, followed by a flamboyant kiss of the badge.
Nottingham Forest 2-0 Brentford
Leeds vs Everton
Oli says: For Leeds and their fans, this is the perfect opening game, particularly under the floodlights on a Monday night. They didn’t get to enjoy an occasion like this after promotion during the Covid pandemic in 2020, so I’m predicting an utterly wild atmosphere, an exuberant performance, a refereeing controversy, and, ultimately, a Leeds win to round off a lively opening weekend.
How players force a transfer, Pulisic and Weah hit back at ‘evil’ ex-USMNT stars NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND – MAY 25: Alexander Isak of Newcastle United applauds the fans as he warms up prior to the Premier League match between Newcastle United FC and Everton FC at St James’ Park on May 25, 2025 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images) By Phil Hay Aug. 14, 2025 1
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Hello! Feigning injury, missing pre-season, downing tools. We’re covering the dark arts involved in convincing a club to sell you. Just don’t bother with an actual transfer request.
On the way:
How footballers force a move Pulisic beef intensifies Rooney fires back at Brady A stone-cold 50-metre lob Exit strategy: Isak wants to leave Newcastle… but how do players get their way?
Alexander Isak during pre-season training in July (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images) I once asked a footballer (best left nameless) why, at one of his previous clubs, he upset all and sundry by submitting a transfer request. “It wasn’t a transfer request,” he replied. “It was a perceived transfer request.”
You can guess the follow-up question: what on earth is a perceived transfer request? “They took it to be an official request, when it wasn’t,” he explained, which sounded suspiciously like semantics to me; a player actively plotting to leave, without saying so formally or quite so explicitly.
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Written transfer requests — the unequivocal, black-and-white means by which restless pros can manipulate a move — are less common than you might think. For one thing, submitting a demand in writing risks forfeiting future bonuses or loyalty payments. For two, they’re regarded as small-time. As one agent tells The Athletic’s Stu James: “You’re handing in a letter saying you want to leave. What the hell does that do?”
Stu wrote about the art of manufacturing a transfer in 2021 but he updated his piece when trouble brewed between Newcastle United and Alexander Isak (above), and it’s relevant again in light of the sorry deterioration of that relationship. The Swedish striker has no intention of making another appearance for the Tyneside club. He would sooner sign for Liverpool. But how does he force his way out the door if Newcastle aren’t minded to trade him?
This isn’t new ground, or even close. Cerys Jones went back through the Premier League archives to analyse other high-profile names — Harry Kane, Luis Suarez and others — who effectively went on strike, hoping to be sold. Some who stamp their feet get their way. Others don’t. Stu’s feature is a window into Newcastle’s reality.
Top Stories The biggest issues facing youth sports? Greg Olsen has strong opinions NBA 2025-26 schedule release: 40 games I’m looking forward to next season The epicenter of stalking in sports? Why tennis stands apart Never get an owner angry Isak hasn’t done a bad job in employing the tactics suggested by different agents Stu talked to (all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity). Complain of minor injuries? Check. Refuse to travel on a pre-season tour? Check. Down tools, or cast doubt over your commitment to your existing employers? Check. Textbook stuff.
Here’s what those who know the drill had to say about facilitating a contentious exit from a club:
One agent warned: “What you must never do is get an owner angry. Once a billionaire says, ‘He’s not for sale’, you’re dead. You’re ain’t going nowhere because their credibility is on the line.” A manager with Premier League experience talked about trying to drop a wantaway star down to work with the club’s under-23s: “Then you’ll have the club push back on you and say, ‘He’s an asset, he needs to be involved’. You end up having friction with the club. It’s an absolute nightmare.” Another high-profile representative said, “Some agents try to force things through that are just ridiculous. And all that happens is that it causes a load of bad feeling, nobody wins. Try to find a solution for everybody.” But by far the most revealing quote came from David Sullivan, the co-owner of West Ham United. Generally speaking, Sullivan said, coaches want disruptive players out of the building because they “create a terrible atmosphere”. A sulking asset is essentially a bad apple. And in the case of Isak, it might be that fact that grants him his wish.
‘I feel like they’re evil’: Pulisic and Weah bite back on criticism of ex-USMNT players. Again. USMNT’s Tim Weah and Christian Pulisic Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah celebrate against Germany in 2023 (Alex Grimm/Getty Images) To say that current USMNT stars are at odds with certain retired U.S. internationals would be the understatement of the day. Tyler Adams tried to be diplomatic about criticism from Landon Donovan and others in an interview with The Athletic this week, but yesterday’s episode of the ‘Pulisic’ series on Paramount+ took the beef up a notch.
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One thing to point out first: by any objective measure, the USMNT have done nothing to shield themselves from ex-pro scrutiny. The past couple of years have been miserable, and Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah (above) choosing to miss this summer’s Gold Cup wasn’t going to pass without comment. But blimey, they’re taking it all to heart. Here’s what was said on ‘Pulisic’:
Weah: “Those guys are chasing cheques. And for me, I just feel like they’re really evil. Because they’ve been players, and they know what it’s like when you’re getting bashed. Those are the same guys that’ll turn around and shake your hand, and try to be friendly with you at the end of the day.” Pulisic: “The most annoying thing, and the biggest cop-out of all time, is when all pundits want to say, ‘They didn’t want it, they didn’t have the heart. Back in our day, we would fight and die on that field’. It’s frustrating.” Pulisic’s father, Mark: “These guys want clicks. It’s social media, it’s, ‘Subscribe to my channel, listen to my podcasts’, or whatever.” Quote three is a little ironic coming from someone talking in a docuseries, but here we are. The thing is, I don’t see the former USMNT corps backing down tamely, so where this goes from here is anybody’s guess. National unity with less than a year to a home World Cup? If only.
News Round-Up A tasty spat has broken out between Birmingham City shareholder Tom Brady and the club’s former head coach, Wayne Rooney. Brady was filmed raising doubts about Rooney’s work ethic in a recent documentary. Rooney hit back on his new podcast, saying the comments were “very unfair” and that Brady didn’t “really understand football that well”. Barcelona’s board are putting millions of their own money on the line in an effort to get Marcus Rashford and others registered with La Liga. Their salary-cap stress has reached crisis point, again. The Daily Liverpool: they’re closing in on the signing of 18-year-old defender Giovanni Leoni from Parma in Italy. He’ll set them back £26m ($35.2m). The Club World Cup was a nice little earner for the squad at Chelsea. After winning the tournament, their players will share bonuses worth more than £10m. But, bless them, a portion is to be donated to the family of Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva. Gimnastic de Tarragona, a Catalan club who play in Spain’s third division, have cancelled the signing of Jose Manuel Calderon…after the defender was caught on camera saying: “I sh** on all dead Catalans.” Calderon apologised, albeit too little too late. An under-21s match involving Manchester United had to be abandoned after midfielder Sekou Kone suffered a bad head injury. The 19-year-old was taken to hospital but appears to be OK. Keeping it together: Chevalier and PSG come back from 2-0 down to beat Spurs in Super Cup
TNT Sports Well, colour us shocked. Paris Saint-Germain ostracise Gianluigi Donnarumma and the first thing the goalkeeper’s replacement, Lucas Chevalier, does is mark his debut in last night’s UEFA Super Cup match by throwing one in this goal, above. That’s football being football.
The evening got better for Chevalier, who saved a penalty in a shootout as PSG picked up their fourth trophy of 2025. They were on the ropes in normal time, trailing 2-0 to Tottenham Hotspur with five minutes to go, but something woke them from their slumber.
I’d caution against reading too much into Tottenham’s display because PSG were rusty, as if they were psychologically tearing themselves away from the beaches of Saint-Tropez. That said, for much of the game, there was decent structure to Spurs and their set pieces worked. It was only as they dropped deep in defence of their lead that PSG got a sniff. No early silverware for Thomas Frank, but green shoots all the same.
It didn’t stop Sheffield United sliding out of the Carabao Cup, but I wouldn’t have you missing Gustavo Hamer’s glorious 50-yard finish against Birmingham City last night. Nottingham Forest’s Murillo should sign him up for lessons.
ITV Sport Around TAFC On the eve of the Premier League season, I’ll point you towards a rundown of all the coverage you can expect from The Athletic. It’s here and it’s epic. I like the sound of the alternative league table. There can’t have been many summers in which top-flight English teams threw more money at attacking signings, including Viktor Gyokeres and Florian Wirtz. Mark Carey and Thom Harris have taken a closer look at an expensive trend. Gyokeres, in theory, should enhance Arsenal’s chances of winning the title. Amy Lawrence sat down for an exclusive chat with their manager, Mikel Arteta. James Milner is a machine: 39 years old and still at it in the Premier League. This interview with him by Oli Kay is ace. Fantasy Premier League: once more, the code to our TAFC league for any readers who wish to be part of it. Enter using 30j0f7. We’ve got a few more last-minute tips for you. Most clicked in Wednesday’s TAFC: the PSG-Donnarumma rift. And finally…
X / @sportsru How we chuckled a few weeks back at the footballer in Brazil who re-enacted the Cristiano Ronaldo ‘Siu’ celebration routine and gave himself a gammy leg in the process.
But that self-inflicted wound looks fairly pedestrian when set aside the post-goal backflip attempted by Dynamo Barnaul’s Kirill Mogel in a Russian lower-league match at the weekend. To cut him some slack, the striker hadn’t scored for months but if the crunch was as nasty as it looked, he might not be scoring again for a good while either.
“The acrobatic trick didn’t work out for him,” lamented Dynamo Barnaul’s official website. I’ll say.
(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)
How players force a transfer, Pulisic and Weah hit back at ‘evil’ ex-USMNT stars
Hello! Feigning injury, missing pre-season, downing tools. We’re covering the dark arts involved in convincing a club to sell you. Just don’t bother with an actual transfer request.
Exit strategy: Isak wants to leave Newcastle… but how do players get their way?
Alexander Isak during pre-season training in July (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
I once asked a footballer (best left nameless) why, at one of his previous clubs, he upset all and sundry by submitting a transfer request. “It wasn’t a transfer request,” he replied. “It was a perceived transfer request.”
You can guess the follow-up question: what on earth is a perceived transfer request? “They took it to be an official request, when it wasn’t,” he explained, which sounded suspiciously like semantics to me; a player actively plotting to leave, without saying so formally or quite so explicitly.
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Written transfer requests — the unequivocal, black-and-white means by which restless pros can manipulate a move — are less common than you might think. For one thing, submitting a demand in writing risks forfeiting future bonuses or loyalty payments. For two, they’re regarded as small-time. As one agent tells The Athletic’s Stu James: “You’re handing in a letter saying you want to leave. What the hell does that do?”
Stu wrote about the art of manufacturing a transfer in 2021 but he updated his piece when trouble brewed between Newcastle United and Alexander Isak (above), and it’s relevant again in light of the sorry deterioration of that relationship. The Swedish striker has no intention of making another appearance for the Tyneside club. He would sooner sign for Liverpool. But how does he force his way out the door if Newcastle aren’t minded to trade him?
This isn’t new ground, or even close. Cerys Jones went back through the Premier League archives to analyse other high-profile names — Harry Kane, Luis Suarez and others — who effectively went on strike, hoping to be sold. Some who stamp their feet get their way. Others don’t. Stu’s feature is a window into Newcastle’s reality.
Never get an owner angry
Isak hasn’t done a bad job in employing the tactics suggested by different agents Stu talked to (all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity). Complain of minor injuries? Check. Refuse to travel on a pre-season tour? Check. Down tools, or cast doubt over your commitment to your existing employers? Check. Textbook stuff.
Here’s what those who know the drill had to say about facilitating a contentious exit from a club:
One agent warned: “What you must never do is get an owner angry. Once a billionaire says, ‘He’s not for sale’, you’re dead. You’re ain’t going nowhere because their credibility is on the line.”
A manager with Premier League experience talked about trying to drop a wantaway star down to work with the club’s under-23s: “Then you’ll have the club push back on you and say, ‘He’s an asset, he needs to be involved’. You end up having friction with the club. It’s an absolute nightmare.”
Another high-profile representative said, “Some agents try to force things through that are just ridiculous. And all that happens is that it causes a load of bad feeling, nobody wins. Try to find a solution for everybody.”
But by far the most revealing quote came from David Sullivan, the co-owner of West Ham United. Generally speaking, Sullivan said, coaches want disruptive players out of the building because they “create a terrible atmosphere”. A sulking asset is essentially a bad apple. And in the case of Isak, it might be that fact that grants him his wish.
‘I feel like they’re evil’: Pulisic and Weah bite back on criticism of ex-USMNT players. Again.
Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah celebrate against Germany in 2023 (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
To say that current USMNT stars are at odds with certain retired U.S. internationals would be the understatement of the day. Tyler Adams tried to be diplomatic about criticism from Landon Donovan and others in an interview with The Athletic this week, but yesterday’s episode of the ‘Pulisic’ series on Paramount+ took the beef up a notch.
One thing to point out first: by any objective measure, the USMNT have done nothing to shield themselves from ex-pro scrutiny. The past couple of years have been miserable, and Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah (above) choosing to miss this summer’s Gold Cup wasn’t going to pass without comment. But blimey, they’re taking it all to heart. Here’s what was said on ‘Pulisic’:
Weah: “Those guys are chasing cheques. And for me, I just feel like they’re really evil. Because they’ve been players, and they know what it’s like when you’re getting bashed. Those are the same guys that’ll turn around and shake your hand, and try to be friendly with you at the end of the day.”
Pulisic: “The most annoying thing, and the biggest cop-out of all time, is when all pundits want to say, ‘They didn’t want it, they didn’t have the heart. Back in our day, we would fight and die on that field’. It’s frustrating.”
Pulisic’s father, Mark: “These guys want clicks. It’s social media, it’s, ‘Subscribe to my channel, listen to my podcasts’, or whatever.”
Quote three is a little ironic coming from someone talking in a docuseries, but here we are. The thing is, I don’t see the former USMNT corps backing down tamely, so where this goes from here is anybody’s guess. National unity with less than a year to a home World Cup? If only.
News Round-Up
A tasty spat has broken out between Birmingham City shareholder Tom Brady and the club’s former head coach, Wayne Rooney. Brady was filmed raising doubts about Rooney’s work ethic in a recent documentary. Rooney hit back on his new podcast, saying the comments were “very unfair” and that Brady didn’t “really understand football that well”.
Barcelona’s board are putting millions of their own money on the line in an effort to get Marcus Rashford and others registered with La Liga. Their salary-cap stress has reached crisis point, again.
The Daily Liverpool: they’re closing in on the signing of 18-year-old defender Giovanni Leoni from Parma in Italy. He’ll set them back £26m ($35.2m).
Gimnastic de Tarragona, a Catalan club who play in Spain’s third division, have cancelled the signing of Jose Manuel Calderon…after the defender was caught on camera saying: “I sh** on all dead Catalans.” Calderon apologised, albeit too little too late.
An under-21s match involving Manchester United had to be abandoned after midfielder Sekou Kone suffered a bad head injury. The 19-year-old was taken to hospital but appears to be OK.
Keeping it together: Chevalier and PSG come back from 2-0 down to beat Spurs in Super Cup
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Well, colour us shocked. Paris Saint-Germain ostracise Gianluigi Donnarumma and the first thing the goalkeeper’s replacement, Lucas Chevalier, does is mark his debut in last night’s UEFA Super Cup match by throwing one in this goal, above. That’s football being football.
The evening got better for Chevalier, who saved a penalty in a shootout as PSG picked up their fourth trophy of 2025. They were on the ropes in normal time, trailing 2-0 to Tottenham Hotspur with five minutes to go, but something woke them from their slumber.
I’d caution against reading too much into Tottenham’s display because PSG were rusty, as if they were psychologically tearing themselves away from the beaches of Saint-Tropez. That said, for much of the game, there was decent structure to Spurs and their set pieces worked. It was only as they dropped deep in defence of their lead that PSG got a sniff. No early silverware for Thomas Frank, but green shoots all the same.
On the eve of the Premier League season, I’ll point you towards a rundown of all the coverage you can expect from The Athletic. It’s here and it’s epic. I like the sound of the alternative league table.
There can’t have been many summers in which top-flight English teams threw more money at attacking signings, including Viktor Gyokeres and Florian Wirtz. Mark Carey and Thom Harris have taken a closer look at an expensive trend.
Gyokeres, in theory, should enhance Arsenal’s chances of winning the title. Amy Lawrence sat down for an exclusive chat with their manager, Mikel Arteta.
James Milner is a machine: 39 years old and still at it in the Premier League. This interview with him by Oli Kay is ace.
Fantasy Premier League: once more, the code to our TAFC league for any readers who wish to be part of it. Enter using 30j0f7. We’ve got a few more last-minute tips for you.
How we chuckled a few weeks back at the footballer in Brazil who re-enacted the Cristiano Ronaldo ‘Siu’ celebration routine and gave himself a gammy leg in the process.
But that self-inflicted wound looks fairly pedestrian when set aside the post-goal backflip attempted by Dynamo Barnaul’s Kirill Mogel in a Russian lower-league match at the weekend. To cut him some slack, the striker hadn’t scored for months but if the crunch was as nasty as it looked, he might not be scoring again for a good while either.
“The acrobatic trick didn’t work out for him,” lamented Dynamo Barnaul’s official website. I’ll say.
Probably not, because it never really stopped. But if you were struggling, fear not, because the Premier League is back.
Three hundred and eighty matches, 282 days, 20 teams, endless grumbling about VARs, and almost certainly a new officiating debate that none of us have dreamed up yet are waiting just around the corner, all starting when reigning champions Liverpool host Bournemouth on Friday at 8pm BST/3pm EST.Leeds United, Burnley, and Sunderland are up from the Championship, there are new faces on the pitch and in the technical areas, and, as always, there are a host of minor tweaks, too.his, then, is what you need to know for the new Premier League season.
New laws
The major change (and, whisper it, possibly even a popular one) is the introduction of the eight-second rule, which will already be familiar to those who watched the Club World Cup.If goalkeepers are in control of the ball with their arms/hands for more than eight seconds, they will concede a corner from the side closest to them. This replaces the old law, which was rarely enforced, where goalkeepers could concede an indirect free kick if they held onto the ball for more than six seconds.When the rule was announced by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), it said only four corners were awarded in its trial of the rule, which consisted of hundreds of matches.It is up to the referee to decide when the ’keeper has control of the ball and start the countdown. They will visually count down the last five seconds so it is clear to the goalkeeper what is happening.
There will be no disciplinary action unless the ’keeper repeatedly commits the offence, and they are not penalised if they are starting to or about to release the ball as the countdown ends.
The referee will also not start counting if the goalkeeper is being obstructed by an opposition attacker — if, during the countdown, an opponent pressures the ’keeper, they will concede an indirect free kick.
Teams will be awarded a corner if the opposition goalkeeper holds onto the ball for too long (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
There are also new ‘only the captain’ guidelines on approaching the referee. ‘Normal interactions’ between players and the referee will be allowed, but the guidance is aimed at preventing players from surrounding or mobbing them after big incidents or decisions. Team captains are responsible for helping direct team-mates away from the referee, and anyone who approaches without permission may be booked.The referee may invite the captain over to explain a decision. The hope is that players will know there is an avenue for them to receive engagement with the referee through their captain, but also know they can expect a booking if they approach when they should not.If the captain is the goalkeeper, they can nominate an outfield team-mate before the coin toss to approach the referee instead.Finally, the rules have been tweaked for accidental ‘double-touch’ penalties. If a player scores a penalty kick but accidentally touches the ball twice, they will be allowed to retake it. If they miss, they do not get another chance.
Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez was involved in a double-touch penalty in last season’s Champions League (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
New refereeing tech: semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), announcements, and ‘Ref Cam’
Some might recall that SAOT was on our list last year and was expected to be introduced “from after one of the autumn international breaks”. It actually ended up being introduced to the Premier League in April, so we deem it new enough to make the list again, as this will be the first full season where it is used.
The technology aims to reduce the length of VAR checks by automating parts of the decision-making process. The technology won’t be used for clear offside decisions. However, the old method of ‘drawing lines’ might still be needed in some cases if the technology fails, or if players are blocking the view of the ball or the system’s cameras.
(Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
This happened in March, on the first weekend when the technology was trialled in English football. During Wolverhampton Wanderers’ FA Cup game against Bournemouth, a congested penalty area meant officials could not rely on the technology and there was an eight-minute delay.There will also be more information for fans in stadiums this season. Graphics showing the results of SAOT decisions will be shown on giant screens, and after a trial in the Carabao Cup, referees will make an announcement in the stadium explaining the outcome of all VAR reviews (except for factual offside or onside calls).The league also plans to trial referee-worn cameras, as seen at the Club World Cup. The trial is expected to begin this month and last for around six weeks.The footage can be used as an additional replay angle in broadcasts, allowing fans to see the game from the referee’s perspective. However, no confrontational or controversial moments should be shown.
A new, bigger, UK broadcast deal
More Premier League games will be shown on TV than ever before as the league’s new broadcast deal, agreed back in December 2023 and worth £6.7bn, takes effect.
All games outside the Saturday 3pm blackout will now be broadcast live in the UK. Previously, some Sunday 2pm games were not available to watch live in the UK if they had been moved to that slot due to teams competing in European competition in midweek.
At least 215 matches will be on Sky Sports, and TNT will show 52. Amazon Prime no longer shows any.
Sky will show games on a Saturday at 5:30pm, on a Sunday at 2pm and 4:30pm, Monday and Friday evening games, and the first three rounds of midweek fixtures. Sky’s coverage also includes a new ‘Multiview’ format, which will allow customers to watch up to four games at once on Sunday afternoons.
TNT will show the early kick-off games at 12:30pm on Saturdays, as well as the last two rounds of midweek fixtures.
BBC Sport has highlights rights for all 380 matches.
In the U.S., NBC will show all 380 games, with just under half of them streamed exclusively on Peacock. The remainder will be shown on a main NBC channel or USA Network.
(Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
New broadcast access — including in-game and half-time interviews
Clubs are now obligated to grant more access to broadcasters, including the potential for access to dressing rooms or interviews at half-time or during the match.
Each club will only have to agree to these extra obligations a limited number of times.
At least twice per season, each club must do one of the following:
Allow filming for at least 90 seconds in their dressing room. This could be between the end of the warm-up and start of the match, at half-time, or immediately after the match once the players are back in the dressing room. The club can request that this footage is without audio unless they approve it.
Make a player or manager available for an interview at half-time. This should be no more than three questions, all of which should be positive and related to the match. The interview must be timed so it will not delay the restart.
Make a substituted player, or the manager, available for an interview during the match. This must be by no later than the 85th minute and the interview should be no more than two questions, both of which must be related to the match and positive.
The broadcaster will request this extra access before the fixture and say which of the three options it would prefer, but the club chooses which it plans to provide.
If a club is losing when they were supposed to provide this extra access, they can choose to do it at another match instead.
(Stu Forster/Getty Images)
A new ball — and not a Nike one
Lastly, the official ball has changed. Nike’s 25-year partnership has come to an end and Puma will now supply the match ball.
The German company is already the ball supplier for Serie A, La Liga, the English Football League, and the Carabao Cup. It was in the latter competition that Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta referred to the match ball when dissecting his side’s 2-0 loss to eventual tournament winners Newcastle United in the first leg of their semi-final.
“(The Carabao Cup ball) is very different to a Premier League ball, and you have to adapt to that because it flies differently. When you touch it, the grip is also very different, so you adapt to that.”
(Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Check back for Arteta’s review of Puma’s Orbita Ultimate ball when the season gets underway…
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Wrexham’s revamped home: A (longer) £1.7m pitch, heated dugout seats and goal-line technology
But he’s far from alone at Wrexham in experiencing a hectic close season. Aidan Miller, the club’s strategy and projects director, has overseen a revamp of the SToK Cae Ras designed to nudge the world’s oldest international football ground into the modern era.A new £1.7million ($2.3m) pitch, complete with undersoil heating and new drainage, has been the marquee addition. No one at Wrexham’s Carabao Cup first-round victory over Hull City could have failed to notice just how lush the new surface looked in the August sunshine. Nor how well it played.
The seeding and stitching operation to make Wrexham’s surface compliant with European football’s regulations was only part of an overhaul that included moving both dugouts to the opposite side of the pitch, building a new TV gantry, reconfiguring stands to squeeze in extra seats, erecting two new giant TV screens at one end and taking down the old scoreboard at the other.
Wrexham’s new pitch, as seen before their first home match of the season (Robbie Jay Barratt/Getty Images)
There was also the dismantling of a temporary stand, plus the all-important deactivation of a live electric cable underneath the old Kop, as preparatory work continues ahead of the new 7,500-capacity stand starting to go up, on schedule, in the autumn.To squeeze all this into exactly 100 days between Wrexham staging a promotion party after last season had ended and Tuesday’s cup tie against Hull is impressive. Even more so when you consider the club did not know until beating Charlton Athletic on April 26 when the 20224-25 season would finish — or when their 2025-26 league campaign would start.“We had to do a lot of planning,” explains Miller, who joined Wrexham early in 2025 after almost seven years at Everton, primarily working on the club’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium. “The key thing with the pitch is it would take six weeks to reconstruct it. But two months to grow it.
