US Men Set to Play Panama Sat 9 pm TNT + Mexico Tues 10 pm TNT
The US men prepare to play their first games under new manager Mauricio Pochettino with his complete new staff on hand for this first group of games vs Panama (who beat us last time) and @ Mexico. Of course the US will be missing a bunch of players as Tim Weah, Chris Richards, Fologan, Gio Reyna and more are all missing to injury. I will have more as we get closer to game time – including my starting line-up. (stories below) If you missed this Christian Pulisic has stayed hot in Italy with his 6th goal of the season.
Indy 11 in 4th place @ Detroit City 4 pm on ESPN+
Leesburg, Va. – Indy Eleven moved up two positions to fourth place in the USL Championship Eastern Conference standings with a crucial 1-0 road victory at Loudoun United in a rare mid-week contest. Defender Aedan Stanley took a corner kick from the left side and drove it in front of the goal. Loudoun keeper Hugo Fauroux punched the ball high into the air, where defender Ben Ofeimu headed it down from the corner of the six to Musa, who, with his back to the goal, volleyed it with his left foot high over Fauroux for the game winner. It was Ofeimu’s first assist for the Boys in Blue.With three games left in the regular season, the Boys in Blue (13-10-8) are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 47 points. The top four teams in the East will host the first round of the playoffs the first weekend in November. Indy finishes its road week at third-place Detroit City FC on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.
High School Sectionals this week has Carmel Boys Hosting and Carmel Girls in Zionsville
in Class 3A, the second-ranked and three-time defending champion Noblesville Millers will meet Carmel Saturday evening at Carmel’s Murray Stadium. Noblesville has won 19 consecutive state tournament matches and is five away from tying North Central of Indianapolis (1994-97) for the state record. Tix are just $7 for the games at Murray. Get on out there and watch some high school soccer.
LADIES
The 3rd ranked Carmel Girls cruised thru Sectionals in Zionsville and will face #12 Indianapolis Cathedral in the finals Sat at 2 pm at Zionsville’s beautiful new stadium.
Nate Sinders (middle) bringing food for his dad Mark (right) and myself and all the folks at Zionsville High a Great Assignor, Ref and Chef – NATE the GREAT !!
The Ole Ballcoach catching High School games down at Riverside with Marko & Terek. Finally got a CHS Girls Freshman game vs HSE with Robert Hart on Saturday before Sectionals start
GAME TV SCHEDULE
Thur, Oct 10
2:45 pm FS 2 England vs Greece
2:45 pm TUDN Israel vs France
2:45 pm fubu Italy vs Belgium
2:45 pm FS 2 England vs Greece
2:45 pm TUDN Israel vs France
2:45 pm fubu Italy vs Belgium
Fri, Oct 11
2:45 pm TUDN Iceland vs Wales
2:45 pm FS2 Germany vs Bosnia
2:45 pm fubu Italy vs Belgium
Sat, Oct 12
12 pm FS1 Croatia vs Scotland
2:45 pm FS2 Portugal vs Poland
2:45 pm fubu Italy vs Belgium
7:30 pm Telemundo Mexico vs Valencia
9 pm TNT/Univ USMNT vs Panama
Sun Oct 13
12 pm FS1 Finland vs England
2:45 pm FS2 Austria vs Norway
2:45 pm TUDN Greece vs Ireland
4 pm ESPN+ Indy 11 @ Detroit City
7:30 pm Apple Vancouver vs LAFC
Mon, Oct 14
12 pm FS1 Georgia v Albania
2:45 pm FS2 Belgium vs France
2:45 pm Fubo Germany vs Netherlands
Tues Oct 15
12 pm FS1 Finland vs England
2:45 pm FS2 Spain vs Serbia
2:45 pm TUDN Greece vs Ireland
7:30 pm FS1 Canada vs Panama
10:30 pm TNT/Univ Mexico vs USMNT
Top games to watch in October 2024 international break
The October international break commences this midweek as club soccer takes a backseat to games with the national teams. For example, fans can watch qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Yet, while those World Cup qualifiers are not consistent among all teams, each of the FIFA confederations has games available. Here, we picked the 10 most interesting fixtures to keep you company until Oct. 15.
Top games during October international break
USMNT v Panama (Saturday, Oct. 12, 9 p.m. ET)
Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure will start as the USMNT hosts Panama. This is a rematch of the two’s group-stage meeting from the 2024 Copa America. Panama won after Tim Weah picked up a red card. Both Weah and Folarin Balogun, who scored in that fixture, are off the Argentinian coach’s first roster due to injury. This is Panama’s first fixture since its exit from the Copa America at the quarterfinal stage.
You can watch USA vs. Panama on TNT, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock, and Fubo. For new users to Fubo, Fubo is offering a free 7-day trial.
Mexico v USMNT (Tuesday, Oct. 15, 10:30 p.m. ET)
Pochettino will also experience the heated derby against Mexico for the first time as the head coach of the Americans. Both sides crashed out of the group stage in CONMEBOL’s tournament this past summer. The game will be at Estadio Akron, one of the venues for the 2026 World Cup.It’s the first away fixture for USMNT in 2024. The United States is undefeated in this rivalry since 2019. The streak of results includes two Nations League and the 2019 Gold Cup final. It will be the first time Pochettino faces Javier Aguirre’s team since their three La Liga encounters 13 years ago. Watch the game on TNT, Univision, Sling TV, and Fubo.
England v Greece (Thursday, Oct. 10, 2:45 p.m. ET)
Lee Carsley started his spell as England’s interim head coach with a 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland, the national team he represented in his playing days. Despite the national anthem controversy, he’s still in the job for the October International Break with the Three Lions set to play games against Greece and Finland.
It was against Greece that David Beckham scored one of the most famous free-kicks in soccer history. In a tense atmosphere at Old Trafford, his 93rd-minute strike sent England to the 2002 World Cup.
England vs Greece will be live on FS2, ViX, and Fubo.
Austria v Norway (Sunday, Oct. 13, 2:45 p.m. ET)
These two teams aren’t among the best soccer nations by any stretch of the imagination. But their contrasting fortunes showed the importance of team planning more than individual brilliance. Under Ralf Rangnick, Austria played a fantastic Euro 2024 before losing to Türkiye in one of the best games of last summer. Norway, who missed out on the tournament, revived with a 2-1 win over Austria in the reverse fixture last month thanks to Erling Haaland’s winner. Watch Austria vs Norway live on FS2, ViX, and Fubo.Germany vs Netherlands will be shown live on the Fubo Sports Network as well as ViX.
Scotland v Portugal (Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2:45 p.m. ET)
In the wake of their promotion to Nations League A and an impressive Euro 2024 qualifying campaign, Scotland endured a difficult 2024 so far. Including the humbling 5-1 defeat by Germany in the Euro 2024 opener, Scotland lost six of their nine games since the turn of the year.Portugal also had an uninspiring time in Germany, but Cristiano Ronaldo scoring his 900th career goal raised their spirit last month. The 39-year-old striker is competing with Aleksandar Mitrović and Karim Benzema to finish top of the Saudi Pro League’s scoring chart. Scotland against Portugal will stream live on ViX.
Bolivia v Colombia (Thursday, Oct. 10, 4:30 p.m. ET)
September was a historic month for Bolivia’s soccer. For only the second time in the 21st century, they won away from home courtesy of a 3-2 success in Chile. They’re now a single point behind World Cup kings Brazil nearly midpoint to the qualifiers.
Colombia also recorded a memorable victory last month in the repeat fixture of the Copa America final. Beating the world champions was a big achievement, but they’ll now have to cope with the difficulty of playing at an altitude of 4,100 meters above sea level.
Bolivia vs Colombia will be exclusively shown on Fanatiz.
Venezuela v Argentina (Thursday, Oct. 10, 5 p.m. ET)
Meanwhile, Argentina will search for a quick reaction after the defeat at Barranquilla. La Albiceleste also bid farewell to Ángel Di María in September’s eventful international window.
Three NWSL playoff spots up for grabs as season end nears
Chicago can clinch a 2024 postseason berth with a win on Saturday (Troy Taormina-Imagn Images)
With the Shield in Orlando’s hands, attention turns to the final three available playoff spots up for grabs in the NWSL.The Chicago Red Stars, currently in sixth, could become the next team to clinch a postseason berth with a win against the surging Gotham on Saturday at 4pm ET (Paramount+).Big Picture: Only Houston has been eliminated from postseason contention, but Portland and Bay FC will try to hold off those below the playoff line to better their odds at a quarterfinal appearance.Both clubs will have their work cut out for them, as Portland takes on first-place Orlando on Friday at 10pm ET (Prime), and Bay FC battles fourth-place Kansas City on Saturday at 10pm ET (ION).With only three regular season matches left, Seattle, Angel City, San Diego, and Utah will all face elimination scenarios this weekend.
Could NWSL MVP come down to Banda and Chawinga?
Banda has headlined a historic unbeaten streak by the Orlando Pride (Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images)
With KC Current forward Temwa Chawinga running away with the 2024 NWSL golden boot, is there still intrigue to be found in this year’s MVP race?Chawinga won NWSL Player of the Month for September, while forward Barbra Banda continued to excel with the unbeaten, Shield-winning Orlando Pride.Big Picture: Banda’s goal contributions are slightly off Chawinga’s pace, with 13 goals and six assists to Chawinga’s 18 goals and six assists.Chawinga leads the league in goals per 90 minutes, but Banda holds the title in goals and assists per 90 minutes, while both players comfortably lead the league in xG and npxG per 90.Bottom line: It’s been a year for blazing offense in the NWSL, personified by Chawinga and Banda’s excellence. But who will take the MVP crown?
Portland Thorns general manager Karina LeBlanc will be transitioning out of her role at the end of the 2024 season, the club announced on Wednesday.LeBlanc will join RAJ Sports, led by Thorns ownership the Bhathal family, in a role across the Portland Thorns and the newly-announced Portland WNBA team.Big picture: Joining the club in late 2021, LeBlanc oversaw the Thorns’ most recent NWSL championship in 2022, but this year the team has struggled with performances on the pitch.The Thorns’ winless streak early in the season led to head coach Mike Norris being reassigned to a new role, with assistant Rob Gale elevated to permanent manager.After appearing to right the ship, Portland has lost six of their last seven NWSL regular season games and are battling to stay above the playoff line in seventh place.
Andi Sullivan suffers torn ACL, will miss rest of the season
Sullivan suffered the injury in last weekend’s 2-0 loss to the Orlando Pride (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
The Washington Spirit announced on Wednesday that captain Andi Sullivan suffered an ACL tear in the team’s loss to the Orlando Pride on Sunday, and will miss the rest of the 2024 season.A Spirit stalwart, Sullivan started all 21 regular season matches she appeared in for the club in 2024, tallying two goals.Sulivan joins a growing number of injured Spirit contributors, including Croix Bethune (out for the season), Trinity Rodman, Casey Krueger, and Ouley Sarr.
Alyssa Thompson’s late goal contribution surge
Thompson has registered five goals and two assists in her last seven NWSL games (Harry How/Getty Images)
Angel City’s playoff hopes hang by a thread after a three-point deduction due to a salary cap violation, but forward Alyssa Thompson is keeping the dream of the postseason alive.Thompson has scored five goals and registered two assists in her last seven NWSL games, including a crucial assist in a win against the Seattle Reign last weekend.Six points off the playoff pace with three games to go in the regular season, Angel City will need Thompson at the height of her powers in their matchup against North Carolina on Saturday at 7:30pm ET (ION).
12 NWSL golden boot leader Temwa Chawinga has scored against 12 different teams during Kansas City’s 2024 campaign. Chawinga can complete the first-ever season sweep against the San Diego Wave on Oct. 19.
USMNT Player Tracker: Unlucky Balogun, Tillman has no equals – and Pulisic to step up?
Folarin Balogun’s bad luck, Christian Pulisic’s penalty puzzler and Malik Tillman’s eye-catching form all play a part of this week’s USMNT player tracker.Throughout the season, we will bring you updates on the U.S. players plying their trade in various leagues around Europe. With a World Cup on home soil on the horizon and new national team boss Mauricio Pochettino considering the options at his disposal, we’re keeping tabs on how they perform every weekend.
Issue of the weekend
After a patchy start to the season with Monaco, things were just beginning to look up for Folarin Balogun.
His goal against Rennes on Saturday ensured the visitors won 2-1 and it was his third in as many games. Having failed to find the net in Monaco’s opening four Ligue 1 fixtures (one of which saw him left on the bench), his had been a timely return to form and confidence — even more so ahead of the autumn USMNT friendlies under Pochettino, when everyone is so keen to make a good first impression.But Balogun won’t be there when the Pochettino era kicks off against Panama in Austin, Texas, on Saturday after dislocating his shoulder 64 minutes into the win at Rennes.He had to be helped off the field in obvious pain and will undergo tests to evaluate the timeframe for his recovery.
Monaco’s head coach Adi Hutter (left) comforts Balogun as he leaves the pitch in Rennes (Jean-Francois Monier/AFP via Getty Images)
Balogun, who pledged his international allegiance to the U.S. last year and has scored five goals in 17 appearances for his country, must now hope shoulder surgery is not required. If he needs an operation, that could entail an even longer lay-off, just as he was playing his way back into the type of form that earned him the move to Monaco after his season on loan from Arsenal with Reims the previous year.
Player of the weekend
Christian Pulisic’s supreme form for AC Milan continues, with yet another goal against Fiorentina. But it might be time for the USMNT main man, who is one of the leaders of the national team, to take a more assertive approach with his club team-mates. Pulisic’s fourth goal in consecutive appearances for the Rossoneri made it 1-1 on Sunday, but the visitors wasted the opportunity to win the game. In a match of three missed spot kicks, Milan saw the two they were awarded saved — and for reasons unknown, their designated taker, Pulisic, was overlooked to step up. Instead, defender Theo Hernandez failed to convert before half-time, then striker Tammy Abraham also saw an effort saved.
Fiorentina’s Luca Ranieri attempts to stop Pulisic (Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Milan manager Paolo Fonseca was understandably unimpressed. “Our penalty taker is Pulisic,” he said to DAZN afterwards. “I don’t know why the players changed their minds. I spoke to him and said that it must not happen again.” Pulisic was replaced on 82 minutes and did not seem too thrilled, either, but the manager insisted he was trying to look after his star man. “It was out of caution for Pulisic — he had a problem with his flexor during the week,” he explained. “(Samuel) Chukwueze came in well and created opportunities.”
Graphic of the weekend
Quote of the weekend
“Who is better than Malik Tillman in the Eredivisie? I couldn’t name anyone.” Former Denmark international Dennis Perez, an analyst for ESPN, was very impressed by Tillman’s display in PSV Eindhoven’s 2-1 win over Sparta Rotterdam on Saturday. The American midfielder was influential as the reigning Dutch champions made it eight games and eight wins in Eredivisie this time around.
Tillman impressed against Sparta (Photo Prestige/Soccrates/Getty Images)
How did other U.S. players get on?
Name: Jonathan Gomez Club: PAOK Position: Left-back Games (in all competitions): 1
The 21-year-old was on the winning side during his full debut for Greek top-flight club PAOK Thessaloniki on Sunday. Gomez, who signed from Spanish club Real Sociedad in August, is eligible for both the U.S. and Mexico and graduated through the FC Dallas academy.
Amon has three goals so far this season in 11 appearances for his Danish Super Liga side. On Sunday he started in a front three as Lyngby, who are 10th in the table and struggling for wins, drew 1-1 at Randers FC. Amon, 25, has started all of his team’s league games so far.
A special milestone for the 18-year-old Texan who was named in the matchday senior squad for Dortmund for the first time during their defeat by Union Berlin on Saturday. Campbell signed a contract with the Germans until 2028 in the summer. After a spell in Iceland, he joined Dortmund in 2022 and became part of the U.S. program earlier this year.
His five competitive appearances to date this season have been for Dortmund’s second team in the German third tier.
Reynolds had a steady game for his Belgian club on Friday during their 2-2 draw with Beerschot. Playing at right wing-back, he helped his team stay in sixth place.
The younger Aaronsen brother is on a high at the moment after scoring his second goal in as many games for Utrecht, who have started the season strongly and are in second spot. He grabbed the second goal of a 3-2 win over RKC Waalwijk on Saturday.
What’s coming up?
(All times ET)
After the forthcoming international break, see if Campbell can get onto the pitch for Dortmund against St Pauli on Friday, October 18 in the Bundesliga (2:30pm, ESPN+).
Lennard Maloney will also try and help Heidenheim recover from their 1-0 loss to RB Leipzig last time out as they face his compatriot Joe Scally’s Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday, October 19 (9:30am, ESPN+).
Folarin Balogun, Tim Weah and Johnny Cardoso to miss USMNT’s October fixtures due to injuries
Balogun, 23, dislocated his left shoulder during Monaco’s victory over Rennes on Saturday and will undergo further assessments in the coming days.Weah, 24, has missed Juventus’ last three games due to injury while Real Betis midfielder Cardoso has also battled injury issues in recent weeks.Lyon’s Tanner Tessman, Monterrey’s Brandon Vazquez, and Alex Zendejas, who plays for Liga MX side America, have been called up as replacements for three games this month.It is the first USMNT squad selected by Mauricio Pochettino after his appointment as head coach last month to replace Gregg Berhalter, who was dismissed after a group-stage exit at the Copa America.The 52-year-old’s first game in charge is a friendly against Panama at the Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, on October 13. They then face Mexico in another friendly three days later at the Akron Stadium.
Mauricio Pochettino’s first U.S. men’s national team roster looks similar to the team summoned in September, a few days before he was officially unveiled as the new coach. With limited time and several injuries to regular players, Pochettino and his staff leaned heavily on the expertise of U.S. Soccer personnel to put together this first roster.
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The October camp is the perfect baptism for Pochettino into international management. The U.S., like most other national teams, is dealing with multiple injuries, both long- and short-term, to regular call-ups. World Cup starters Tyler Adams (back) and Sergino Dest (ACL) remain out for some time after undergoing surgeries. Two featured players over the last two years, Chris Richards and Gio Reyna, will also miss this camp with knocks which have kept them out of club action. Some depth pieces, like Luca de la Torre and Cameron Carter-Vickers, were also unavailable due to injury.Pochettino had to reach a bit deeper into the pool. In a way, it’s a blessing for a new staff to see more of the players at their disposal. For now, many of the faces have been around the program somewhat regularly: Christian Pulisic, Weston Mckennie and Yunus Musah to name a few. But, the Argentine coach noted, they have already started work on identifying players who have not been as big a part of the program.“We start to follow some very good players we think have the potential,” Pochettino said. “And maybe they are not now in the roster, but for sure, they’re going to be in the roster in the future.”
Change, in other words, is coming to the U.S. team. But Pochettino is not going to force it just yet.
Pulisic has been a mainstay and captain of the USMNT (Katie Stratman / Imagn Images)
This camp will give another chance for someone like Johnny Cardoso, who struggled in his start against Canada last month, to make an impression. It’s also a big opportunity for Aidan Morris, who has had a strong start to his tenure at Middlesbrough. Players like Marlon Fossey might also get a chance to show he should have a shout at the right back spot, while Joe Scally will have to hold off competition ahead of Dest’s return.
The list of players Pochettino wants to look at will undoubtedly start to change in the next few camps. The work to get to know the full pool has already started. Pochettino noted a staff member was in attendance at Toulouse against Lyon on Sunday to see Mark McKenzie. Another USMNT pool player started that game for Lyon: midfielder Tanner Tessmann, who wasn’t called to this camp. Pochettino was also asked specifically about Diego Luna, a player not called up to this camp, and said the midfielder is someone the staff wants to watch more of in the coming months.
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There was one notable change in this roster: the return of Zack Steffen. The goalkeeper hasn’t played for the U.S. since 2022 and hasn’t had a great season for Colorado, but Pochettino is familiar with the former Manchester City back-up’s skillset and the goalkeeper position is problematic considering the lack of playing time for both Matt Turner and Ethan Horvath.
Steffen has not played for the U.S. since 2022 (Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images)
Pochettino said in a press conference this week that players who aren’t getting time on the field at their respective clubs have become a real issue with this national team. Pochettino, answering in his native Spanish, said he agreed that players not playing regularly is a big concern for a coach but part of his job will be to work to find players the best places to get minutes to be ready for the World Cup in 2026. Not calling in players who aren’t getting regular minutes is a luxury the U.S. men may not be able to afford, depending on the situation, but Pochettino was clear when he said players not playing for their club was “a handicap that I believe cannot be allowed.”
Still, this camp is less about those bigger-picture changes. Pochettino first must lay a foundation — for himself and the staff. That goes beyond just the players he’s calling in or their current form at the club level. Pochettino said he won’t overload players with tactical changes in this camp. Instead, he wants to “create a relationship inside and off the pitch” that will help the team understand what he is asking of them.“I think the most important (thing) is to be simple,” Pochettino said. “The player cannot believe that they’re going to arrive and the first thing in Austin we are going to be in the room and to start to spend two, three hours talking about tactics, about different things. I think the most important (thing is) that we need to settle a few principles, a few concepts that I start to develop with time.”Pochettino said the plan is to use two systems, the 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3, and “from there develop our way to play.” Pochettino joked that he watches a lot of American soccer media now — “more than you believe,” he said — and he saw pundits who talked about the defensive effort the team needs.Pochettino noted that he wants to play attractive soccer that will entertain American fans. But it’s not just about playing pretty, up-tempo soccer.
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“We are going to be very, very, very demanding. When we lose the ball, we need to be desperate to recover as soon as possible,” he said. “But we need to work like a team in this moment. We need to show that we are a real team.
“All the teams that win and won titles, you can see Argentina winning the Copa America or the World Cup, of course when they have the ball, they play really well. But when they don’t have the ball, they work like a team. They are really, really, really rough. I think we need to enjoy when we don’t have the ball and try to recover, and be very strong defensively.“We need to be very competitive. It’s not only to play nice football, it is to be very competitive. That, for me, is the objective.”The path toward that objective begins next week in Austin.
Robinson loves overlapping and underlapping and treats the left flank like the back-straight on an athletics track, tearing forward at every opportunity to add to his increasingly impressive attacking returns. He has eight assists in the Premier League since the start of last season, which is second only to Kieran Trippier when it comes to defenders.
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As for interceptions, Robinson’s numbers are off the scale. There were 13 in one game at Anfield last season, equalling a Premier League record and keeping Mohamed Salah relatively quiet in the process.
Two years earlier, on the opening day of the Premier League season, Salah was so struck by Robinson’s performance for Fulham that he stopped to ask him his age in the middle of the match. Later, after they swapped shirts, the Liverpool forward gave him some words of encouragement that Robinson has never forgotten.
(Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Robinson is discussing all of this and more at his home in Surrey, on the outskirts of London, where we are scrolling through close to 100 clips of him playing for Fulham and the U.S. men’s national team. There are backflips and diving headers, own goals and crunching tackles, shoulder barges against one of the strongest players in the Premier League, and running races where there was only going to be one winner.
This is Antonee Robinson’s game in his words.
“I love it,” Robinson says, smiling.
It’s hard to imagine many modern full-backs saying the same thing, mindful that Robinson is talking about one-on-one defending. The 27-year-old feels like a bit of a throwback in that respect.
“I always go into games thinking, ‘I’m playing against a winger now and I don’t want him to get the better of me’. I feel like I can read where a player is going fairly well. But the ability to not fly in, to stand them up and then pick my time to close in on someone, I do really enjoy that,” he says.
Robinson made 80 interceptions in the Premier League last season. To put that number into perspective, it was the most across Europe’s top five leagues, 15 more than any other Premier League player (Bournemouth’s Lewis Cook was in second place) and almost twice as many as any other Premier League full-back (West Ham’s Emerson Palmieri made 43).
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“Obviously because I’m quite fast, it helps,” Robinson says in an understated way. “I feel confident knowing that I’m gonna get to most passes when I see them.
“But it’s quite annoying to the manager at times because sometimes I’ll be convinced the pass is going somewhere and almost gamble a little bit. And then it goes the other way and he hates it when I guess. He always says, ‘You’re fast enough to get there. Just stay, let it go (to the winger), and then go’. But sometimes when you smell something, you have the urge.”
Robinson’s scent is normally reliable. His trademark interception is cutting out the short and low diagonal pass to the winger outside of him — an action that he repeated over and again last season, including on multiple occasions against Tottenham Hotspur.
“I think the way they play would suit this because they invert the full-backs, they’re really narrow, and the winger is the only wide pass (available),” Robinson explains as we watch a couple of clips against Spurs. “So when I can see that’s literally the only pass he’s going to do, even if I go here (wide to try to intercept) and he plays it here (inside), there’s nothing on, so it feels safer to go. But you can see (on the video) that I’m just eyeing him up.”
Although Robinson said he will “almost gamble a little bit”, his interceptions are calculated. Before setting off, he looks at the body orientation of the player in possession and also waits until the passer (Bruno Guimaraes in the next example) focuses on striking the ball.
“When he’s put his head down, you can kind of see the direction of the pass — he’s going to pass here (wide) and I need to go that way anyway,” Robinson says. “This line (infield) is blocked off by our midfielder, which obviously the gaffer (Marco Silva) sets us up to do. So it looks like the only pass is (wide).”
If the distance between the passer and the receiver is close, which was the case when Robinson intercepted a ball from Julian Alvarez to Phil Foden at Manchester City last season, the risk of being caught out increases.
“I can remember similar ones to this where I would get done,” Robinson says. “Obviously I’ve seen him (Alvarez) put his head down, I know he’s passing there, so I’ve gone. But I think we played Liverpool, it was the exact same situation, it’s Trent (Alexander-Arnold) on the ball and he looks like he’s gonna pass it there (to the winger) and he plays it inside me; that’s the one I said the gaffer despises. He goes mental at that. Luckily, this one I made it.”
He has a good memory. The Liverpool clip is lined up ready to show him as a rare example of when that darting run to intercept goes wrong. Alexander-Arnold disguises his intentions, reverses the pass and Luis Diaz runs in behind.
Robinson sighs. “With that, I should know a lot better who’s on the ball. But, you know, playing against good teams you get excited. So that is a prime example of the manager waiting to kick off at me. I’m already thinking, ‘He’s gonna want to speak to me about that’.”
An aggressive, front-footed defender, Robinson enjoys an old-fashioned 50/50. “Without hurting anyone, I do like being able to leave it on someone,” he says as we watch him making fully committed but fair challenges on Bournemouth’s Adam Smith and Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure (below).
Robinson’s biggest attribute by far when one-v-one defending, though, is his pace. A clip of him up against the Nottingham Forest attacker Anthony Elanga, who has registered the second-fastest speed in the Premier League this season, illustrates that point. Fulham have turned over possession and Robinson is running back on the outside of Elanga, which is the last place a full-back wants to be ordinarily, but he still manages to get to the ball first. Elanga is left on his hands and knees afterwards.
“I remember one of the first passages of play here — the ball broke and both me and Elanga ended up sprinting and he’s leaving me in this race, which I didn’t expect,” Robinson says. “I was like, ‘S***. If he gets the ball, he’s in’. I knew he was quick, but he’s top-level speed. After that, I was way more cautious of the threat in behind.”
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Robinson’s speed means that throughout his career, he has been deployed as the “last man” on attacking corners, essentially as an insurance policy if the opposition counter. Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez tried and failed to win a race against Robinson from a Fulham corner last season and there was a similar scenario in the home game against Everton when Arnaut Danjuma attempted to beat him on the outside.
“He’s got to know his players there!” Robinson says, laughing. “I’d say 95 per cent of wingers, if they’re going to just try to knock it down the line and run me, I’m buzzing with that. So I was very happy when he tried that because it makes my decision so much easier.”
Robinson talks about getting tight on wingers and “not letting them breathe”. Away at Brentford last season, he was all over Bryan Mbeumo from the first minute, giving him no time on the ball. Half an hour into the game, Mbeumo let a routine pass slip under his boot by the touchline, prompting the co-commentator and former Fulham and West Ham defender Tony Gale to suggest Robinson had got inside the Brentford player’s head.
“He’s miscontrolled that because he’s looking at Robinson, thinking, ‘He’s gonna be on me sharp’. He’s taken his eye off the ball and that’s the little bit of shakiness Robinson’s put on Mbeumo early on. It’s up to Mbeumo to play a little bit of cat and mouse with him.”
Is it a game of cat and mouse with the winger?
“I suppose so,” Robinson replies, smiling. “Sometimes you end up talking to players in games, which is quite funny. I remember playing Newcastle, not this last game (this season), but a couple of games ago and Jacob Murphy was playing and he was like, ‘F****** hell, lad — stop running!’ So, little things like that — straight away they know what I’m like. And it does play a little part (in putting wingers off their game). There’s going to be players who will come at me less because they know I’m going to go the other way a lot of the time.”
Equally, there are also games where Robinson is largely defending because of the calibre of opposition. Arsenal at home last season was one of those occasions and it turned into a fascinating duel between him and Bukayo Saka in a game that Fulham won 2-1.
The first clip shows Robinson following Saka infield, shoulder-charging him and winning the ball. Robinson puffs out his cheeks after watching it. “That’s an incredibly rare occurrence because Saka is crazy strong. He’s one of the strongest players, pound for pound, that I’ve played against.”
Later in the game, Saka gets his own back in another physical duel, as if to prove Robinson’s point.
In between times, there are a couple of moments in quick succession where Robinson ends up defending one-on-one with Saka near the touchline and close to the corner flag. Robinson shows Saka down the line, forcing him onto his weaker right foot. In the first instance, Saka still manages to cross — albeit his delivery is overhit.
On the second occasion, Saka goes the same way again and Robinson blocks.
It’s tempting to think Robinson’s defending was much better the second time because he stopped the cross, but he doesn’t really see it like that.
“The first one I was still happy with,” Robinson says. “I know Saka’s very good on his left foot. If I show him down the line and he manages to get a cross in… I’d obviously like to block it, but if he’s crossing on his right foot and that’s the worst-case scenario, that’s fine. Next one you kind of know how he’s going to be shaped when he goes that way (again), so I can close it down a little bit better. But if I show him on his right every time and half of them he crosses and half of them he doesn’t, it’s a lot better than him cutting in on his left to pick a ball properly or shooting.”
(David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
An “unlucky” own goal at Villa Park in November in a 3-1 defeat. At least that was how Robinson viewed it at the time. Marco Silva thought otherwise.
Either way, that own goal represented a turning point in Robinson’s season. He went on to register assists in three successive Premier League matches (the first in the second half against Villa), scored two terrific goals for the USMNT against Trinidad & Tobago during the international break that followed, then produced one of the best performances of his career against Liverpool a couple of weeks later at Anfield.
Robinson asks to take the footage further back to explain. “Here, when we looked at this, the manager would like Calvin (Bassey) to be two yards this way (sliding to the right), being able to cover the line a bit better. If he’s there, Tim (Ream) is three yards over and then I’m inside this winger (Moussa Diaby). Obviously, it gets played (down the line to Youri Tielemans) and you’ll see when I come in.
“Realistically, you’d want me to be here (the black circle below), so just five yards inside this line. And if I’m already there, he (Diaby) is not in front of me.
“Still, after that, he (Diaby) missed the ball. So I do get unlucky. But it’s always the steps leading up to that which you can prevent in the gaffer’s mind.”
By his own admission, Robinson was lacking in confidence ahead of that Villa match. He scored an own goal against Sheffield United the previous month and talks about going into games around that period thinking, ‘Just don’t make any big mistakes. Just do your job. Simple’.”
International weeks can be viewed as disruptive by a lot of club managers, but a change of scenery was probably just what Robinson needed. He joined up with the USMNT for the CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final tie against Trinidad & Tobago and thrived. In the first leg, in Texas, Robinson assisted the opening goal and then scored the second with a superb strike that was followed by a series of backflips that were just as impressive.
“Big moment!” Robinson says, smiling. “I dyed my hair white because I thought, ‘You know what, I’m just gonna do something mad’, and then I scored a good goal, so I was very excited.”
Four days later, in the away fixture, Robinson scored a diving header. “I’m more happy with this one, to be honest. Because I remember him (Sergino Dest) getting it and me being out here (very wide), I was just like, ‘I’m going to dart in between the defenders’. It was a proper striker’s goal.”
Robinson returned to England “feeling better about myself”. He got an assist against Wolves in Fulham’s next match and then put in a man-of-the-match performance against Liverpool. The 13 interceptions made headlines and one of them (below) led to an assist for Fulham’s first goal.
Watching the game back, it’s remarkable how often Robinson seemed to be in the right place at the right time to limit Salah’s impact in a match that Fulham lost 4-3 despite leading with less than five minutes remaining.
Did Salah say anything to him afterwards? “Not this time,” Robinson replies. “He has before. We played Liverpool in the first game of the season two years ago. We drew 2-2. I remember saying to my friends, who are all big Liverpool fans and came down because it was around my birthday, ‘Lads, if Salah scores or gets an assist this game, I’ll pay for dinner tonight’, so I put a bit of added pressure on myself. And he (Salah) did (score), annoyingly.
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“But I remember him saying to me midway through the game (Robinson says this next bit in a curious voice), ‘How old are you?’. So he didn’t really know who I was. I must have been 24, 25. He just nodded and carried on with the game. Then, after the game, I asked for his shirt, so we swapped shirts and we were just chatting and he was like, ‘You were the best player this game, keep up what you’re doing’. That was very nice of him.”
A routine question about whether Robinson has had the opportunity to speak to Mauricio Pochettino since the Argentinian took over as head coach of the USMNT delivers an unexpected answer.
“Funnily enough, I bumped into him out for dinner the other day,” Robinson says. “We had a team meal in London and he just happened to be in there. I was sat next to Harrison Reed, who used to play for him at Southampton, so he went over to speak to him and I just went over and said hello. I was chatting to him and it seems like he’s really excited about it (coaching the USMNT).”
“We obviously wanted to push as far as we could in the tournament and try to win it,” Robinson says. “We didn’t even get the chance to get out of the group, which is a big, big letdown for us, especially us being the host nation.”
The Copa America post-mortem started immediately after the final whistle against Uruguay. Christian Pulisic, the U.S. captain, spoke about the need to regroup and, more significantly, highlighted the importance of “finding an identity again”.
(Bill Barrett/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
With 46 caps to his name and six years of international experience behind him, including a World Cup in Qatar, Robinson has been around the team for long enough to know what the U.S. should look like on the pitch. What is their identity?
“Well, thinking back to teams before us, the U.S. was always gritty, hard-working, horrible to play against, a battling team,” he says. “They had good players but, on the whole, as a team, there was a lot of fight in them. And when we first came together as a team, we definitely had that a lot. I remember going into the World Cup, playing against England and feeling that we can make it extremely difficult for teams. But towards the end, it felt kind of soft and stagnant. We didn’t have that bite.
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“I didn’t get to go to the last (international) window and obviously we had a different manager (Mikey Varas). But I was watching us play against Canada and it just felt like they were out-fighting us. I’d back us, at our best, as a better team than them comfortably. But you have to win that fight first.
“They (Canada) did the same thing in World Cup qualifying, where they were just nasty; horrible to play against. And I think that’s something we need to get a bit of because we’re not the most talented team. So that needs to be a minimum.”
On the face of it, Pochettino’s style of play feels like a good fit for Robinson’s game. “Yeah, I think so,” Robinson says. “I think it will suit a lot of the players on our team. And, regardless, just having a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective — I think every now and then, it gets to a point where a team does need that.
“You obviously see under his resume that he’s a top-level coach. It’s going to be interesting to see how that transitions from club level to international level in terms of how much control he can have on it. He’s not going to see us every day. He’s not got a lot of time to drill into us how he wants to play. But that’s where we’ve got to step up and take responsibility and say it’s not all just on him. We need to give him as much attention and commitment as possible and make it work between us.”
“I can feel the moment when I change gears,” Robinson says.
It’s quite a sight watching Robinson overlapping to receive a pass — a bit like an Olympic sprinter setting off in the relay and waiting to be handed the baton.
According to data from SkillCorner, Arsenal’s Ben White was the only Premier League full-back to make more overlapping runs than Robinson last season.
SkillCorner define a high-intensity sprint as capturing a player moving at over 20 km/h for at least 0.7 seconds. A significant number of Robinson’s overlaps start from inside his own half, last for 3-4 seconds and see him reaching much higher speeds than 20 km/h.
“I’ve done half a pitch there!” Robinson says, laughing, as we watch him overlapping against Forest (below).