“If we’d finished third and then not gone up, the window would have been tight. In the end, the opposite happened, where we had an extra three weeks (due to Wrexham clinching automatic promotion). But we’d had to plan for the worst and hope we got the best.”In recent years, Wrexham’s historic home has struggled to keep pace with Parkinson’s upwardly mobile team. Facilities have been improved, such as the installation of new floodlights prior to returning to the EFL in 2023. But, really, it won’t be until the new Kop stand is finished that The Racecourse Ground will truly shine.The changes — which include the installation of goal-line technology — have brought a new sheen to a venue that first hosted a Wales international in 1877.
The newly-installed cameras (Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
“We’ve always said with the sporting side being so successful, then the standards get raised in terms of what is expected,” says Rob Faulkner, Wrexham’s chief business and communications officer, when giving The Athletic a tour of all the changes, including upgraded concourses and hospitality areas.
“A lot of things will go into the new Kop, particularly for the fans and players with top-class facilities, new dressing rooms and so on. But until then, we are trying to catch up as much as we can.”
At one stage this summer, six different projects were being worked on inside The Racecourse at the same time by a small army of workers.
Contractors Cleveland Land Services (CLS) worked around the clock to get the pitch ready, with seeding taking place on June 1 and the stitching in July.
The dugouts were moved across the pitch to the Mold Road Stand, where coaching staff and substitutes will benefit from heated seats in what can be a cold part of the stadium. This has allowed the old dugouts to be converted into fan seating.
Two hundred and 24 seats have been added to the Tech End behind the goal, giving a full extra row at the front of the upper section. The old electronic scoreboard at that end has also gone, so the view of those who stand on the back row will no longer be impeded.
The pitch has been extended in length to allow for rugby matches to be played in the future and also shifted a couple of metres towards the Kop. This meant the new two-level TV gantry had to be situated slightly to the side of its predecessor, to ensure the main camera position remains on halfway.
The new two-level TV gantry (Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
A second gantry has also been built on the opposite side of the ground on halfway, meaning Wrexham now comply with UEFA and Championship (and Premier League) standards regarding a reverse angle camera position.
“It’s a bit like building a house, in that the plumber has to come in before the joiner,” says Miller. “As part of the work, we’ve had all the steelwork in the Wrexham Lager Stand painted. This involved someone abseiling, which meant two blocks of seats had to be taken out each time.
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“It was the same with taking down the temporary stand. We removed one section (containing 558 seats) after the Stockport game last season (on March 22) to help with the pitch project.
“The fan zone also went at the same time, allowing us to create a pathway for the contractors to bring in mountains of gravel, soil and so on. We wanted these onsite, meaning we could start straight away the moment we got the green light.”
This also explains why the remaining blocks of the temporary stand were not taken down until late June, several weeks after the season had ended.
Miller adds: “We had work to do around the outside of the site, tidying up the drainage, laying tarmac and a few other things. Only then did we have the space to take down the temporary stand. Coordination was key, in terms of what is the priority — which for us was getting the pitch work going.”
The summer revamp is only the start. A new Kop stand will soon start to go up, with the intention to be ready for The Racecourse hosting the UEFA Under-19 Championship in June 2026.
Barriers obscure the building of the new Kop stand (Robbie Jay Barratt/Getty Images)
It will be the key building block of a stadium masterplan drawn up by Populous, the same firm that designed Arsenal and Tottenham’s new homes, as well as Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, Wembley and The Sphere in Las Vegas.
The initial plan was to house 5,500 fans with the design, then allow another 2,000 to be added. However, a new planning application went in last month for a 7,500 capacity structure and a decision will be made soon by Wrexham Borough Council.
A new electricity substation on University land adjacent to The Racecourse’s main entrance on Crispin Lane has also been constructed.
This will provide power to the three blocks of student flats that sit behind the main stand, replacing the previous substation located towards the back of The Turf pub on the footprint of where the new Kop will stand. As part of this switch, a live power cable running underneath the area was deactivated.
“Until that was done, you couldn’t even start digging,” says Miller. “So, from a big ticket perspective, that’s probably the biggest thing we did this summer.”
As Miller says proudly, this now feels like “a Championship ground”.
So the US has made the Knock out round after decent games in the first round. Up next a very winnable game vs a Costa Rica team that has been saved by legendary GK Keylor Navas – La Pantera. Navas made multiple spectacular saves — and if the US can’t find a way to slip one past him – it could be a long night. I think the US will find a way a slip away with a 1-0 win somehow.
USMNT GOLD CUP DETAILED ROSTER BY POSITION (club/country; caps/goals):
US women beat Ireland 4-0 play Again Sunday in Cincy 3 pm TNT
Rose Lavelle scored a goal and added an assist in her first international minutes in nearly seven months Thursday as the United Statesbeat Ireland 4-0 in Commerce City, Colorado. Lavelle scored in the 53rd minute, calmly redirecting a low cross from forward Ally Sentnor. It was Lavelle’s 25th goal for the United States. Three players made their USWNT debuts Thursday: goalkeeper Claudia Dickey and defenders Lilly Reale and Jordyn Bugg. Dickey and Reale played for the full 90 minutes. Twenty-two players have made their international debuts under Hayes in her 23 games in charge. Ireland and the USWNT will play again Sunday in Cincinnati (Limited Tix Still Available) — Lavelle’s hometown. The USWNT will finish the international window of friendlies Tuesday against Canada in Washington, D.C.
Indy 11 host Indy Racing night vs Bama Legion at 7 pm Sat Night at the MIKE
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A little Reffing the Women’s League games at Kuntz with Mr. Riley Cheatum
RIP Mike Sommer
Sad news of Mike Sommer’s passing. Mike was not only a dedicated Carmel Dad’s Club, High School and Middle School referee but also a kind and steady presence within our CDC community. He will be greatly missed by all of us who had the honor of refereeing alongside him. Man Mike is the one who got me started Reffing at CYO, Middle School and High School lower level teams on the outskirts of town before I became fully licensed for HS. I learned a lot from Mike – how important it was to treat the kids with respect and always do that extra bit of explaining the rules with a calm voice He was loved by many across the soccer World!
Fond are the Memories of driving out to Anderson to do games – always driving the back woods roads and ALWAYS stopping on the way home for dinner at some diner or small restaurant out there. Good Times indeed. I am out of town for the ceremonies – but will look forward to gathering July 26th to honor our friend Mike Sommer. Service Details: June 30, 2025 from 4:00PM to 8:00PM at St. Elizabeth Seton (10655 Haverstick Road, Carmel, IN, 46033) A Funeral Mass will be held the following morning. July 1, 2025 at 10:30AM. In addition to the family’s service, Carmel Dads Club will be hosting a Celebration of Life in Mike’s honor. This will be an opportunity for our CDC family to gather, share stories, and reflect on the many ways Mike impacted our lives and the club. A light breakfast will be served. CDC Celebration of Life for Mike Sommer Date: Saturday, July 26, 2025 Time: 9:00AM Location: Conference Room above Badger Field Concession Stand
GOLD CUP QUARTERFINALS
Panama vs. Honduras (Saturday, 7:15 p.m. ET, FS1/Univision)
Mexico vs. Saudi Arabia (Saturday, 10:15 p.m. ET, FS1/Univision)
Canada vs. Guatemala (Sunday, 4 p.m. ET, FS1/Univision)
USA vs. Costa Rica (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, FOX)
USMNT vs. Costa Rica. Not a Must-Win. But Def, a Must-Not Lose (Sunday, 7 p.m. ET, Fox)
Gold Cup about to get serious. Eight teams enter, four teams leave. It’s quarter-final time in the world’s most prestigious tournament named after ABBA’s greatest hits collection. For our shorthanded U.S. boys it has been the best of times, worst of times. We have won three on the bounce, but it has been against some truly shoddy opponents, and our young hopefuls are yet to demonstrate cutting edge, creativity, or striking options. The knockout rounds will be our moment of truth. A fight-filled Costa Rica await in Minneapolis Sunday night. They are undermined by suspension and injury, including three-goal striker Manfred Ugalde. Despite the presence of talismanic goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who stood on his head in the goalless draw against Mexico, the U.S. should have more than enough to overcome their challenge. Here are the issues as I see them:
Who will step up and make themselves undeniable to seize this gift of an open audition for a World Cup place?
Our play has been so deferential and flaccid. These players have all worked so hard to get here. Pochettino has gifted so many MLS players an opportunity they never dreamed they would have. Won’t somebody step into the crucible with swagger and bellow back at the abyss to show they belong? What is holding them back? This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take fate into their own hands. Fight without fear. This is your moment boys, make us proud.
Is Patrick Agyemang gonna grab the role of third striker on the A-Squad?
Gent is the “Pineapple on Pizza” of strikers. Many have lauded his hold-up play and physical gifts. Others see a raw, uncalibrated project player who has struggled with his coordination at times against even the weakest opponents. I love him, his story, and his attitude. American Beto.
Where’s Johnny?
This was supposed to be Hot Cardoso Summer. The 23-year-old defensive midfielder has thrived in Europe to the extent that Atlético Madrid are reported to have paid $35 million for him. But what is he showing—or not showing—in training that LDLT and Sebastian Berhalter are getting minutes ahead of him?
Losing is not an option here.
Make no mistake—though, this is hard to type: This U.S. team is in a dead wind right now less than a year out from the World Cup. Drop “USMNT” into Google news—coverage of the team, the players, and the storylines is negligible. Fan engagement on social media—even of the diehard core, is a fraction of what it was in 2022. Tough tests—the possibility of Canada in the semis, and Mexico in the finals, please god, lie ahead. This U.S. team has the individual talent to win and reignite the core fan group and create the energy and joy we all cry out for.
Rogstradamus : The U.S. make heavy weather, continuing to lack pace and sharpness in the final third, but find a way to win 1-0. I see a Berhalter goal, huge celebrations on the field, and a Pochettino grimace on the sideline.
Pochettino backs Matt Freese: ‘Move on’
Matt Freese has earned four caps, all in June. (Photo: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images)
Mauricio Pochettino picked Matt Freese ahead of veteran keeper Matt Turner to start in goal at the Gold Cup, and the U.S. coach does not seem to be ready to make a change.
Not even after Freese’s howler against Haiti.
Freese earned shutouts in wins over Trinidad & Tobago (5-0) and Saudi Arabia (1-0) but committed gifted Haiti its goal in the USA’s 2-1 win.
Haiti tied the match in the 19th minute when he rolled Tim Ream’s backpass straight to Atlanta product Louicous Don Deedson, who scored from short range to Freese’s far post.
Asked after the match for his message to Freese about the mistake, Pochettino responded, “You don’t need to say nothing. That is easy. The best way to trust in a player is not to tell nothing, not to tell, ‘Be careful with this’ or ‘Be careful with that.’ No, move on.” • More:Pochettino on USMNT keepers.
Big Pat repays trust of the one person who matters
Patrick Agyemang and John Tolkin hug after they combined for the winner against Haiti. (Photo: Concacaf/Jerome Miron-Imagn Images) On social media, no member of the USA’s Gold Cup team has taken more stick than Patrick Agyemang. But the Charlotte FC striker has the support of the one person who matters: USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino. And Agyemang repaid him with the winning goal in the 2-1 victory over Haiti that completed a sweep of Group D and moved the USA in the quarterfinals against Costa Rica on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. • More:What Mauricio Pochettino likes about Patrick Agyemang
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: TYLER ADAMS Tyler Adams celebrates with Sebastian Berhalter during the USA’s Gold Cup match with Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Robin Alam/ISI Photos) “He’s hilarious. He makes jokes about his dad all the time. It’s so funny. He’s a great person to have in and around the team. And his quality on the field speaks for itself. His IQ is incredibly high. I don’t know if that’s because his dad’s a coach, but you can just see he thinks through the game in different scenarios.” — The USA’s 2022 World Cup captain, midfielder Tyler Adams, on whether newcomer midfielder Sebastian Berhalter‘s father Gregg having been the previous head coach has created a unique dynamic. WHAT WE’RE READING • FIFA considers options for Iran at 2026 World Cup due to conflict with co-host U.S. By Paul MacInnes (The Guardian) • The USMNT is a mess. That’s the price of the U.S. becoming a ‘soccer country’ By Ryan O’Hanlon (ESPN)
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GC=Gold Cup, WCC = World Club Cup in US WE -Women’s Euros
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4 pm DANZ Benefica vs Chelsea WCC 7:15 pm FS1 Panama vs Honduras GC 7:30 pm Apple free Montreal vs NYCFC MLS 10 pm FS1, TUDN Mexico vs Saudi Arabia GC
Sun, June 29th
12 noon TBS? PSG vs Inter Miami (Messi) wCC 12 noon CBSSN England Women vs Jamaica 3 pm TNT, Max, US Women vs Ireland 4 pm TBS Flamengo vs Bayern Munich WCC 4 pm FS1 Canada vs Guatemala GC 6 pm Apple Free Columbus Crew vs Philly Union MSL 7 pm FOX USA vs Costa Rica GC
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ARLINGTON, Texas – The real test begins now.This group of U.S. players came into the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer through the door U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino opened for them. The task was two-fold, as Pochettino himself spelled out a week ago when the Americans opened group play with a dominant win over Trinidad and Tobago.“First of all it is to win because we want to win,” Pochettino said that day in San Jose, Calif. “And at the same time, it is to help the players to perform and to knock the door and [say], ‘We also we can perform for the national team and we can be involved in the next World Cup.’ That is what I expect. We, and the players, really believe that they are having the opportunity. Take the opportunity and show me that maybe, for sure, [you] will fight for a place in the World Cup. That, for me, is the most important thing.”The Americans cruised through the Gold Cup stage. They were expected to. Beating Trinidad, Saudi Arabia and Haiti is not a gauge of success for any U.S. team, even one that is missing 10 regulars. This group still has quality in the roster. It has the presumptive starters at center back in next year’s World Cup, Tim Ream and Chris Richards, as well as the other top contenders for that job: Mark McKenzie, Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman. Tyler Adams captained the U.S. at the World Cup in 2022. Malik Tillman has made a claim to play in attacking midfield. Players like Diego Luna, Luca de la Torre, Alex Freeman and Patrick Agyemang have a legitimate shot to earn a ticket onto the 2026 roster.What they do in the coming days against some of the better rivals in Concacaf will go a long way towards telling us just how much they can help when the full team is together. Let’s not forget that earlier this month the U.S. lost friendlies to Turkey and Switzerland. The 4-0 defeat in the latter was especially telling about how much the quality on the field matters.Suffice it to say, playing against Costa Rica next in the quarterfinals – despite star forward Manfred Ugalde being suspended due to card accumulation – will present a bigger and more indicative challenge, and the possibility of a U.S.-Mexico final is now in play after both topped their respective groups.
The USMNT’s results in the Gold Cup group stage gave Mauricio Pochettino some reason to smile (Photo by Omar Vega/Getty Images “This was preparation. Now we’ll be playing a final, it’s all or nothing,” Pochettino said. “So we have to be prepared. We will be prepared, no matter the opponent we face. It’s our challenge: we have to compete well, to keep competing well and continue improving. We have a week to prepare for this game, so I have no doubt we’ll get there in the best possible way.”Pochettino has been clear that what he wants is open competition for the team he takes to the World Cup. If the players are going to make an impression, they will need to win some knockout games. It’s not unlike the challenge a similar U.S. group had at the 2021 Gold Cup. Coming off of an emotional 2021 Nations League victory over Mexico, U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter took a ‘B’ squad to the Gold Cup later that summer. Mexico, meanwhile, did not. It sparked debate about what the better plan was. On the one hand, Mexico got an extra month working together. On the other, Berhalter got a chance to look at a wider pool. What the U.S. did in that tournament ended any debate. It beat Haiti, Canada and Martinique in the group stage, advancing with a plus-seven goal differential — the same as this year’s team. Then it beat Jamaica, 1-0, in the quarterfinals and Qatar, 1-0, in the semifinals before meeting Mexico in the championship game. A 1-0 win in extra time helped to secure a second trophy that summer — and it announced the U.S. as being “back” as a top power in Concacaf.Before this camp started, U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner talked about how that Gold Cup win helped him break through as a real option for Berhalter’s U.S. team. A year and a half later, Turner was starting in Qatar.That’s the opportunity for some of these U.S. players as the knockout phase begins. It feels almost like a second life after the friendly losses — especially that Switzerland result.“The steps that we’ve made, I think, are huge coming from not great results with Turkey and Switzerland,” Brenden Aaronson said. “I mean, it’s tough. You get down on yourself and stuff like that. But what I see from this group is just that bounce-back mentality. You come into the tournament, you could let it bother you, you could let negativity bother you. But I think that the biggest thing with this group is we tune everything out. We just get going.”Some players have already seized the opportunity. Tillman, who scored his third goal of the tournament in the win, has certainly made his impression on Pochettino, who praised the midfielder again in the postgame press conference. Others, like Luna and Agyemang, continue to put themselves in conversation for roles with the U.S. team. Agyemang’s game-winning goal – following a series of missed chances across the last couple games – went a long way in his argument for future inclusion. He leads the U.S. in scoring in 2025 with five goals. Now he — and the rest of the group — will get a chance to make an argument for why they can be trusted to perform when the stakes are higher. (Top photo: Omar Vega/Getty Images)
USMNT given battle, holds off Haiti to top Gold Cup group
By Paul Tenorio June 22, 2025 Updated June 23, 2025
ARLINGTON, Texas – For long stretches of Sunday night’s Gold Cup group finale against Haiti, the U.S. men’s national team had the ball but too often didn’t do anything dangerous with it.As the second half played out and with the game still tied, the U.S. started to play a bit more aggressively looking for a winner. After having two goals (correctly) called back, forward Patrick Agyemang finally got on the end of a ball from left back John Tolkin, touched it around Haiti goalkeeper Johny Placide and passed it easily into the empty net.Agyemang’s goal lifted the U.S. to a 2-1 win and into the knockout stage as the top finisher in its group.It was also a much-needed goal for Agyemang, who failed to put away his chances earlier in the game. The U.S. won all three of its group games and will now face Group A’s second-place finisher, Costa Rica, which drew Mexico 0-0 later Sunday night. Mexico heads to the other side of the knockout bracket (and will face Saudi Arabia in the quarterfinals), meaning a U.S.-Mexico clash can only happen in the final. Regardless, the narrative around this Gold Cup will truly be determined in the knockout stage. Even without many regulars, this selection of U.S. players has something to prove. Getting out of the group at the Gold Cup is a prerequisite. Getting to a final is the bare minimum bar for success. U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino made four changes to the starting lineup trying to dig into what depth he has at this Gold Cup without suffering the type of wake-up call result that happened in the first half against Switzerland. In were Tyler Adams, John Tolkin, Quinn Sullivan and Brenden Aaronson. Two of those four had World Cup qualifying experience and were on the 2022 World Cup roster. The other two were being given a window to show their ability to impact a game in this tournament. It was a mixed bag for the U.S. in the first half. Aaronson provided an assist to Malik Tillman to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead in just the 10th minute. It was the third goal of the tournament for Tillman, who has been the breakout player of the Gold Cup so far for the U.S., showing a solid workrate and good attacking production. But this U.S. team shot itself in the foot too often to let Haiti stay in the game. Haiti equalized in the 19th minute when Tim Ream played a back pass to goalkeeper Matt Freese. The NYCFC netminder tried to play a side-footed pass inside his box under pressure, but mishit it, and Don Deedson Louicius easily collected the mistake and deposited it into the back of the net. Freese has been given a chance to win the No. 1 job for the U.S, preferred to Matt Turner for every group game. He had been mostly untested through the group stage, but it was a massive mistake for a player trying to win a job.
USMNT concedes a goal to Haiti in the Gold Cup (Photo by Omar Vega/Getty Images)
The U.S. had several other chances to score a goal, but Agyemang continued to struggle to generate or finish chances up top. He was sprung in behind multiple times by teammates but couldn’t find the back of the net, including a 1-on-1 in the 24th minute. It may have been ruled offside, but the Charlotte FC striker nonetheless should have found the back of the net.The U.S. entered knowing it had already qualified for the next round and had first place all but secured, needing just a draw against an opponent that hadn’t beaten the U.S. since 1973. Still, it was important to show consistency and keep getting results, and for long stretches, the U.S. was playing far too predictably — and too safe — in the build-up. It was rare that players looked to break lines with their passes. Often, the pass went safely backwards or out to the wide areas, then got recycled around again. It allowed Haiti to stay compact and make things difficult, and the U.S. failed to generate much of anything through the first 15 minutes of the second half. But players started to look more for vertical passes. In the 64th minute, Agyemang slipped after getting on the end of a ball over the top, but Quinn Sullivan recovered the rebound and shot. It was blocked, and a Haiti defender’s clearance hit Tillman and went into the net. The goal was ruled out because it caromed off Tillman’s arm.Four minutes later, Adams found Tillman on a vertical run and the PSV attacking midfielder scored. But the flag went up for offside.Tillman nearly scored in the 74th minute on a beautiful ball over the top by Adams, bringing the ball down brilliantly, but his chip over Placide went just wide. No matter. One minute later Agyemang scored to lift the U.S. to a third straight win. The big test comes now. Costa Rica is considered a tougher opponent than any the U.S. faced in the group stage. A team with plenty to prove will now have to show it can navigate through the knockout stage at home. The U.S.’s quarterfinal is expected to be played at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis next Sunday — though Concacaf has not yet confirmed the pairing of matchups and venues for the round.What You Should Read NextWinning fosters USMNT belief at a time when fans need a team they can trustApathy surrounding the U.S. men is evident, and with a home World Cup less than a year away, restoring support – and results – is paramount
Will USMNT’s star absentees hurt their 2026 World Cup hopes?
Jeff CarlisleCesar Hernandez
Jun 27, 2025, 07:42 AM ET ESPN
There were undoubtedly some close calls in the group stage, but the U.S. men’s national team have so far gotten the job done in the Gold Cup. Winning their group with a perfect three wins from three matches against Trinidad & Tobago, Saudi Arabia and Haiti, head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his title contenders have picked up momentum and avoided a disastrous early exit in the competition.Preparing for Sunday’s quarterfinal against Costa Rica in Minneapolis and still in the race for an eighth title as they’ve managed sweltering temperatures, there’s one scorching hot talking point that has yet to be doused in American soccer circles: Where are the Americans’ best players?For a variety of reasons ranging from injuries, rest and Club World Cup duty, the USMNT are currently without a long list of marquee names, which includes Sergiño Dest, Antonee Robinson, Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic. Because the Gold Cup is played every other year, it’s not out of the ordinary to have alternate squads like the one the U.S. is fielding this summer, but one year out from the FIFA World Cup, it’s fair to ask if this will hurt the ongoing evolution of the national team under Pochettino. Especially considering how infrequently these big names have suited up alongside each other since last year. “You never know six months from now what players are available, who’s hurt, who’s playing at their club … I don’t think that [time] is as important as most people may think. I think that you can put the team together at the end,” Tab Ramos, who has played for the USMNT and coached within the national team structure, said to ESPN. “[But] we’re likely going to go into the World Cup, not really with Pochettino, not really understanding 100 percent what his roster can do because he hasn’t been able to utilize the roster in different situations.”
Dest, Robinson, McKennie, Pulisic and Tyler Adams (who is on the Gold Cup roster), have not all been on the field at the same time since a Concacaf Nations League final win over Mexico in March 2024. Under Pochettino, they’ve also played sparingly, with Pulisic being the sole member of the aforementioned quintet to earn more than 350 minutes under the coach since he was hired last September. Digging deeper, it’s easy to begin to feel worried when you find more examples. Fullbacks Robinson and Dest have not shared the field in the past year, and during the same time frame, midfielders Adams and McKennie have played just 294 minutes together. Will this lack of familiarity harm the team on the world’s biggest stage in one year? Ramos is unsure. “We are obviously giving ourselves less of a chance. There’s no question,” he said. “When you don’t have the team together, you give yourself less of a chance to be successful because you don’t know the reaction as a head coach. You don’t understand the reaction of players and of different combinations at a certain game against a certain opponent. That’s where you’re going to be missing.”The reality is those lessened chances could be the difference between winning or losing a knockout game. Given the USMNT’s record in such matches — just one knockout game victory in its entire World Cup history, spanning 10 tournaments — that is a factor that has to be considered, although Ramos still feels it’s more about the form of the players.”In terms of having the team together, it’s really who’s going to be playing great by May of next year,” he said. “That really matters.” Looking at the summer roster, defender Mark McKenzie didn’t show any signs of worry when asked if there’s enough time to find cohesion before the World Cup.”Chemistry is a relative thing. I think when you come into camp, I think we’re all understanding of a goal we have in mind. Each camp we get into, there’s an opportunity to continue to build on that,” he said to media during the Gold Cup group stage. “That doesn’t matter whether it’s now, whether it’s in a couple months, and each match will have its own challenges.”Hugo Perez, a former USMNT midfielder who coached players such as Pulisic, McKennie and Adams during their youth national team days, also didn’t sound the alarm.”Pochettino knows what the nucleus of players are … it’s good for Pochettino to see if the [Gold Cup] players from the MLS … [are] at that level,” the former El Salvador manager said to ESPN. “You miss [the stars] being here and maybe being with the group, but I don’t see that as a big deal in the end.”When chatting with Perez, it became clear that he was more preoccupied with finding a way to get the best out of the U.S.’s top players through a more varied tactical approach, and not about needing an extended period to jell together.
Herculez Gomez and Cristina Alexander debate the biggest storylines and break down the best highlights that soccer in the Americas has to offer. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only) “I still believe that the U.S. is lacking an identity in a style of play where they’re going to have to mix it [up],” he said. “We know we run, we know we attack by the flanks, but I still think that they can improve on short spaces, maintaining more of the ball and then, boom, explode the big space. I think we need to add that kind of play in order to compete.”I know these players: I coached them when they were 14 and 15. They’re capable of playing that type of soccer, but again, the coach has to make that decision. That’s, for me, more important than having them every time come to FIFA [international] dates.”However, those opportunities have been limited.In the past 12 months, the U.S. has played only nine competitive matches. In that same time frame, South American champions Argentina and European champions Spain each has played 14.With no qualifiers on the schedule for next year’s World Cup given the U.S.’s status as co-hosts, the chance to test and analyze a larger sample size just hasn’t been the same. And in the few high-pressure situations the Americans have played in, things have been bleak: a group stage exit in the 2024 Copa América and a fourth-place finish in the Concacaf Nations League.
“Developing the chemistry on the field is really, I think, the need,” Ramos said. “In order to develop that, you need to have some games where you struggle together and see how you get out of it.”And I think if you look at some of the — I don’t want to say failures because they haven’t been failures, but if you look at the times where we haven’t been as successful with this team because the expectations have been so high, we have not passed a lot of tests in which situations got difficult. That’s a little bit of a concern for me.”Does that concern also extend to some players seeming to prioritize their club careers abroad? When considering the high level of intensity of the European game, is there something to be said about scrutinizing players’ balance of club vs. country?Perez doesn’t believe so. He also doesn’t believe that it halts any sort of on-field chemistry.”These kids are playing in very competitive leagues, and when you play in leagues like the English Premier League, Serie A, in France, you are surrounded in your team by some of the best players in the world,” he said. “Second, when you’re surrounded by those players who are some of the best players in the world in your club, that’s helping you to grow as a player individually.
“When they come here, we have to be honest also. I mean, these kids have played together before … they know each other. I mean, they’re in contact with each other in Europe. I don’t think that’s the issue.”For Ramos, there’s enough time to develop a good team, but with the caveat that there will be a “disadvantage of knowing less” due to not having enough answers from in-game tests. As for Perez, he also believes there’s ample time, especially if there’s a lengthy summer camp next year, but stated that the true test lies in Pochettino’s ability to still get the best of his stars.”[That’s] the most difficult work that a coach has,” Perez said.Even with an alternate roster, things are looking promising for the USMNT at the Gold Cup. Following some wake-up calls and a four-game losing streak ahead of the tournament, they’ve since avoided a nightmare scenario in the group stage and qualified for the knockout rounds.Whether the competition helps answer some questions regarding roster depth, or highlights a need to continue relying on familiar faces, the countdown to the World Cup will truly begin in September with just five FIFA windows between then and next June. That will be the only time Pochettino has to make final adjustments through friendly matches. Is that enough runway to reintegrate the U.S.’s biggest stars? With each passing month, we’ll get a clearer idea of whether the USMNT are in fact ready for 2026. “I think there’s plenty of time before the World Cup, there’s plenty of games,” said Brenden Aaronson, who is part of the Gold Cup squad. “I think the thing that people don’t really understand: Yeah, it’s friendlies that are coming up, but friendlies still, you treat them like they’re international games. They’re going to be really good games and it’s not like something we’re [just] going to walk in there. We want to win these games. “We’re going to treat them like World Cup games.” If Aaronson & Co. are going to be ready for the World Cup in less than 12 months, they’ll have to.
5 questions the USMNT must answer in Gold Cup knockout stage
Ryan O’HanlonJun 26, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
The Gold Cup group stage is over. And with a team of mostly MLS players and fringe starters from elsewhere, the U.S. men’s national team is perfect through three matches. It has scored eight goals and conceded just one. It beat the only team that beat Argentina at the last World Cup. And a bunch of new players are getting a lot of valuable competitive experience ahead of next summer’s World Cup.
So, everyone is happy, right? Right? Yeah, not quite. Thanks to an ongoing feud between the team’s best players, the team’s former players and the team’s coach, the three wins haven’t done much to shift the conversation.Outside of the opening 5-0 drubbing of Trinidad and Tobago, the other two games weren’t leave-no-doubt affairs, either. Against Saudi Arabia, the U.S. only attempted five total shots and won with a set-piece goal from a center back a few minutes after the hour mark. Then, in the final match, they were tied with Haiti all the way up until the 75th minute, when Patrick Agyemang rounded the goalkeeper and put away the game-winner. The ranking of the USMNT’s opponents, in chronological order and according to the World Football Elo ratings: 99th, 66th and 86th.
Based on the quality of the schedule and the state of flux on the A-list roster, we really haven’t learned too much from these matches. But the USMNT’s quarterfinal opponent, Costa Rica, ranks 47th in the Elo ratings, while potential future opponents Panama (32), Canada (29), and Mexico (25) are within the top 35. With 48 teams qualifying for next summer’s tournament, these are all World Cup-quality opponents.
So, what might we learn over the next week? Here are five questions that we should get some answers to between now and the end of the Gold Cup.
Is Matt Freese the starting goalkeeper?
If you asked this question a month ago, approximately 100% of respondents would’ve answered with a “no.” But then Patrick Schulte and Zack Steffen pulled out of the Gold Cup because of injuries, and coach Mauricio Pochettino gave Freese his first cap in a pre-tournament friendly against Turkey. Matt Turner then started the final pre-tournament friendly against Switzerland, and we all expected him to keep starting from there once the Gold Cup began. After all, he’d been the starter since before the pandemic. But then Turner conceded four goals to Switzerland in the first half, and Freese has played every minute so far at the Gold Cup. Overall, he has been … fine? Across the four matches, he has faced 11 shots worth 3.16 goals (based on Stats Perform’s post-shot expected goals model), and he has conceded three goals. That’s about as close to average as you can get.
The orange dots are goals, purple are saves, and the larger the dot, the higher the post-shot xG value of the attempt:
Now, he also made an error that led to Haiti’s opening goal, but defender Tim Ream gave him a terrible, bouncing back-pass, and the goal still required a fantastic finish from a really tight angle. I don’t think these four games are enough to really judge Freese in either direction. Just look at those shots: He hasn’t even had to save anything on the left side of the goal yet. His performances haven’t been disqualifying, but they haven’t been job-winning, either. Does Pochettino give Freese a chance to stand up against stiffer competition? Does Turner become the starter now that games are toughening up? If Freese continues to start and plays well over the final however many matches, then I think we have to say that he’s the favorite to start next summer.
Is Johnny Cardoso part of this team?
This was supposed to be a big summer for the 23-year-old defensive midfielder. With Tyler Adams nursing an injury and a bunch of the other midfield options either at the Club World Cup or taking the summer off, Johnny Cardoso figured to be a mainstay in the USMNT midfield for the first time under Pochettino. Oh, and Atletico Madrid wanted to sign him. You know, the club that’s competitive in the UEFA Champions League every season and won LaLiga four short years ago? If you had to bet on these things not panning out for Cardoso, presumably what you would’ve cast doubt on is the Atletico move. Cardoso has been a solid player for Real Betis, but has he really been that good? Plus, reported transfer moves fall apart every day, for any number of reasons. Well, how does this one sound? Atletico Madrid just spent north of €30 million in transfer fees to acquire Cardoso, who at the same time seems to have fallen behind Luca de la Torre and Sebastian Berhalter on the USMNT depth chart.
Carlisle: Skepticism building over Pochettino’s USMNT leadership
On “The Football Reporters” podcast, Jeff Carlisle gauges how USMNT fans are feeling about Mauricio Pochettino’s time in charge of the team. At the Gold Cup so far, Cardoso has played a whopping 11 total minutes. He started the match against Turkey, but his error led directly to the equalizing goal and he was subbed off at halftime. He played the whole game against Switzerland and has barely played at all since the Gold Cup started. Now, he missed the opener against Trinidad and Tobago because of an illness, so maybe that put him behind the eight ball. And maybe Pochettino’s approach to the knockout matches will be different from what he has done through the group stage. We don’t really know. But as of three weeks ago, it seemed like Cardoso was a potential starter at the World Cup. As of right now, it’s unclear whether he’ll even make the roster.
Tim Ream it is, then?
Coming into this summer, it seemed like center back was the one position where the USMNT had most, and possibly all, of its potential World Cup starters on the Gold Cup roster. Crystal Palace‘s Chris Richards would be one half of the pairing, and then we’d actually get new, useful information about who was most likely to be there next to him.
Miles Robinson started the match against Turkey next to Richards, but then Mark McKenzie replaced him at halftime. McKenzie then started against Switzerland, but with Walker Zimmerman by his side, not Richards. If you were going to draw one half-conclusion from the two friendlies, it might’ve been: Tim Ream is no longer in the picture.
Instead, the 37-year-old Ream has played every minute of every match at the Gold Cup so far … and he has been pretty darn important, too.
Although he’s a center back, Ream has added more expected possession value — essentially, how much everything you do on the ball increases or decreases your team’s chances of scoring a goal — than all but three other USMNT players. Some of that is because he has played so many minutes, but a large chunk of it is that he’s still so important to how the team moves the ball up the field.
Ream has played 14 passes into the attacking third that have increased the USMNT’s chances of scoring a goal by at least half a percent; no one else has more than eight. That might seem like a nothing number, but most of what happens on a soccer field doesn’t drastically shift goal probabilities — it’s all about racking up a bunch of tiny moments that eventually add up.
Here are all of Ream’s passes worth at least 0.5% of xPV:
We’ll see how Ream holds up against the stiffer competition, though. He has been a fantastic and underappreciated player for most of his career. But I remain a little skeptical that the USMNT can afford to rely on a 38-year-old center back if it wants to make a serious run next summer.
Can any of these attacking midfielders hang against tougher competition?
Through three matches, the players replacing Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah have been quite good. This is exactly what you would’ve wanted from this situation.Malik Tillman has played every minute of every game and leads the team in goals and possession value added. He has also been a fantastic final-third defender. After the Turkey match, Tillman told me he preferred the freedom he was given in Pochettino’s system, as opposed to the stricter positional guidelines the players were given by former coach Gregg Berhalter, and it has shown so far. Tillman is the MVP of the group stage, and this is the first time we’ve seen him come close to replicating his PSV form with the USMNT.Jack McGlynn already looks like one of the best passers in the entire player pool — and quite possibly the best. For a team that has really struggled to break down low blocks, his creativity could bring something new and important. He has completed 11 passes into the penalty area — no one else has more than six — and leads the team in expected assists.Diego Luna, meanwhile, provides the rare combination of “guy who might actually try to fight a tank with his bare hands” and “guy who never loses the ball.” There’s a place for massive amounts of energy and ball security on most national team rosters.
Does the USMNT deserve more credit at the Gold Cup?
The “Futbol Americas” crew discuss the USMNT’s 2-1 win over Haiti that granted it a place in the Gold Cup knockout stages.But how will this translate against Costa Rica and (potentially) Panama, Canada and Mexico?Tillman is still kind of a strange player: He’s an attacking midfielder who relies more on positioning and off-ball running rather than a high volume of touches and seeing-eye creativity. Those players can disappear from time to time. McGlynn did most of his damage against a really weak Trinidad and Tobago team. And will Luna be able to provide enough attacking production once the schedule gets harder?All three players have really interesting qualities that could help the USMNT next summer, but the next game (or two … or three, depending on how deep their Gold Cup run goes) should give us a better sense of how those traits will scale up against stiffer opponents.
Can Pochettino get the team moving with pace?
Before the tournament began, I wrote about how Pochettino’s team ranked dead last among the USMNT managers we have data for in the following stats:
• The speed moving the ball upfield: 1.03 meters per second • The number of possessions per match: 82.1
Through the group stages, here’s how the USMNT compares to everyone else in the competition across those two metrics:
So, the U.S. is moving slightly slower and playing games with even fewer possessions than those already-program-low rates. A lot of this has to do with the approaches of its opponents, combined with the Trinidad and Tobago game being over by halftime, but another pre-tournament favorite, Canada, still manages to embrace a lot more chaos even when it’s heavily fancied against its conservative opponents.
And then, all the way to right of the graph — moving faster than anyone else at the tournament — is the USMNT’s quarterfinal opponent, Costa Rica. Under Pochettino, the Americans’ haven’t really found a way to break down reasonably talented teams that are willing to sit back and counter-attack. And if they still haven’t figured that out, then, well, their tournament is going to be over in just a couple of days.
Clint Dempsey interview: USMNT icon on Christian Pulisic’s podcast drama and pay-to-play
For the United States men’s national team, it has been a summer of podcast outbursts forming a tetchy soundtrack one year out from a heavily anticipated home World Cup. Following Christian Pulisic’s decision not to join up with Mauricio Pochettino’s team for the Gold Cup — along with a slew of other absentees — criticism came from USMNT icons Landon Donovan and Tim Howard (on their own podcast), Pulisic issued a riposte (on a CBS podcast) and Clint Dempsey said he struggled to understand Pulisic’s decision (on the Men In Blazers podcast). In between all that, Pulisic’s father appeared to launch a broadside at Donovan via Instagram (on a post liked by his son). Pochettino also used his news conferences to assert his authority, saying players “cannot dictate the plan” after Pulisic claimed he offered to play in the two warmup friendly games but with the condition of dropping out for the Gold Cup. Dempsey also pointed out how the situation might have been averted if U.S. Soccer, the nation’s governing body, and Pulisic had aligned more closely on their messaging. During an interview with The Athletic, Dempsey said: “Why wasn’t there a way that we could have been more unified in the messaging that’s going out to the public? You have one of the best players for the national team, and if it had been England, if Harry Kane was missing a tournament or the Nations League or World Cup qualifying, there would be people asking questions. “It’s important to be unified and to have that conversation. Then there’s no back and forth looking like two people are at odds with each other, especially a year out from the World Cup. It could have been handled better. Still, the best way to solve problems — whether you get a red card in the game or you do something stupid — is to get back on the pitch and let your play do the talking for you.”
Landon Donovan’s foray into the Christian Pulisic national team debate has been one of American soccer’s stories of the summer. (Shaun Clark / ISI Photos / Getty Images)
Dempsey, who earned more than 140 senior caps, has previously revealed he once had a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in his adductor to play for the USMNT. He was asked whether his locker room would have required the federation to step in or if the players would have held themselves to account.“You would like to think you have a good enough relationship with your teammates that you could put a call in and ask, ‘Hey, what’s going on? Is there something I can do for you? We need you in this tournament’. At the same time, for me, it was never a question if I was going to go into the national team and play,” Dempsey said. “Whether it was Gold Cup, World Cup qualifying, the Confederations Cup, Copa America, the World Cup, I wanted to be there because as a kid, I dreamed about representing my country. “I knew that there were a lot of kids where I am from that didn’t make it. You’re representing for them, your town, your city, your state, your country. So everybody’s going through different things. Everybody’s dealing with different injuries and different things mentally. I’m not privy to those conversations to know what’s going on. “What’s made this situation difficult is what happened with Copa America when we did not get out of the group stage, then losing to Panama and Canada in Nations League and then the four losses in a row, the worst streak we’d had in a long time. It put more pressure on this Gold Cup. There are not many opportunities left after this for meaningful games, and you want to try to get things right.”
Pulisic, who racked up more than 3,500 minutes for Milan in the 2024-25 season, told CBS his body and mind “started talking” to him towards the end of the campaign and he felt a rest was best for his fitness.
Clint Dempsey and an 18-year-old Christian Pulisic celebrate a USMNT goal against Honduras in 2017. (David Madison / Getty Images)
Does Dempsey, who spent 15 seasons playing in the English Premier League and in MLS, believe that USMNT players in Europe have a uniquely difficult task to balance club and country responsibilities?“No matter what league you’re in, it’s going to be difficult,” he said. “The things that are difficult about MLS are the travel and the time changes. When I played MLS, you weren’t flying privately. People were asking you, ‘Are you a college team? Do you play lacrosse?’. We were sitting in middle seats, sitting back next to the toilet. But then in Europe at the top teams, you’re playing in more competitions and it is a grind to go back and forth to the States.”He does, however, point out that the USMNT has recently avoided the most grueling travel because it does not need to qualify for the home World Cup.“That is the hardest traveling,” he said, “because normally you come in, you play two games, you’re going to Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica, then you fly back to Europe on Thursday, you get there Friday morning, you have a game either Saturday or Sunday.”And what of the soap opera that has surrounded the team this summer, with former players offering strong opinions and current players hitting back?“It shows there’s a climate where people care,” Dempsey said. “I’m not trying to be a part of the drama. You’re asking me my opinion and I’m giving you how I look at things. In terms of the Christian situation, all I think is U.S. Soccer could have been more unified about how that gets out to the public.
“Playing for your country in a tournament, I tell you what my mentality was. I am not saying whether someone’s doing right or wrong. Everybody has a right to their opinion — it shows that people do care, but you never want to get in a situation where it’s tit for tat. Everybody wants the same thing: to have the U.S. playing well. We want to be excited. I’d like to focus more on the positives of the new faces. They’re gonna be in this Gold Cup, they’re gonna push to get into the lineup and get this fanbase and team back on track to being inspired because we are one year out from the greatest tournament.”Dempsey, who was speaking at the mid-point of the Gold Cup group stage, said that following the breakthrough of young USMNT players who carried the team to the knockout stage of the World Cup in 2022, the team’s development has appeared to be at “a little bit of a stand still.”He said: “You’ve had this new talent, you’ve developed it so far, but then where’s this next young talent that’s coming up and pushing these guys and having competition for spots? That would create an environment where you have to look over your shoulder and be on your game to make sure that someone’s not taking your spot.”Dempsey was talking to The Athletic as part of an initiative led by Abbott, a healthcare firm that has partnered with Real Madrid as part of the Abbott Dream Team program, which will see youngsters try out in cities across the U.S. for the opportunity to then travel to Spain to train under Real Madrid coaches and learn about sports nutrition from the club’s medical team. Dempsey says the tryouts are available to 18- and 19-year-old boys and girls. “If you have the right eyes watching you, the sky is the limit,” Dempsey said. “A buddy of mine, José Torres, he’s from Longview, Texas. He played Hispanic leagues on Sunday, but through his play in Hispanic leagues, this allowed him to get a trial in Mexico with a Liga MX team and he was able to make it.”More broadly, the program is part of Abbott’s and Real Madrid’s ongoing “Beat Malnutrition” campaign to provide nutrition education and malnutrition screening to children in 12 countries around the world.
Clint Dempsey says the example of ex-USMNT midfielder José Francisco Torres shows the value of increased developmental opportunities. (Misael Montaño / LatinContent via Getty Images)
Last weekend, during a conversation at Fanatics Fest in New York, FIFA president Gianni Infantino criticized the “pay-to-play” model for many young soccer players in the U.S., saying, “For children, it must be free to play football.” When speaking to The Athletic before Infantino’s intervention, Dempsey said there is room for improvement.“My son is in an MLS academy and you don’t have to pay to play,” Dempsey said. “If you’re good enough, it doesn’t matter where you come from, what your background is, that is covered. For the players in rural areas or inner cities that are not around MLS teams, it is a lot more difficult. It is a financial strain, and my family went into debt doing that. I didn’t have a college fund growing up. It was, ‘How bad do you want something in life? What are you willing to risk? How hard are you willing to work?’. Nothing’s perfect, things need to get better. We need to make it easier for people who are less fortunate to have the chance to go chase their dreams. Hopefully, that changes, but it’s just so difficult to fix everything. “It’s not fair. And I’m not saying that I want families to do the path I did. Everybody has a different story and a different path. There needs to be ways to figure out for the people that can’t afford it to get the better coaching and the platform to try to take their game to the next level. I’m on board with that 100 percent.”(Top photo: Omar Vega / Getty Images)
Emma Hayes’ ‘astronomical’ year as USWNT head coach – but this is only the first step
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — On June 1, 2024, as the U.S. women’s national team prepared to take the field against South Korea in Colorado, head coach Emma Hayes stared down a stadium tunnel swirling with sound. Staff were banging on the walls to hype up the players, and fans roared with similar anticipation. The heat and humidity, combined with the mile-high altitude, were brutal — especially for an Englishwoman who hadn’t known how to properly hydrate for those conditions. It was Hayes’ first game since accepting the position in November 2023, and she was nervous. She’d spent 12 years managing Chelsea and had no idea how an American crowd would respond to someone “from the outside,” as she described it. Still healing from the disappointment of their earliest World Cup exit in USWNT history, her new side were also less than two months out from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Hayes felt “desperate to do well for the team.” They beat South Korea 4-0, with two goals each from forward Mallory Swanson and defender Tierna Davidson. Seventy days later on August 10, the USWNT became Olympic gold medalists with a 1-0 victory over Brazil. And in the year since her nerve-wracking debut, Hayes has uprooted and overhauled the women’s program in ways that feel revolutionary, inviting more new players to national team camp than any coach before her and revamping the U-23s to create a sustainable and cohesive pipeline of talent. Now, with two more years to go until the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, Hayes remains a champion of development and deliberation, choosing process over perfection as she continues to build. Thursday night offered a poetic checkpoint for what has changed and what has remained the same. Hayes and the USWNT were back at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, and the final score was again 4-0, this time against a depleted Republic of Ireland. Swanson is pregnant and Davidson is out with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury; this match instead featured goals from defender Avery Patterson, midfielders Sam Coffey and Rose Lavelle, and forward Alyssa Thompson.Coffey and Lavelle, who just returned to USWNT camp after an ankle injury kept her away since December, are two of just four players on Hayes’ first roster as head coach who also played against Ireland. It’s a testament to Hayes’ dedication to experimenting and implementing a new standard for who receives an invitation to camp.Though Coffey earned her first USWNT call up in September 2022 under former head coach Vlatko Andonovski, she did not make the 2023 World Cup roster. Since Hayes stepped in, she has been a consistent fixture for the national team at No. 6. Thursday’s match against Ireland was her 36th cap and she scored her third goal for the United States.“She’s had such a profound impact on me as a person and a player,” Coffey said of Hayes after Thursday’s match. “I think she, in many ways, has just given me such confidence and belief in myself to know what I can do and to help the team in any way possible. I think the amount that she’s done in a year is astronomical.”
Hayes and Coffey during the former’s first game in charge of the USWNT last June. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
Coffey added that she and her teammates “still have so much that we want to do in so many ways.”“We want to grow and every camp, every game we have is just another step that we get to take together,” she added, “and so we’re loving her.”Thompson’s journey with the national team has been similarly nonlinear, even under Hayes. While she made Andonovski’s World Cup roster, she seldom played, and was not chosen by Hayes to compete for an Olympic medal in Paris. Her standout club performances since with Angel City in the NWSL earned her another invitation, and she has since solidified her spot on the USWNT.“I feel like I’ve grown so much as a player,” Thompson said after the game Thursday night of Hayes’ impact. “I’m just understanding the game more. In the beginning, there was a lot of information that I wanted to take in, and now I’m really understanding it. I feel like it comes a little bit second nature. Just being able to keep implementing things and working on my game really helped and it came from Emma coming in and just helping our team in that way.”Hayes was similarly effusive in her post-match press conference.“I know you’re probably bored of me, but I just love them all,” she said. “I said to them today, I don’t want them to think that I take for granted the trust that they place in me to coach them. I’m so grateful for how vulnerable they are to let me do that and, yeah, I just love them.”One year into the job, Hayes has called up 27 players to the senior team — which, of course, required tough decisions and frank conversations with those who lost their spots. Hayes’ first major decision came when she announced her 18-player roster for the Olympics, which did not include USWNT legend Alex Morgan. Her omission marked the first time since 2008 that Morgan would not compete with the U.S. in a major tournament.It was a ripping off of a band-aid that sent shockwaves through the world of women’s soccer and made clear the extent to which Hayes was willing to endure discomfort in order to manifest her vision. Morgan announced her second pregnancy and retirement last September, having played no part in the U.S.’s gold medal run.
Morgan’s last game for the U.S. came over a year ago and is no longer part of the picture (C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images)
And Hayes kept tinkering. Sometimes it was out of necessity as a result of injuries or pregnancies, but largely to ensure players were in the best environments for their growth. The Olympic group has not all played together since leaving France, and two of those gold medalists, Korbin Albert and Jaedyn Shaw, have recently been moved to the U-23s to continue learning.“It’s a reminder that you have to develop a playing pool that’s capable, and when you’re facing top opponents across the world that have Champions League experience, they have Nations League experience, they have cap accumulation (with the) under-20s, under-17s, we have a lot of catching up to do and to close that gap,” Hayes said. “Our program has been really clear, especially with the introduction of our under-23 program.”Hayes would have been justified in coasting after last summer’s accomplishment, at least for a little while; winning medals in major international tournaments affords you that. But if anything, she’s become more dogmatic about the changes she wants to implement, the gaps she seeks to close between starters and bench players on the senior year, and also between the senior team and U-23s.“I feel like we’re back on track, but I will urge caution with it — and I say that because I’m so respectful of what England and Spain and Germany and Brazil in particular are doing in the global game. There is no gap between one, two, three, four, five in the world,” Hayes said Wednesday.“We have to make every moment count for us to put ourselves in the best place possible to compete.”