The sprint for another overlap, this time against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, starts not far outside his own penalty area. Robinson has his hand in the air as Joao Palhinha takes possession and appears to be gesturing to the midfielder where to pass next. What’s going through his mind here?
“I think, ‘Who would I rather have the ball in this situation?’ If he (Palhinha) gives it to me, Willy’s going to run and I’m going to run and we’re going to end up in the same sort of pocket. If he gives it to Willy first, Willy is already higher up and I’m going to catch up because he’s got to wait for the ball. Willy is right-footed, he can run inside, commit a defender. If the defender goes with me, Willy is going to end up shooting. So in this situation, Willy getting the ball and me coming with speed is 10 times better than me getting it.”
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‘Willy’ is Willian, the former Chelsea and Arsenal winger and a player Robinson built up an excellent understanding with at Fulham over the course of two seasons. His departure in the summer has paved the way for Robinson and Alex Iwobi to link up on the left much more frequently than before and the signs are already promising. A Robinson overlap and low cross, after a pass from Iwobi, led to Fulham’s goal at Ipswich earlier this season.
The week before, against Leicester, it was Robinson’s first-time ball that set up Iwobi for Fulham’s winner. “The understanding is getting there,” Robinson says.
Naturally, it’s much easier to develop chemistry with team-mates at club level compared with international football because of the constant repetition on the training ground, as well as the regular cycle of matches.
That said, Robinson clearly has an excellent understanding with Pulisic when it comes to his attacking runs (the clip below shows an overlap against Bolivia in the Copa America that Ricardo Pepi should have converted) and he makes it sound as though there are a lot of parallels with playing left-back for Fulham and the USMNT.
“It’s really similar,” Robinson says. “We do have a bit more licence that I can go (forward with the U.S.). If the right-back was attacking, like Sergino, or like when (Joe) Scally was playing in Copa, I can still be high because we’d have two midfielders who would sit and do that defensive box.
“But playing with Christian is very similar. We have that same understanding of, ‘You’re our most dangerous player. I’m going to give you the ball. I’ll give you the option of sprinting behind if you want to use it. If you don’t want to use it, that means you think it’s a better option, so I trust you with that’. And we have a great relationship off the pitch anyway, so it does translate to being on the same page on it.”
(Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Playing next to the same player for club and country helps — as was the case with Tim Ream up until August when the central defender joined Charlotte FC. Robinson and Ream were always on the same wavelength and had a lot of joy with a move that would see the left-winger, or No 8, come short and narrow, leaving space for Robinson to run in behind and Ream to pick him out with a longer pass.
It’s a simple but effective pattern that pulls opponents out of position.
“Opposite movements — that’s a big thing in our game (at Fulham),” Robinson says.
The footage ends with an assist that provides another example of how hard Robinson has worked to improve the quality of his final ball. “A lot of my assists have come from low crosses, which is something we do a lot after training,” he explains. “Just kind of feeding it into that danger area along the six-yard line, like the Ipswich one.”
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He must be happy with his numbers: eight assists since the start of last season is an excellent return for a left-back.
“I can’t complain about that, considering the two Premier League seasons before that I had one,” Robinson says, smiling. “But a couple of goals would be nice. I haven’t scored in the Premier League yet, so I’ve got my eye on that.”
The My Game In My Words series is part of a partnership with EA Sports. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
The first leg of Champions League has returned with some big games on the docket Tues/Wed for Americans. Christian Pulisic and AC Milan host Liverpool at 3 pm on Tuesday on Paramount+ (he scored!!) and Aron McKinney and Juventus play at 12 noon Tuesday.
USMNT Finally Hires Pochettino
So the US have finally made the big splash hire and signed and delivered former Tottenham and PSG Coach Mauricio Pochettino to lead us thru the World Cup on home soil in 2026. While the rumors had been rampant for weeks – finally this week it was announced and today he was introduced. Honestly this is a huge get for the US – to get a coach of this quality to coach our national team is a big deal – cudos all around to US Soccer for making this happen. Will it result in the US advancing as far as we ever have in a World Cup ? We’ll see. The US Men lost to Canada and US Coach Jesse Marsch last weekend and tied #96 New Zealand 1-1 at home in Cincy on Tuesday. So lots of work to do. Still I think we got the best possible coach under the circumstances to lead us through. Tons of stories below to read all about it.
US ties New Zealand 1-1 after losing to Canada 2-1 at home
The US men were unlucky In their 1-1 tie with NZ – as they outshout and out-possessed NZ the entire game. Great to see new faces in the mix – especially Marlon Fossey at right back and Aidan Morris again at the 6. Pepi needs to finish up top – but had some chances – good to see he and Balogun in together. Not sure why we didn’t see Auston Trusty at Centerback? Lots of work to do on our defense and in goal. US Highlights vs New Zealand
INDY 11 Home vs El Paso Locomotive Sat 7 pm
Indy Eleven returns home for its final 2024 regular-season match against the Western Conference vs. El Paso Locomotive FC on Saturday at Carroll Stadium.The Boys in Blue are coming off a 0-0 draw at Hartford Athletic last Saturday. The Eleven are sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 10-9-7 record for 37 points.Saturday’s match vs. El Paso is the last regular-season match against a Western Conference opponent for the Boys in Blue.Indy finishes the regular season with seven straight matches against Eastern Conference opponents. Only six points separate teams in fourth through 10th place in the conference. The top eight teams in the East will make the playoffs, with the top four hosting first-round games the first weekend in November. Single-game tickets for all four remaining regular-season home matches are available at Ticketmaster. For information on all ticket options visit the Indy Eleven Ticket Central. For questions, please email tickets@indyeleven.com or call (317) 685-1100.
Great to be back on the high school fields Reffing after our 2 week vacation !
Great night for high school soccer at Guerin Catholic with Michael S (Center) & Stephan L (L)
Midweek USMNT action is here. MLS games are on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, as well as any other networks listed. Let’s get into it!
Tuesday
Juventus vs PSV, 12:45p on Paramount+, TUDN USA, UniMás, FuboTV, ViX: Malik Tillman, Ricardo Pepi, Richy Ledezma, and PSV kick off UEFA Champions League action for USMNT players as they go to Turin to meet Weston McKennie, Tim Weah (who may still be injured), and Juve.
AC Milan vs Liverpool, 3p on Paramount+, ViX: Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, and Milan open Champions League at home, likely underdogs against Premier League heavyweight Liverpool.
Also in action:
Preston North End vs Fulham, 2:45p on Paramount+: Antonee Robinson and the Cottagers visit Duane Holmes and Preston in the Carabao Cup.
QPR vs Crystal Palace, 2:45p on Paramount+: Chris Richards and Palace visit QPR in the Carabao Cup. Reggie Cannon left QPR following a dispute going back to his time with Portuguese club Vizela, and signed with Colorado Rapids in MLS.
Club América vs Atlas, 9p on TUDN USA, Univision USA, FuboTV (free trial), ViX: Alex Zendejas and América host Atlas in Liga MX.
Wednesday
Real Betis vs Getafe, 1p on ESPN Deportes, ESPN+ (free trial), FuboTV: Johnny Cardoso and Real Betis are at home against Getafe in La Liga.
Coventry City vs Tottenham, 3p on Paramount+: Haji Wright and Coventry nearly pulled off an astonishing upset against Manchester United in last year’s FA Cup semifinal. Can they do something similar against Spurs in the Carabao Cup?
Also in action:
Celtic vs Slovan Bratislava, 3p on Paramount+, ViX: Cameron Carter-Vickers returned from a minor injury to play this past weekend, and should be available for Celtic as they begin Champions League play.
Club Brugge vs Borussia Dortmund, 3p on Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, FuboTV, ViX: Gio Reyna is likely to miss Dortmund’s Champions League opener as they go on the road in Belgium.
NYCFC vs Philadelphia Union, 7:30p: Jack McGlynn and the Union are on the road against James Sands and NYC.
Toronto FC vs Columbus Crew, 7:30p: Patrick Schulte, DeJuan Jones, and the Crew visit Toronto in MLS.
Orlando City vs Charlotte FC, 8:15p on FS1, FOX Deportes, FuboTV, Sling TV: Tim Ream and Charlotte travel to Orlando for this MLS match.
Minnesota United vs FC Cincinnati, 8:30p: Miles Robinson, Roman Celentano, Lucho Acosta, and FC Cincy visit Minnesota in MLS play.
Nashville SC vs Chicago Fire, 8:30p: Brian Gutiérrez, Chris Brady, and the Fire meet Walker Zimmerman and Nashville in this MLS game.
Chivas vs León, 9p on Telemundo, UNIVERSO, Peacock, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo, FuboTV: Cade Cowell and Chivas are at home in Liga MX.
Real Salt Lake vs FC Dallas, 9:30p: Diego Luna and RSL host Jesús Ferreira and the Huntsmen in MLS.
Portland Timbers vs LA Galaxy, 10:30p: Jalen Neal and the Galaxy visit the Timbers at Providence Park.
Monterrey vs Juárez, 11p on TUDN USA, FuboTV, ViX: Brandon Vázquez and Rayados host the Bravos of Juárez in Liga MX.
Thursday
No notable USMNT players in action (unless Barcelona have a goalkeeper crisis and Diego Kochen plays for them against Monaco).
Friday
Standard Liège vs Union St.Gilloise, 2:45p on ESPN+: Marlon Fossey and Standard host USG in Belgium’s top tier.
Also in action:
Paderborn vs Hannover 96, 12:30p: 19-year-old Colombian-American center mid Santiago Castañeda has played four straight full 90’s for Paderborn in the 2. Bundesliga.
Dordrecht vs Excelsior, 2p: Zach Booth recently joined Excelsior in the Dutch second tier. They’re on the road against Feyenoord loanee Korede Osundina and Dordrecht.
Clubs will truly be restarting their seasons this weekend after the initial phase was interrupted so quickly after it had started by the international break. While the break wasn’t kind to the USMNT, it did allow key players who weren’t called in to further integrate with their teams or recover from early season (or in some cases even preseason) injuries. It’s a very full weekend, particularly on Saturday, and here’s what we’re keeping an eye on.
Saturday
Lees United v Burnley – 7:30a on Paramount+
Brenden Aaronson and Leeds United face Burnley in an early season English League Championship match that could have end of season impact on the promotion race. Four matches in Aaronson is the top scorer for Leeds with two goals.
RB Leipzig v Union Berlin – 9:30a on ESPN+
Jordan Pefok and Union Berlin went into the break with their first win of the 2024-25 campaign. The got off to a hot start last season as well, winning their first two, before loosing nine straight league matches. They face last seasons run away winners RB Leipzig on Saturday morning.
Wolfsburg v Eintracht Frankfurt – 9:30a on ESPN+
Kevin Paredes has missed the start of the Bundesliga season but should be returning within the next week or so if early reports have held true. Wolfsburg fell to Bayern Munich in their opener but defeated Holstein Kiel heading into the international break.
Borussia Mönchengladbach v Stuttgart – 9:30a on ESPN+
Joe Scally has started Borussia Mönchengladbach’s first two matches and gone the full ninety in each as the opened their season with a 3-2 loss to Bayer Leverkusen but rebounded with a 2-0 victory over Bochum. Stuttgart are looking for their first win of the season after giving up three goals in each of their first two matches, including a 3-3 draw with Mainz just prior to the break.
Crystal Palace v Leicester City – 10a on USA Network
Chris Richards will be one to keep an eye on as Crystal Palace have a glut of centerbacks following the transfer window closing. Richards has started the first three matches for Palace but they have suffered two losses and one draw so it will be interesting to see if changes are made coming out of the break.
Fulham v West Ham – 10a on Peacock
Antonee Robinson has notched an assist in Fulham’s last two matches and gone the full ninety in all three to start the season. He was left off the US squad for the international break but it sounded like primarily a matter of rest for a player who has seen a ton of minutes over the last couple of seasons as he prepares for a crucial role yet again for his club.
Swansea City v Norwich City – 10a on Paramount+
Josh Sargent and his ankles of glass didn’t see any minutes for the US but he is reportedly available for Norwich City this weekend as they face Swansea. Sargent has two goals and an assist already this season but Norwich have just one win in four matches.
Watford v Coventry City – 10a
Haji Wright also has a pair of goals to start the season for Coventry but his team likewise has just one win to show for it as they sit in 17th place and head into a matchup with a Watfor side that has one three of their first four matches.
PSV v NEC – 10:30a on ESPN+
Ricardo Pepi saw his first extended minutes of the season as Luuk de Jong was removed with an injury. However, most match reports seemed to indicate that an extended absence isn’t likely. Richard Ledezma continues to start at rightback while Malik Tillman is racking up the minutes in the midfield for PSV who haven’t missed a beat coming into the new season.
Empoli v Juventus – Noon on Paramount+
Weston McKennie saw 23’ off the bench for Juventus in their last match before the break, his first minutes of the season. Tim Weah missed the match due to injury but is reportedly back in training and available for Juventus as they face Empoli this weekend.
AC Milan v Venezia – 2:45p on Paramount+
Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah and AC Milan face Venezia this weekend and fellow American Gianluca Busio who has missed the start of the season following an injury in the Summer Olympics but is reportedly available this weekend. Both clubs are off to a rough campaign and looking for their first win on the season.
Sunday
Strasbourg v Angers – 11a on beIN Sports
Caleb Wiley continues to see minutes for Strasbourg, he came off the bench in their most recent match but played 45’ and picked up his first assist for the club.
Toulouse v Le Havre – 11a on beIN Sports
Mark McKenzie of Tolouse and Emmanuel Sabbi of Le Havre could face off in some American v American action in France on Sunday. McKenzie has started the last two matches for Toulouse while Sabbi was not included in the most recent Le Havre squad though he did see 21’ in their previous match.
Lens v Lyon – 2:45p on beIN Sports
Tanner Tessman made his Olympique Lyonnais debut just prior to the break, seeing three minutes off the bench in a wild 4-3 Lyon come-from-behind victory after they had been down 3-1 to Caleb Wiley’s Strasbourg. Presumably the international break will have allowed Tessman to further integrate with his new club and he should be in line for additional minutes.
What are Pochettino’s immediate priorities for the USMNT?
Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent ESPN Sep 13, 2024, 05:16 PM ET
NEW YORK — Amid the smiles and backslapping that took place during Mauricio Pochettino’s unveiling as the new U.S. men’s national team manager Friday, there was one, more sobering undercurrent.Pochettino has a lot of work to do.The group stage exit at this summer’s Copa América, and even some matches prior to that tournament, showed that the USMNT has regressed since the 2022 World Cup. The recently concluded September international window, which saw the U.S. beaten on home soil by Canada for the first time in 67 years and then tie New Zealand 1-1, reinforced that feeling.Granted, taking over a struggling team is usually how coaches get hired in the first place. The Sir Alex Ferguson, leave-on-your-own-terms type of exit is rare. Usually, the new manager comes in because a course correction is badly needed, and that is obviously the case here.So what, then, are Pochettino’s priorities as he begins to dig into the job? At Friday’s news conference, the Argentine seemed reluctant to get into many specifics, but he dropped enough breadcrumbs to hint at how he’ll proceed.First, a bit of healing needs to take place. For Pochettino, the results of last week weren’t surprising. The pain of the Copa América performances was still too fresh. Getting over that means getting to know the players and finding ways to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. They need to believe in themselves again.It also means connecting with them beyond just tactics and skill levels. Expect Pochettino to spend a lot of time visiting with players over the next month, pumping them up and reminding them of their talent.
“The player needs to feel that you care,” Pochettino said. “When the player feels that you care, you can get the best of them.”He added, “We are going to work and to create the right pattern to follow, to get the confidence, to recover the confidence and start to perform together. But, of course, I think it’s a very good generation of players.”That process will also require the players earning the confidence of the new coaching staff. More than once, Pochettino spoke of the need to not just “play” for a national team but to “compete” for it as well. That has been an issue during the summer, leading some players to conclude that a culture shift was needed.While there is a sense that the onus for this falls on the players, the coach sets standards. Pochettino will need to be firm in explaining what those are and then enforcing them. Doling out — or withdrawing — playing time is the ultimate card he can play.He will also need to sort out what the team’s style of play will be. In the past, he has preferred to have his teams press aggressively and then strike quickly. But he also wants his squads to be able to play out of the back when the situation calls for it, as having multiple styles in the tactical bag is a staple of good teams. That latter trait is something with which he’ll need to tread carefully, especially given the frailty displayed by the back line over the summer.Pochettino seems to realize that it won’t be only the players who will have to adapt. He and his staff will do some adjusting as well, and together they’ll need to produce a cohesive style.
“I said always we need to see the player, feel the player, see all the characteristics,” he said. “But I think we’re very flexible.” He added that he’ll need “to create this platform that when they come, the players arrive to the national team, they need to know exactly what we need to do, how we need to compete, how we need to behave like a team. And … the talent is there. It’s only to create the best platform for them to express yourself.”Pochettino promises the ‘door is open’ to every U.S. playerMauricio Pochettino says there will be no bias toward European-based players when it comes to his USMNT squad selection.
There is the question of whether Pochettino will have enough time to implement his approach. There are only nine international windows left, including the pre-World Cup period. But Pochettino doesn’t want the players using a lack of training time as an excuse if they struggle to adapt. From what he has seen, the current group of players is smart enough and has the capacity to take on new playing concepts quickly.”I see the players are so intelligent and so talented and they can, I think, play in a different way,” he said. “And for sure I think we have time. We have time and we need to really believe and think in big things. We need to believe that we can win, that we can win the World Cup. Because if not, it’s going to be so difficult to show me, and we want players that arrive in day one in the training camp and think big and that is the only way to create this philosophy or this idea altogether to perform and to really to put your talent on the service of the team.”
That isn’t to say that there won’t be any hiccups or setbacks. But Pochettino, in this moment, is thinking of what’s possible, for both players and staff.
“That is going to be a massive challenge,” he said. “We are going to be very clinical and try to transmit all the information in the same time. Players, it’s difficult to be concentrated, focused and more in this time, but I think we need to be clever enough in the way we’re approaching things to get the best from them.”
Though Pochettino was hired with an eye on the World Cup, in the short-term there are other competitions to think about. There is the Concacaf Nations League in November and March. Then comes next summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup, which will have a more familiar tournament setting with a group stage and knockout rounds.Granted, they won’t involve a World Cup competition level, but given how the U.S. has struggled against Concacaf foes lately, it’s not an event at which the team can turn up its nose. Pochettino seems willing to take things step-by-step.”For me, the priority now is improve, improve and improve and provide the team the best tools for the talent to perform as soon as possible,” he said.After a brutal summer, improvement would be a welcome development.
Mauricio Pochettino aims to bolster belief as USMNT role takes him outside his comfort zone
The question came 20 minutes into Mauricio Pochettino’s introductory press conference as U.S. men’s national team coach; the first query of the event in his native Spanish.“It’ll give me a break,” Pochettino joked at the chance to rest his English.“What was the challenge that made you want to take the U.S. job?” the journalist The question got to the root of an issue that hovered over the entire event at a glitzy high rise in New York City’s Hudson Yards development. Why would a manager with such a massive reputation see this as his next step?The 52-year-old former Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea manager spoke first about the feeling he had meeting with U.S. Soccer executives, and then about the great potential of the sport in the U.S. Then he got to the task at hand: taking the USMNT to a different level. “It’s a challenge that takes us out of our comfort zone,” Pochettino said in Spanish, smiling. “For us, the easy thing to do is take on things we already know, and we already have a quick vision and an idea (of how to accomplish it). But here it is about taking on something one does not know as well; getting out of your comfort zone so that you can challenge yourself.“It is not only about a challenge to achieve things together but also about challenging yourself.”
CEO of U.S. Soccer JT Batson, technical director Matt Crocker, Pochettino and president Cindy Parlow (Luke Hales/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Whether knowingly or not, Pochettino put himself on a parallel path with his new team. For several cycles, the idea of “getting out of your comfort zone to grow” has been a part of the USMNT’s journey toward improvement. The idea dates back to Jurgen Klinsmann’s era, but it was also discussed often by former coach Gregg Berhalter.But the idea is about more than just going to Europe to play for the biggest clubs. It is about understanding how to find the right challenges that force you to grow. To get better.That Pochettino sees this job as a challenge for his own growth was, perhaps, the most important takeaway from Friday’s press conference. The U.S. needed a new voice to push them to take that next step, beyond potential and into results. They will now begin that journey with a coach who has a bigger reputation than anyone else in the room but who is seeking that same type of growth.Pochettino came across as charming, excited and motivated in the press conference. He spoke about how happy he was to be with the U.S., about the honor of being the first Spanish-speaking Latin American coach in the history of the program, and of his connection with U.S. women’s coach Emma Hayes and the potential influence the winning history of the USWNT can have on the men’s program. He told a story about learning the English-language term of being “over the moon” in his early days as manager of Southampton in the Premier League and said he and his family are over the moon that he has taken this new job. That he switched back and forth between English and Spanish was, in itself, a historic moment and representative of how this hire creates an unprecedented opportunity for U.S. Soccer to reach this country’s massive — and growing — Latino population. Pochettino clearly understood, though, that reaching fans, both new and old, will come down to one thing: winning.
Pochettino is presented to the media at Hudson Yards (Luke Hales/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Several times over the course of the morning, Pochettino returned to a simple idea that he thinks can push this team forward: belief. He said the word “believe” a dozen times over the course of the hour-long event. For a coach famous for his ability to inspire a dressing room, it hinted at the way he’ll target mentality and psychology as much as he will tactics. “’Believe’ for me is a word that is a powerful word,” Pochettino said. “You can have enormous talent and you can be clever, but in football, you need to believe. Believe that all is possible. If we find a way to believe all together, then for sure we will achieve.”
Later, he reinforced that idea with his sights set on the World Cup tournament the U.S. will co-host with Mexico and Canada in two years’ time. “We need to really believe in big things,” Pochettino said. “Believe that we can win not only a game, we can win the World Cup. … We want players that show up, day one at the training camp, and think big. That is the only way to create this philosophy or this idea all together to perform and to put your talent in the service of the team. That is going to be our massive challenge.” Bringing that belief back will be first on his to-do list as the USMNT coach. The U.S. was clearly lacking confidence in the September window, something Pochettino said was understandable considering the results in the Copa América. The performances in a loss to Canada and a draw with New Zealand only magnified the issues within the group. Pochettino, though, didn’t seem overly concerned with the overall culture of the group, alluding then to the idea of tapping into the “winning mentality” that permeates American sports and taking inspiration from the winning culture the U.S. women have long demonstrated.
“We are here because we want to win,” Pochettino said.
The video board announces Pochettino’s appointment at the friendly against New Zealand in Cincinnati (John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
There were, of course, ideas about how to play discussed as well.
“We are in the USA,” Pochettino said. “I think to convince our fans, this is about to attract (them), and the aesthetic is really important. We want to play nice football, good football, exciting football, attacking football. And then, of course, we want to have the possession, because we are coaching staff also with a philosophy to have the ball. We need to run, we need to move, we need to give options, good angles to your team-mate. … And then when we don’t have the ball we need to run, we need to be aggressive, we need to be competitive. “The potential is there. The talent is there. It’s only to create the best platform for them to express themselves.” While Pochettino acknowledged that those are the trademarks of his team, he also said he wants first to get a feel for his players before he declares how this U.S. team will play. That process will start in the coming days, as Pochettino inevitably goes to sit and meet with members of the player pool, chief among them star winger Christian Pulisic. Pochettino said he wants to hear from members of the team individually, to get feedback on how they see things. Then he will gather the group together for the first time next month for friendlies in Austin, Texas and Guadalajara, Mexico. The process to get a deal over the line has been a long one, stretching more than two months from the beginning of recruitment to his formal introduction. Pochettino admitted it was difficult to wait it out. He was ready to get to work. Now, the clock has started. The U.S. has less than two years until the World Cup and a mountain to climb to be ready. They have a coach, though, that few would have imagined would take this group into that tournament.
A coach who now will try to inject belief into and around this team.
Inside Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT deal: Hayes’ role, Chelsea delays and Argentine steak
U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker looked down at his phone as he stood in his home gym in Southampton, England, and saw the message from Mauricio Pochettino.Several days earlier, the U.S. had failed to progress from the group at Copa America under Gregg Berhalter. A “comprehensive review” was underway and every option was being evaluated. A list of potential coaching candidates was put together and Pochettino, the former Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea manager, was at the top.Pochettino and Crocker had crossed paths for one year at Southampton before the Argentine moved to Spurs in 2014 but the two hadn’t spoken in some time. Crocker reached out to a mutual friend at Southampton to ask if he had a current number for the 52-year-old, then sent him a message. Would he be interested in a chat?
When the message from Pochettino came back, Crocker picked up the phone to call immediately. For 20 minutes, as Crocker stood in his home gym, the two former colleagues caught up on their families, careers and where life had taken them since they last worked together. Then, Crocker asked if Pochettino would be willing to meet in person in Barcelona, where the former Espanyol player and manager lives. He had a project he thought would be interesting, even if it would be Pochettino’s first foray into international soccer. Pochettino agreed to see him.
Matt Crocker was already close to Mauricio Pochettino (Candice Ward/Getty Images)
On July 16, two days after the Copa America final, Crocker, U.S. Soccer chief executive officer JT Batson and vice-president of sporting operations Elaine Lemos boarded planes to Barcelona. There, in a conference room attached to a hotel suite, the federation executives sat down with Pochettino and his longtime assistant Jesus Perez. They gifted a bottle of wine to Pochettino, who is known for loving his reds, and then got straight down to business.Crocker and Batson laid out the project, the good and the bad. They went over the failure at Copa America and the USMNT’s results over the previous year. They detailed the plan for the 2026 World Cup, to be played largely on home soil. They went through a player pool which some see as a golden generation, but also highlighted the struggles some of them were going through in terms of regular minutes at their respective clubs. They didn’t want to shine everything up to look perfect.
Soon, Pochettino and Perez had a laptop out to go over their own plans and ideas. Pochettino was attracted to the idea of coaching at a World Cup, and of leading one of the 2026 version’s three host countries — especially the United States, a young team with the potential to make noise at a home tournament.A meeting that was supposed to last 90 minutes stretched to two hours, then three, then four. At one point, Batson had to step into an adjacent room to attend another USSF meeting.When the sitdown with Pochettino ended, both camps walked away with a positive feeling. But Crocker and Batson knew there was still lots of work to do. The search for a new coach would take the U.S. Soccer officials through almost a dozen trips around Europe, to five different countries and into conversations with several high-profile candidates. But it was that first meeting in Barcelona that set them on a path to the next era of the U.S. men’s national team.The journey to that potentially program-changing moment, recounted to The Athletic by several people familiar with the discussions who will remain anonymous to protect relationships, was both a whirlwind and an excruciating waiting game.
The list of candidates sparkled with big names.
Pochettino. Jurgen Klopp. Pep Guardiola. Gareth Southgate. Graham Potter. Thomas Frank.
When Crocker sat down with Sam Gregory, the director of analytics for U.S. Soccer, to craft an idea of what might come next for the U.S. men’s program, it started with one major data point: winning. Crocker wanted a coach who had a reputation for winning across several environments. That list, obviously, yielded some big names. Many already had high-profile jobs. Others were available.Deep dives were done on each coach, no matter how famous, laying out their style of play at different teams and the systems they prefer. In the end, it yielded a starting point for the coaching search. The U.S. wanted to be ambitious. They were going to shoot for even the biggest names on the list.As Crocker picked up the phone and began making calls, the responses were overwhelmingly positive. The U.S. expected some polite ‘no, thank yous’ but heard ‘yes’ a lot more often. Meetings were set up with around half a dozen candidates. A plan was crafted.Crocker, Batson and other U.S. Soccer officials had sat in a conference room at the Westin Jersey City hotel ahead of a U.S. women’s national team Olympic send-off game against Mexico at the nearby Red Bull Arena on July 13 and looked over the itinerary for the next week in Europe. The trip was extensive, but the names on the list created genuine excitement.The journey didn’t always go as planned. Batson’s flight from Berlin after the men’s European Championship final later that week had to return to the airport due to smoke in the cabin, causing him to miss a meeting. On another trip, U.S. Soccer officials’ cab was pulled over by local authorities and then another taxi was held up by a protest blocking the roads, meaning the officials had to complete the journey on foot, luggage in tow, to make a meeting on time. There were multiple meetings with Klopp, who needed a break from the game having left Liverpool in May after more than eight years at the Premier League club.
U.S. Soccer officials met with Klopp multiple times (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Talks with Pochettino continued to move along smoothly. Four days after their first meeting, U.S. Soccer officials returned to Barcelona to talk again with Pochettino and Perez. Whereas U.S. Soccer led the first conversation, the second was led by the two coaches. Pochettino laid out what his plans would look like for his first few months in charge of the national team.U.S. women’s national team coach Emma Hayes was also involved. Hayes and Pochettino became friends at Chelsea, when she was in charge of the women’s side last season as he led the men’s team, and Hayes called Pochettino to lobby and tell him about her experiences with U.S. Soccer. She also served as a reference for him, advocating for U.S. Soccer to prioritize her former colleague.Hayes was involved enough that, on the day of her team’s Olympic semifinal in Lyon, France, she checked in with U.S. Soccer officials at the squad hotel to see how things were advancing with Pochettino.Between that semifinal win against Germany on August 6 and the gold medal game in Paris against Brazil four days later, Crocker, Batson and U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone took another trip to Barcelona. Parlow Cone, like Hayes, was a strong advocate pushing for Pochettino. Over Argentine steak at a hotel restaurant, Pochettino pointed out his respect for Parlow Cone as the only World Cup winner in the room.At the USWNT’s gold medal celebration party at the Nike Athlete House in Paris, Crocker and Batson took a moment in one corner of the festivities to discuss next steps. There was still plenty to be done.
From the moment U.S. Soccer decided to move on from Berhalter, Crocker was insistent that the federation would not be limited by financial constraints.“It’s a really competitive market out there, salary-wise, and we have to be competitive to get the level of coach that I believe can take the program forward in terms of achieving the results that we want on the field,” Crocker told a small group of reporters on a Zoom call on July 10.Berhalter made north of $2 million (£1.53m at current rates), including bonuses, in 2022. Hayes is being paid $1.6m, matching Berhalter’s base salary. To get Pochettino, who has been one of the world’s highest-paid coaches at some of the world’s biggest clubs, U.S. Soccer knew it would have to be on the higher end of national team compensation. How it would do that included some creative solutions.
Gregg Berhalter was paid significantly less than Pochettino will get (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, U.S. Soccer increased its efforts in fundraising over the last decade. That included efforts to reach higher-wealth individuals who might be able to help with efforts to donate toward the federation’s efforts to grow the game.As the men’s managerial search got underway, a donor to U.S. Soccer reached out to billionaire Ken Griffin, who has given more than $2 billion to charity and has established a civic engagement initiative called Griffin Catalyst for his personal philanthropic and community impact initiatives.Griffin has long had a connection to the sport. He played soccer growing up, his children did the same and in 2022 he joined the Ricketts family in a bid for Chelsea. Notably, Griffin has also financially supported American soccer initiatives, including donating $8 million in recent years to the U.S. Soccer Foundation to build 50 mini-pitches in Chicago and another 50 in the Miami-Dade area.The donor connected Griffin to U.S. Soccer, and Griffin agreed to donate a substantial amount toward the men’s national team program and the hire of a new coach.“Soccer is one of the most popular sports in America,” Griffin said in a statement. “I am excited to join my fellow Americans in supporting our teams’ efforts to triumph in the upcoming World Cup and beyond. When our players do well on the pitch, it expands the reach of this great sport. These athletes also have a powerful opportunity to be influential role models for millions of American children by exemplifying the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance.”But finding the money to pay Pochettino was not the only issue. The coach was still under contract with Chelsea, despite agreeing to part ways with the London club at the end of the 2023-24 season. He was owed a substantial amount of money, but the agreement stipulated that if he took another job, Chelsea no longer owed him anything. Pochettino’s departure terms also included a six-month prohibition from taking another leading job with one of Chelsea’s major Premier League rivals.
While U.S. Soccer’s salary was competitive on the national-team scale, it fell well short of the wage paid by one of the sport’s biggest clubs. Pochettino, then, would stand to lose money by agreeing to coach the United States team.Batson became the key middleman in the negotiation around that separation agreement. The idea was that Chelsea would pay what they owed minus the salary U.S. Soccer would pay Pochettino. In theory, everyone would be happy: the coach would receive the full compensation he was due, Chelsea would save several million dollars and U.S. Soccer would land their coach.The U.S. federation had a good relationship with the English club — which has American co-owners in private equity firm Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly — after already dealing with Chelsea in its hiring of Hayes last year as the women’s national team coach.
Emma Hayes was an advocate for Pochettino (Patricia De Brad Smith/USSF via Getty Images)
But discussions dragged out for weeks over Pochettino.With the Premier League’s summer transfer window still open, Chelsea had to focus on getting business done and that delayed substantive talks. Pochettino was also focused on helping his footballer son Maurizio land a new club; the 23-year-old would end up signing with CD Ibiza in Spain’s fourth division. The talks were always constructive, but they were also complicated.Behind the scenes in the States, those waiting for word that the deal was done saw a finish line that kept moving. Preparations were made for an announcement on more than one occasion. The initial hope was to get Pochettino in time for the team’s September camp, but that didn’t happen. Then, the goal was to make an announcement in time for him to meet the players in Kansas City around the game there against Canada last week. Perhaps it was better he wasn’t there in person to see a listless performance against Canada, one that underlined just how badly this team is in search of inspiration.
Amid the delays, there was fresh tension over the futures of Eddie Howe at Newcastle United and Erik ten Hag at Manchester United. Pochettino was among the coaches discussed by Manchester United in the summer and also has pre-existing relationships with Newcastle sporting director Paul Mitchell and performance director James Bunce. But he resisted any temptation to hold out for a potential return to the Premier League this fall.
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With the fate of the deal in the hands of lawyers, and Batson continuing to broker things to try to get it over the line, an agreement was finally finished.
The deal protects U.S. Soccer against any risk of poaching from a European club in the two years before the World Cup — there is a material buyout in the contract — and both sides feel the partnership is solidly set through 2026.Pochettino is going into the job with eyes wide open and with real intent regarding what he can do. After stops at clubs where there were different levels of instability and power dynamics, he felt confident in his ability to lead and make an impact at U.S. Soccer; not just with the men’s national team but even beyond that into the coaching and game models throughout the federation.
Who are the biggest USMNT winners and losers as Mauricio Pochettino takes over?
In the aftermath of Gregg Berhalter’s firing, it became clear that the USMNT was looking for something different for their next appointment.Matt Crocker, the technical director for the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), identified the need for a “serial winner.” Tyler Adams, Berhalter’s captain at the 2022 World Cup, called for a “ruthless” coach to take the team forward to the 2026 World Cup being played largely on home soil — the defining tournament for this generation of American soccer players.In Mauricio Pochettino, the USSF is confident it has found the man who embodies those qualities.The Argentinian former Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea head coach has the job of turning a team that suffered an embarrassing group-stage exit as Copa America hosts this summer into one capable of going deep enough in 2026 to take soccer to another level in the United States.Here, The Athletic has analyzed the fit of the USMNT’s most prominent stars under their new boss.
Helping develop Harry Kane at Tottenham. Fitting Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe into one PSG team. Facilitating the emergence of Cole Palmer at Chelsea. Pochettino loves to build the attacking parts of his sides around headline-grabbing forwards. With the USMNT, Pulisic is the most likely candidate.The 25-year-old has been involved with the senior national team since he was 17 and has become its star attacker. His tears became the symbol of the USMNT’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup finals, and his importance to American success in this sport continues to grow.Pochettino is expected to hand Pulisic the keys to his attack, providing the AC Milan forward with a level of responsibility he relishes. After a defining 2023-24 season at San Siro, Pulisic is in the form of his professional career. Under Pochettino, the onus is going to be on him to carry that form into the international sphere.
Reyna has established himself in the USMNT starting line-up over the past 12 months, but Pochettino’s experience of developing No 10s suggests he could now reach another level. Across Pochettino’s five years in charge of Tottenham, he helped Christian Eriksen develop from a young talent with elite potential into one of the best midfield creators in the world. Could Reyna follow a similar path?Reyna has experienced a difficult couple of years since the World Cup in Qatar, failing to establish himself as a key player at Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga. He went on loan to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League for the second half of last season but could not establish himself as they battled to avoid relegation.The 21-year-old has the talent to become a star under Pochettino, but before the new head coach entrusts him with an important role Reyna, who played only nine minutes in Dortmund’s first two games of the season, must find consistent football at the club level.