USWNT’s Rose Lavelle records a goal and assist in first game back, helping to defeat Ireland 4-0
COMMERCE CITY, COLORADO – JUNE 26: By Meg Linehan
June 26, 2025Updated June 27, 2025 Rose Lavelle scored and provided an assist in her first game for the U.S. women’s national team in 2025, after a long injury layoff following an ankle surgery at the beginning of the year. “Firstly, we’re all delighted for Rose. There’s only one Rose Lavelle — that really is both on and off the field, as a character, as a football player, as a human being,” U.S. head coach Emma Hayes said after the game. The U.S. cruised to a 4-0 victory over Ireland in Commerce City, Colo., with two first half goals from defender Avery Patterson, which Lavelle assisted, and midfielder Sam Coffey. The final dagger came from forward Alyssa Thompson in front of a crowd of 18,504 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. For Lavelle, it was her 25th international goal, scored in her 111th appearance for the national team. In a twist, she scored it with her right foot, not her preferred left. “Rose’s goal was sublime, in every way, shape and form,” Hayes said. “It was exactly what we’d asked for at halftime.” The midfielder only recently returned to play for Gotham FC in the NWSL, managing a total of 71 minutes across three matches so far this season. Thursday, Hayes subbed her off in the 59th minute as she continues to return to full fitness. Euro 2025: France team guide – will drastic changes transform their fortunes? Euro 2025: Netherlands team guide – a stellar squad with injury issues and a daunting task Ranking the best and worst of the Euro 2025 away kits Lavelle wasn’t the only one shining for the U.S. in this first game of the international window. Patterson, starting at right back for her fifth cap and third start for the national team, has made a strong case for herself in this lengthy period of evaluation under Hayes in 2025. “Avery is taking steps in the right direction. She’s a threat from deep spaces, stepping into midfield, whether she’s going inside, outside,” Hayes said. “Her combinations with Michelle (Cooper) on that side, I thought were productive. Didn’t get tested enough defensively, where I think she has to grow the most, but she’s a great learner and a great listener.” While Patterson has already scored three goals for the Houston Dash, Thursday’s opener was her first on the international stage. Coffey also continued her scoring ways for the U.S., tallying her third international goal before halftime. Lavelle was also involved in the build-up of Coffey’s goal, with her pass leading to Thompson’s assist. Finally, Thompson added the fourth in the 63rd minute, cutting back across the Ireland defense and putting the ball on her right foot for a curling shot. The game also saw a continuation of debuts from Hayes, with three more Thursday night. Goalkeeper Claudia Dickey of Seattle Reign FC and left back Lilly Reale of Gotham FC earned starts in Colorado. Reign defender Jordyn Bugg also earned her first cap, subbing on late in the second half for captain Naomi Girma. Dickey was debut No. 20 for Hayes, Reale No. 21, and Bugg No. 22. Hayes and the USWNT head to Cincinnati next for a second match against Ireland, satisfied not just with their performance Thursday, but with more exploration and proof of the depth of the U.S. pool. (Photo: Ray Bahner / Getty Images)
Why every round of 16 team will, won’t win Club World Cup
Bill ConnellyJun 27, 2025, 08:31 AM ET
I’m not going to lie: I’ve really enjoyed the FIFA Club World Cup. And that’s a strange thing to say considering virtually every negative thing anyone has said about the competition has been correct. The venues have indeed been too big, making decent good crowds look paltry in cavernous environments, and one of the scourges of 21st century business, dynamic pricing, has backfired in plenty of instances.The European teams can claim both fatigue and rust at the same time, having taken a few weeks off after a grueling campaign before facing teams in midseason form (and fitness) from other continents. Stars like Paris Saint-Germain‘s Ousmane Dembélé and Real Madrid‘s Kylian Mbappé haven’t been involved. The heat and weather have been ridiculous, and the decision to have the most marketable European teams playing in the afternoon — prime time in Europe — in cities like Miami and Charlotte, is questionable at best.(This says nothing of Juventus‘ White House visit, Antonio Rüdiger‘s claims of racist abuse and all the other undercurrents weighing down virtually every pastime or aspect of society at the moment.)
We saw PSG and Chelsea fall to South American counterparts (Botafogo and Flamengo). We saw Inter Miami take down a team (Porto) that was in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds last year. We saw some electric environments for matches like Bayern Munich vs. Boca Juniors, and we saw nonsense of the best kind as eight goals were scored in the second half of Group A’s final two matches (three in Inter Miami vs. Palmeiras, five in Al Ahly’s 4-4 draw with Porto) and after both teetering on the brink of elimination, both Palmeiras and Inter Miami advanced.
And, we’re only getting started. The knockout rounds begin on Saturday, and while European favorites could reign from here, let’s take a look at each remaining contender and why they might or might not lift the strange, golden Club World Cup trophy in a few more weeks.
Al Hilal
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +5000 (equivalent to 2.0%) | Title odds, per Opta: 0.4% How they got here: tied Real Madrid (1-1), tied RB Salzburg (0-0), def. Pachuca (2-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Manchester City (June 30, 3 p.m. ET, Orlando)
Why they will win it all: Defend and counter. A number of underdogs in this tournament have proven excellent at playing good, old-fashioned organized defense. Al-Hilal are no exception, and that shouldn’t be a surprise: They have 2022 World Cup hero Yassine Bounou in goal and former Premier Leaguers in front of him in center-back Kalidou Koulibaly and defensive midfielder Rúben Neves. All three have been outstanding thus far, with Bounou saving 87% of shots on goal, Koulibaly leading the team with 42 defensive interventions and Neves leading the team in both ball recoveries, progressive passes and progressive carries. (He has a goal and an assist, as well.)
Throw in veteran fullbacks Renan Lodi and João Cancelo, plus some relentless attacking work from Marcos Leonardo and the forever-intense Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and you have a team that allowed only one goal in three games (first), kept at least two defenders between shot and goal on 88% of opponents’ shot attempts (first) and produced 1.5 xG (third) and one goal from counter-attacks. This veteran team knows what it’s doing.
Why they won’t: Poor shot quality. I called Al-Hilal’s attackers “relentless” and “intense” above, and that’s accurate. But you can’t really call them “accurate.” Leonardo and Milinkovic-Savic have combined for one goal from shots worth 3.3 xG; maybe they were just saving all their great strikes for the knockout rounds, but when you rank 20th in the competition in shots per possession (0.11) and you’re creating only 1.3 particularly high-value shots (0.2 xG or more) per match, you have to convert the ones you create.
Bayern Munich
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +500 (equivalent to 16.7%) | Title odds, per Opta: 11.2% How they got here: def. Auckland City (10-0), def. Boca Juniors (2-1), lost to Benfica (1-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Flamengo (June 29, 4 p.m. ET, Miami)
Why they will win it all: They take all the shots. No matter the manager, no matter the season, Bayern suffocate overwhelmed opponents. In the Champions League last season, they were second in shots per possession and first in shots allowed per possession. In the Bundesliga, they were first in both categories. They tilt the pitch, they counter-press, and they keep the ball near your goal and far away from theirs.
Three matches in, they’re doing the same thing in this competition: They’re fourth in shots per possession and first in shots allowed. Granted, they’ve benefited from playing the weakest team in the competition (Auckland City, whom they outshot, 31-1). But in more cautious and physical matches against Boca Juniors and Benfica, they still attempted twice the shots and produced more than three times the xG. They completed 351 passes in the attacking third against Boca and Benfica while allowing just 48 such completions.
Manager Vincent Kompany attempted to rest key players in scorching heat against Benfica — Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Joshua Kimmich and Jonathan Tah all played only the second half — and it backfired when they fell behind early and Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin somehow made it hold up. But when the starters are on the pitch, Bayern is playing for keeps.
Why they won’t: We don’t know that their old defensive weaknesses are fixed yet. The high-risk ball domination that Bayern enjoy usually comes with occasional defensive breakdowns. In six draws and losses in last year’s Champions League, they still dominated in shot quantity, but looking specifically at high-quality shots (worth 0.2 xG or more), they allowed as many as they attempted.
When Boca Juniors tied Bayern in the second half in Miami last Friday, it came on a counterattack that produced a particularly high-quality shot (0.53 xG). Granted, it was a brilliant individual effort from Miguel Merentiel, but it was the exact flavor of goal Bayern tend to allow.
Inter Miami fans celebrate progression to Club World Cup knockouts
Inter Miami fans celebrate after their draw with Palmeiras to progress to the Club World Cup knockouts.
Benfica
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +4000 (equivalent to 2.4%) | Title odds, per Opta: 4.3% How they got here: drew with Boca Juniors (2-2), def. Auckland City (6-0), def. Bayern (1-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Chelsea (June 28, 4 p.m. ET, Charlotte)
Why they will win it all: Angel Di Maria and Nicolas Otamendi have turned back the clock. Or I should say, they’ve continued to do so. The club’s worldly 37-year-olds played all but 16 of Benfica’s minutes in the group stage. Di Maria scored three goals (tied for most in the competition as of Tuesday afternoon) and ranks first on the team in chances created, expected assists from completed passes, shots on goal and even total touches. He’s relentless. And did I mention he’s 37?
Otamendi, meanwhile, stifled Bayern’s Harry Kane for a half and has been one of the primary reasons Benfica enter the knockout stage having not allowed a goal for 243 minutes. He’s first on the team in defensive interventions, he has won 81% of his duels, and, oh yeah — he’s also first on the team in progressive carries and progressive passes.
Goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin has been fantastic, too, and players like attacker Vangelis Pavlidis and defensive midfielder Leandro Barreiro have been strong. But two proud old veterans lead this proud old club into the knockouts.
Why they won’t: Their record against good teams … isn’t good. In the last 12 months, Benfica have played 10 matches against teams in the top 20 of the Opta power rankings. They lost six, drew two and won only two — and one of the two came on Tuesday against a Bayern team that tried to rest quite a few starters (and still generated far more opportunities) — with two draws and six losses. They scored more than one goal just twice. This is a nearly upset-proof outfit, but they aren’t going to be favored much, if at all, moving forward.
Borussia Dortmund
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +3300 (equivalent to 2.9%) | Title odds, per Opta: 5.6% How they got here: tied Fluminense (0-0), def. Mamelodi Sundowns (4-3), def. Ulsan HD (1-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Monterrey (July 1, 9 p.m. ET, Atlanta)
Why they will win it all: They’re playing their way into form. After Niko Kovac took over in February, BVB were basically the second-best team in the Bundesliga, tilting the pitch well, executing a high defensive line and proving capable of either counterattacking or generating danger from buildup play. In the U.S. though, they honestly haven’t really done any of those things. They’ve been passive defensively and have barely even attempted to counterattack (their 8.7 per game rank 27th out of 32 teams). Plus Serhou Guirassy, one of the streakiest finishers in the game, isn’t finishing well, with one goal from shots worth 2.2 xG.
Of course, they also went undefeated and won their group. And after a dreadful attacking performance in the opener against Fluminense, they scored four goals and generated 5.1 xG in their last two games. New addition Jobe Bellingham (one goal, one assist) is already a difference-maker in and around the box. The defense suffered breakdowns against Mamelodi Sundowns but held the fort well in the other two games, and their performance against Ulsan HD produced a +3.1 xG differential — they completely dominated, even if the final score was closer than it should have been. It seems as if they’re growing into the competition.
Why they won’t: They’ve got quite a bit of growing to do. Guirassy indeed isn’t finishing, the defensive breakdowns against Mamelodi were all-caps ALARMING, and Kovac wasn’t able to rest guys as much as he wanted in two games in oppressive midday heat. They’ve produced the results they needed, and Bellingham really has been exciting, but we’re still waiting for this team to look the part of a challenger.
Is Inter Miami up to the task vs. PSG in the Round of 16?
The “Futbol Americas” crew discusses how Inter Miami should feel after late goals from Palmeiras result in the MLS side facing off against PSG.
Botafogo
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +3300 (equivalent to 2.9%) | Title odds, per Opta: 0.4% How they got here: def. Seattle Sounders (2-1), def. PSG (1-0), lost to Atletico Madrid (0-1) Round-of-16 opponent: Palmeiras (June 28, noon ET, Philadelphia)
Why they will win it all: They sacrifice their bodies. Botafogo’s road to the round of 16 was laborious. They attempted 23 shots to opponents’ 62. They possessed the ball just 34.8% of the time — no one else under 35% has averaged even 1.0 points per game. But Fogo averaged 2.0 points per game and became the first team to beat PSG since the Parisiens became European champions. And they did it with pure effort.
Botafogo have blocked 36% of opponents’ shots (fifth most in the competition), and they’ve forced opponents to attempt 83% of their shots with at least two defenders between shot and goal (11th). They attempted 12.3 counters per game (11th), too, scoring the only goal of the match against PSG from a counter. Their attack is pretty one-dimensional, but Igor Jesus has been clinical: He scored the game winner in both wins, and from shots worth a combined 0.2 xG.
They protected that lead against PSG for 54 minutes with no breakdown, and knowing they would advance as long as they didn’t lose by three goals or more against Atletico Madrid, they made Atleti work for 87 minutes to score just one. This is some high-effort, high-degree-of-difficulty stuff.
Why they won’t: The god of xG will eventually turn on you. Their goal differential: +1. Their xG differential: minus-4.2. They’ve allowed just two goals from shots worth 6.2 xG. They are playing inspired and intense ball, and it is a delight to watch, but … you aren’t going to win four more matches while giving opponents so many more high-quality opportunities.
Chelsea
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Title odds, per ESPN BET: +1000 (equivalent to 9.1%) | Title odds, per Opta: 10.5% How they got here: def. LAFC (2-0), lost to Flamengo (1-3), def. Esperance (3-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Benfica (June 28, 4 p.m. ET, Charlotte)
Why they will win it all: Depth and a strong possession game. Manager Enzo Maresca is used to dealing with a bloated squad and in this tournament, with its oppressive weather, bloat is a good thing. He has already played 25 different guys, with only right back Malo Gusto topping 195 minutes (star Cole Palmer has had to play only 166). And despite the heavy rotation, Chelsea looked strong for basically five of six halves. They wilted late against Flamengo but responded to qualify easily.
No matter who has been playing, Chelsea have checked all the proper possession boxes: They’re sixth in possession rate (63.0%), sixth in passes per possession (9.2), fourth in progressive carries (90.3 per game) and fourth in offsides drawn (3.0 per game), and all with the third-fewest possessions per game (69.0). They’ll have to beat Benfica without the suspended Nicolas Jackson, which isn’t optimal, but this is a relatively rested team playing the type of ball it wants to play.
Why they won’t: Cole Palmer is the wrong kind of cold (and the glitches remain alarming). You probably need your best player to play well to win four knockout rounds, and Palmer has been an absolute nonfactor in his two appearances thus far. In fact, going all the way back to Jan. 20, he’s played in 26 matches for club and country and has managed just one goal with five assists. Two of those assists did come in the Conference League final against Real Betis, but he’s attempted 75 shots worth 7.6 xG in this lengthy span and put just one in the net. That’s five steps beyond “finishing funk.”
Add Palmer’s struggles to a defense that glitched out for a bit against Flamengo (and had a pretty bad habit of allowing high-quality shot attempts while nursing leads in the Premier League), and you don’t have the most stable of contenders.
Flamengo
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +2800 (equivalent to 3.4%) | Title odds, per Opta: 0.5% How they got here: def. Esperance (2-0), def. Chelsea (3-1), drew with LAFC (1-1) Round-of-16 opponent: Bayern Munich (June 29, 4 p.m. ET, Miami)
Why they will win it all: They take all the good shots. Before manager Filipe Luís flipped their lineup quite a bit for their final match, having already clinched first in Group D, Flamengo allowed one goal in two matches, and it was triggered by a series of funky deflections. Meanwhile, they attempted seven shots worth at least 0.2 xG and allowed one. It’s hard to lose when you’re taking all the good shots.
Brazilian teams have been excellent in this competition, and Flamengo are Brazil‘s best team. They play the sturdy, box-filling defense we’ve seen from most of the South American teams in the Club World Cup, but they don’t spring forward into counterattacks — instead, they play sound, patient possession ball. They keep the tempo ultra-slow, and they whittle away until they create something of high quality.
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Leo Pereira leads a great defense, Giorgian de Arrascaeta (nine goals and four assists in nine Serie A matches) and Gonzalo Plata (two assists versus Chelsea) trigger a diverse attack, and now former Chelsea and Arsenal star midfielder Jorginho is linking the two together.
Why they won’t: A slow game doesn’t work as well if you’re trailing. Granted, they charged back from a 1-0 deficit to wallop Chelsea, but if they are to make a deep run in this tournament, they are only going to face better and better opponents, and they’ll probably have to come from behind again. That’s theoretically a lot harder to do when you play at such a languid pace and your entire game is based around patience. They’ve trailed for only 48 possessions in league play this season, too — we don’t really know how good their Plan B is because they’ve never had to show it.
Fluminense
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +5000 (equivalent to 2.0%) | Title odds, per Opta: 0.4% How they got here: tied Borussia Dortmund (0-0), def. Ulsan HD (4-2), tied Mamelodi Sundowns (0-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Inter Milan (Monday, 3 p.m. ET, Charlotte)
Why they will win it all: They defend their butts off. In league play, Flu haven’t created tons of great scoring opportunities, but they’ve combined quantity and quality in defense: They’re fourth in Brazil’s Serie A in shots allowed per possession, and they’re third in high-quality shots allowed (0.2 xG or higher).
Thus far in the Club World Cup … they haven’t created tons of great scoring opportunities, but they’ve combined quantity and quality in defense. Borussia Dortmund and Mamelodi Sundowns each scored four goals in their other two group-stage matches, but they combined for zero goals and 0.9 xG against Fluminense. Even at age 40, Thiago Silva can coordinate one hell of a defense in the back.
Fluminense are fifth in pass interceptions (10.0 per game), they’re sixth in duel winning percentage (54.5%). They’re taking the fight to opponents and winning. And they’re getting just enough from right winger Jhon Arias in attack — he has a goal and an assist and leads the team in chances created (eight), expected assists from pass completions (0.7), shots (nine), touches (228), progressive carries (26), fouls suffered (nine) and 1v1 attempts (15) — to tie it all together. Flu aren’t playing the most exciting ball in this tournament, but they’re not backing down from challenges either.
Why they won’t: Scoring is a good thing. They only did it in one of three games. Arias is doing his best and 37-year old German Cano, scorer of 40 goals just two seasons ago, had a lovely tiebreaking assist late against Ulsan as well. But it’s really difficult to see this attack doing enough to win four knockout games.
Inter Miami
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +8000 (equivalent to 1.2%) | Title odds, per Opta: 0.3% How they got here: drew with Al Ahly (0-0), def. Porto (2-1), drew with Palmeiras (2-2) Round-of-16 opponent: Paris Saint-Germain (June 29, noon ET, Atlanta)
Why they will win it all: Messi magic. As of Tuesday, there have been four goals from direct free kicks in the Club World Cup. They had an average pre-shot xG of about 0.07. But Leo Messi’s, from 23 meters out in the second half against Porto, felt like 1.00. The crowd buzzed as Messi was lining it up. Everyone expected it to go in, and then it went in.
Per the Opta power rankings, Inter Miami was the No. 4 team in Group A heading into the tournament, and it appeared that a Messi team was primed to exit a tournament in the group stage for the first time ever. But his free kick teed up an upset of Porto, and his work further from the goal against Palmeiras — he made 12 progressive carries, won five of seven one-on-ones and altered the defense’s center of gravity for 90 minutes. Inter overcame a rampant run of cramping to draw with Palmeiras and advance.
Beating PSG is probably too much to ask, but all it might take is a couple of moments of magic from a guy still capable of generating them.
Why they won’t: OK, fine, beating PSG is almost definitely too much to ask. It will take the aforementioned magic, plus further strain from a defense that has maxed itself out in terms of both skill and effort levels. Opta’s power rankings give Inter only a 16.4% chance of advancing and even in a game based so heavily in randomness, that feels incredibly optimistic.
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Inter Milan
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +1800 (equivalent to 5.3%) | Title odds, per Opta: 12.4% How they got here: tied Monterrey (1-1), def. Urawa Red Diamonds (2-1), def. River Plate (2-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Fluminense (June 30, 3 p.m. ET, Charlotte)
Why they will win it all: They have numbers on their side. At first glance, it seems like Inter really struggled to get a foothold in this competition. They gave up a goal on Monterrey’s second shot attempt and settled for a draw, then gave up a goal on Urawa Reds’ first shot and needed two late scores to prevail. They couldn’t get on top of River Plate until a red card flipped the balance of the match midway through the second half. Stars such as Lautaro Martinez, Nicolo Barella and 36-year old Henrikh Mkhitaryan all had to put in more than 210 minutes to make sure Inter advanced properly.
Only the timing of opponents’ goals made these matches interesting, however; Inter attempted shots worth 7.2 xG and allowed shots worth only 2.3, but that +4.9 xG differential (fourth-best in the competition) produced only +3 in the actual goals department. That could bode well for them moving forward. Plus, Inter avoided some of the worst heat in the tournament with two evening matches and two in Seattle. That could also bode well.
Why they won’t: This doesn’t feel like the team that reached the Champions League final. Midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu is out, as are defenders Yann Bisseck and Benjamin Pavard. Forward Marcus Thuram got hurt against Monterrey, and midfielder Davide Frattesi hasn’t seen the pitch yet. This is a banged-up and rather experimental squad, with new manager Cristian Chivu giving lots of minutes to unproven youngsters like brothers Francesco Pio Esposito and Sebastiano Esposito.
The numbers suggest they’ve been doing just fine, but this isn’t Inter Inter.
Juventus
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +3300 (equivalent to 2.9%) | Title odds, per Opta: 2.5% How they got here: def. Al-Ain (5-0), def. Wydad Casablanca (4-1), lost to Manchester City (2-5) Round-of-16 opponent: Real Madrid (July 1, 3 p.m. ET, Miami)
Why they will win it all: They’re hustling. Igor Tudor took over as manager on March 23 and safely steered Juve to a fourth-place finish with just one loss in nine league matches. They created a forcefield around their defensive box and hustled their butts off, allowing few passes per defensive action, blocking tons of shots and making the most of the ball recoveries.
Juve are hustling said butts off appropriately in the U.S., too. Even while nursing mostly comfortable leads that would theoretically allow them to ease off the throttle, they allowed just 8.5 passes per defensive action and produced 44.0 ball recoveries per match in their wins – they ranked third and sixth in those categories, respectively, heading into the match against City. They did allow a goal from a careless breakdown against Wydad Casablanca, but it was almost the only breakdown they suffered in those two matches. Meanwhile, though the City match got away from them, Teun Koopmeiners and Dusan Vlahovic both produced moments of opportunism in their goals, and Kenan Yildiz produced his third assist of the tournament.
Juve appear to be taking this competition very seriously.
Why they won’t: Hustling isn’t enough against good teams. In Tudor’s nine league matches, Juve played three solid teams (Bologna, Lazio and Roma) and drew 1-1 with all three. Combined xG differential in those three matches: minus-0.8. In attack, they couldn’t count on either dangerous counters or sturdy buildup play, and they got pinned in a bit more defensively. They weren’t dominated by any means, but they didn’t create many advantages.
Against Manchester City on Thursday, it was very much the same story, as City produced a 75% possession rate and attempted 24 shots to Juve’s five. High effort levels have made them just about upset-proof, but they probably aren’t going to be favored in any more matches moving forward.
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Manchester City
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +275 (equivalent to 26.7%) | Title odds, per Opta: 20.4% How they got here: def. Wydad Casablanca (2-0), def. Al-Ain (6-0), def. Juventus (5-2) Round-of-16 opponent: Al Hilal (June 30, 9 p.m. ET, Orlando)
Why they will win it all: They’re Manchester City. While the qualification criteria for this competition was rather murky, the general idea is that the teams in this tournament accomplished something particularly noteworthy between 2021-24. City were the best team in the world for a large percentage of that span. They finished only third in the Premier League and reached the FA Cup final this year, which by City standards was apocalyptic, but both the ceiling and floor remain ridiculously high.
And they sure looked like the City of old in the group stage: They scored 13 goals (most in the competition), allowed only two and produced the best goal differential (+11) and xG differential (+7.7) with the highest pass completion rate (92.8%) and most progressive carries (337). They’re doing all the things we expect City to do, and wow, did they trounce Juventus — a team that beat them last fall in the Champions League — on Thursday.
Why they won’t: We don’t know what we need to know about the defense yet. Out of 36 Champions League teams this past season, City ranked 32nd in shots allowed per possession (0.15), 32nd in ball recoveries per game (37.9) and 36th in duel attempts; the attack was fine and hogged the ball as well as expected, but without a healthy Rodri, the back half of the City lineup was terribly passive.