Workhorse midfielders have been central to Pochettino’s teams.Last summer, Chelsea signed Moises Caicedo for £115million ($146m) from fellow Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion to add dynamism to his midfield engine room, alongside Enzo Fernandez. At Southampton, his first gig in English football a decade ago, former Northern Ireland international Steven Davis provided the running alongside Morgan Schneiderlin and Victor Wanyama, with the latter then being signed by Spurs after he became manager there. For the U.S., McKennie and Musah seem set to battle for that role under Pochettino.With a World Cup and Copa America cycle now behind them, Musah and McKennie are seasoned operators for the national team, and it will be up to the new manager to decide which of them best suits his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation. McKennie, 26, is more experienced, started all three group games at the Copa America, and will probably be the favorite to assume the right-sided central midfield role initially.However, Musah is younger at 21 and has considerable potential, particularly as a passer and ball-carrier. Pochettino, who has never been afraid to give young players time and opportunities to impress, is the perfect boss for him to take the next step and own that spot in midfield.
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When fit, Adams is one of the first names on the USMNT team sheet.He was at his best at the 2022 World Cup, with his finest performance at that tournament — and arguably his international career — coming in the goalless group-stage draw against England. Facing Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Mason Mount, Adams was crucial in the USMNT winning the midfield battle and controlling large portions of the game, earning him the player of the match award.Since then though, Adams’ career has plateaued. After suffering a season-ending hamstring injury with Leeds United in March 2023, he has endured several setbacks, causing him to miss most of last season. He made his long-awaited return to competitive USMNT action at Copa America, playing in all three matches before aggravating a back injury that caused him to miss the final part of new club Bournemouth’s league campaign. He is sidelined again for the opening months of the new season following back surgery.The 25-year-old is far from finished at club and international level, you’d imagine. He has proven his quality in the Premier League and for his nation, and Pochettino will be keen to see him back to his best, with the defensive midfield spot in his system tailor-made for Adams’ qualities.
That said, without the cushion of his strong performances under Berhalter guaranteeing his selection, Adams must prove he can still reach the physical level required from a Pochettino midfielder.
The present and future at the heart of the USMNT defense.Alongside Denmark international Joachim Andersen, Richards excelled under Oliver Glasner for Crystal Palace in the second half of last season, stepping up to prove his quality after England international Marc Guehi was injured.Throughout former Argentina international defender Pochettino’s time in management, athletic ball-playing center-backs have been important, allowing his sides to build attacking moves from defense and operate a high line. Richards, 24, suits this perfectly, and he appears set to become a nailed-on starter ahead of and during the next World Cup, provided he stays injury-free and continues to play club football consistently at a high level.
Ream was among Berhalter’s most reliable servants, but it might be time for the United States to evolve beyond him.His selection was backed by his consistent performances in an American shirt and for Fulham in the Premier League and Championship. However, Ream will be 37 next month and has now left the Premier League and is playing in MLS for Charlotte. Although Pochettino is not against relying on older center-backs — Thiago Silva remained an essential part of his Chelsea backline last season despite turning 39 last September.There is also the question mark of what comes after Ream for the States on the road to World Cup 2026, with Cameron Carter-Vickers largely unproven at the international level and Miles Robinson yet to test himself outside MLS. Without any apparent alternatives, Pochettino’s best solution might be sticking with Ream in the short term.However, any physical decline could limit Pochettino’s desire to implement his attacking style. As mentioned with Richards, the Argentinian likes to play high up the pitch with defenders who can cover the space behind him, which could expose Ream.
Balogun could be the player who benefits most from Pochettino’s arrival.
More than Palmer, Eriksen, Son or Dele Alli, the player Pochettino developed most in his Premier League years was Kane.
When Pochettino joined Spurs in 2014, the current England captain was a 21-year-old on the fringe of the first team. He had scored four goals in 19 games across competitions the previous season following several indifferent loan spells to lower-league clubs. Within five years, he had become one of the best strikers in the world, scoring 169 goals in 242 appearances under Pochettino.
It’s been a while since the USMNT had a reliable goalscorer, and Balogun’s performances at Copa America indicated he could be the player to make the No 9 shirt his own.
It’s difficult for an international coach to have a game-changing impact on an individual, considering the limited time they get with the players, but it might only take a few minor adjustments to take Balogun from a good striker to a world-class one.
At the other end of the pitch, Turner’s place in the team has never been less secure since winning the No. 1 shirt under Berhalter.Having looked set to be Nottingham Forest’s third-choice goalkeeper this season, he now seems certain to be Crystal Palace’s second-choice after securing a season-long loan to the London club on the final day of the summer transfer window.The move is unlikely to help him in his search for regular Premier League football but his case to continue as Pochettino’s No 1 is supported by the lack of competition. Ethan Horvath’s early-season form for Cardiff City in the second-tier Championship has been patchy. Gaga Slonina, the nation’s brightest young talent in his position, is playing at Barnsley in England’s third tier on loan from top-flight Chelsea, and the rest of the starting options available to Pochettino are in MLS.If Turner can break into Palace’s team and find his best form, the shirt appears his for the foreseeable future… if not, he opens the door for challengers.
Robinson and Dest have the ideal playing profiles for Pochettino’s system, in which emphasis is placed on full-backs who provide width and further cover in midfield.At Spurs, he used Kyle Walker and Danny Rose in these roles, playing them high and wide to help stretch the opposition’s defense and allow interior attackers to operate in the vacated spaces.Towards the end of last season with Chelsea, he used right-back Malo Gusto similarly but allowed Marc Cucurella to ‘invert’ from the left side, providing another body in midfield to help the team keep possession while also providing another barrier in the middle of the pitch to protect against transitions.Given Robinson’s electric pace and threat from wide positions, he appears a perfect fit. Dest could go to another level under Pochettino with his quality in possession helping to cut through opposing teams and provides the USMNT with defensive cover if their attacks break down.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
Reflecting on Alex Morgan’s career: The athlete, the fighter, the human
SAN DIEGO — Last week, I tossed out my plans to be in Washington D.C. for a different NWSL match and booked a last-minute flight to San Diego. I then stood on the field at Snapdragon Stadium, staring through my camera lens at Alex Morgan, the athlete, one more time. I watched every microexpression flicker past, every smile, every time she blinked back tears, and the times she failed to. I pressed the button every time something felt like it could somehow capture the magnitude of the moment, yards away but able to compress the distance between us simply with a twist of the lens. There was distance too — there had to be — between Alex Morgan, the image, and Alex Morgan, the human. When Morgan stepped off the pitch in her socks on Sunday, boots in hand, it had only been three days since she had announced her retirement from professional soccer at age 35.The lack of notice and Morgan’s lengthy video explaining her decision, announcing that she and husband Servando Carrasco are expecting their second child, meant there would be no long farewell tour. Fans would only have days, not months, to contemplate what women’s soccer would look like without Morgan on the field.Her abrupt retirement set off a scramble, all the emotions of sending off one of the game’s best, grappling to define a legacy — or better yet, the first act. Morgan isn’t going too far, the same way most of her generation of women’s soccer players haven’t either. They are builders. Fighters. Morgan is no different, and she is ready to invest in Act Two.
Morgan in her final game (Meg Linehan/The Athletic)
Morgan was excellent at curating what she presented, and why, for over a decade. She came into the game right as social media changed how people interacted with women’s soccer, from the then-niche #WPSChat to Twitter, then Instagram, then TikTok, allowing players to tell their own stories. A weekly online chat with topics feels quaint now women’s soccer has finally begun to crack mainstream culture (outside of World Cup bumps) over the past few years. Before all that happened, Morgan was the one who had broken through the most.Part of this was because she, in many ways, fit a stereotypical mold, a pretty, white, ‘girl next door’ who could bang in goals and sell Nikes. But what has made Morgan so fascinating to watch over the past decade was how she wielded that particular image; the way she could stockpile goodwill, recognition and power, then deploy them in pursuit of equal pay, better working conditions and player protections across country and club.Morgan wasn’t just an image or a mouthpiece for labor-related fights. She dug into policy work and organizing across both the USWNT and NWSL players’ associations. She knew the power of her platform, her image, her name, and how to extend it to others. She knew when to step back, when to step forward, when to stand side-by-side with someone. When Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly shared their stories of abuse suffered in the NWSL, Morgan put her name on her quotes — not just because she knew that she would be unlikely to suffer retaliation, but because she knew she could help to amplify their voices.On Sunday, Shim was with Morgan’s family watching her final moments on the field. On the opposite coast only a few hours before, Gotham FC honored Farrelly for her retirement — also out of her own hands, due to the cumulative impact of head injuries sustained throughout her career.
It was fitting that these three be tied together, one more time.
“It’s just incredible what you can do when you listen to players, when you value players, when you pay players, when players have autonomy over where they want to live and what team they want to play for. The longevity of our careers grows with all of what I just named, and Sinead was a pivotal piece in that,” Morgan said in her post-game press conference on Sunday. “So to share the same retirement date with her, because although we have very different journeys, we fought for the same thing, and the league is in a better place because of her.”That’s not to say Morgan was all business all the time.Morgan was sneaky good at being online without actually being online. She knew when a post pointing out an issue could have an impact and she didn’t mind embracing a meme or two. (Did she ever fully come around on the ‘Baby Horse’ nickname? Probably not, but she also ate carrots and fed an actual baby horse on camera for U.S. Soccer content, so there was at least a begrudging acceptance.) And no one enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how many drinks could fit into a new trophy more.
(Meg Linehan/The Athletic)
But be the face of anything, and there’s bound to be consequences.In her farewell speech, Morgan thanked fans for criticizing her. For years, teams sold tickets off Morgan’s fame, and it worked — to the chagrin of fans of her opponents at times. She could kick up entire news cycles by deciding to play overseas as people questioned what it meant for the NWSL, first with Lyon in France then a brief stint with Tottenham Hotspur during the height of the pandemic. (As we found out, it meant little for NWSL, but Spurs players did wind up with better training conditions thanks to Morgan.)While Morgan wasn’t alone in getting deals and building a following, she was one of the best.Fortunately for Morgan, she was also pretty good at soccer. Some of her best memories, she said before the game on Friday, were from winning. Winning offered a respite from the weight of the work.“You’re on auto drive. Like you feel when you have the blinders on and you’re just looking forward,” Morgan said. With winning, came celebrations. With celebrations, humanity:“You get to be human again, you’re not just an athlete. That’s the best part. We’re all humans, and we all have emotions, and we all have vulnerabilities. And in sports, a lot of times you’re so shut off from that, you’re so disconnected from your emotions, from the real world, because you’re so driven.”
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Morgan said sometimes she felt like she hadn’t smiled for weeks at a time — something she didn’t realize until after the end had come.
Those moments when she could smile and celebrate, the ticker tape parades down Broadway in New York City, were when she felt most human. Not, as she said on Friday, “this robotic thing on this platform. But I’m a sister, I’m a daughter, I’m a friend.”
On Sunday, Morgan finally had a moment for those two worlds to collide, to be an athlete and more. To have her daughter, Charlie, with her for the walkouts and anthem, and to stand with her family on the pitch and soak in all the sounds of the adoring San Diego crowd, scattered with folks who had traveled on short notice from all over the country.
“There have been so many incredible moments, but this one, this last moment I share on the field with you, I will cherish forever,” Morgan said, having mostly succeeded at keeping the tears at bay. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.”
(Top photo: Jose Breton / Pics Action / NurPhoto; design: Dan Goldfarb)
Meg Linehan is a senior writer for The Athletic who covers the U.S. women’s national team, the National Women’s Soccer League and more. She also hosts the weekly podcast “Full Time with Meg Linehan.” Follow Meg on Twitter
Atlanta United parts ways with vice president, technical director Carlos Bocanegra
Atlanta United announced on Wednesday that the club has parted ways with vice president and technical director Carlos Bocanegra.
The former U.S. men’s national team captain had been in the role since 2015. Atlanta made their MLS debut in 2017.
“We are deeply appreciative of Carlos’s dedication and success over the last nine years with Atlanta United,” said club president and CEO Garth Lagerwey in a statement.
“However, I believe it’s time for our club to move in a new direction. While we will continue to fight for a playoff spot down the final stretch of the season, this gives us a clean slate and a runway to properly assess all vacancies in our sporting operation ahead of what will be an extremely important offseason for our club.”
Atlanta United currently sits ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings, which is the final automatic playoff spot. They’ve lost five of their last 10 matches under interim head coach Rob Valentino. During the most recent MLS summer transfer window, Bocanegra signed Russia international Aleksei Miranchuk to replace Thiago Almada, who was sold to Brazilian club Botafogo.
Bocanegra, alongside former team president Darren Eales, led the club’s front office during Atlanta’s 2018 MLS Cup title campaign. Eales left for Newcastle United in 2022 to become the Premier League side’s CEO. That left Bocanegra in charge of Atlanta United’s recruitment strategy, as well as overseeing the first team. Atlanta’s form and player recruiting strategy has since been under heavy scrutiny as the team has underperformed consistently since 2020.
“I want to personally thank Carlos for his many contributions to the success of Atlanta United on and off the pitch,” team owner Arthur Blank said. “He was here from the beginning and deserves much credit for our MLS Championship; other trophies we’ve won over the last nine years; and the way our team captured the heart of this city even before we launched in 2017.”
Lagerwey will take over Bocanegra’s duties moving forward. Since firing former manager Gonzalo Pineda in June, Lagerwey has personally managed the search for a new coach. He’ll now add a sporting director search to his list of duties. Because the MLS regular season is still active, qualified candidates are likely to become available in the offseason.
Atlanta United’s next match is at home against Nashville SC on September 14.
US ladies Olympic Prep vs Mexico Sat 3:30 pm on TNT
Emma Hayes will have 2 more games to get the US ladies ready for the ever important Olympics with 2 games this week before they take off for Paris. They did announce that Catarina Macario is still nursing a sore knee and will be replaced by Alternate Lynn Williams. Too bad – would have been great to get Macario the experience. Either way the US ladies were shocked by Mexico the last time they played them – so this game should serve as a little payback time and give us a decent feel for how this new look US team under Hayes will perform against a decent team.
2024 U.S. Olympic women’s soccer roster
GOALKEEPERS (2): Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars)
DEFENDERS (6): Tierna Davidson (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Emily Fox (Arsenal), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC), Casey Krueger (Washington Spirit), Jenna Nighswonger (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Emily Sonnett (NJ/NY Gotham FC)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC), Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon), Rose Lavelle (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Catarina Macario (Chelsea) Lynn Williams NY Gothem
FORWARDS (5): Crystal Dunn (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit), Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego Wave FC), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars)
ALTERNATES (4): Jane Campbell (goalkeeper, Houston Dash), Hal Hershfelt (midfielder, Washington Spirit), Croix Bethune (midfielder, Washington Spirit), Lynn Williams (forward, NJ/NY Gotham FC)
Euro Finals – England vs Spain – Sun 3 pm Fox
So the Euro’s and the Copa American Finals this Sunday wrap up the 1st half of a crazy summer of soccer. What a joy its been to watch these games. The Euro’s have been fantastic and with competitive games and two teams many predicted could reach the finals with Spain and England. I thought Germany also played great but ran into Spain too early in the Competition – I think if they had been on the other side of the bracket the two best teams were Spain and Germany. But give England credit – after looking like crap in the group stage they have come alive – albeit late in most of the games. It has made for exciting football however. I like Spain in this one 2-1 in normal time. Is it coming home England?
Copa America Finals Arg vs Colombia Sun 8 pm on Fox
So the two best teams have made it to the finals – Argentina cruised on their half of the bracket – save a scare vs Ecuador in the Quarters. Colombia however had to really battle against Uruguay playing a man down for the final 45 minutes to preserve their unbeaten streak at a world’s best 28 games. While Argentina and Messi are the prohibitive favorites headed down to the Finals in Miami – I am taking Colombia and their re-serected midfielder James – to find a way to beat the tourney’s best GK Martinez two times in route to a 2-1 win over Argentina. I will be rooting for the Messi and the blue and white – but I think the yellow clad Colombian’s are gonna find a way to win this one – maybe in Extra Time 2-1. Some great saves in this tourney – be sure to check the GK section below to see.
Copa America 3rd place Uruguay vs Canada Sat 8 pm on Fox
So the Canadians managed to make it to the Semi-Finals – while the US flamed out in the group stages. I would assume its all smiles for the US Coach Jesse Marsch who we probably should have hired last summer for the US as he managed to get his team thru. Now lets be honest they scored 3 goals to the US 4 and played 2 games up a man in a weaker group overall. But all that aside – with Uruguay down players like Nunez (red card) and others (brawl in the stands) Canada has a real chance to take 3rd place in this Copa America tourney – I will be rooting for Jesse and the Cannucks and Bakers! Go Canada.
US Needs to find the Right Coach
So I guess we’ll see if this Englishman we hired Matt Crocker is worth a crock or not. Obviously it was time for Berhalter to go zero wins against top 10 teams (Ever while head coach) will do that. And the flame out at Copa was too much to keep his job – no matter how much our players like him. I am not sure who the US gets – obviously Klopp is not coming – perhaps a Pochitino has an interesting sound to it or maybe Gareth Southgate if he wins and decides to leave England with his knighthood and take another gig. Honestly the more I see the more I think it might be Renard – the current French women’s coach (former coach of 2 men’s teams in the world cup) or some American coach like Steve Cherundolo. While I love Cherundolo – with only 3 years as a head coach and zero international coaching experience I am just not sure he or any other US coach is ready. Jesse Marsch – was probably our best shot for a US coach and he will take great pleasure trying to make sure his MLS laden Canada team outdoes the US in the World Cup.