Three January defensive acquisitions (defensive midfielder Nico Gonzalez, right back Abdukodir Khusanov and center back Vitor Reis) and a June acquisition (left back Rayan Aït-Nouri) are among the many guys who have seen the pitch — as is Rodri himself — but Guardiola is still experimenting, and the level of competition is about to ramp up quickly. They only allowed 22 shot attempts in the group stage, but three were worth at least 0.2 xG (two of which were scored), and seven were worth at least 0.1. Results are inconclusive thus far.
Monterrey
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +10000 (equivalent to 1.0%) | Title odds, per Opta: 0.2% How they got here: tied Inter Milan (1-1), tied River Plate (0-0), def. Urawa Red Diamonds (4-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Borussia Dortmund (Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET)
Why they will win it all: The high line is holding up. A lot of Monterrey’s relative success in Liga MX this season came from a fun combination of a high defensive line (they drew the second-most offsides) and a willingness to go mano y mano (third-most take-on attempts, most fouls drawn in the attacking third). That formula has thus far produced in the U.S. too: They drew 12 offsides calls in the first three matches (most in the Club World Cup) and suffered 42 fouls (third-most) and have generally prevented opponents from creating any rhythm whatsoever.
They scored only one goal in their first two matches — and it came from steely veteran Sergio Ramos, predictably on a corner — but allowed only one in three. Ramos (39) and Stefan Medina (33) have been note-perfect in the back, combining for 90 defensive interventions and a healthy percentage of the team’s progressive passes and carries. The attack finally contributed against Urawa Reds, too. This team knows how it wants to win games and has executed well thus far.
Why they won’t: The numbers eventually turn on you. As with Botafogo, the Rayados have done a little bit better than the underlying xG figures suggest they should have. Their draws against Inter and River Plate happened despite a combined xG differential of minus-3.1 (they allowed one goal from shots worth 4.4 xG), and while they’re about to play a Borussia Dortmund team that hasn’t been finishing particularly well either, relying on errant opposing shots to win four matches in a row is a tall ask.
Palmeiras
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +2500 (equivalent to 3.8%) | Title odds, per Opta: 0.9% How they got here: drew with Porto (0-0), def. Al Ahly (2-0), drew with Inter Miami (2-2) Round-of-16 opponent: Botafogo (June 28, noon ET, Philadelphia)
Why they will win it all: They wear opponents down. Winners of 11 trophies in the 2020s, Palmeiras nearly took down Chelsea in the 2021 Club World Cup final. Despite sending loads of high-level talent to Europe in that span, no Brazilian team feels more at home on a big, pressure-packed stage, and they showed it by winning Group A with a run of second-half brilliance.
This is a pretty retrograde attack: Palmeiras are third in the competition in cross attempts (29.0 per match), second in percentage of shots from headers (28.0%) and fourth in direct attacks (sequences starting in the defensive half and producing a shot within 20 seconds). But they’re still attempting more shots per possession than anyone not named Bayern (0.22), and they’re allowing just 0.09 per possession (eighth). In sticky, hot conditions, they keep the game wide open and wait for you to wilt. It’s working.
Why they won’t: Shot quality. Attempting almost 2.5 times more shots than your opponent will generally work out pretty well for you, but only eight of their 50 shot attempts have been worth 0.2 xG or more, and they’re 20th in the competition in xG per shot (0.14). After blowing a couple of golden opportunities in the opener against Porto, Chelsea-bound Estevao’s shot quality has regressed quickly, and Palmeiras have turned shots worth 5.3 xG into only three goals. (They scored a fourth on an own goal.)
If you aren’t taking great shots and aren’t maximizing the ones you take, you aren’t winning four knockout-round matches.
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Paris Saint-Germain
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +300 (equivalent to 25.0%) | Title odds, per Opta: 20.6% How they got here: def. Atletico Madrid (4-0), lost to Botafogo (1-0), def. Seattle Sounders (2-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Inter Miami (June 29, noon ET, Atlanta)
Why they will win it all: They’re the best team in the world. They were placed in a challenging group, Ballon d’Or contender Ousmane Dembele is nursing a hamstring issue, and neither Désiré Doué nor Bradley Barcola have accomplished much so far. And yet, this deep and energetic team is doing all the things a brilliant Luis Enrique squad is supposed to do — 73.4% possession rate (first in the competition), 11.3 passes per possession (first), 104.3 progressive passes per game (first) and, on the pressing side, just 6.9 passes allowed per defensive action (first).
They still have the best fullback duo in the game with Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia remains a nonstop menace on the left wing, Fabián Ruiz and Vitinha have been almost flawless in midfield, and six different players have put the ball in the net. Even with the loss to Botafogo, the best team in the world for the last six months has made it to the knockout rounds with minimal stress.
Why they won’t: They need to dial back in. The blowout win over Atletico Madrid was a statement of intent to open their tournament, but their focus has waned since then.
They indeed gave up a counterattacking goal to Botafogo and never created a particularly high-quality opportunity in the hour that followed. And in what turned out to be a must-win match against Seattle, they were slow out of the gate, allowing a high-quality opportunity to Jesús Ferreira in the 19th minute and actually losing the first-half xG battle. They dominated the second half and were never in trouble, but after that fifth-gear showing they’ve cruised along in second, and it can be difficult to reestablish your best form once you’ve lost it.
Real Madrid
Title odds, per ESPN BET: +500 (equivalent to 16.7%) | Title odds, per Opta: 9.7% How they got here: tied Al-Hilal (1-1), def. Pachuca (3-1), def. RB Salzburg (3-0) Round-of-16 opponent: Juventus (July 1, 3 p.m. ET, Miami)
Why they will win it all: Talent. New manager Xabi Alonso has had about five minutes with his new squad thus far, and it shows. Real Madrid suffered a number of defensive miscues against both Al-Hilal and Pachuca and were lucky not to be punished more for them; they also had to play a man down for more than 80 minutes against Pachuca because of an early Raúl Asencio red card. Plus, Kylian Mbappé has been out with gastroenteritis. (He is supposedly going to try to be ready for the round of 16.)
They always have moments of individual brilliance to rely on, however. Jude Bellingham opened the Pachuca match up with a first-half strike, Vinícius Júnior had a goal and a beautiful assist against Salzburg, Fede Valverde scored twice, and even 21-year old Gonzalo García had two goals and an assist. Mbappe’s return should raise their ceiling even further, and it was already forever high.
Why they won’t: Defense. With center-backs Éder Militão and David Alaba and fullbacks Ferland Mendy and Dani Carvajal all still injured, Alonso has had to rely on a makeshift back line — he has thus far kept the back four the team is used to, instead of moving to the back three he prefers — and it’s been quite the chemistry experiment with newcomers Dean Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold getting to know Antonio Rüdiger, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Fran García and others…
… and it hasn’t gone very well. Real Madrid currently rank 24th out of 32 teams in shots allowed per possession (0.15), ninth in xG allowed per shot (0.13) and, therefore, 21st in total xG allowed (4.7). Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois remains awesome, but they’ve been lucky to allow only two goals, and that luck might run out as the competition levels increase. How the heatwave has affected players at the Club World Cup and what the lessons are for the 2026 World Cup
The heatwave that swept the United States in recent days caused concerns for players and fans at the Club World Cup. To try to manage the intense heat, players have covered themselves in ice-cold towels or placed their hands and feet in buckets of the stuff. Such was the heat in Charlotte on Tuesday that Harry Kane even dipped his head in.At Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium, Borussia Dortmund’s substitutes watched the first half of their game against Mamelodi Sundowns from the locker room rather than the bench to avoid the pitch-side heat. Dortmund coach Niko Kovac said he was “sweating like I’ve just come out of a sauna” after his side won that game in 32C (89.6F) conditions.After their game against Paris Saint-Germain in Pasadena, just outside Los Angeles, Atletico Madrid midfielder Marcos Llorente described the weather as “impossible. Terribly hot. My toenails were hurting”.In Philadelphia, Chelsea played in temperatures of around 36C (97F), which forecasters said felt more like 41C (106F). “It is almost impossible to train or to make a session because of the weather,” Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca told reporters on Monday. “This morning’s session has been very, very, very short.”But what exactly does heat do to an athlete’s body? And how much of a problem can it really be?Here The Athletic answers those questions and what it means for the rest of the Club World Cup — and the World Cup, which will be staged mostly by the U.S, again in June and July, with games also in the neighbouring countries of Canada and Mexico.What You Should Read NextExtreme heat at the Club World Cup: Players and fans voice concerns as temperatures soarA heatwave will hit the U.S. this week where players and fans at the Club World Cup are already concerned about the dangerous weather
How the heat is impacting players
Any physical exertion in hot conditions will cause the body’s temperature to rise. “We sit about 37C (98.6F) at resting,” says Dr Chris Tyler, an environmental physiologist from London’s University of Roehampton and an expert on heat stress in elite sports. “Most people get into trouble if they are two to three degrees warmer than that, so we don’t have much of a buffer.“It’s actually quite difficult to get the body that hot, but one of the ways to do it is to move quite quickly in hot conditions.” The most obvious consequence of that rise in temperature is an elevation in your heart rate. This happens, explains Tyler, because the body sends more blood to the skin to try to get rid of some of the excess heat (the reason why some people get very red-faced when they’re too warm).That leaves less blood in the core trunk of the body, and crucially, less blood in the heart, meaning it has to work harder to provide blood to the working muscles. That’s why doing the same exercise at the same intensity is going to be harder — and feel harder — in higher temperatures than cooler ones. The most obvious visual impact among professional footballers is their sweat response. They will start to perspire earlier and more rapidly as their body tries to cool itself down.
Kane dips his head into an ice bucket and laps water over his face (DAZN)
According to Geoff Scott, former head of medicine and sports science at Tottenham Hotspur, players lose a minimum of two litres (approaching four UK pints, over four in U.S. pints) of fluid per game playing in cooler temperatures in the Premier League. “When it gets really hot and humid, that can go up to about five litres of fluid over the course of one game,” he tells The Athletic. It’s not just water they are losing through sweat either, it’s electrolytes, too, and the depletion of essential ones such as sodium, chloride and potassium is a key concern. To combat that, Scott says that in the days before and especially on the day of a game, hydration is pushed at all opportunities to make sure players are drinking water and also sports drinks with adequate electrolytes. “It’s common now that teams will do sweat analysis on the players so they know which players sweat more and which ones lose more electrolytes in their sweat, and they can be targeted with specific drinks to make sure their electrolyte imbalances are addressed,” he says. A player who gets into the “dehydration zone” could suffer light-headedness, dizziness, fatigue and muscle cramps, but Scott says that, well before getting to that opint, there will be changes in their performance levels: “You tend to start seeing them reduce their high-intensity running, and very elevated temperatures tend to affect their technical skills too, so the quality can drop off. They start to fatigue faster, too.” While an increase in sweating can cause issues regarding dehydration, it’s also a good thing, because if it can evaporate from the skin, the perspiration will take some of the heat away with it. But, Tyler explains, in conditions where humidity is also high, a lot of that sweat won’t be able to evaporate because there is already lots of moisture in the surrounding air. “So players will be losing sweat,” he says, “but it will be dripping off them rather than evaporating, which will be dehydrating without taking any heat away.” If the rise in body temperature isn’t controlled, it can lead to heatstroke. “As the blood is all shunted to the skin, there’s less volume of blood in your cardiovascular system,” explains Scott. “And that’s the problem – your blood pressure drops. Someone out for a casual jog who is getting close to that would probably stop, but these guys can’t stop (during a match), so they’re at more risk.”
How players are adapting to the temperature
To cope with soaring temperatures, athletes adapt the way they perform. In football, the average distance covered is reduced during hot-weather games and the action becomes more possession-heavy, explains Tyler. “The good teams will adapt tactically. You see it in tennis as well, where good players will make the other players run a lot more. It’s the same here; if you’re Manchester City, you can play a very slow, possession-based game and let everyone else chase you for 90 minutes.”
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland at the Club World Cup (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images)
There is physiological adaptation, too, with the body making subtle changes to be more efficient in the heat. One of those is an expansion of the plasma volume of a person’s blood, meaning you end up with a greater volume of blood in the body than you had before. “Now you have more blood, so you can send some to the skin and maintain blood flow to the working muscles without needing the heart to pump faster,” says Tyler. “That means the heart rate won’t go so high.”As well as sweating earlier, what comes out of the players’ pores will also be different to normal, says Tyler, becoming more diluted, thus preserving essential electrolytes such as sodium chloride and potassium, which are lost through sweat.Those adaptations in blood volume and sweat composition can help decrease the strain the players are under. The only catch is that those processes take time.“How long they take is hard to say exactly,” says Tyler, “but it seems like players would need at least five to seven days to see meaningful adaptations. But even after two weeks, they are still making adaptations to that stress.”Given the short turnaround time between the end of the European season, late May for a lot of leagues, and the start of the Club World Cup on June 14, many of the teams involved won’t have had much time to acclimatise before travelling to the United States.Also of relevance is the fact a lot of the teams taking part in this tournament come from countries with typically cooler climates than their rivals from South and Central America, North Africa, and the Middle East, which makes the challenge even greater.Tyler, whose research focuses on human responses to extreme hot and cold environments, and specifically on how to minimise the performance impairments observed in such conditions, says that for an event such as the Club World Cup, athletes would ideally want at least two weeks of “heat adaptation training” before leaving for the host nation.This usually involves heat tents or heat chambers, which mimic the conditions players will face on arrival. Heat lamps can also be used inside these to recreate the feeling of the sun’s rays. Temperatures in the tents can range from 35-50C (95-122F) and the humidity rises from around 30 per cent to 80 per cent by the end of a session.It’s an approach England’s new head coach, Thomas Tuchel, used at their training camp in the recent June international window. With the side’s likely participation in next summer’s World Cup in mind, players were asked to go through fitness tests inside heated tents, allowing performance staff to analyse how each of them responds to those conditions, including analysing their sweat rate and sweat composition.“The idea,” says Tyler, “is to do their normal training (or as close to it as possible) while getting their body hot in a controlled, safe environment.” Over time, he explains, players doing this start to adapt physiologically to perform better in higher temperatures. Once they arrive in the hot climate itself, they can continue to adapt. Manchester City used their early training sessions in the States to try to speed up the adaptation, with manager Pep Guardiola holding long midday training sessions in the searing Florida heat at their base in Boca Raton, near Miami. Juventus have been scheduling training to match the kick-offs of their group matches, with their English defender Lloyd Kelly telling the media they had trained “the past 10 days in the hottest times of the day”.
Lloyd Kelly playing for Juventus at the Club World Cup (Francois Nel/Getty Images)
“Being aerobically fit is advantageous anyway,” says Tyler, “so if you’re an elite player, you probably have some more tolerance for the heat than if you were a non-athlete. “That could put teams like Auckland City (the part-timers from New Zealand) at an even bigger disadvantage, because they’re not professional athletes, so their players are less fit than some other teams.” World football governing body and Club World Cup organiser FIFA’s policy on managing the temperature for players during games is to implement cooling breaks when the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT; an overall thermal-strain measure achieved by combining temperature, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation) exceeds 32C (89.6F) on the pitch. FIFA also said its medical experts “have been in regular contact with the clubs to address heat management and acclimatisation”, and that it was working with local medical authorities regarding heat management. From the players’ point of view, the Club World Cup represents a dry run for the national-team version in a year — a taste of what they might expect if they are among those taking part in football’s biggest competition. The challenge has been made clear at the Club World Cup: the toughest opponent might not be the team you’re facing, but the heat. The preparation for that has to start now.
(Top photo: Porto’s Rodrigo Mora after playing Al Ahly on Monday; by Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)
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Man I skip 1 week and lots of stuff happened. Awesome Scenes from Anfield as Liverpool clinched the EPL title at home Sat. – my coaching buddy Bill is thrilled!! Christian Pulisic Scored (highlights) Saturday to notch his 50th goal contribution in 2 seasons at Italian powerhouse AC Milan. I will be glued to Fox Sports 1 Wed night 8 pm as Messi & Inter Miami look to overcome a 2 goal deficit at home vs Vancouver in the 2nd leg Semi-Final of the Champions Cup. Awesome story on Bodo/Glimt below – the Norwegian side playing at Tottenham is in their 1st ever Semis of Europa – located just 30 miles from the Arctic Circle they have just 55 thousand people. We’ll see how many yellow toothbrushes get into Tottenham stadium. Games kicking off Thurs 3 pm on CBSSN and Golazo & Para+.
Champions League Tues/Wed, Europa Thurs
We are down to the Final 4 in Champions League Tues with Arsenal facing PSG on 3 pm and Barcelona hosting Inter Milan on Wed @ 3 pm on Wed on Paramount plus. Kind of sux that these games are not going to be on CBS or at least CBS Sports Network – of course they are gonna make us pay to see these games. Anyway lots over coverage below on the game coming up Tues/Wed.
Tues Champions League Arsenal vs PSG on Para+ 3 pm Wed Champions League Barcelona vs Inter Milan on Para+ Thurs 3 pm Europa League on Para+ Athletic Club vs Man United Tottenham vs Bode CBSSN Djurgarden vs Chelsea Real Bettis (Cordosa) vs Fiorentina
We Are Wrexham Wins League One – Back to Back to Back
Cool seeing the scenes from Wrexham as they became the first English team to ever win back to back to back promotions as they won League one – just 3 seasons after being in the lowest pro division in English soccer. The TV show on FX should be really exciting when it comes out following Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney as they chronical the club they purchased 4 years ago. On to the Championship now just 1 league below their aim of the EPL. Stories below…
Indy 11 hosts Detroit City Wed Night 7 pm @ the Mike
Indy Eleven: 1-2-2 (+1) will face Detroit City FC on Wed night 7 pm @ the Mike. Single-game tickets for all matches are available via Ticketmaster. Season, Flex Plan, Group, and Hospitality tickets are available here. For questions, call (317) 685-1100 during business hours or email tickets@indyeleven.com.
GoalKeeper Training for Carmel FC Is outdoors Coach James Pilkington will run sessions on Monday at Shelbourne 6-9 pm and Wed at Badger 6-9 pm. Keep your eyes here for info on the big Summer White Glove GK camp coming June 16-17 in Fishers. More info to come.
Always fun to ref with T Ray and Mike A – at The Girls Showcase this weekend at Grand Park. Got close to 30 miles on the legs reffing this weekend. Of course Nate Sinder’s Brisket was still the highlight of the weekend however. Best in the Midwest!
TV Games
Tues, Apr 29 Champions League
3 pm Par+ Arsenal vs PSG
Weds, Apr 29 Champions League
3 pm Par+, Uni Barcelona vs Inter Milan
7 pm ?? Indy 11 vs Detroit City
8 pm Fox Sport 1 Inter Miami vs Vancouver (0-2) Champ Cup
Thrus, Apr30 – Europa
2:30 pm USA Nottingham Forest vs Brentford
3 pm CBSSN Tottenham vs Bodo
3 pm Para+, Unimas Athletic Club vs Man United
3 pm para+ Real Bettis (Cordosa) vs Fiorentina
3 pm para+ Djurgarden vs Chelsea
10 pm FS2 Cruz Azul vs Tigrees Champ Cup
Fr, May 2
2:45 pm Para+ Torino vs Venzia (Busio)
3 pm Peacock Man City vs Wolverhampton
8 pm Amazon Prime Washington Spirit vcs ACFC NWSL
10:30 pm Gola, Para Seattle vs KC NWSL
Sat, May 3
7:30 am USA Villa vs Fulham (Robinson)
10 am Peaccok Everton vs Ipswich Town
12:30 pm NBC Arsenal vs Bournmouth (Tyler Adams)
2:45 pm Golazo, Para Inter Milan vs Hellas Verona
3 pm ESPN+ Barcelona vs Real Valladolid
2:45 pm Fox Atlanta United vs Nashville SC MLS
7:30 pm Ion Portland Thorns vs Orlando Pride (Marta) NWSL
9 pm FS1 San Diego vs Dallas MLS
10 pm Ion Utah Royals vs NC Courage NWSL
Sun, May 4
10 am CBSSN Monza vs Atalanta
11:30 pm Peacock Chelsea vs Liverpool
1 pm CBS Gothan FC vs Chicago Stars (Naher) NWSL
2:45 pm Para+, Juventus (Mckinney, Weah) vs Bologna
7 pm Apple TV Sporting KC vs LA Galaxy
8 pm Golazo, Para+ San Diego Wave vs Bay City NWSL
Mon, Tues May 7
2:45 pm Para+, FoxD Genoa vs AC Milan (Pulisic)
3 pm USA Crystal Palace (Richards) vs Nottingham Forest
Tues, May 6 Champions League
3 pm Par+, Uni Inter Milan vs Barcelona
Weds, May 7 Champions League
3 pm Par+ PSG (1-0) vs Arsenal
7 pm CBSSN Pittsburgh Riverhounds (Dick) vs NYC USL
7:30 pm Para+ Philly Union vs Indy 11 USL
USMNT midweek viewing guide: Johnny in Conference League semis
A fairly slow midweek features Johnny and Betis in the first leg of a semifinal.
Wednesday
FC Barcelona vs Inter Milan, 3p on Paramount+, TUDN USA, Univision USA, FuboTV, ViX: Diego Kochen may be on the FC Barcelona bench as they take on Inter in the first leg of a Champions League semifinal first leg.
Toronto FC vs CF Montréal, 7p on FS2, FuboTV, Sling TV: Jalen Neal and Montréal visit Toronto in the Canadian Championship.
Inter Miami vs Vancouver Whitecaps, 8p on FS1, TUDN USA, FuboTV (free trial), Sling TV, Tubi, ViX: Brian White and the ‘Caps visit Benja Cremaschi and Inter Miami in a Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal second leg. Vancouver leads 2-0 on aggregate.
Thursday
Real Betis vs Fiorentina, 3p on Paramount+, ViX: Johnny Cardoso and Betis host Fiorentina in a Conference League semifinal first leg.
Also in action:
Mantova vs Cesena, 9a: Jonathan Klinsmann and Cesena visit Mantova in Serie B.
Palermo vs Südtirol, 9a: Kristoffer Lund and Palermo host Südtirol in Serie B.
June 16th: 9-4 / June 17th: 8-3 12383 Cyntheanne Rd, Fishers, IN $595 Register
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Bodo/Glimt: How a team from a small Norwegian coastal town became European semi-finalists
Assessing the Europa League semi-finalists, there is a clear outlier in relation to European success.Manchester United are one of Europe’s most decorated clubs and won this competition in 2016-17. Athletic Club had spent six seasons outside European competition before this term, but they had been a fixture in Europe through the 2010s and reached the Europa League final in 2011-12, beating United en route. Tottenham Hotspur have not won a European trophy since 1984, but reached the Champions League final in 2019. Like United and Athletic Club, Spurs were grouped among the favourites to lift the trophy in Bilbao on May 21. For their semi-final opponents Bodo/Glimt, who knocked out Lazio in the quarter-final to reach the final four, the prospect of European glory is relatively new. As recently as 2017, Glimt were in Norway’s second tier — a footballing galaxy away from Old Trafford, the Stadio Olimpico or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. After a season consolidating their position in Norway’s top flight, the club, based north of the Arctic Circle, finished second in 2019 to begin a rapid rise that has seen them become the nation’s undisputed top dogs.
Nikita Haikin saved two Lazio penalties in the quarter-final shootout win (Silvia Lore/Getty Images)
On their way, they collected four out of five Eliteserien titles between 2020 and 2024 and established themselves as a force in Europe, beating a Jose Mourinho-led Roma 6-1 in the 2021-22 Europa Conference League group stage, before thrashing Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic 5-1 over two legs in the play-off round.
This year, they’ve taken another leap, becoming the first Norwegian team to reach the semi-finals of a major European competition. It’s the club’s greatest accomplishment and the outstanding achievement of any Scandinavian side this century.
“Bodo is a small coastal town in the north,” says Lars Magnus Roys, a football journalist for Norwegian broadcaster TV2, based in Bergen. “There’s not really much happening in Bodo other than football. What they’ve done in the past few years has been just remarkable.”
Now they have their sights on Tottenham Hotspur, and what would be their most remarkable feat yet — earning a place in the Europa League final.
Unlike most of football’s recent risers, Glimt’s ascent has not coincided with a takeover from a billionaire or sovereign wealth fund. After yo-yoing between Norway’s second and first divisions for the decade prior, Glimt won promotion in 2017 and implemented a plan to revolutionise their culture and playing style — catching Norway’s biggest clubs with solid practise, not cash injections.
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Led by Kjetil Knutsen, promoted to head coach in 2018 after serving as an assistant, Glimt left a counter-attacking style behind and began dominating in the opposition’s half.
“The history of Bodo/Glimt until 2018 is that they were a counter-attacking team,” former assistant coach Morten Kalvenes told The Athletic in 2022. “So what we had to change at the beginning of 2019, to adapt but use that (counter-attacking history), firstly was to press higher as a team. Move the whole team much higher up the field, when the situation required it. When we were forced to defend low, then we defended low, but every week we were constantly looking for the signal where we can go from low to high.”
Inspired by the principles of Uruguay head coach Marcelo Bielsa, Knutsen is renowned in Norway for his “murderball” training sessions, preparing his players physically to carry out the energetic style that has provided the foundations for their success.