Indy 11 home vs Loudon United Sat 7 pm @ the Mike
Indy Eleven starts a two-match homestand hosting Loudoun United FC Saturday at The Mike. This will be the eighth overall meeting between the sides, and the first of two this season. The Boys in Blue are coming off a 2-1 U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinal win over MLS-side Atlanta United and tied Rhode Island, 3-3, in the last USL Championship action to remain in third in the Eastern Conference (9-5-3). Loudoun sits sixth at 7-6-4 after defeating Hartford, 3-0, its last time out. Indy Eleven made history Tuesday night, defeating Atlanta United, 2-1, to advance to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinals for the first time since opening play in the tournament in 2014. The victory was also the first for the Boys in Blue over an MLS opponent in its fourth match-up. Indy is now 8-7-1 all-time in U.S. Open Cup action and picked up its second road victory in tournament history, with the first coming in this season’s Third Round at Chicago Fire II. The Boys in Blue have outscored opponents, 8-1, in this season’s edition. Indy’s leading goal scorer in U.S. Open Cup action, Augi Williams, opened the scoring in the 31st minute off an assist from Douglas Martinez, his second helper of the tournament. The tally was the third for Williams in the Cup, scoring in the third consecutive match, while the goal was the first Atlanta had given up after opening the tournament w/a pair of shutouts. Indy 11 advance to US Open Cup Semi’sIndy 11 Radio Call
Set your calendars now for next Sat night July 20 as former Indy 11 GK & Carmel FC GK coach Jordan Farr returns with his Tampa Bay Rowdies at 7 pm at the Mike.
Carmel High Girls Soccer Camp July 22-25
2-4:30 pm @ Murray Stadium Register Here contact fdixon@ccs.k1.in.us for more info
Huge Congrats to former Carmel FC & current Carmel High defender Rosie Martin (2nd row far left)– advancing to the ENCL Finals with her Indy 11 team this past weekend. Congrats Pork Chop!!
TV GAMES SCHEDULE
Sat, July 13
3:30 pm TNT, Max, Peacock US Women vs Mexico
7 pm ESPN+ Indy 11 vs Loudon United
8 pm FS 1 Copa 3rd Canada vs Uruguay
8:30 pm Apple TV Free Austin vs Seattle Sounders
8:30 pm Apple TV Free Chicago Fire vs NYCFC
8:30 pm Apple TV Free Dallas vs LA Galaxy
9:30 pm Apple TV Free Colorado vs NY Red Bulls
10:30 pm Apple TV Free LAFC vs Columbus
Sun, July 14
3 pm Fox Euro Finals Spain vs England
8 pm Fox Copa Finals Argentina vs Colombia
Tues, July 16
7:30 pm TNT, Max, Peacock US Women vs Costa Rica
Weds, July 17
10:30 pm FS1 LAFC vs Real Salt Lake
Fri, July 19
9 pm CBSSN Seattle Reign vs Utah Royals NWSL
Sat, July 20
7 pm ESPN+ TV 8 Indy 11 vs Tampa Bay Rowdies (Jordan Farr in goal)
8 pm CBSSN KC Current vs Houston Dash NWSL
8 pm Para+ Racing Louisville vs Monterey Fermeni NWSL tourney
10 pm CBSSN San Diego Wave vs Bay FC NWSL
10:45 pm FS1 LA Galaxy vs Portland Timbers
Sun, July 21
7 pm CBSSN Portland Thorns vs Tiajuana Ladies NWSL tourney
Wed, July 24
9 am Peacock Argentina Men vs Morocco Olympics
11 am Peacock Japan Men vs Paraguay Olympics
3 pm Peacock US Men Olympics vs France
Thurs, July 25
11 am Peacock Canada Women vs New Zealand Olympics
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Euro 2024 final preview: Spain vs. England
James Olley ESPNFC Sam Marsden
Jul 12, 2024, 04:00 AM ET
BERLIN — After a long month of continental competition stretching from one end of Germany to the other, Euro 2024 is set to conclude Sunday in Berlin, where Spain will take on England at the Olympiastadion. The paths these two teams have taken to the German capital are starkly different. Spain have been the darlings of the tournament, the only heavyweights to consistently turn in eye-catching performances that convey a coherence and clearly defined identity. England, meanwhile, have largely looked like less than the sum of their parts, but their collection of stars have managed to dig deep and grind out the results required to reach a second consecutive European Championship final. Who will emerge victorious Sunday? How will the match unfold? ESPN asked the two writers who’ve followed these teams most closely throughout Euro 2024: James Olley and Sam Marsden.
Why could England win?
England produced their best performance of the tournament by some distance in the semifinals. There is a sense of momentum behind them right now and a surging belief that comes from pulling out results late on. Jude Bellingham‘s 95th-minute equaliser against Slovakia, the penalty shootout win over Switzerland and Ollie Watkins‘ 90th-minute winner against Netherlands have created a feeling England could somehow be destined to lift their first major trophy in 58 years.
EDITOR’S PICKS
There were signs against the Dutch that England’s individual attacking talents were starting to develop an understanding and some of the combinations between Kobbie Mainoo, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka in particular were exciting. Jordan Pickford is having another tournament in which he takes his game to another level, while Marc Guéhi has been a major find at centre-back. Luke Shaw‘s likely return in time for his first start of the tournament will give better balance to the team given he is a natural left-footer as opposed to Kieran Trippier, who has been filling in at left-back or left wing-back. After all the chaos of the early rounds, manager Gareth Southgate has seemingly found a degree of stability in his probable lineup. — James Olley
Why could Spain win?
No one is arguing that Spain have been the best team at Euro 2024. They have won all six matches and have already beaten hosts Germany and pre-tournament favourites France in the knockout rounds. They have done so scoring the most goals (13), creating the most chances (96) and by playing front-foot, attacking football. A lot of the focus has been on the verticality added to a previously possession-heavy side by wingers Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal. Thanks to them, they can now go direct and cause problems in transition, although they also still manage the ball so well. They press diligently, have a nice balance to the side, a clear idea of how they want to play and in Rodri they might have the Player of the Tournament.Ballon d’Or shouts are growing for the Manchester City midfielder, and the chances are if he’s on song, Spain will win. City’s FA Cup final defeat ended a run of 74 games unbeaten for his club, but Rodri has stepped straight back into winning habits with his country.Spain were considered outsiders before the tournament, but the quiet optimism that has radiated from the camp since they opened with a 3-0 win against Croatia has proven justified. They go into the final as favourites. — Sam Marsden
Who deserves the trophy more: Southgate or De la Fuente?
Southgate for a number of reasons. Firstly, Sunday could be culmination of eight years in charge during which he has redefined the culture around the England team and broken down a series of historical barriers. He has now won more tournament knockout games than every other England manager since 1966 combined. He has secured back-to-back Euros finals, and this weekend’s is England’s first major final outside of London.It is possible to pick holes in those achievements, not least this summer in that England have had a significantly easier route to the final than Spain and the football really was terrible earlier in the tournament. A more proactive manager might have secured victory in the last Euros final against Italy as Roberto Mancini gradually took the game away from England before winning on penalties.Southgate has his flaws but he has presided over an unprecedented period of deep tournament runs, doing so more recently amid a fierce backlash from many people with short memories. Some of the criticism has been valid but throwing beer cups in his direction and booing his name when read out before kickoff is not given both his track record and sincere desire to do his nation proud. And let’s not forget his journey as a player: missing a penalty in the Euro 1996 semifinal shootout against Germany is a moment that has long threatened to define him. What a transformation it would be if he could mark eight years and 102 games as manager with a historic trophy lift. — Olley
The word “deserves” is an awkward one. Neither appointment was especially exciting at the time, but both have done good jobs. It’s easy to argue that Southgate would be a fitting winner given his trajectory with England as a player and coach and what he has done in the past eight years, including enduring extreme criticism at times during this tournament. However, if we’re just talking about what we have seen in Germany, then Luis de la Fuente edges it.
Spain’s performances have been recognisable and consistent throughout. They have taken games to opponents and not sat back once while leading. It’s an extension of the work De la Fuente has done throughout the past decade at the Spanish Football Federation. He has previously won the U19 Euros, the U21 Euros, a silver medal at the Olympic Games and the UEFA Nations League last summer. Many of the players in the senior side now played under him at youth level — including Rodri, Dani Olmo, Marc Cucurella and Pedri, among others — and those longstanding relationships, coupled with his in-tournament experience, have helped Spain prosper in Germany. — Marsden
What weaknesses could each team exploit in their opponent?
Spain might be the first side England play that are willing to allow them space on the break. If England can play through the press when they win the ball, they could create chances, although they will need to be more willing to run in behind than they have been so far — Spain play with the highest defensive line at the tournament. Goalkeeper Unai Simón has also had a couple of shaky moments. His mistake led to a Croatia penalty in the opener — which was missed — and he almost gifted Germany a goal last week, although Kai Havertz could only loft the ball onto the roof of the net.
Spain will focus on their strengths more than England’s weaknesses. They will look to Rodri and Fabián Ruiz to run the game and rely on Williams and Yamal to win their battles against the England full-backs. — Marsden
England’s inability to keep possession has been a habitual tournament failing. Although Spain are more direct under De la Fuente, they remain excellent in that regard — with Rodri the absolute master of dictating play — and so the midfield battle will be vital.
If England can get a foothold in the game, their rich array of attacking talent could exploit a vulnerable-looking Spain defence, particularly at centre-back. It would be a major surprise if Harry Kane did not start the game — unless the blow to his right foot sustained against the Netherlands is more serious than first feared — but England’s firepower off the bench could also be telling. Both Watkins and Ivan Toney have contributed key moments in this tournament to date, the former spectacularly so in scoring the 90th-minute winner against Netherlands, taking advantage of a tiring defence. His confidence will be sky high. — Olley
McManaman: Spain deserve to be favourites for Euro 2024 final
Craig Burley and Steve McManaman react to Spain’s 2-1 win over France in the Euro 2024 semifinals.
England player to watch
Bukayo Saka. The Arsenal winger’s consistency and application is so unswerving that it is easy to take him for granted. Saka was a menace against Switzerland — scoring a brilliant equaliser in that quarterfinal — and particularly in the first half against the Netherlands. But his tactical intelligence is also particularly important to England when they adopt a hybrid system. England used a back five out of possession with Saka tucking in at right wing-back but then switched to a four-man defence with the ball as the 22-year-old pushed forward to operate as a more conventional winger. His ability one-on-one is not matched by many in the game, and he will fancy the matchup against Cucurella. — Olley
Spain player to watch
Dani Olmo. Obviously Rodri, Yamal and, to a lesser extent, Williams are the key men for Spain, but England will also need to be on top of Olmo. The RB Leipzig forward started the tournament on the bench, but Pedri’s injury handed him his chance against Germany, when he scored one and assisted on the winner. He then came into the side against France, scoring the winner himself. Prior to that, he was already having an impact as a substitute. He has a tournament-high five goal contributions — three goals and two assists — and is given freedom to roam between the lines in front of Rodri and Ruiz. — Marsden
Score prediction
Spain 2-1 England. The form lines suggest Spain deserve to start this game as favourites. England keep finding a way to win — and they might do so again — but this will be the toughest challenge they have faced by some distance at these Euros, and Spain have shown a consistently higher level throughout the tournament. — Olley
Spain 3-1 England. Both teams have responded to going behind in the knockout rounds — Spain against Georgia and France, England in all three matches — so it doesn’t seem like the first goal will provide a knockout blow on this occasion. It will be tight, but Spain have been the better side throughout and there’s no reason to imagine that will drastically change Sunday. The third goal will come on the break as England chase a late equaliser. — Marsden
2024 Copa América final: Argentina-Colombia predictions
ESPN Jul 12, 2024, 07:30 AM
It’s here! After a grueling, entertaining and drama-filled month, Sunday night brings the final of the 2024 Copa America, as defending champions Argentina host Colombia in Miami. Which team will reign supreme? Will Argentina and Lionel Messi cruise to victory, or can Colombia shock them? (Game odds, per ESPNBET, point towards Argentina: they’re favored at -165 to Colombia’s +125.)
If Colombia are going to win, which players need to have a statement game? And what will Messi do at Hard Rock Stadium? ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle, Lizzy Becherano and Tim Vickery offer their predictions and expectations for Sunday’s final.
1. Who will win, and why will it be Argentina?
Carlisle: I don’t think it will be Argentina winning on Sunday! Obviously, Colombia were pushed to their physical limits against Uruguay, but manager Nestor Lorenzo also maximized his substitutions in the match. James Rodríguez came off after 62 minutes. Richard Ríos was stretchered off after 61 minutes but was seen dancing afterward, proving that winning does wonders for a player’s recuperative powers.
Yes, Argentina are formidable, but as the saying goes, steel sharpens steel, and Colombia will gain immense confidence from their win over Uruguay. Argentina still look like they haven’t had to get out of third gear, though Ecuador provided a scare. I think Colombia just shade this one.
Becherano: I actually think Colombia will be the first to overcome Argentina this tournament. La Albiceleste cruised through the group stage, really not getting tested until their quarterfinal clash against Ecuador. Lionel Scaloni’s side looked uncomfortable when facing an aggressive opponent, struggling to hold back an eager attack.
Argentina boast an extremely capable set of players, but the 2024 Copa America has yet to see a stellar, trademark performance by the group. Colombia, on the other hand, have seen each player rise to the occasion at different points of the tournament to stun the most difficult opponents. Rodriguez is channeling his form from the 2014 World Cup while Luis Díaz continues to triumph on the left. Should Lorenzo’s side capitalize on their momentum, Argentina will have a difficult time overcoming Colombia’s physicality and force.
Vickery: The worry from the Colombia point of view is how much they took out of themselves playing the semifinal for so long with 10 men, which applies more to Diaz than anyone else. This is clearly an important question given that they go to Miami with a day less to rest up, but if they can recharge their batteries, then I think Colombia are capable of doing it. The discipline of the central midfield trio will help close Argentina down, and the physicality of the strikers will cause problems, as will their strength from set pieces.
Time after time in knockout games, the Argentina defence has been known to collapse — it could have cost them in Qatar against France, Holland and Australia and here against Ecuador — and even Canada had two golden chances in the last five minutes. One day this will cost Argentina, and that day could be Sunday.
2. Which version of Messi will we see and what do you expect from him?
Carlisle: Messi’s usually razor-sharp finishing hasn’t been evident in this tournament, with his goal against Canada one of the great two-foot putts. But for Colombia, the scary part about that goal is that it can nudge Messi’s confidence just that little bit higher to get his shooting accuracy recalibrated.
The other part is that Messi has been getting into good spots from which to score. Yes, I realize this is the old adage of being concerned only if he isn’t getting chances, but you have to think that eventually if that trend continues those shots will begin to find the target. I expect that to come to pass. Then it will be up to Colombia keeper Camilo Vargas to do what he can to thwart a legend.
Becherano: Messi’s quality will continue to be evident on Sunday thanks to his unique understanding of the game, spatial awareness and ability to draw out defenders. Through the age and injuries, Messi has learned to adapt his style of play to fit the current state. The Argentine forward is capable of much more than we’ve seen this tournament, but Colombia should expect him to rise to the occasion.
Argentina’s ability to capitalize on emotions when searching for motivation cannot be taken lightly, and Messi is no different. With the criticism of recent performances and thoughts of his final Copa America, the No. 10 will be out in his newly adapted full force. He might not outrun defensive counterparts, but he needs only a minute to inspire the creation and buildup of what could be a deadly goal.
Vickery: We are watching the sunset of the god. What he does can still be brilliant, but he does less of it than he did in Qatar. Some were shocked that Scaloni left top scorer Lautaro Martínez out of the team for the semifinal, but it is easily explained, and it serves as a recognition from the coach that Messi is not far from the end at this level.
Someone has to do the hard running. Julián Álvarez can do that and also form an extra player in the midfield setup when Argentina aren’t in possession. It is very hard on Lautaro, but it is a consequence of Messi slowly losing the battle against time. It will be fascinating to see how Argentina seek to bring him into the game against the organised and physically imposing Colombians.
3. Which Colombia player needs to have a good game if they are to beat Argentina?
Carlisle: James Rodriguez is the clear candidate, especially given how deadly he has been from set pieces, though that won’t be enough for Argentina to stop him from the run of play. They’ll need to make sure they don’t concede set pieces in dangerous spots.
The defensive side of the ball will be just as critical. The centre-back tandem of Carlos Cuesta and Davinson Sánchez will need to be at their best to stop Messi and Julian Alvarez if Colombia are to come out on top.
Becherano: Naturally, all eyes will be on Rodriguez, and Lionel Scaloni should plan accordingly, but Camilo Vargas is set to face the biggest challenge on Sunday. Should he be able to retain a clean sheet while Argentina possess the ball, then Rodriguez, Luis Diaz and Jhon Córdoba can confidently play without the burden of needing to score a desperate late equalizer.
Vickery: Obviously Rodriguez, for the way he serves as a supply line for Diaz, and, perhaps most of all, for the excellent delivery of his set pieces.
4. OK, predictions time! Give us the final score and how the game will go!
Carlisle: I’m going for 2-0 Colombia, following a similar script to the Uruguay game (minus the red card). A Rodriguez set piece will put the Cafeteros ahead, with Cordoba icing it late.
Becherano: I hate to be redundant, but 2-1 Colombia. Impossible to think that Argentina won’t be able to find the back of the net after their Copa America run, but Colombia will be overpowering.
Vickery: Always make your predictions after the event! But if pushed I’m going for Colombia 2-1, possibly with a late surge. One a header from a set piece, the other from Diaz on the break.
If U.S. Soccer has a plan, trying to hire Jurgen Klopp surely can’t be part of it
If we’ve learned one thing following Gregg Berhalter’s dismissal as manager of the United States men’s national team, perhaps it’s this: when an esteemed coach states they need a year away from the endless grind of their job, they likely mean it. It’s understandable that Jurgen Klopp would rebuff the advances of U.S. Soccer when he isn’t even two months removed from emotionally departing Liverpool. Still, it was worth a shot in the federation’s eyes.The German is as ambitious a target as the federation could identify. He’s a serial winner at the highest level of club football, a culture-builder who is tactically flexible within a clear guiding ideology. He’s also unemployed, removing any buyout cost, and U.S. Soccer was seemingly willing to open its salary budget.Here’s the thing: if you take Klopp’s announcement that he was leaving Liverpool in January at face value, this wasn’t the case of a coach needing a new challenge. He made this call despite having a year left on his contract. He looked beleaguered, harried by the stresses of perennially keeping up with the constant churn of managing one of the world’s most prominent clubs.Even if Klopp had decided that dabbling in international management was enough reprieve after admitting he was “running out of energy,” this would have remedied U.S. Soccer’s ongoing headaches for exactly two years.
I’m not sure the USMNT fanbase fully appreciates the considerable gap between risk and reward if Klopp had replaced Berhalter.The best-case scenario is obvious: an ambitious hiring that makes the federation look good, a truly great coach crafting a potent batch of Schwarzwaldian lemonade from the lemons he inherited, perhaps a run to the 2026 World Cup semifinals and some fond memories when he leaves to either return to club soccer or retire outright.The worst-case scenarios would turn ongoing headaches into diagnosable migraines. One would be that Klopp was right: that he’s out of gas and he wouldn’t have the wherewithal to master the nuances that distinguish international soccer from its club alternative. Another is that he simply wouldn’t be able to handle the crash-course adaptation to international football, that he could get more out of individuals but can’t pull it into a collective in time for the World Cup. A ‘Luis Enrique’s Spain’ scenario, if you will.Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp turned down an approach from the USMNT (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
In either case, the result would be an underwhelming resolution — and a costly one. U.S. Soccer would return to the hiring desk on the back of the World Cup and feel financially strapped as they look for a longer-term alternative.So while Klopp looks very good photoshopped into a USMNT hat, the reality is that the gamble is far more expensive than an Adobe suite subscription.When a federation can’t land the best unemployed manager in the game, what does the ‘best’ hiring possible look like? It’s a question that Matt Crocker and U.S. Soccer will work to answer over the coming weeks in hopes of securing the right coach for the World Cup by September. Names will continue to churn through the rumor mill like an endless conveyor belt. A couple of my colleagues highlighted some of the buzziest options, Klopp among them.
Maybe rushing to meet Klopp’s asking price with some combination of salary, sponsor considerations and NFTs was an expensive stopgap that wouldn’t address the bigger issues at play.Is that a hiring driven by process, an approach Crocker emphasized upon reappointing Berhalter in 2023? Does that hiring respond to the issues that came during Berhalter’s brief second tenure and set the program up on better footing? Or was it an opulent scramble that could have been better planned and executed given Klopp’s months of notice?Does U.S. Soccer really know what it wants from its next men’s manager? Has it had adequate time to figure that out?“There has been progress made,” Crocker said on Wednesday in the wake of Berhalter’s firing, “but now is the time to turn that progress into winning.”Winning! That’s a great start. American sports fans are awfully fond of winning.Here’s the thing: if it was as easy as just wanting to win, the USMNT would be 22-time defending World Cup champions.Saying it’s time to win after six years of, uh, whatever they just did under Berhalter is a backhanded admittance of failure. If you set a modest budget to buy a handful of citrus trees, waited six years as they occasionally bore fruit in hopes of a bountiful harvest to come, then uprooted those trees to import an entire Brazilian grove’s worth of produce ahead of a big event… are you any better at growing citrus? And what was the point of nurturing that smaller plot in the first place?
Gregg Berhalter was dismissed on Wednesday (Eduardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)
Crocker has sworn repeatedly that Berhalter’s second appointment was the result of arduous interviewing, research, and data-driven assessment. If that process is thrown out the window in lieu of a “spend big on famous club coaches” model, that admits a failure beyond just one hire. Trust the process, as they say — but please, keep updating the process along the way based on new information.To send a message of adjustment and ambition, there may be a temptation to skew the coaching search and prioritize candidates who aren’t from the United States. That may be an overreaction if a domestic option enters with a clear vision to get things back on track. At this point, all options have to be considered with clear eyes. Berhalter was hardly the first native son to coach the USMNT. The program has skewed domestically with all but one hire since the 1994 World Cup, when the team was led by Serbian coaching nomad Bora Milutinovic. The one exception, Jurgen Klinsmann, carries an asterisk as he’d set up roots in California years before being appointed in hopes of staying in the federation’s mind whenever Bob Bradley was dismissed. At many times, being coached by someone from the U.S. paid off. The program’s best runs in the modern era were overseen by Bruce Arena and Bradley. Both had intimate knowledge of the player pool at a time when scouting and talent identification wasn’t as effortlessly global. Both had clear ideas for how they wanted the team to get results, catering to their pools’ strengths while accounting for the weaknesses. Neither was scared to embrace stereotypical national ideas about ‘grit’ and playing direct soccer. Both used parts of that DNA to their advantage. Arena led the USMNT to the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals and Bradley led the team to a runner-up finish at the 2009 Confederations Cup, beating the all-time Spanish juggernaut en route to the final. As Crocker figures out what’s ‘best’ for the next appointment, the ultimate hire may indeed be domestic. Steve Cherundolo and Pat Noonan are ex U.S. internationals who are thriving in MLS, while Jim Curtin is familiar with many players in the pool and offers a fresh perspective. If any of these or other alternatives are hired, they’ll feel increased pressure to overperform as the fanbase gets past the second Berhalter era. The ‘best’ hire may be international, too. Milutinovic helped turn a generation of USMNT players into program legends and brought a fresh perspective to set the team up for success on home soil. He brought ample experience coaching internationally, having led Mexico when it hosted the 1986 World Cup.
The USMNT, who will host the 2026 World Cup, exited the Copa America at the group stage (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
His CV is comparable to that of Herve Renard, another nomadic international manager who most recently led the France women’s national team. Renard isn’t a celebrity coach, even if he has a catalog-ready face, but he has standout accomplishments to his name: two Africa Cup of Nations titles (with Zambia in 2012 and the Ivory Coast in 2015), leading Saudi Arabia to the World Cup shock win of the century against Argentina in 2022, and leading a turbulent French team to the quarterfinal of the 2023 Women’s World Cup mere months after taking the job. He checks a lot of boxes for a possible stopgap solution with a very high upside and a low floor.ever, getting the best version of him may require a year’s worth of patience on top of lavish wages — two resources U.S. Soccer can ill afford to waste. Again, risks and rewards.Ultimately, the necessity to get this hire right extends beyond the field. You don’t need to scroll far into our comments sections to find that morale among USMNT fans is at a nadir. Depending how you value the Gold Cup, the team won’t play another high-level meaningful match until a World Cup group-stage opener in 2026. This appointment is one of the few remaining chances to galvanize the fanbase and rebuild morale to get maximum support ahead of hosting the World Cup. Crocker and federation leadership didn’t tell Tim Weah to swing an arm at the back of a defender’s head. They are, however, accountable for re-hiring a coach who didn’t set his team up to compete at the Copa America. Whoever is ultimately hired, the federation needs to make its choice with full confidence that it’s the ‘best’ option for the next two years — and they better have a clear definition of ‘best’ to justify that pick. (Top photo: Wolverhampton Wanderers FC/Wolves via Getty Images)
Gregg Berhalter’s firing and the high-stakes game soccer in the U.S. continues to play
A little more than a year after bringing Gregg Berhalter back as men’s national-team manager, U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker sat on a video call with a small group of reporters on Wednesday evening to reflect on why that decision did not work out.When Crocker brought Berhalter back, he pointed to the coach’s “passion to develop the legacy of U.S. Soccer, not just about winning in the men’s national team, but about developing the game for the good of the game, the growth of the game in this country”.Nine days after the USMNT went out in the group stage of a Copa America played on U.S. soil, the reality of the business — that results matter more than anything else — had overridden discussion about long-term goals and the greater good.When asked why Berhalter was no longer the right voice to lead the program, Crocker had a simple answer: the federation had “clear benchmarks” for Copa America 2024 that the team did not hit.“There has been progress made,” Crocker said, “but now is the time to turn that progress into winning.”The U.S. is now fighting battles on multiple fronts. Those in charge must live up to the high expectations of a fanbase that, true or not, believes this player pool to be the best the country has produced; they must deal with the pressure not to waste the opportunity presented by a largely home World Cup in 2026, co-hosted with Canada and Mexico; and, in the shadow of this decision to fire Berhalter, they are wrestling with time.
Berhalter has been replaced after a dismal Copa America for the USMNT (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Twenty-one months will have passed between when the U.S. left the 2022 World Cup finals and when they take the field for friendlies in September. In that time, the USMNT won two continental trophies but took steps backwards in terms of results. If this cycle was about building on what was accomplished by getting to and then getting out of the group in Qatar, there should be real concerns about how much time has been spent with interim coaches or in coaching searches versus pushing things forward. Crocker said the hope is to have a new coach in place in time for those September games against Canada and New Zealand, though he has a “robust contingency plan” if that doesn’t happen.The U.S. can’t afford to wait much longer. Whoever Crocker hires will have 11 windows with the U.S. team, including the month-long CONCACAF Gold Cup next summer, before the World Cup kicks off.Crocker didn’t lay out a shortlist of candidates or hint too much at what exactly he’ll be looking for other than saying “We are looking for a serial winning coach.” The search will not be limited in its reach or by financial constraints. “I just want to get the best coach possible that can help the team win,” Crocker said. “Whether they’re from the U.S. or elsewhere.”Asked whether the search would be dictated by equal pay between the U.S. men’s national team job and new women’s national team coach Emma Hayes, who makes a reported $2million (£1.6m) a year, Crocker said he knows “it’s a really competitive market out there, salary-wise, and we have to be competitive to get the level of coach that I believe can take the program forward in terms of achieving the results that we want on the field.
“I’m also really conscious that we need to continue to drive for higher standards in equality but I don’t think that’s going to be a stumbling block in terms of our investment from our national teams. It’s a priority. It’s something we’re prepared to invest in and something that we will be investing in.”
After reappointing Berhalter only to fire him one year later, Crocker must get this next choice of coach correct.
Crocker, a Welshman hired from then Premier League club Southampton in April 2023, said he feels more confident now in his understanding of what is needed.
“I’m a lot clearer and a lot more confident in what I see,” Crocker said. “We’re in a better place to have much more of a targeted search, where I’ll be more inclined to go hard and go early with specific candidates that I feel meet the criteria that we’re looking for… because I’ve seen it firsthand.”
In conversations over the past few days, criticisms around this team from outside observers and sources connected to the group’s inner circle have centered on the idea that players are too comfortable in the USMNT environment.
Crocker started work with U.S. Soccer in April 2023 (Brad Smith/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
That was reflected in some of the disciplinary issues in the team, they said, namely Sergiño Dest’s red card in Trinidad last November and Tim Weah’s first-half one against Panama in the second of the three group matches at Copa America, but also in what some believe is an environment where some American players are “untouchable”, no matter form or fitness.
While the culture of the team was considered a strength in the last cycle, the new coach will be tasked with ensuring that it doesn’t become a weakness leading into that home World Cup.
In addition, though much of the fans’ blame for the team’s failures was put on Berhalter, his exit should now put more accountability and scrutiny on the player pool to live up to the hype. It’s an idea center-back Tim Ream hinted at after the Uruguay loss that meant elimination from this tournament.
“This is a fantastic group, as everyone knows, and one that is very close, but sometimes the intensity falls through the cracks,” Ream told broadcaster Univision. “We have to continue to put our heads down and continue to work, continue to be humble enough to know there are things we can continue to improve, every single day.
“If guys have that mindset, then they can continue to be on an upward trajectory. When we start to think that we are a finished product, then guys are going to stagnate and just stay at the level they are at.”
The stakes are as high as ever.
Crocker wasn’t wrong last summer when he discussed how success will be gauged in 2026 — not just by winning, but by transforming on-field success into capturing a wider audience and further developing the sport in this country.
(Top photo: Adam Hagy/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
USMNT, Canada and Mexico: What went right (and wrong) for 2026 World Cup hosts at Copa America
The Athletic Stafful 11, 2024
One semi-finalist, one team looking for a new coach after early elimination and one that scored just a single goal in an embarrassing group-stage exit.anada, the United States and Mexico — co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup — certainly had mixed fortunes at 2024 Copa America.But with less than two years to go and no qualifying tournament to navigate, the trio have a paucity of opportunities to test themselves at a high level ahead of the first 48-team World Cup.With that in mind, the 2024 Copa America was supposed to be a golden chance to size up the player pool and gauge each program’s readiness to compete in 2026.
For Canada, things could hardly have gone better, as Jesse Marsch’s side made a surprising run to the semi-finals and could yet end up finishing third if they beat Uruguay on Saturday.For Mexico and the United States, however, failure to advance from their groups has left each team with more questions than answers — while the U.S. has already started another head coach search after firing Gregg Berhalter.Our experts on each team looked at what went right (or wrong) for each nation at the Copa America. What can be done to remedy their shortcomings ahead of the World Cup?
USMNT — Paul Tenorio
What when right/wrong in the group?
Things turned from right to wrong around the 18th minute of the USMNT’s second group game, when referee Ivan Barton pulled out a red card and sent Tim Weah to the locker room.
Weah’s red card against Panama (Eduardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)
The U.S. had picked up three points in their group opener against Bolivia in an imperfect but ‘did-the-job’ 2-0 win over Bolivia. They were firmly in control of the game in the opening stages against Panama. Even a few minutes after Weah’s ejection, the U.S. scored. But Panama equalized four minutes after that and found a winner in the 83rd minute, and the U.S. suddenly was left scrambling.A loss to Uruguay in the group finale eliminated the hosts and spotlighted the issues around a team that still struggles to score and still lacks a signature win against a top-tier opponent.
What can the team take away from the tournament?
The Copa was a massive disappointment for the U.S. It was supposed to serve as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup in two years, both from a sporting standpoint and also in generating excitement around the country behind this U.S. team. Instead, the U.S. had their worst tournament performance on home soil and now will have to figure out how to course correct without many competitive games between now and 2026.
How did the coach do?
The Copa America was the end of the road for Berhalter, who had become a lightning rod for criticism around the U.S. team.Berhalter was criticized for his team playing too conservatively after Weah’s red card — which might be a bit unfair considering the circumstances — but also for being unable to push this U.S. team to another level since the 2022 World Cup (and since he took charge again last summer).Poor results against Trinidad and Tobago and Panama in CONCACAF competition, a last-gasp win over Jamaica in the Nations League, losses to Germany and Colombia in friendlies and the Copa group exit added up to the end of Berhalter’s tenure as coach.
The Copa America was the end of the road for Berhalter (Shaun Clark/Getty Images)
What happens next?
Over to you, U.S. Soccer.
Does the federation push for a big-name hire? Could they land on a coach like Patrick Vieira or Gareth Southgate? Will they opt for an American, such as LAFC’s Steve Cherundolo?The core of this U.S. team has been together essentially since qualifying started for the 2022 World Cup. A full reset isn’t necessary, but a new voice would need to find a way to push this team to grow and improve if they want to advance deep into the World Cup in two years.
Generally, it’s reckless to make wholesale judgements off a 270-minute sample, particularly given the nature of international soccer. That said, each program will be desperate to advance from their World Cup groups in two years — something that must be achieved in 270 minutes. So keep that lens in mind.Although the United States only scored three goals and none after half-time of the second game against Panama, they consistently created dangerous chances. Only three teams averaged a higher xG per shot than their 0.12 — suggesting a 12 per cent historical likelihood that a chance would be converted. The other seven teams in the top half of the xG per shot rankings all advanced to the quarter-finals.The left side was particularly potent in build-up thanks to Antonee Robinson, Gio Reyna and Christian Pulisic.
While Pulisic’s corner kick goal in the opener was the obvious evidence, the United States was very good at drawing fouls. Berhalter’s side had the second-most fouls suffered per game (16.0), trailing only Costa Rica in that department. That frequency helped create many moments that either ended an opponent’s chance to build an attack or helped the USMNT create their own opportunities.
Jeff Rueter
Weaknesses
Weah drawing a red card meant the team had little to show for its right flank’s efforts, with Joe Scally failing to come close to replicating Sergino Dest’s impact at right-back. Even as Pulisic shifted right for the finale, Reyna struggled to make an impact throughout the tournament whether in midfield or on the wing.
The United States had the field’s third-worst PPDA (passes allowed per defensive action made), evidence of a languid defensive press. That may be due to losing the midfield battle, as only three teams averaged fewer wins of possession in the middle third than the USMNT’s 15.7 per game. Every team that ranked below Berhalter’s side in these two categories also missed the knockouts.
Jeff Rueter
Mexico — Stuart James
What went right/wrong in the group?
Let’s start with a potential positive. Mexico only conceded one goal across three matches, which suggests their defence has improved — a point the coach Jaime Lozano made over and again in the wake of elimination.
However, the calibre of Mexico’s opponents makes it hard to get carried away. Jamaica, Venezuela and Ecuador are not comparable to Brazil or Uruguay, who put a combined seven goals past Mexico on the eve of the Copa America. Would Mexico really be any better defensively if they played Brazil and Uruguay now?
Jaime Lozano and Luis Romo leave the field after Mexico’s elimination (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
At the other end of the pitch, Mexico lacked creativity and penetration. They scored only once in 270 minutes – a terrific shot from outside the penalty area by the left-back Gerardo Arteaga in the opening match against Jamaica – and there was a mixture of disappointment and frustration tha Santiago Gimenez couldn’t reprise his prolific club form for Feyenoord in a Mexico shirt.Generally, the quality of the service to Gimenez was poor but the 23-year-old could, and should, have scored against Venezuela on a night when Orbelin Pineda also missed a penalty. That 1-0 defeat in Los Angeles was the result that really did the damage for Mexico, who were also not helped by the hamstring injury that their captain Edson Alvarez suffered early on against Jamaica. It was that sort of tournament.
Mexico’s talent pool has shrunk. They were well-beaten by the USMNT in March, Uruguay thrashed them 4-0 two weeks before the Copa America started, and Lozano left out four of the country’s most experienced players – Guillermo Ochoa, Raul Jimenez, Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano and Henry Martin. In other words, what did Mexican fans really expect?That said, Mexico were drawn in the easiest of the four groups. They avoided Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, and were up against the only CONMEBOL nation (Venezuela) never to make it to a World Cup. Against that backdrop, finishing in the top two and qualifying for the quarter-finals didn’t feel like it should be that big an ask. The fact it was underlines just how far Mexico have fallen.
How did the coach do?
Not well enough is the simple answer. But if you believe the pre-tournament messaging from the Mexico Football Federation (FMF), Lozano’s position is secure until the end of the 2026 World Cup finals come what may.“We are two years away from our World Cup,” Mexico sporting director Duilio Davino said. “We have our spot secured and we want to take advantage of this great opportunity to not think about the immediacy of the result and project our path to 2026.”It says everything that Lozano was asked repeatedly about his future during the Copa America, and that line of questioning will continue if, as expected, he remains in post. If the FMF did go back on their word now and make a change, they’d look rather silly. Equally, Lozano has a lot of work to do to convince the public that he’s the best man for the job – although there appears to be an acceptance that this is one of the weakest squads that Mexico have had for a long time. The question many people are asking is whether another coach would get more out of the same players.