Knutsen is inspired by Marcelo Bielsa (Andrea Staccioli/Getty Images)
“Kjetil and I had a few meetings working on the preparation before pre-season,” said Kalvenes. “He told me, ‘No 1: when we do pre-season, I want you to highlight especially one thing, and that is the training culture, the training culture, the training culture’. That meant we raised expectations. We raised the bar in structure, discipline, consistency, everything.
“What I noticed immediately was how the players were in training. I felt that I really liked the attitude of the players, how they were reacting to our coaching, how open-minded they were about the feedback, how — if we are training for one hour — then all 60 minutes are of the same level of intensity. What I mean is that if you do some simple passing drills at the beginning of the sessions, then you get the players as focused even when you’re working on simple details.”
Knutsen’s success did not come overnight, despite these principles in place. After winning promotion from the second tier, Glimt lost four of their first five games in charge, and outside pressure began to grow. Still, the club did not flinch, believing in the style and culture he was building.“It was never, ever a discussion internally,” says sporting director Havard Sakariassen. “The way I see it, if you know something about football, you saw the team was on a really good path. The way we played was much more dominant than the years before. We didn’t manage to score a lot of goals, but we drew a lot of games. It was more, ‘If you go, we all go’. That was the internal thing.This is not a big club with a lot of decision-makers. There is no owner here. Nothing like that. In core, during that period, we were 100 per cent certain Kjetil was the right man — and he knew it.”
A joined-up focus between the coaching team and the recruitment strategy was crucial to the eventual success. Without hordes of cash to hoover up Scandinavian talent set for stardom, Glimt have typically recruited locally.
Only one senior player, goalkeeper Nikita Haikin, who was born in Israel and represents Russia, hails from outside Norway and Denmark. Patrick Berg, their midfield fulcrum and star player, is homegrown and part of a family dynasty. Berg’s grandfather Harald played 12 seasons for his hometown club and won 43 caps for Norway, and his three sons, Runar, Arild and Patrick’s father Orjan, also played for Glimt.
Patrick Berg scored 10 goals for Bodo/Glimt in the 2024 season (Kent Even Grundstad/Getty Images)
There’s never a guarantee of success when signing a player, but recruiting almost exclusively from Scandinavia brings unique challenges. Of the eight permanent signings Glimt have made in the last 12 months, only Jens Petter Hauge has featured for their national team in the past five years. Like Berg, who left for Lens in 2022 and returned six months later, Hauge was re-signed from Eintracht Frankfurt after leaving Norway for a top-five European league and struggling to adjust. Placed within an environment that allows incoming players to settle, it’s no coincidence that Glimt players tend to maximise their talent.
“The logistics are really, really hard,” says Sakariassen. “But the main thing is how you work with people because I know that we recruit good players. We have seen the potential. If they come here and don’t perform well for the first or second month, or everything is new, we still spend the time, and we try to get the potential out of them. We work hard with the people we have, and we believe that when we bring people in, we can help them release their potential. But it’s hard, and everyone is trying to do the same.
“We have a clear way of playing, which makes it easier to recruit players. We play 4-3-3. The demands of each role are really easy to identify, so we look for players with an X factor, players who can make a difference for us in Europe. We truly believe we can develop players and those players can get to their full potential. We need a blend of older players with experience, younger players and those peaking in performance, but they all have to be able to handle the intensity we demand, and that can be hard for older players.
“I think it has a value in itself, in your life, to be able to play at this level in your home town, also with your friends. So I think the culture in the club here is something they really enjoy. Also of course, over the years, we have become competitive in Scandinavia regarding salaries and the business part of it. But I think it has to be rare to be able to play football with your mates at this level anywhere in Europe, and that has a value.”
Time, which allowed Knutsen to thrive in his first job in Norway’s top tier and brought the best out of players who had difficulty with the initial adjustment, is a privilege not often afforded to big clubs in elite leagues. There is some parallel with Athletic Club, whose Basque-only policy emphasises long-term player development, but Ruben Amorim and Postecoglou are under pressure to deliver in Europe after disappointing league seasons at United and Spurs, respectively. As the leading light of Scandinavian football, there is regional pressure to maintain their relative overperformance, but the freedom to operate outside the intense microscope their semi-final counterparts are subjected to has helped their evolution.
“There is pressure around us, but not in the way you see in other clubs,” says Sakariassen. “That pressure is not just something for the club, but also with the players. If you get a lot of criticism, it’s maybe hard to perform. Bodo is 55,000 people, and it’s on another level. So it’s probably easier to get out their potential and have some time here, too.”
Bodo/Glimt fans salute Knutsen after the win over Lazio (Giuseppe Maffia/Getty Images)
“For us, it’s to ride the momentum, and that means that we have to be a performing club all the time. We have to work on that and try to be patient with the players that we have, to have the time to grow. Normally, it takes even the best players that we brought in… like Albert Gronbaek, it took him six to nine months. Hugo Vetlesen, it took him one and a half years before he showed his full self in the team. So patience is definitely a part of it. And luckily, we have people with some patience.”
Gronbaek later became a Denmark international and was eventually sold for €12million (£10m) to Rennes after two seasons in northern Norway. Vetlesen left for Club Brugge in 2023 and made seven appearances in the Champions League this term. While performance in European competition has propelled them into financial parity with Scandinavia’s biggest clubs, there’s an acceptance that when players shine, there will be interest from more affluent and prestigious sides.
Given this success has been under the watch of Knutsen, clubs around Europe have their eyes on the coach, too. He was reportedly on Brighton and Hove Albion’s list before they appointed Roberto De Zerbi in 2022 and had interest from Ajax and Celtic the following summer. As he has been the guiding light through this period, there’s an element of the unknown if he were to leave Glimt, but the club is confident that their culture — akin to Liverpool’s famous “boot room” succession plan — is strong enough to continue rising.
“Of course, Kjetil is one of the key personnel here. But we are very team-driven, also within the coaching room,” says Sakariassen. “Of course, Kjetil will take the decisions at the end, but it’s a kind of a flat structure where everyone is cautious on the pitch. Also, the way we work with the logistics, it’s not one person who makes the decisions; it’s not me who makes the decisions and ‘We do it this way’, we do it together. So I hope that if somebody quits or for other reasons can’t work in the coming year, we are spreading out the knowledge that could be a good and sustainable path into the future.”
The future appears to be in safe hands but all immediate focus is on the Europa League semi-final. Three Glimt players are suspended for the first leg, including Berg, and an injury to starting centre-back Odin Bjortuft in their 3-0 win over KFUM in the Eliteserien could weaken their preferred starting XI further. Glimt have learned to be savvy in European matches and have impressed away from home this season, including in a narrow 3-2 defeat away to United in November. But on the artificial pitch at Aspmyra, they truly fancy their chances against anybody.
“I think we will have the same belief that we had against Olympiacos, Lazio, Twente — it is not an easy way to play Tottenham,” says Sakariassen. “I hope we don’t focus on the occasion, play the game, and dare to be ourselves. Of course, it is a massive game, the interest around the club and the games are massive here in Bodo too, but I hope we have and I truly believe we have all the tools to be brave enough to go out in London and just be Bodo/Glimt.
“The experience that we have gained over the last few years makes us more confident in situations like this. I truly believe in the team and hope we make two great performances against Tottenham. Starting away.”
(Top photo: Tullio Puglia/Getty Images)
Champions League semi-finals: Breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of all four contenders
From 36 clubs at the start of the season, just four remain.
After four quarter-finals filled with tension, it is Inter and Barcelona, and Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain who face off in two blockbuster semi-final ties.
While the remaining quartet still represent some of Europe’s heavyweight clubs, there is a refreshing narrative that is guaranteed to occur this year. Arsenal and PSG are still looking to win the competition for the first time in their history while Barcelona and Inter have not lifted the trophy for a decade or more. In a period dominated by Real Madrid and other English powerhouses, a new chapter is imminent.
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As things stand, Arsenal edge it as the favourites to lift the trophy with a 28.7 per cent chance of victory per Opta’s Supercomputer. In truth, the margins are paper-thin between the final four — and you could make a strong case for any of the remaining clubs to go all the way.
Where might each tie be won and lost? Allow The Athletic to walk you through the tactical wrinkles for each side, with the added inclusion of a few data nuggets to whet the appetite for this week’s matches.
Arsenal
Forget the Premier League, Arsenal are on a rampage in Europe.
Mikel Arteta’s men were good value for their victory against holders Real Madrid after progressing to their first semi-final since 2009 — showing different sides to their game in and out of possession across both legs.
For all that they have come unstuck against deep defensive blocks in recent seasons, Arsenal’s attacking style is arguably more suited to the Champions League as they face up to teams more willing to go toe-to-toe with them.
With greater space for their wingers to stretch their legs, Arteta’s side have doubled down on width when going forward in Europe. Of the remaining semi-finalists, Arsenal’s 24 per cent share of attacking touches through the middle of the pitch is the lowest.
Bukayo Saka’s return to fitness and form has been unanimously welcomed by Arsenal fans, with the 23-year-old having a crucial impact in Arsenal’s victory over Madrid. His two fouls drawn allowed Declan Rice to steal the headlines with his subsequent free-kick strikes, with a dead-eyed dinked finish at the Bernabeu capping off a pair of memorable performances.
The game in Spain took a different form to the first leg at the Emirates. For long periods, Arsenal set up in their typical 4-4-2 out of possession at the Bernabeu — staying compact to force Madrid into wide areas and rarely through the centre of the pitch.
However, there were plenty of occasions when this defensive shape dropped even deeper.
Such was the strong organisation that Arteta’s side showed out of possession that you could map different sequences dropping into a back five, a back six, a back seven, and even a back eight across the duration of their second-leg victory — with Rice or Thomas Partey dropping between the centre-backs, or Saka and Gabriel Martinelli tracking back to support their respective full-back.
While you would not expect Arsenal to perform in the same way across the entirety of their semi-final tie against PSG, there may be occasions when similar penalty-box defending will be required.
Given the fluid rotations of Luis Enrique’s forward line, Arsenal will need to ensure that they do not break their structure too often across both legs. Fortunately, Arteta’s side thrive out of possession, boasting the second-strongest defensive record across Europe’s top five leagues when looking at their 0.83 expected goals conceded per 90 minutes this season.
A second successive Champions League semi-final is not to be underestimated for PSG, particularly given the context within which Luis Enrique has achieved the feat this season.
A Kylian Mbappe-less PSG is one that is far more cohesive, co-ordinated, and coherent than recent years, and it is clear that this is the closest iteration to Enrique’s ideals — both in and out of possession — since he arrived in the French capital.
A 3-1 first-leg lead over Aston Villa should have made for a straightforward second-leg at Villa Park but Unai Emery’s men gave PSG a scare with some aggressive, direct attacks through the heart of their defence.
“Villa never managed to equalise the tie but for 10 minutes, we wondered whether we could keep the ball, if we could get the ball out of midfield or play long,” Luis Enrique said after the game.
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“I don’t think this team has been so dominated by another team in that way, but this opponent has to take risks because they were going out of the competition. They attacked with great intensity and we were playing in front of a great crowd too.”
Many clubs can get swept up in the atmosphere of a Champions League night under the lights but PSG stood firm with some help from goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma — and were deserving winners across the two legs.
Luis Enrique will be less pleased about PSG’s out-of-possession performance on that Tuesday evening at Villa Park, particularly when considering it has been one of the strongest parts of their game this season. A co-ordinated high-pressing approach has helped to force opponents to go long when building up as PSG look to regain the ball as quickly as possible and dictate the tempo of the game.
It feels disingenuous to discuss PSG’s defensive approach before acknowledging their incredible technical quality going forward. They might have had a slower start than they would have liked in this year’s Champions League but there is little doubt that they have clicked into gear at the perfect time.
Step off them and they have the technical quality of Joao Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz to pop the ball around you, with any of them dropping outside of the opposition block to kick-start PSG’s progression through the thirds.
Get tight to them and they have the individual quality to make some of Europe’s best look rather ordinary. For context, PSG’s 27.9 take-ons per 90 is more than any other side in the Champions League this season, with one-v-one specialists across the forward line.
It was less frequent at Villa Park but any one of Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue or Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will frequently rotate across the forward line and pop up in different positions across the pitch.
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Throw in the running power of full-backs Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi — both of whom scored in their quarter-final second leg — to support attacks, and it is often a case of picking your poison when PSG throw bodies forward.
Mendes’ goal was a perfect example of the razor-sharp threat that Enrique’s side possesses. Third-man running, one-touch play and maximum width across the pitch make for a devastating combination.
It is fair to say that PSG were a little undercooked in their October game against Arsenal but Luis Enrique’s men have hit top gear in the months that followed. With a(nother) Ligue 1 title sewn up and a treble-winning season still on the cards, the momentum is with PSG as they look to lift the Champions League trophy for the first time.
Barcelona
A 3-1 second-leg defeat by Borussia Dortmund was an anomalous result for Barcelona.
Their 24-game unbeaten run had ended but a four-goal buffer from the first leg meant that Hansi Flick’s side were never likely to be at full tilt at Westfalenstadion, managing the tie more so than the game itself.
As well as their three strikes, Dortmund had the ball in the back of the net twice more after Pascal Gross and Julian Brandt made deep runs behind Barcelona’s defensive line to race through on goal.
Both efforts were chalked off for offside but the events were a microcosm of Barcelona’s season under Flick with a brave high line.
The numbers to support this are staggering. Barcelona have drawn opponents offside on 68 occasions in the Champions League this season, which is comfortably the most of any team to have made it into the knockout phase. For context, Aston Villa are the second-highest on the list with 34 — exactly half the number with the same number of games played.
With an average defensive line height of 33.7 metres — the highest of any side to make it to the knockout phase — Barcelona’s choreographed approach out of possession has been highly refined under Flick.
That being said, there are signs that such an approach is fallible. With Ronald Araujo coming into Flick’s defence against Dortmund, Barcelona fans must still wince when watching the bravery that is required to play such a high line.
That approach will gain increased focus against Inter’s attacking duo of Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram. While neither has blistering pace to run in behind, their neat combination play is enough to worry any defence in European football.
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Of course, Barcelona’s strengths far outweigh any weaknesses under Flick as they push for another historic treble. Going forward, the versatility that they offer makes them perfectly suited to knockout football — resembling Luis de la Fuente’s Spain national team during their winning Euro 2024 campaign.
On the one hand, Flick’s side are one of the teams most likely to play nine-plus passes per sequence in the competition, regularly circulating possession with the technical quality of Pedri, Frenkie De Jong, and (earlier in the competition) Marc Casado.
However, do not be fooled into thinking Barcelona simply pass teams into submission. The pacy threat and tireless running of Lamine Yamal and Raphinha means that Flick’s side can punish you in transitional moments.
Eight of their goals in the Champions League this season have come from direct attacks, the most of any side in the competition. They might not employ it as frequently as others — for example, PSG boast double the volume of direct attacks this year — but when they do regain possession, Barcelona can pierce through opposition defences in the blink of an eye.
Raphinha has had a career-best season in Spain with 12 Champions League goals to sit alongside his 15 La Liga strikes — but Yamal is undoubtedly the jewel in Barcelona’s crown.
Many superlatives have already been attached to Yamal’s name but the teenager’s unpredictability is one of his strongest traits in his fledgling career. When mapping his progressive carries in La Liga this season, you can see below that he is equally likely to cut inside onto his stronger left foot, drive outside to his right, or direct his runs straight towards goal.
Whether Yamal will have the same joy against Inter’s defensive back five is another story. Simone Inzaghi’s side are one of the toughest teams in Europe to break down and will often double up in wide areas against opposition wingers — whether it is a supporting centre-back or midfielder to drop in and help their respective wing-back out of possession.
For all of the incredible talent on display for both sides, keep an eye on the flanks across both ties.
Inter
Inter might be viewed as underdogs but no remaining team has reached a Champions League final more recently.
The core of that side is still intact, with eight of the starters from the 2023 final — a narrow 1-0 defeat by Manchester City — still at the club. That continuity has allowed Inzaghi to mould the most tactically distinct team left in the competition.
While the other semi-finalists are broadly defined by high pressing and front-footed play, Inter favour a more measured, controlled approach. Of the teams to reach the last 16, only Club Brugge pressed less intensely, as shown on the PPDA graphic below.
Instead, Inter are comfortable sitting deep, holding their disciplined 3-5-2 shape, and building slowly from the back. Their direct speed — a measure of how quickly a team progresses the ball upfield — is slower than every Champions League side except for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
This restrained approach complements their out-of-possession game. Like classic Italian sides of the past, they are comfortable defending without the ball — no team has conceded fewer than their five goals in this season’s competition. Inzaghi often speaks of Inter’s willingness to do the hard yards out of possession; ahead of their quarter-final second leg against Bayern Munich, he predicted the match would contain “moments where we’ll have to suffer”.
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That proved true across both legs as Inter conceded the bulk of possession to Vincent Kompany’s side. While they rode their luck at times, Inter’s methodical build-up means they are rarely caught out of shape when they forfeit the ball. They have conceded just 0.18 xG from fast breaks and their xG per shot against is the lowest in the competition.
Yet their disciplined approach should not be mistaken for being unadventurous. Inter are one of the most fluid sides in Europe, with positional rotations a key feature of their possession play.
Nicolo Barella’s touch map in this season’s competition reflects that fluidity — nominally a central midfielder, he has popped up on both wings, in deeper defensive zones, and in the final third behind the two strikers. Inzaghi gives his players the licence to rotate freely, making Inter unpredictable in attack and capable of creating overloads across the pitch.
Another strength of Inzaghi’s system is the blossoming partnership it enables up top between Martinez and Thuram. A two-man strike force is increasingly rare in modern football, but it has given Inter a unique edge.
Before facing RB Leipzig earlier in the competition, Inzaghi spoke of the importance of “keeping our shape, and knowing when to pick our moments”. Inter’s first goal away at Bayern was a textbook example — and the telepathic understanding between the two strikers was pivotal.
After launching a quick break, Thuram played an intelligent backheel from the middle of the box into the path of Martinez, who finished with the outside of his boot, in what was a real contender for goal of the competition.Against Barcelona, Inter will again likely be limited to fleeting moments on the ball. But with their defensive discipline, tactical flexibility, and ability to strike with precision, they remain more than capable of posing a serious threat.When Inter faced Barcelona in 2022, Inzaghi said: “It is a very delicate match, where we have to show our teeth.”Expect the same again. (Top photos: Bukayo Saka, left, and Lautaro Martinez; Getty Images)
Christian Pulisic ‘gave a lot’ during AC Milan Coppa Italia victory – Sergio Conceicao
AC Milan head coach Sérgio Conceição praised U.S. men’s national team captain Christian Pulisic on Thursday, saying he has “great confidence” in the midfielder.Conceição’s comments were made following Milan’s 3-0 win over rivals Inter in the second leg of the Coppa Italia semifinals on Wednesday.Milan advanced to the finals with the 4-1 aggregate victory. A first-half brace from Serbian striker Luka Jović led the way for Milan, but Pulisic’s influence on both sides of the ball was also essential to the victory, according to Conceição.“He sacrificed himself for the team,” Conceição said in his post-game remarks. “He had a good game. We had to balance the central areas, he and Jovic were important on Asllani. He ran a lot, he gave a lot to the team.” Pulisic put in a 78-minute shift before being replaced by Ruben Loftus-Cheek. He had 41 touches during the match but lacked polish at times on the ball, completing 22 of his 28 pass attempts, though his defensive performance was sound. “Then it’s clear, he lacks a bit of freshness with the ball,” said Conceição. “When we spend more time without the ball, for players like Puli, it becomes more difficult. But I have great confidence in him.” Milan’s victory on Wednesday keeps their hopes of European soccer alive, with a spot in the UEFA Europa league awarded to the winners. Milan are in the midst of a bitterly disappointing league campaign and currently sit ninth in the Serie A table. The club are ever-present in European competition and have not missed continental play since the 2016-2017 season, when they finished seventh. They are eight points behind the final European spot awarded for league play. Those poor performances have put Conceição himself at risk. On Wednesday, he deflected questions about his own job security. “Conceicao is not important,” he said. “It is important to win against Venezia and then, when the final comes, we will be happy to do it. It’s not that we have already won it. I’m the same coach as two days ago, it’s not that everything is beautiful or everything is ugly. We need to find balance also on an emotional level, not just as a team.”
When Alexis Mac Allister struck the goal that made Liverpool’s title feel that bit more secure, the noise that followed prompted principal owner John W. Henry to adjust his hearing aid.
Yes, this isn’t baseball, John. This is football and this is Liverpool, where Henry and an entire generation of Liverpool supporters were experiencing something for the first time. It felt like the roof on the new Anfield Road stand was about to fly off. The boom at the other end seemed to rumble from the bowels of the Kop.
All day long in the city there was a sense that the place was going to go up, and at the moment of reckoning the detonation was even louder.
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The central figure in this scene was the referee, Tom Bramall. For four minutes of stoppage time, the focus of the crowd fell on him. With a blow of his whistle, all sorts of words applied: pandemonium, euphoria, mania. Scouse men, old enough to have been around when this club became relevant under Bill Shankly, were hugging one another. “Finally,” one said, though he did not seem to be talking about this game, but a much longer story.
(Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
It is easy to frown at such language and descriptions. After all, Liverpool emerged as champions elect some time ago. All they needed to do was get a point against opposition that had not won at this venue in 14 years. Their football now is methodical rather than thrilling, not the type to stimulate enthusiasm among neutrals — if they exist.
None of that matters to Liverpudlians who, it is fair to say, do not really care for the impressions of others anyway. This team has created its own mini-jeopardies along the way, adding to the suspense, and that included Spurs taking the lead via a former Liverpool player in Dominic Solanke. Yet inside 22 minutes of that goal, Liverpool were 3-1 up. And that was very much that.
It was tempting to look at the pitch during the celebrations, examining the reactions of the players. But the real stuff was in the stands. And by that, I don’t mean Henry and Mike Gordon, the man previously tasked with the running of Liverpool, high-fiving one another, or Richard Hughes, the sporting director less than a year into the job, earnestly shaking the hand of anyone congratulating him.
Arne Slot and John W. Henry share a moment after Liverpool’s title win is confirmed (Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Nearby, the legendary defender Alan Hansen, having recovered from a health scare a year ago, was raising his fists. Hansen was the last Liverpool captain to lift the title in front of fans at Anfield. The tale after that achievement is well-told. Here are your medals. A few beers shared by the players. Enjoy the summer. See you in a few weeks’ time for pre-season training. We’ll be doing this again.
Except that did not happen. And even when it did, nobody was around to really share it. It explains why this meant everything.
To understand the scenes inside Anfield, you have to take a walk through the city and you have to wind back in time, stopping first at 2020. You have to stand at the Pier Head, overlooking the River Mersey, and remember the strangeness of the 24 hours after Liverpool secured their first title in 30 years.
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(Drew Jordan / The Athletic)
On the night that happened, crowds descended onto the streets around the stadium despite restrictions on mass gatherings owing to the spread of Covid-19. Dusk was settling and, within an hour, it was difficult to tell how many were there. Amid a whiff of cordite and the light of flares, shadows were everywhere. Everybody seemed faceless. There was energy and joy but the mood was thick with desperation and laced with danger.
Fans had to celebrate outside Anfield when Liverpool won the title in July 2020 owing to Covid-19 restrictions (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
It was a carnal reaction, but it felt synthetic and, in pursuit of the real, the party trudged on. There was no official organiser for the Pier Head, but everyone seemed to know where to go. Local match-goers hung around chatting, reaching into plastic bags for warming bottles of beer. Songs went up and, eventually, a teenager from Southport attempted to change the pace by directing a couple of fireworks at offices owned by rivals, Everton. His mates cheered. Not many others did. After thousands of pounds worth of damage to the Royal Liver Building, an arson conviction followed. Liverpool had won the league but the response, in very unusual circumstances, felt a bit tryhard.
On a glorious Sunday morning nearly five years later, with Liverpool hours away from becoming champions again, it is easier to draw distinctions from the same, albeit quieter, setting about what the achievement means for club and place. Much can be gleaned from the Pier Head because of its connection to brown, scudding waters and the riches the river brought through shipping and trades as grim as slavery, which helped finance the resplendence of the civic structures marking its frontage.
(Simon Hughes for The Athletic)
The spread of wealth in Liverpool, however, was spectacularly uneven. By the 1840s, as its port grew to become the second largest in the British empire behind London, life expectancy on the shores of the Mersey fell to just below 26. Seventy-five per cent of young men who volunteered for military service were turned away for being unfit and many headed for the docks, where the work was casual.
Unlike in the manufacturing towns of England’s north west, where shifts were brutal but income was steady, dockers from Liverpool would assemble at the gates of the shipyards twice a day not knowing whether they were going to be allowed in and ultimately get paid. On top of that, clocking-on times were determined by the unpredictable tides of the Mersey. Liverpool’s geography therefore contributed as much towards a less structured way of life as an overriding employment culture without contracts or certainty.
Its geography also accounted for enormous challenges after the heavy bombing of the Second World War, including the rise of containerisation, because the Mersey simply wasn’t big enough to accommodate ships increasing in size. By the end of the 1970s, Liverpool’s social and economic struggle was visible inside the stadiums of Liverpool and Everton, where attendances slumped despite a period of unprecedented success on the pitch for both clubs. In 12 of the 15 seasons between 1975 and 1990, the old First Division title was won by a team from Merseyside. Football offered salvation, but sites such as the disused Albert Dock, crumbling beside the Pier Head, became a symbol of decay.
In 1981, prime minister Margaret Thatcher had received a memo from her chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, which proposed the abandonment of Liverpool through a process called “managed decline”. With Conservative popularity in the city collapsing as fast as living standards, her many critics in Liverpool believe that Howe’s recommendation was carried out. By the time Liverpool’s dominance of English football ended in 1990, you only needed to look around for proof.
That achievement came 12 months after Hillsborough, where 97 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death. Though authorities in South Yorkshire and centrally were to blame for the disaster, some of the deceased were still fighting for their lives when those responsible started shifting the focus away from their own failings, buttressed by support from craven sections of the media.
The subsequent fight for justice ran parallel with the story of the city’s football clubs trying to get back on track. In 2020, Liverpool’s younger supporters were close to experiencing something for the first time in their lives when events way beyond anyone’s control altered what felt right. It’s strange how moments you have rehearsed in your mind for so long end up with a very different script.
It was once claimed that the steel birds sitting on top of the Liver Building would fly away if Liverpool won the FA Cup but after that happened in 1965 for the first time, they remained and the team marked the achievement with a civic reception on the balcony of the town hall.
Bill Shankly addresses guests at a civic reception at Liverpool’s town hall in 1965 (PA Images via Getty Images)
There were huge crowds in all directions, choking Water Street, Dale Street and Castle Street. You would have thought that such a scene would be regarded as one of the most famous in Liverpool’s history. Perhaps that would have been the case had it not been for a reaction to a loss to Arsenal in the final of the same competition six years later.On this occasion, when the squad returned from London, they assembled on the steps of St George’s Hall, a mile or so inland from the Pier Head. Shankly turned to the 100,000 people in front of him, telling them that he’d “drummed it into our players, time and again, that they are privileged to play for you. And if they didn’t believe me, they believe me now.”Secretary Peter Robinson concluded the Liverpool manager’s power was total; that if he told supporters to “storm through the Mersey tunnel and seize Birkenhead, they’d have done it”. Yet the imagery from that day had a more profound effect because the fortunes of the club Shankly and Robinson guided was connected to somewhere other than Anfield.In defeat, the matrimony between manager, club and city had never been more visible. Shankly could say anything and his followers would believe it. You can imagine, then, the effect of his belief that the league title was the club’s “bread and butter — that’s what we want to win, all the time”. Except for 30 years, Liverpool did not get there. Maybe that explains why, even with a 12-point lead at the top of the table and needing only one more, there remained some sense of caution in the city on Sunday morning. The “Liverpool Champions 2024-25” season t-shirts being flogged on the steps of St George’s were not exactly flying out. Liverpool had a slightly occupied feel to it. Everyone knew something was happening but until you got closer to the ground, it wasn’t clear exactly what that was.
(Simon Hughes for The Athletic)
The quickest route from the centre of the city to Anfield takes you via Scotland Road and through Everton, a district that defined the foundations of both of the city’s football clubs, as well as preconceptions nationally about Liverpool as a place. Everton has had several identities, but crucially in 1878, when the club that takes its name was founded, it was a desirable suburb for wealthy merchants who built mansions on the hillside and enjoyed the views. It was therefore more practical to build a stadium in the neighbouring borough of Anfield, but after a rent dispute 14 years later, Liverpool FC came along, pushing Everton further away from its roots and into Walton.
More development introduced a mass of terraced housing for working-class Catholic and Protestant communities and Everton became one of the biggest hubs of Irish immigration outside of Ireland. The influx contributed greatly to the way Liverpool feels about itself and how the rest of Britain tends to feel about Liverpool. A sense of otherness is at play on both sides. Some Liverpudlians do not think very highly of the rest of England and that augments the desire for its football team to prove itself as the best in the country.
From St Domingo Road, you can’t see Anfield, but on this day you knew exactly where it was because of the red cloud hanging over it. Ninety minutes before kick off, Liverpool’s squad had arrived.
Fans gather at Anfield before kick-off (Simon Hughes for The Athletic)
Closer more, in pubs like the Mere, the Grove and the Salisbury, it was impossible to avoid the chants of “We’re gonna win the league…” They were not quite saying they were champions yet. It was still too early. But a few hours later, it wasn’t.Liverpool were champions. Liverpool are champions. In the traditions of the past, it is now their job to keep it that way.(Top photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
Before Yunus Musah could collect a pass from Kyle Walker early in the first half, a Fiorentina opponent was converging. The quick action should not have come as a surprise for the 22-year-old. Musah’s stock rose on the back of some precocious play with Valencia and the U.S. men’s national team, particularly as a box-to-box midfielder. When presented with space into which to run, his athleticism and close-control dribbling has allowed him to quickly progress upfield. When presented with little room to roam, he has shown a willingness to keep it conservative and recirculate. On April 5, however, Musah was not playing as a number 8. Instead, AC Milan manager Sergio Conceição lined Musah up in a double-pivot alongside Youssouf Fofana, facing Fiorentina’s three-man engine room. It was a more withdrawn role than his preferred utilization, but the hope was that the similar role description would still set Musah up to succeed. Back to that ball from Walker. In the seventh minute, Musah was moving toward his defense to collect a pass up the channel from the England international. Fiorentina’s numerical advantage put Nicolò Fagioli in prime position to quickly pounce, and Musah attempted to dribble around the Italian. It’s a natural maneuver on the wing, but one that requires precise execution in the heart of the park. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t so nimble on this occasion. The ball trickled away from Musah and right to Fiorentina, giving the visitors a chance for an unexpected short-field counter. Another midfielder, Rolando Mandragora, collected the ball and caught Fofana in two minds about whether to converge or let off and pick up another defensive mark. It created enough time for Mandragora to bypass Fofana with a quick pass to Albert Gudmundsson, who dribbled toward the touchline and crossed in front of the goalmouth for a clumsy tapped-in own goal.
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) April 5, 2025
Merely seven seconds passed from Musah’s dribble attempt to Fiorentina opening the scoring. After tracking back in vain, Musah looked to the sky in dejection. No teammate approached to console him.
Minutes later, Fiorentina doubled its lead. Musah had done well to recover and defend Walker’s usual terrain down the right flank, but when he forced his opponent to pass backwards, it was to a player standing where Musah would usually be in midfield. His unmarked cross flew into the box, leading to an easy squared assist for a Moise Kean finish.Even after his team halved its deficit, Musah was visibly shaken. In the 23rd minute, Conceição made a dramatic first-half tactical substitution, pulling Musah for another striker and dropping Tijjani Reijnders back into midfield. Although Milan rescued a 2-2 draw, this was a missed chance to make up ground in Serie A against a team directly above them in the table. It was also an awful shift for Musah, who has been an unused substitute in each of Milan’s two ensuing matches. As the 2024-25 campaign nears its end – and the second leg of the Coppa Italia semifinals vs. rival Inter Milan beckons on Wednesday – he looks to be a shell of the prospect who was among Europe’s most promising midfielders less than two years ago. For a player whose trademark characteristic is his smile, there’s been little to celebrate in a setback of a season.
At this point of 2023, Musah looked to have outgrown Valencia. Then just 20, he had drawn plenty of praise for his breakout performance at the 2022 World Cup, teaming with Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams to give the U.S. a coherent midfield trio. Musah didn’t have McKennie’s vivacious personality, nor Adams’ tireless work rate, but his technical ability and linking of both the defense to the midfield and the midfield to the forward line made him an essential part of Gregg Berhalter’s side. He had also become a mainstay for his club, logging 2,120 minutes in La Liga. By and large, those shifts came as a central midfielder, just as they had in Qatar. It was easy to see why Milan was among his suitors, as then-manager Stefano Pioli’s team had a clear need for a progressive box-to-box midfielder. They got their man, spending £17 million ($21.8 million) to sign Musah shortly after acquiring Pulisic.
While Musah was still filling other roles, especially out wide, this was the year that saw Valencia work to refine his game in the heart of the park. Previously, the club had alternated him between midfield and right wingback, enjoying his progressive dribbles as an outlet to build up the pitch. The concentrated focus in midfield helped show he could fit the role, and this was the year (and set of shifts) that ultimately won Milan’s favor. Throughout 2023-24, Pioli experimented more with a base 4-3-3 formation. It was a natural alternative to the 4-2-3-1 that Milan used heavily throughout Pioli’s tenure, and one that provided Musah with shifts in his preferred role. While Musah was needed to play other roles, from a deeper defensive midfield spot to a few roles along the right flank, he still logged much of his minutes in central midfield.
More importantly, it helped Milan to a second-place finish in Serie A after finishing fourth a year prior. However, Pioli announced his plan to depart the club as the season neared its end. Paulo Fonseca was appointed before the start of preseason in early June. Fonseca operated in a base 4-2-3-1, only sparingly shifting to a three-man midfield. Poor results led to his sacking in late December, with Conceição stepping in to start the new year. While his approach asked for more long balls and direct attacks than Fonseca’s, Milan still predominantly stayed in a 4-2-3-1 with a double-pivot at its midfield base. In Serie A, Milan has used a three-man midfield just three times since changing coaches. As a result, Musah has had less time in his preferred role than at any point of his senior career.
To understand why Musah’s ever-changing role could directly lead to his awful 23 minutes against Fiorentina, let’s strip the situation down to its basics.
Here is a young midfielder who was signed on the back of his box-to-box work. Currently, Milan does not play with a true number 8, leaving Musah to bring his approach to either defensive midfield or attacking midfield. The more advanced role invites a player to take more risks: more of the dribbles Musah enjoys taking, more high-risk passing. This is where Musah has spent the most of his time in 2024-25.
Against Fiorentina, those same actions (like the dribble leading to the own goal) are more dangerous when attempted in a player’s defensive half. There are fewer lines of teammates to bail someone out after a mishap, and less time to form a makeshift defensive shape. An opponent of their caliber will hardly be wasteful when such a gift finds them. Each role also asks a player to read a game in different ways. This isn’t a new issue for USMNT players at the club level, with McKennie and Pulisic having to change roles throughout their careers based on teammates’ availability and their coaches’ wishes. A young midfielder like Musah may drift even further from their eventual home as their athleticism outpaces their game reading. Before establishing himself as a defensive midfielder, Adams logged many shifts at fullback and wingback with his boyhood New York Red Bulls.Another midfielder on the 2022 World Cup squad, Kellyn Acosta, did similar time upon breaking through with FC Dallas. For years, his midfield shifts were scattered in between starts at either fullback position. In his “My Game in My Words” installment on The Athletic, Acosta recalled that shifts at outside back allowed him to “take multiple touches and find my pass” without the quick decision-making necessary to navigate a crowded midfield.“As I was younger, it was one of those things where you don’t want to make a mistake,” Acosta said in 2022. “You’re like ‘OK, I received the ball from my center back; the safe option is often to go back to the center back.’ Eventually, I started connecting passes and being more daring. I started being more comfortable with overlapping, finding space, taking shots, getting assists, crossing. As the games went on, I felt more and more comfortable.”Eventually, those reps were put into action as Acosta carved a role in midfield. Across 58 senior international caps with the U.S., the overwhelming majority were as a central or defensive midfielder.Of course, the 29-year-old Acosta has spent his entire career to date in MLS. With Dallas, the Colorado Rapids, Los Angeles FC and the Chicago Fire, Acosta has been a primary target each time he moves clubs. Colorado, LAFC and Chicago all signed Acosta to fill a specific role in their midfield.
When a young player like Musah leaves a relegation-zone side in La Liga for a Champions League qualifier in Serie A, his immediate role is best defined as “a squad option.” He’s there to patch holes, and the versatile skillset that made him seem like such a promising midfielder can be transposed to fill a lot of gaps as first-choice options are hurt, need a rest or are out of form.
Musah and Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior vying for possession in the UEFA Champions League. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
Tack on Milan’s pair of coaching changes and sustained poor form over the last 10 months, and there’s no room for a coach to ride out a developing midfielder in hopes that time will refine his rough edges. The stakes are too high for Milan to exhibit that kind of patience, and players will be graded on the same pass/fail curve whether they’re young or old.ake a mistake like Musah’s against Fiorentina, and the ensuing first-half hook and two games as an unused substitute are a sad reality of the situation he signed on to enter.Playing for the best club possible still provides a player with trade-offs. For someone in critical developmental years like Musah, who hasn’t looked any more evolved than he did in Valencia’s most hapless stretches, it may be too great a sacrifice without a makeweight payout. Even the nature of this latest gaffe suggests that playing in the defensive half is too negative of an assignment given how Musah approaches the game. That dribble was his instinctive reaction to a converging defender, rather than a safer recirculated pass attempt or clearance out of bounds.Milan will need to retool its squad again whether or not Conceição is brought back. Musah’s name has understandably been in transfer rumors, with his status as a homegrown in England (after years in Arsenal’s academy) inviting links to Premier League sides like Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham.If Musah leaves, the global status of his suitors ought to be of secondary importance. With time running short before the 2026 World Cup, the priority has to be getting him into a situation where he can dependably earn the right to play in his preferred slot. If he can return to his best form and improve upon it with consistent playing time in midfield, he could ensure that Mauricio Pochettino builds his squad with Musah at its heart. If not, then one of the breakout players of the 2022 World Cup could be a non-factor altogether just four years later.
USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps says salary cap issue to blame for NWSL departures
USWNT captain and Lyon midfielder Lindsey Heaps says the NWSL salary cap may be to blame for some of America’s top players leaving the league for Europe.A small wave of Americans left the NWSL for Europe this summer, highlighted by Naomi Girma who became the first million-dollar transfer in women’s soccer. Girma left the San Diego Wave for Chelsea for a world-record $1.1 million fee in January.Speaking ahead of Lyon’s Champions League semifinal clash with Arsenal, Heaps called the cap an “ongoing issue,” when asked why Americans are coming to Europe.“There’s a salary cap in NWSL and I think that’s an ongoing issue there that hopefully can be changed or increased,” Heaps said at Lyon’s press conference. “It’s a factor in the NWSL and for players coming overseas.”Heaps will square off against USWNT teammates Emily Fox and Jenna Nighswonger, both defenders on Arsenal, on Saturday. She described the matchup as “so cool, so exciting and also very special for me, because these moments don’t happen a lot.”There are “a lot of things” that attract Americans to Europe, Heaps said. “You have two very, very good leagues. (When) you play a lot of time in the NWSL, like I did, I wanted a different challenge.“It wasn’t anything against the NWSL, but I wanted to come play in Champions League again. I wanted to play for a big club like this. I think I just needed a different kind of challenge.“Maybe that’s also what these players felt. Speaking with Nay [Naomi Girma], speaking with Jenna [Nighswonger], speaking with Foxy [Emily Fox], that’s what they need. That’s what they needed at the time.” At their recent national team camp, Heaps said she teased Fox ahead of their Champions League clash. “I was giving Foxy [Emily Fox] as much crap as I possibly could and trying to just chip at her a little bit.”She said it was “special” to see her U.S. teammate’s excelling in an environment like Arsenal’s. “To see [Fox] go and make that big move and play well and be a very impactful player for the team as well, I think that’s really special for me to see as a captain.“I want all of my players to be doing well – just not this weekend, I hope.”
Champions League Finals Sat 3 pm CBS & CCL Finals Sat 9 pm FS1
A little Hype Video – Don’t miss the Greatest Anthem in Sports when the teams walk out to this. Hopefully we’ll see a version of Dortmund’s famous Yellow Wall in London Sat. Excited to see if Dortmund can continue their amazing run in London in the finals of the Champion League Sat at 3 pm on CBS vs Real Madrid. Of course The Madridistas are the favorites but Dortmund has been giant killer all season as they continue to find a way. I sure would be excited if American Gio Reyna was actually playing. Either way I think Madrid just has too much firepower and will win this one 2-1. Coverage starts at 1 pm on Paramount plus before moving to CBS at 2 pm. The Concacaf Finals featuring the MLS Champion Columbus Crew traveling to Mexican Powerhouse Pachuca starts at 9:15 pm on FS1. Lots of stories below on both games.
Indy 11 Win Again
Jack Blake scored a pair of goals to lead Indy Eleven over reigning USL Champions Phoenix Rising FC, 2-1, on Saturday night at Carroll Stadium. Indy is riding a nine-match unbeaten streak including a record 7 straight wins across all competitions, including five straight in USL Championship action, and finishes the month of May 4-0-0 in league action. Indy improves to 6-4-2 on the season – good for 3rd in the East. The Boys in Blue hit the road for at two-match road swing at Pittsburgh (June 1) and Birmingham (June 9) before returning home to host San Antonio FC on June 15. Single-game tickets are available for all matches via Ticketmaster.
US Ladies Olympic Warm Up Games – Sat 5 pm TBS, Tues 8 pm TNT
New coach Emma Hayes takes over and will coach her first games on the sidelines for the US ladies as they take on Korea in an Olympics warm up series starting Sat night. She has named a handful of youngsters and I really have no idea who will start where in this Saturday’s game. Will certainly be worth the watch. American Lindsay Horan and Olympic Lyonnaise fell just short in the UEFA Champions League final loss to Barcelona (highlights) as the largest TV audience ever looked on.
US 23 Pre-Olympic Roster is Released
Interesting that Walker Zimmerman in the only overaged player in the Olympic Pre-Camp – only 18 players can go – so this 27 man roster will have to reduce by 9 players – still surprised we aren’t bringing an over-aged forward or Pepi maybe, even Reyna is the right age – why not play both for he and Pepi? I will be very interested to see what the final roster is.
Midfielders: Cole Bassett (Colorado), Gianluca Busio (Venezia, Italy), Benjamin Cremaschi (Miami), Jack McGlynn (Philadelphia), Aidan Morris (Columbus), Rokas Pukstas (Hajduk Split, Croatia), Tanner Tessmann (Venezia, Italy).
Forwards: Paxten Aaronson (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany), Esmir Bajraktarevic (New England), Taylor Booth (Utrecht, Netherlands), Cade Cowell (Guadalajara, Mexico), Damion Downs (Cologne, Germany), Johan Gomez (Eintracht Braunschweig, Germany), Duncan McGuire (Orlando), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg, Germany), Griffin Yow (Westerlo, Belgium).
Good luck to all the teams playing in State/President’s & Challenge Cup finals this weekend especially our CARMEL FC Teams below at Grand Park! I will be out there reffing a few games Sat/Sun.
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2024/2025 Tryout and Evaluation Information Carmel FC will be hosting tryouts for new and existing players on the following dates:
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Shane with Susie and Brett Y at Grand Park Friday night – moved inside for Weather thank goodness
CYO Final under the lights at Guerin Catholic with Mike Xanders (left) and Joe Fistrovich.
Midfield questions abound as Hayes kicks off USWNT camp – US plays Sat 5 pm TBS
The USWNT officially entered training camp ahead of their June friendlies this week, with Emma Hayes making her first in-person appearance as head coach. The camp consists of a total of 27 players (23 fully rostered plus four training players), with the training players set to depart prior to the team’s first match on June 1st. Big picture: With the addition of the training players, the midfield is becoming a particularly crowded positional area for the team. Three of the four players invited into camp to train alongside the full roster are midfielders: Portland’s Olivia Moultrie, Washington rookie Croix Bethune, and Spirit defensive midfielder Andi Sullivan. Sullivan started for the USWNT at the 2023 World Cup, but was a late inclusion to Hayes’s training camp roster after player travel from European club play was taken into consideration. In her introductionto American media,Hayes spoke to ESPN about her initial approach to managing a congested USWNT midfield.”I’ve asked to see players that weren’t in the World Cup last year,” she said. “I’ve watched Korbin [Albert] play for PSG. I was hugely impressed by Sam Coffey when Chelsea played against the Thorns in a tournament in Portland.”The US has recently favored a system featuring two defensive midfielders, which likely means a combination of Coffey, Hal Hershfelt, and Emily Sonnett in June.”I haven’t made a decision about the Olympic roster yet, so there is time,” Hayes told ESPN.
Champions League Final 2024 predicted lineups: Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid starting XI, analysis
NBC Sports Thu, May 30, 2024, 11:36 AM EDT·3 min read
The UEFA Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid is set to be an intriguing tactical encounter at Wembley on Saturday.
Real are the heavy favorites but Dortmund have shown they can frustrate the big boys and in a head-to-head scrap there are so many individual battles to look forward to.
Below are the Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid predicted lineups for the final, with analysis on how Edin Terzic and Carlo Ancelotti could cause a few surprises with their team selections.
The back four is very settled for Dortmund and the experience of Hummels has been key to holding firm in this unexpected run to the final, while goalkeeper Kobel has also been exceptional amid several defensive masterclasses. Maatsen’s pace and trickery at left back could be a huge factor in shutting down Real Madrid as he will be tasked with keeping Rodrygo quiet. In midfield the experience duo of Emre Can and Marcel Sabitzer have proved their doubters wrong and keep the ball extremely well. And that is key to getting Sancho, Brandt and Adeyemi involved as much as possible as they cut inside and interchange. Having the likes of Reus, Moukoko and Malen to come off the bench also gives Dortmund plenty of options in the attacking third, with Fullkrug a brilliant focal point to their attack and his hold-up play will allow them to ease some of the considerable pressure they will be under on Saturday. Dortmund will look to sit back and not allow Real space in-behind and then spring attacks of their own quickly by hitting Fullkrug early and getting Sancho and Adeyemi high and wide up the pitch.
Ancelotti has yet to make a decision in terms of his starting goalkeeper with Lunin standing in superbly to help get them to the final but now Thibaut Courtois is back fit and given his experience and penchant for delivering in the big finals, you’d expect the Belgian to get the nod. The back four picks itself with Nacho rolling back the years and he and Rudiger will relish the challenge of trying to keep Fullkrug quiet in a similar way to how they tamed Erling Haaland. Midfield is the big issue for Real Madrid. Aurelien Tchouameni is out injured so Federico Valverde, Toni Kroos and Eduardo Camavinga are likely to start to give Real a solid defensive shield in front of their back four. But will Luka Modric start given all of his big-game experience? Jude Bellingham will start in attacking midfield, maybe drifting slightly to the left, and his driving runs forward will open up space for the duo of Rodrygo and Vinicius to peel off and cause havoc. Especially on the counter. That is how Real have been hurting teams all season long and they should have significant joy against Dortmund if they can engineer plenty of counter-attacking situations.
Paris 2024 Olympics: Messi? Pulisic? Mbappe? Could any major stars be playing at Games?
This summer will not be a quiet one. Not only is the men’s European Championship taking place in Germany but the Copa America is also happening in the United States at the same time.Both finals will be played on July 15. But the summer tournaments do not end there as, nine days later, the Olympic men’s football tournament will get underway in France. That does not leave a lot of time between tournaments and for those hoping to perform at two major competitions in a single summer.There are 16 nations who will do battle for Olympic gold, silver and bronze. Among them are France, Argentina and Egypt. But will we be seeing superstars Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah at the Olympic Games?Each team can name three players over the age of 23 to their 22-player squads — the rest have to be 23 or younger. So which household names will be going for gold?
Let’s start with host nation France. They begin their golden quest on home soil in Marseille against the United States. This will be the opening game of the tournament.The biggest question surrounding Kylian Mbappe is not about the club he will play for next season — which is surprising, given he has confirmed he is leaving Paris Saint-Germain but not his destination. However, Mbappe has long been tipped to join Real Madrid once his Paris Saint-Germain contract expires at the end of June. The more pertinent question is whether Mbappe will become an Olympian in the year his home city hosts the event.Speaking in 2021, Mbappe said every athlete wants to compete at the Olympics and referred to the tournament as the “Holy Grail”.
Giroud and Griezmann could be among the overage selections for France (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Madrid, though, will not release their players to feature in the tournament. FIFA’s rulebook states clubs must release players for the European Championship but not the Olympics. Should Mbappe join Madrid before then, it will be interesting to see whether France’s poster boy is allowed to play.Talk earlier in the year was that Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud could be the two overage players in the squad alongside Mbappe. Griezmann in March said he will do everything to be there. Meanwhile, Giroud has told L’Equipe this summer’s Euros will be his last tournament with France in order to make way for the next generation — although it is unclear whether that included playing for manager Thierry Henry at the Olympics.
From one World Cup-winning legend to another.Lionel Messi taking part in the Olympics in Paris, where he lived for two years while at PSG, would be box office. But can he do it?Messi, who turns 37 in June, will captain Argentina earlier in the summer as they pursue what would be a record 16th Copa America title. Should they go the distance, the turnaround time would be nine days until the start of the Olympics, when Argentina take on Morocco. And let’s face it — the magical, mystical Messi is not getting younger.The Inter Miami captain has already achieved Olympic glory at the 2008 games in Beijing alongside current under-23s head coach Javier Mascherano, who also won gold as a player in 2004. Mascherano will surely be keen on linking up with his former team-mate but Inter Miami will have a decision to make if a Messi request comes their way. Both the Copa and the Olympics are happening right in the middle of the Major League Soccer season.Mascherano recently said the door is open for Messi to play in the Olympics. And while we know it would be a huge deal for him to be there, no decision has yet been made on whether he will take up any potential invitation.Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez was 23 at the start of the season, so can be selected by Mascherano as part of the under-23s side. Whether or not he has the green light to play from his club is not yet known. He is a key player for Chelsea. Will they really want him to hardly have a rest this summer?
The big debate in Spain is whether Barcelona’s teen sensations Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi could play at the Euros and Olympics or just one. Barcelona’s sporting director Deco has stated he does not approve of players being at both tournaments. This could therefore limit the opportunity not only for Yamal and Cubarsi but Gavi and Pedri too.Gavi will not return to full fitness from the anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered last year in time to play in Germany but should he be fit in time for the Olympics a month later. This will raise the question as to whether he may or may not be called up.
Yamal could be in the Spain squad (Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images)
Barcelona, though, are surely unlikely to make the same mistake as previous summers. In 2021 they allowed Pedri to play at the Olympics after he had featured six times for Spain as they reached the semi-finals of the Euros. Pedri then played every game as Spain reached the final in Tokyo, which they lost to Brazil. Shortly after, Pedri picked up a hamstring injury which kept him out of the majority of the 2021-22 season.
A fun name in the frame is Sergio Ramos. Could he captain Spain again and be the experienced figurehead in France? Now aged 38, Ramos was left out of both tournaments in 2021, and it is looking like history will repeat itself.
United States
It is looking unlikely Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams will represent the U.S. at the Olympics this summer. A home Copa America is the sole focus.Under-23s boss Marko Mitrovic named a provisional squad of 22 players for warm-up games in March. He named a young team and any overage players who do get the Olympic call are more likely to be among those senior players who missed the Copa cut.
Mohamed Salah missed the Olympics three years ago. It has been non-stop over the last few years for the Liverpool winger. Salah has barely had a proper rest. Will his workload be upped in July by Olympic games selection or will he be on pre-season with Liverpool?It is currently unclear whether Salah will be among the Egyptian team travelling to Nantes for an opening game against the Dominican Republic.Head coach Rogerio Micale wants Salah to play at the Games. Egypt fans will surely want Salah there too. Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the U.S. will commence around the same time, though, and the club could block Salah’s participation — just as they did in 2021.This will be one of Arne Slot’s key decisions when he officially takes over from Jurgen Klopp in June. (Top photos: Getty Images)
Olympic analysis American Soccer Now
Analysis: Mitrovic names 25 to final pre-Olympic camp
ASN’s Brian Sciaretta breaks down the U.S. Olympic team’s final camp before departing for Paris in July. ASN will be in France this summer for the Olympics and has been covering the team in detail all cycle. Here is our report.
BY BRIAN SCIARETTAPOSTED MAY 29, 202412:00 PM
ON WEDNESDAY, United States Olympic team manager Marko Mitrovic announced his roster for the June camp that will conclude with a friendly against Japan on June 11 in Kansas City. This is the team’s fourth and final camp before the start of Olympic preparations and is the last chance for Mitrovic to look at players before he names his final roster in July.
For this camp, Mitrovic named a big roster of 25 players. It also included the first overage call-up with Walker Zimmerman making the list, which is a huge indication he will make the final team.
But assuming two more overage players get named and the age-eligible players all come from this camp, that means up to nine players in this roster will be cut to make the final 18-player Olympic team. With a final roster that small, there are a lot of tough decisions and this camp will be very important in deciding who makes the final team.
Here is the roster along with some key thoughts.
The Roster
GOALKEEPERS (2): Patrick Schulte (Columbus Crew; St. Charles, Mo.), Gaga Slonina (Chelsea/ENG; Addison, Ill.)
DEFENDERS (7): Nathan Harriel (Philadelphia Union; Oldsmar, Fla.), Jalen Neal (LA Galaxy; Lakewood, Calif.), Bryan Reynolds (KVC Westerlo/BEL; Fort Worth, Texas), John Tolkin (New York Red Bulls; Chatham, N.J.), Jonathan Tomkinson (Norwich City/ENG; Plano, Texas), Caleb Wiley (Atlanta United FC; Atlanta, Ga.), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC; Lawrenceville, Ga.)
FORWARDS (9): Paxten Aaronson (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER; Medford, N.J.), Esmir Bajraktarevic (New England Revolution; Appleton, Wisc.), Taylor Booth (Utrecht/NED; Eden, Utah), Cade Cowell (Guadalajara/MEX; Ceres, Calif.), Damion Downs (Köln/GER; Schwebenried, Germany), Johan Gomez (Eintracht Braunschweig/GER; Keller, Texas), Duncan McGuire (Orlando City SC; Omaha, Neb.), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg/GER; South Riding, Va.), Griffin Yow (KVC Westerlo/BEL; Clifton, Va.)
OVERAGE FOCUS
Walker Zimmerman is the first overage player to be involved with the team and his selection is obvious now that he has returned from injury. It was always obvious that Mitrovic was going to have to bolster the team’s central defense with overage picks. The age-eligible U-23 pool is very thin in central defense in MLS or first and second divisions in Europe.
When you exclude the five players who are currently in camp with the full USMNT, the options become even more limited. As most people know now, club releases for the Olympics are voluntary. Zimmerman is a player who has a lot of USMNT experience, is familiar with just about every player at this camp, and is in a situation where Nashville will let him go.
But why is Zimmerman the only overage player selected?
It wouldn’t be surprising if the remaining two options are currently with the USMNT. In Gregg Berhalter’s recent interview with the Washington Post, it was mentioned Miles Robinson and Auston Trusty as options. Zimmerman is almost certainly going after being named to this team. Robinson is probably a stronger candidate than Trusty right now given that he has chemistry with Zimmerman, and his release is more likely. If Trusty was a very strong Olympic candidate, his absence from this camp doesn’t make sense.
In terms of what is needed, look for another overage central defender and perhaps a versatile attacker.
4 OLYMPIC DEBUTS
Four age-eligible players were called up to their first camp with the Olympic team. The fact that these players are earning looks this late in the cycle probably reflects well on their part. It’s a tough barrier to break into any team this late and this is a legit opportunity for all four. If they play well at this camp, they could be Paris bound.
Here’s a look at how they got here.
Damion Downs: The FC Koln forward battled a concussion this season which saw him miss several months. But he also scored two game-winning goals during an intense Bundesliga relegation battle. In the end, Koln were relegated but Downs emerged as the team’s top forward off the bench. The 2.Bundesliga could give him a stage to contribute more, but will Koln trust him in a promotion race? He’s talented but raw. His strength is being big and physical, but his weakness is that he can drift out of games and struggles at times to get touches. Downs is a German-American and has been called up to one USYNT in the past.
For Downs, his main competition is Duncan McGuire who is well established in this team and who is looking for a summer transfer from Orlando City. Paperwork errors saw his January move to Blackburn fall through. But Downs also faces competition from Johan Gomez who plays for Eintracht Braunschweig of the 2.Bundesliga and has been involved in every camp. There is also a high likelihood of an overage forward is also named. Downs has a lot of competition, but still has an opportunity.
Jalen Neal: Neal has long been viewed as the best of an albeit weak generation of centerbacks. Last summer, the LA Galaxy refused to release him to the U-20 World Cup. Then in late July 2023, he was sidelined due to a sports hernia and suffered setbacks in his recovery. He is now back for the Galaxy and while he has shown some rust, he is on the path to getting back to his pre-injury level. While the chances are high Mitrovic takes two overage central defenders, he will need to take at least one age-eligible centerback. With Maximillian Dietz out with an injury, Neal compares very favorably to other options like Jonathan Tomkinson or George Campbell.
Rokas Pukstas: The Hajduk Split attacking midfielder finishes his second season as a regular starter for the Croatian club. This season he had seven goals and one assist. He’s well-liked by U.S. Soccer, enough to the point where they kept a roster spot open for him at the 2023 U-20 World Cup and allowed him to arrive after the group stages of the tournament.
He’s effective but still raw as a player and doesn’t get a lot of touches. He also scores a lot of goals from headers and is a good finisher, not necessarily a great creator aside from set pieces. He deserves a look but faces tough competition from players like Paxten Aaronson, Gianluca Busio, and maybe Diego Luna (who is not at this camp). He is also very young, at 19 years old.
Gaga Slonina: This is actually his first camp but he was called up to the March camp only to withdraw because of an injury. At this point, it seems very likely that Slonina and Patrick Schulte are the top two keepers for the Olympic team. Slonina had a tough season on loan from Chelsea to Eupen. The team’s relegation wasn’t his fault, but he was part of it. Watching his confidence at this camp will be key.
LUNA AMONG TOUGH OMISSIONS
With this team having only four camps and this being the team’s final camp, this is not a camp players want to miss if they have any hope of making the Olympic team. The player pool right now is mostly healthy. Greuther Furth defender Maximillian Dietz is injured, but Neal’s return and the use of overage players made him a bubble player.
Here is a look at some notable players who are out – not including U-23 players in camp with the senior USMNT.
Diego Luna: The Real Salt Lake attacking mid/winger is by far the most notable omission. While he started off the season slowly, he has been playing very well as of late as RSL has climbed the standings of the Western Conference. He is versatile, scrappy, and a creator, and his current form make his absence surprising.
Chris Brady: The Chicago Fire goalkeeper is frankly just behind Patrick Schulte and Gaga Slonina right now.
Brian Gutierrez: The Chicago Fire attacking mid/winger just hasn’t been in the mix for Mitrovic after the first camp. Mitrovic knows Gutierrez well from his days as a Fire assistant and Gutierrez just hasn’t been part of the team’s plans.
Quinn Sullivan: The versatile Philadelphia Union attacker/midfielder has had a good start to the 2024 season and he’s made some important strides in his game. But he hasn’t been with the team at all this cycle and it just seems like Mitrovic has him behind many others.
Obed Vargas: One of the players who is attempting to play up a cycle, Vargas has been playing well for Seattle lately but looks more like an option with the U.S. U-20 team, for now.
Bernard Kamungo: The FC Dallas winger ended 2023 in great form and had a very good start to the U.S. U-23 cycle. But his form has been off to start 2024 and the winger pool is competitive.
Dan Edelman: The 2023 U.S. U-20 World Cup captain made his U.S. U-23 debut in March but is not part of this camp. He’s competing with Aidan Morris and Tanner Tessmann, which is not easy.
Josh Atencio: Another defensive midfielder, but the Seattle Sounder has a lot of competition for a spot.
CREMASCHI & BAJRAKTAREVIC PLAYING UP
Two players are on this team who are attempting to play up a cycle. This means they are also eligible for the 2025 U-20 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. It’s a tough hurdle to make a U-23 team up a cycle, but Benja Cremaschi and Esmir Bajraktarevic have been there for most of this cycle. Unsurprisingly, Mitrovic knows both players very well from his previous job as the U.S. U-19 head coach.
Here is a look at both players:
Esmir Bajraktarevic: The crafty winger is one of the top American teenagers in MLS but is stuck on a Revolution team that is off to a disastrous start amid with reports of player unhappiness. It’s been hard for him to stand out with the Revs. To make the Olympic team, he will have to beat out most of a long list that includes Cremaschi, Pardes, Yow, Aaronson, Booth, and Luna.
Benja Cremaschi: The Inter Miami attacking midfielder missed time with his club and the Olympic team due to a sports hernia operation. But he was part of the Olympic team for the first two camps. Playing alongside Messi, Suarez, and Busquets will help any player but Cremaschi is coming off a solid performance in an away win over Vancouver where Miami didn’t have its older stars. He is going to have to beat out tough players to make the team, but it looks like Mitrovic rates Cremaschi as well.
BASSETT AND BOOTH RETURN
Two players who return from the team after a period away are Cole Bassett and Taylor Booth. Both players are in position to fight for a roster spot on the Olympic team.
Taylor Booth was part of the team’s first two camps but was not part of the team in March due to a knee injury he suffered in February. He has returned to Utrecht the past month. His form hasn’t been as strong as it was preinjury (where he had five goals in two games before the injury) but this camp will give him an opportunity to compete. He’s not a lock, but he is a strong candidate.
Meanwhile, Cole Bassett is a player who was part of the November camp but then left off the USMNT January camp and March Olympic camps. But his form for Colorado has been outstanding to start the season (5 goals, 3 assists, 1347 minutes). You can’t ignore a player who enters camp red hot. We’ve seen this with Griffin Yow on this Olympic team as he is now a favorite to go to Paris.
The rosters for major youth tournaments are often about who is in the best form in the months leading into a major tournament. Bassett might have a chance if he can translate his form with Colorado into this camp.
LOTS OF COMPETITION, FEW LOCKS
In terms of this roster, there is a lot of competition. There just aren’t many locks. Some players seem very likely to go.
Tanner Tessmann, Gianluca Busio, Patrick Schulte, Aidan Morris, Gaga Slonina, Kevin Paredes, and Paxten Aaronson are as close to locks as you might expect. Even then, there are strange things that can happen. For example, if Gio Reyna is allowed to play at the Olympics, then that could change things for Aaronson or Busio.
Bryan Reynolds has a very good chance of going given his consistent involvement and Nathan Harriel has been apart of every single camp – showing a useful versatility off the bench. Unless the roster gets expanded (and in 2021, the Olympic roster was increased from 18 to 22 just three weeks before the start of the tournament), then 18 players brings an entirely different dynamic. Coaches have their starting XI but then the backups must be versatile because there is not enough roster space to have a one-for-one backup at every position. There are 25 players on this roster. There are two more overage players who will join and there are a few other age eligible players on the USMNT who might be allowed to play in the Olympics. There seems to be a lot up for grabs right now. This camp is going to decide a lot.
USWNT head coach Emma Hayes brings unique personality back to the country that ‘made’ her
Emma Hayes won her fifth consecutive Women’s Super League title with Chelsea on Saturday. On Wednesday, she arrived in Newark off her flight from Heathrow, and by Thursday morning she was awaiting a whirlwind media tour introducing her to an American audience that she, in some form, already knew.But before the car picked her up from her hotel to begin that tour, she took a walk in the morning through Central Park, early as it was.New York City is a place where anonymity and fame can happen simultaneously, where the incoming head coach of the U.S. women’s national team can take a long, meandering walk through an often-bustling park and have that moment to herself before the pressure fully sets in.In a few months, after she takes charge of the U.S. women’s national team at the Paris Olympics, Hayes might not have the leisure of taking a walk anywhere without being recognized.At her first stop on Thursday at 30 Rock to appear on the Today Show, Hayes delivered the perfect line for those watching at home, unfamiliar with her journey as a coach — a winding two decades that ended with her in the highest profile coaching role in women’s soccer.“I’m lucky to be born in England, but made in America.”For Emma Hayes, who spent many years in her early career as a coach in New York, the paths of Central Park — and the city itself — already felt like home.
Hayes previously spent time coaching in New York. (Photo by USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Hours after her first national TV hit, and after an early summer thunderstorm blew through Manhattan, Hayes settled in at the head of a table in a conference room at the NWSL offices near Bryant Park. Behind her, a massive window showed the streets below, the sidewalks filled, sunlight filtering in between the skyscrapers.“Walking around New York, you can just imagine me getting off at Newark yesterday and thinking, ‘I remember those days,” Hayes told the small roundtable of reporters assembled for her first day on the job. Hayes lived in New York for seven years, and she remembered them well both for all of the challenges they presented a young coach, but also for the fulfillment they provide, and the lifetime friendships.She had first come to New York from England having coached a bit in some youth programs in Liverpool and London, with her playing career ended years before thanks to a skiing accident as a teenager.“(I was) fighting to stay in the country on different visas,” she recalled. “Wondering where I’m going to get enough to pay the rent in the next upcoming block. What am I going to do next?”
She coached teams in Syosset and Port Washington (both in suburban Long Island) and said she spent “many a time underneath the Throgs Neck” – referring to the Throgs Neck bridge that links the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx, which overlooks a soccer field at Little Bay Park.For a while, Hayes said, she had an apartment in Washington Heights, near the northern tip of Manhattan. She used to look out at the George Washington Bridge, take her walks then in Fort Tryon Park. It’s easy to imagine a 20-something Hayes wandering through that bucolic park’s numerous features: the heather garden, blooming with colors overlooking the Hudson River; the Cloisters, the Met’s medieval art collection housed in a castle; maybe through the Billings Arcade down below, a stone arch essentially created as a Gilded Age driveway.Hayes, in many ways, has contributed to the mythologizing of those early days.“I’ve got so many fond memories of turning up in Long Island with a backpack and a thousand dollars and working for clubs across the whole of Long Island and Westchester and New York City,” she said in her introductory Q&A with U.S. Soccer, published in November. “I’ve experienced everything from intramural soccer, recreational Sunday soccer, to the collegiate game, to USL, to the pro game, to state ODP, regionals.”On Thursday, she brought up many of those same organizations again, mentioning friends like Lisa Cole, a longtime coach and current technical advisor to the Zambia national team. Cole was visiting Hayes in London when she learned she got the USWNT job.“My journey has been bottom-up, so I have such an appreciation, not just of the landscape, but my journey,” Hayes said last week. “I’ve worked hard to get to this point. You can dream for something — we all have dreams — but it’s not often your dreams become reality.”It wasn’t a long leap from her own story to that of the American dream, but Hayes tied both to her future with the USWNT.“I always grew up with that notion of this whole American dream concept that you can come to the country, work in a certain way — and as a woman coming from England, trust me, I never felt more supported than I did when I worked in the U.S.,” she said. “To work my way up through the system, to now be the head coach for the USWNT, as far as I’m concerned, I will give it absolutely everything I’ve got to make sure I uphold the traditions of this team.”
Hayes won five consecutive WSL titles with Chelsea. (Photo by Clive Brunskill, Getty Images)
Hayes’s nostalgia-heavy trip to New York City only lasted about 48 hours before she was off to Denver for her first camp with the USWNT, but it provided a reminder of what’s changed in the time since.“As a parent, I know where the toy shops are now,” Hayes said, noting with a smile she had passed a few already on Thursday. The presence of her son, Harry, had played a role in her departure from Chelsea, as the long hours and grind of the club season proved incompatible with solo parenthood.“Everybody’s under pressure, everybody’s got to get headlines. Everybody’s got to grab content,” she said at the time earlier this year, after deleting her social media accounts following a loss to Liverpool that had put Chelsea’s title run into question. “For football managers, we’re in an impossible position. Because every day we’re in a place where, no matter what we say, it will be turned into something that gets you guys (the media) paid and at the same time puts us in a position where we’re just pieces of meat.”By Thursday, her accounts had been restored and she was posting a few behind-the-scenes looks of her arrival in the States, a photo with Chris Pratt while at the “Today Show” and a video the NWSL cooked up about watching games on their streaming platform.In an hour-long meeting with reporters that could have felt transactional, Hayes never shied away from being personal. She embraced it, just as she said she embraced the pressure of the role, despite going on record a few times about how she’d actually much prefer “a quiet life” out of the spotlight. She mentioned that she didn’t mind the long list of media appearances and interviews on Thursday, just as long as they didn’t happen every three days.The spotlight will shine much brighter with the USWNT, but Hayes seems ready for it. She danced around the question of what color medal the USWNT will bring back from Paris on the “Today Show,” instead providing an answer that focused on the process. She did the same later in the day when asked about how she wanted to approach external messaging on the goals of the team.
“I want to focus on the process and the performance,” she said. “For me, it’s absolutely essential.”
For a team that’s been at the sharp end of many bad-faith attacks following its early World Cup exit, “essential” feels too light a word. A focus on the process could mean that results won’t be tied to self-worth and that everyone can still claim their humanness at the end of the day.In one of the last questions she received, Hayes was asked what she’d bring to the USWNT as head coach that no one ever has before. She answered, fast as a New York minute, with a smile.“Oh, you’re never gonna get anybody with a personality like me!”(Top photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)
Roger Bennett & the Boys 
USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t have many options behind Antonee Robinson at left back (Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
Can Flick’s Barca build further on last season’s success? (Judit Cartiel/Getty Images)
Alonso was appointed as Madrid coach back in May (Sara Gordon/Real Madrid via Getty Images)
Jauregizar, pictured in pre-season for Athletic (Joris Verwijst/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
United States international Cardoso in action for Atletico in pre-season against Newcastle (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)
Bryan Mbeumo (left), Benjamin Sesko (middle) and Matheus Cunha (Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Alexander Isak during pre-season training in July (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah celebrate against Germany in 2023 (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
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Teams will be awarded a corner if the opposition goalkeeper holds onto the ball for too long (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez was involved in a double-touch penalty in last season’s Champions League (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
(Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
(Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
(Stu Forster/Getty Images)
(Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Wrexham’s new pitch, as seen before their first home match of the season (Robbie Jay Barratt/Getty Images)
The newly-installed cameras (Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
The new two-level TV gantry (Richard Sutcliffe/The Athletic)
Barriers obscure the building of the new Kop stand (Robbie Jay Barratt/Getty Images)
: The U.S. make heavy weather, continuing to lack pace and sharpness in the final third, but find a way to win 1-0. I see a Berhalter goal, huge celebrations on the field, and a Pochettino grimace on the sideline.
Matt Freese has earned four caps, all in June. (Photo: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images)
The USMNT’s results in the Gold Cup group stage gave Mauricio Pochettino some reason to smile (Photo by Omar Vega/Getty Images “This was preparation. Now we’ll be playing a final, it’s all or nothing,” Pochettino said. “So we have to be prepared. We will be prepared, no matter the opponent we face. It’s our challenge: we have to compete well, to keep competing well and continue improving. We have a week to prepare for this game, so I have no doubt we’ll get there in the best possible way.”Pochettino has been clear that what he wants is open competition for the team he takes to the World Cup. If the players are going to make an impression, they will need to win some knockout games. It’s not unlike the challenge a similar U.S. group had at the 2021 Gold Cup. Coming off of an emotional 2021 Nations League victory over Mexico, U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter took a ‘B’ squad to the Gold Cup later that summer. Mexico, meanwhile, did not. It sparked debate about what the better plan was. On the one hand, Mexico got an extra month working together. On the other, Berhalter got a chance to look at a wider pool. What the U.S. did in that tournament ended any debate. It beat Haiti, Canada and Martinique in the group stage, advancing with a plus-seven goal differential — the same as this year’s team. Then it beat Jamaica, 1-0, in the quarterfinals and Qatar, 1-0, in the semifinals before meeting Mexico in the championship game. A 1-0 win in extra time helped to secure a second trophy that summer — and it announced the U.S. as being “back” as a top power in Concacaf.Before this camp started, U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner talked about how that Gold Cup win helped him break through as a real option for Berhalter’s U.S. team. A year and a half later, Turner was starting in Qatar.That’s the 
USMNT concedes a goal to Haiti in the Gold Cup (Photo by Omar Vega/Getty Images)
Ryan O’HanlonJun 26, 2025, 07:00 AM ET
Landon Donovan’s foray into the Christian Pulisic national team debate has been one of American soccer’s stories of the summer. (Shaun Clark / ISI Photos / Getty Images)
Clint Dempsey and an 18-year-old Christian Pulisic celebrate a USMNT goal against Honduras in 2017. (David Madison / Getty Images)
Clint Dempsey says the example of ex-USMNT midfielder José Francisco Torres shows the value of increased developmental opportunities. (Misael Montaño / LatinContent via Getty Images)
Hayes and Coffey during the former’s first game in charge of the USWNT last June. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
Morgan’s last game for the U.S. came over a year ago and is no longer part of the picture (C. Morgan Engel/Getty Images)
Bill ConnellyJun 27, 2025, 08:31 AM ET
Al Hilal
Bayern Munich
Benfica
Borussia Dortmund
Botafogo
Chelsea
Flamengo
Fluminense
Inter Miami
Inter Milan
Juventus
Manchester City
Monterrey
Palmeiras
Paris Saint-Germain
Real Madrid
Kane dips his head into an ice bucket and laps water over his face (DAZN)
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland at the Club World Cup (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images)
Lloyd Kelly playing for Juventus at the Club World Cup (Francois Nel/Getty Images)
Nikita Haikin saved two Lazio penalties in the quarter-final shootout win (Silvia Lore/Getty Images)
Knutsen is inspired by Marcelo Bielsa (Andrea Staccioli/Getty Images)
Patrick Berg scored 10 goals for Bodo/Glimt in the 2024 season (Kent Even Grundstad/Getty Images)
Bodo/Glimt fans salute Knutsen after the win over Lazio (Giuseppe Maffia/Getty Images)
(Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Arne Slot and John W. Henry share a moment after Liverpool’s title win is confirmed (Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Fans had to celebrate outside Anfield when Liverpool won the title in July 2020 owing to Covid-19 restrictions (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
(Simon Hughes for The Athletic)
Bill Shankly addresses guests at a civic reception at Liverpool’s town hall in 1965 (PA Images via Getty Images)
(Simon Hughes for The Athletic)
Fans gather at Anfield before kick-off (Simon Hughes for The Athletic)
Musah and Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior vying for possession in the UEFA Champions League. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
Giroud and Griezmann could be among the overage selections for France (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Yamal could be in the Spain squad (Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images)
Hayes previously spent time coaching in New York. (Photo by USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Hayes won five consecutive WSL titles with Chelsea. (Photo by Clive Brunskill, Getty Images)
The Ole BallCoach 