What happens next?
In practical terms, Lozano has to submit a report to the FMF with his observations on the team’s performances at Copa America. That would make for interesting reading, albeit predictable in some respects: defensively sound; lack a goal threat.Either way, it’s hard to see how Mexico can press the reset button and start over — they’ve just tried to do that. What next — go back to the past? Chucky Lozano will be only 30 years old when the 2026 World Cup comes around but Jimenez will be 35. As for Ochoa, he turns 39 next week. Some may argue there’s a case to be made for Martin, at the age of 31, returning to the squad to compete with, or support, Gimenez, but that feels like a mess too. ‘We didn’t want you for the Copa America, Henry, but it turns out we’re not as good as we thought without you.’
The bottom line is that there’s nowhere near enough time before the World Cup for Mexico to address the underlying problems that have contributed to the national team’s demise. That work needed to start at least a decade ago.
Strengths
El Tri was adept at keeping the ball in its attacking third, even if they weren’t always able to turn build-up into end product. Their field tilt of 64.9 per cent trailed only Brazil in this tournament. Further, they were the only team of the seven most aggressive field-tilters that didn’t advance to the quarter-finals.Mexico was among the group stage’s best-performing sides in transition. There’s little to separate their balance between attacking directly and proactively pressing and that of Uruguay. The fact they had the third-stingiest PPDA rate in the field while the other five CONCACAF sides were among the field’s six least aggressive shows a difference in approach from regional rivals.
Jeff Rueter
Weaknesses
Stuart expertly looked into Santi Gimenez’s woes after the second match, but it can’t be overstated how helpless the attack was on the whole. Mexico led the 16-team field by averaging 19.3 shots per game (Argentina was second with 17.7), but their 1.7 per cent conversion rate was by far the worst of any team that wasn’t shut out in all three games. Their on-target rate of 31 per cent was below the tournament average of 34.6 per cent.
Given the importance of set pieces in international tournaments, it’s surprising that Mexico was so inept at drawing fouls. No team was fouled less often than El Tri, at 8.7 per game — only Bolivia and Jamaica (9.3 apiece) were also below 11 per contest. That’s far below the tournament average of 12.9, and it’s hard not to wonder what another quartet of dead-ball scenarios could have enabled.
Canada grew up at Copa America. They bounced back and forth between aggressive and composed but were almost always mature. An emerging group relied less on the emotion that fueled them through the 2022 World Cup and instead showed heightened tactical awareness. And they defended in a way you wouldn’t expect from a group anchored by a pair of centre-backs with very little international experience: in their three games not against Argentina, Canada allowed just one goal total.
Locking things down the way they did and not letting South American sides bully them — all while adhering to the demands of a new international coach — has to be considered the highlight of Canada’s tournament.
Argentina beat Canada twice at Copa America (Steve Dinberg/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
It was at the other end of the pitch that the lowlights were glaringly obvious. Canada just flat-out didn’t score enough.And when you have one of Europe’s most in-demand strikers, the program’s all-time leading scorer and a pacy player with attacking instincts all at your disposal, Jesse Marsch has every right to be both frustrated and flabbergasted at how things unfolded close to the opposition goal.
What can the team take away from the tournament?
Most importantly, Canada should feel more confidence in international tournaments than they did after their failures at the 2022 World Cup. By managing ugly games and prioritizing results over aesthetics against stingy teams, Canada showed they understand the demands of tournaments.At the Copa America, Canada became the team their core have long wanted to be. The expectation — deserved or not — come 2026 is that they get out of their group. They’re in a better place to do that now.
But there are still lessons learned for Marsch. Just as with Qatar 2022, Canada’s finishing was poor. Jonathan David and Cyle Larin were more experienced than in the last World Cup, but they didn’t score nearly enough.
In five games, Canada had an xG of 6.5 but only found the net twice.
David scored against Peru — but goals were scarce for Canada (Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Marsch’s other looming takeaway has to be the gap in quality between his secondary group of players. Marsch has his stars — and knows he’ll have to rely on them — but he barely rotated his team throughout the tournament. That’s largely because he either doesn’t know what he has beyond his first-choice XI or doesn’t have a lot of faith in some of his bench players.
The manager has to expand his player pool by scrawling the planet for available Canadians, including dual nationals, and also start playing and developing new faces. Canada’s best players simply tired late in the tournament. That can’t happen in the knockout round in two years.
How did the coach do?
Marsch passed his first test as the new Canada manager — having only been appointed to the job just over a month before the tournament opener — with flying colours. He got his players to buy into a system that was physically demanding and had this young-ish Canadian core turn in their most mature and composed performances, well, ever.
Let’s not forget that Canada doesn’t have much experience in this kind of international tournament. Canada isn’t supposed to get out of their group and win grinding, physical affairs that go to penalties, like the quarter-final against Venezuela.
Marsch did an impressive job having only just taken over (Perry McIntyre/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
Marsch himself admitted that he told his staff going into Copa America that it could be a long month. Instead, Marsch’s high-energy style of play and attitude guided this team to new heights.
Marsch won’t just be in charge come 2026; he’s in line to capture the nation’s attention and win over even more hearts and minds than his predecessor did. And that’s saying something.
Canada have to approach the next two years with the same appetite of a growing teenager at an all-you-can-eat buffet: more, more, more of everything.That means getting players more in tune with Marsch’s demands after their Copa America crash course. This won’t be on Marsch himself but is more moves for players into roles with playing time in top European leagues.And as with the other two teams mentioned here, Canada will need to book more friendlies against elite opposition to test their players. Earning a 0-0 draw against France in the build-up to Copa America? More of that whenever possible, please.
Strengths
Through the semi-final round, only two teams averaged higher expected goals per shot than Canada’s 0.13. They focused on attacking dangerously in transition and creating higher-yield chances rather than slinging hopeless crosses. This resulted in three ‘big’ chances per game — a statistic that conveniently saw the four highest-ranked teams each reach the semi-finals.
In general, Marsch set this team up to outright fly up the pitch. Canada ranked first with a direct speed of 1.94 meters advanced per second of possession. For comparison’s sake, John Herdman’s iteration at the 2022 World Cup slogged at a rate of 1.34 — in line with this tournament’s output by Ecuador (1.34) and the USMNT (1.26).
Jeff Rueter
Weaknesses
Canada could afford to take a few more attempts per game in hopes of bolstering their scoring chances. Their 9.8 shots per game were over two fewer than any other team that advanced to the knockout stages. It makes sense that they managed to score just twice in their first five games.
Perhaps surprisingly, given Marsch’s background with Red Bull clubs, Canada were one of the tournament’s least aggressive pressing teams. Canada allowed 12.2 passes per defensive action (PPDA) — one of just two teams to advance from the group stage with a double-digit rate. Additionally, Canada ranked 14th among the tournament’s 16 teams by forcing just two high turnovers per game. Jeff Rueter(Top photos: Getty Images)
USWNT’s Lindsey Horan defining her leadership style with challenging Olympics ahead
International Football Association Board’s laws of the game say: “Each team must have a captain on the field of play who wears an identifying armband. The team captain has no special status or privileges but has a degree of responsibility for the behavior of the team.”
Lindsey Horan could have special status and privileges as captain of the U.S. women’s national team. It’s the most prominent public-facing role on a prominent team, a vote of confidence from the manager and a position of trust for teammates. Accordingly, it’s a position that engenders huge respect alongside the huge expectations that have followed the USWNT for decades. The captain is the leader on the field, in the locker room and in front of the press. The prestige can at times be completely overwhelmed by the scrutiny.
For such a role, different players have adapted in different ways. The classic archetypes tend to be the loud leader or the silent leader; the one who speaks up to inspire, or the one who quietly sets the example.
“She’s somewhere in the middle,” said Tierna Davidson. “I feel like she’s louder with the people that she knows and more outgoing with people that she knows, but a little bit more reserved with people that she doesn’t, which is natural for pretty much everybody.
“So somewhere in the middle, maybe leaning a little bit more towards the introverted side.”
Horan is a veteran presence in a young USWNT Olympic roster (Getty Images)
Maybe that’s a little more of a fair reading of Horan than the overly serious picture she painted of herself when she spoke to The Athletic earlier this year, an interview in which she disapproved of wacky starting XI photos and said: “We need to get back to the football. The football is the most important thing.”
Davidson seemed to pin her more as the captain trying to be what everyone needs her to be.
Former head coach Vlatko Andonovski named Horan as captain alongside Alex Morgan in July 2023 ahead of the World Cup, officially stepping into a role that she’d already held informally after previous captain Becky Sauerbrunn missed the tournament with a foot injury. Going through the 2023 World Cup together, Horan said learning from Morgan was a crucial experience. Now, with Emma Hayes in charge and Morgan left off the Olympic roster, Horan is the sole captain.
It’s an interesting change in vibe after years of Morgan, Sauerbrunn, and before them Megan Rapinoe, in the armband. You cannot find a louder, more vibrant presence than Rapinoe, Morgan is no shrinking violet herself and Sauerbrunn has a reputation for calm, cerebral focus.
At media availability in New York previewing the team’s Olympic sendoff friendlies, Horan was swarmed by reporters on the top floor of Nike’s Fifth Avenue building. It is one of Horan’s many duties going into a tournament in which the team will seek the type of success that has eluded them for the past five years.
“It hasn’t been long,” Horan said of her tenure as captain. “I think there are so many things that I’ve learned.
“I think I can continue to grow and and also just continue to have voices on this team and push more players to be leaders as well because we need everyone and those voices can’t just be mine.”
That balanced style, a kind of ambiversion amid so many different personalities and histories, doesn’t necessarily imply a milquetoast leadership. A common theme amongst her teammates has been how much work Horan puts into being captain.
“I think Lindsey has been very good at connecting with every single player, checking in on every player,” midfielder Rose Lavelle said in Minneapolis before the United States played South Korea. “Players that have been here, players that are new, and making them know that she is available to talk, ask questions too.
Horan and Lavelle have been teammates on the USWNT since 2017 (Getty Images)
“She’s just that person that you can rely on when maybe you need a little help or if there’s something you’re unsure about. I think she’s been great at just making herself available to everyone and making her a safe space for people to go to and talk to when stuff is tough — or when stuff’s good.”
In Gold Cup camp earlier this year, U.S. defender Emily Fox said that Horan had given her a one-on-one talk. “For me, she did that a lot — like the first game of the World Cup and I really needed that, just a one-on-one talk to prep you and tell you that you got this,” Fox said.
Along with individual check-ins, Horan, alongside Morgan, has had to navigate captaincy through a transitional period from interim head coach Twila Kilgore to the incumbent Hayes, who was officially appointed in November of 2023 but only arrived in person to take the reins in May 2024. While Hayes was technically in charge, everything had to be relayed through Kilgore and her staff. Horan provided backup on the field.
“I think it’s always a really cool process because I think, as a professional soccer player, you have to know that change is always there. I think through my career, you always know that there’s going to be a next coach and that’s another opportunity to learn from someone else,” Horan said at open practice in May.
Horan doesn’t hide that she needs support. This is not a role in which you can go it alone and put on a brave face to the twenty-odd other players around you.
“I need the leaders in this group as well to help me out,” Horan said. “I think giving voices to them and making sure that they know that this is their team. I think some of those young ones, they make up a good chunk of their team and I think that’s important for them to know that I will need them and we are one. It’s not just me at the end of the day.”
There are a few players who are designated to act as captain if Horan is off the field; Naomi Girma, obviously, and Lavelle and Dunn have worn the armband as well.
“I think she does a good job of feeling what the vibe of the group is and really making sure that we hear what we need to hear going into a game,” said center-back Girma, who wore the captain’s armband for the first time after Horan substituted off during the June friendly against South Korea in St. Paul.
“Whether it’s talking to someone or talking to the team right before we go out and just making sure that we’re all on the same page and knowing that we have each other’s backs.”
Girma has also worn the armband before (Getty Images)
Davidson said she has seen the growth in Horan as she takes on the responsibility of captainhood, and acknowledged just how much weight the role carries.
“I think she’s understood the importance of what that role means not just for herself as a player, but also as an ambassador for the sport, as an ambassador for the team,” said Davidson. “You know that this team has fantastic history and has done a lot of great things both on and off the field.
“As a leader, I think you grow into it when you understand that you don’t have to be like somebody else, but you do have to lead. So kind of learning about herself, I think, is a lot of what she’s done and understanding how she wants to lead the team.”
Horan got a good dose of what it means to be under the microscope while she still had Morgan to sit next to her. The captain might get to give pump-up speeches and lift trophies, but she also has to face the media scrutiny after bad games or negative incidents.
A sober-faced Horan and Morgan sat together and read a prepared statement after teammate Korbin Albert’s anti-LGBTQ social media posts garnered widespread attention in March.Korbin Albert story continues: @LindseyHoran and @alexmorgan13 made impromptu statement at SheBelieves presser to announce there have been “internal discussions” about Korbin Albert’s social media and that “standards were not upheld within the team.”
“We’ve worked extremely hard to uphold the integrity of this national team through all of the generations, and we are extremely, extremely sad that this standard was not upheld,” Horan said. “Our fans and our supporters feel like this is a team that they can rally behind, and it’s so important that they feel and continue to feel undeniably heard and seen.”
That day’s press availability was originally scheduled for Mal Swanson and Catarina Macario. Horan and Morgan went first, heading off the questions that would have been asked of their teammates while also emphasizing that the team was handling things internally.
Horan is now on her own as captain, unless Hayes appoints a co-captain. Horan carries by herself that nebulous “degree of responsibility”, assigned by IFAB decree.
No surprise, then, at a seeming sense of relief from Horan during the team’s Olympic media day, where Hayes sat firmly alongside her, press firmly in hand with a very teacher-like, “How are we?” Hayes’ charismatic on-camera style, refined by her growing ease with the American press corps, has given Horan some additional breathing room to say things as just Lindsey and not as team captain Lindsey Horan.
“She gives a lot to us and she tries to take a little bit of that pressure off and takes it on herself,” Horan said. “I think it brings strength, calmness. I think when a coach takes that stress away from the team, it brings that strength and that collectivity to the group.”
Even with Hayes’ support, Horan’s leadership during the Olympics will be her biggest test to date, maintaining team cohesion under a new coach with a good mix of veteran and younger players, and without the co-captain she learned from at the beginning.
But as Davidson said, these are situations in which you don’t have to be a certain type of leader who came before you, you just have to lead. So far, it seems that she’s been able to find her footing with increasing confidence. France awaits.
(Top photo: David Berding/Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton)
As the Summer of Soccer continues – we now have Copa America in the evenings after Euro Cup games all day long all on Fox. I sure do with ESPN had The Euro’s while Fox had Copa. ESPN did such a good job showing Euro games on all of its channels back in the day. I still can’t believe Fox is not showing us all of the games – as the early morning 9 am kickoffs of less popular teams have been on Fubo only. Fox has like 5 stations and can’t find room for a game on Fox Sports 2 at least? Ridiculous. Either way having soccer on all day and night – even if it is all on Fox is glorious. Lots of commercials with Messi Adidas, Mastercard , Michelob , Lowes this summer – but its really cool seeing some US players get in on the action too – Mckinney & Adams in this Truly Commercial . Love these scenes from the Euro’s Awesome for Ukraine – Gotta Love the Scotts – that’s how you march to the game.
Copa America Starts & Euros Move into Games 2 of Group Stages
So with the Euro’s into the 2nd games of the group – Copa America has arrived. Of course defending Champs Argentina are the heavy favorites along with Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay. Tons of stories below and of course predictions. Of course the US – if they advance from Group play should face either Brazil or Colombia in the knockout rounds – two of the favorites of the tourney. As much as I would love to see the US make the final 4 – I don’t think we get past either Colombia or Brazil who we would face in the Quarters. (sure hope I am wrong). The pick here is for Argentina and Messi to win on American Soil. As for the Euro’s – man some of the better teams have really had issues in their first games – England, Belgium and Italy really don’t look like they are gonna make a run. I am sticking with my earlier pick of Germany on home soil or Spain – who honestly looks like the best team so far. Man that Spain vs Italy game was fantastic. Some really great games. A hint if you are watching – be sure to tune in at least 10 minutes to game-time to catch the national anthems of the games. I am hoping that the Copa will only allow the US to play the song so we can all sing – rather than have some unknown come out and butcher the national anthem.
US Men Starts Copa America Sun vs Bolivia 6 pm
So its here – the last real chance for the US men to prove they are taking steps in the right direction was we prepare to host World Cup 2026 in just 2 years. Can the US actually beat a good team, a ranked team in a game that matters. Other than beating a Mexico team that is simply not what they used to be – the US has not beaten a top 20 ranked team since Berhalter took over. Now is the chance with Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil and potentially Argentina in the way of the US making history in the Copas. The US has actually make the final 4 before – but has a much tougher draw this team and will need to beat a top 10 team in the World to make it happen. Will the US actually have home field advantage in the US? Hard to say – the tickets are Crazy expensive – and the COPA seems to care less if there are empty stadiums as long as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico can fill their stadiums around the country like Atlanta did for the opener – with 90% Argentina fans. Not sure what to expect – but the US should take care of business in the first game and find a way past a tougher than normal Panama in the 2nd game. Hopefully the 3rd game vs Uruguay will be for seeding – if the US can win their first 2. Since Berhalter has NEVER actually surprised anyone with his team selection in the past – I look for the US to roll out the same back line with the same front line with perhaps the only decision being does Adam’s start at D Mid with McKinney and Gio? Or does Cardoso or Musah take the # 6 role to start. The US will face a low block with Bolivia so we will need Gio to unluck things. I would love to see Sargeant or Haji Wright at the #9 – but I am sure it will be Balogen. The US should win this game 2 or 3 to zero – this is the weakest team in our group.
Shane’s Starters
Pulisic, Bologen, Weah
Gio
Mckinney, Adams
Robinson, Ream, Richards, Scally
Turner
The 26-player Copa América roster:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City), Sean Johnson (Toronto FC), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest)
DEFENDERS (9): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic FC), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo), Mark McKenzie (Genk), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham FC), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Tyler Adams (Bournemouth), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Nottingham Forest), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven)
FORWARDS (7): Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin), Folarin Balogun (Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Tim Weah (Juventus), Haji Wright (Coventry City)
Indy 11 Win – Home again Sat Night vs Orange County 7 pm
Indy Eleven extended its unbeaten streak across all competitions to 12 after a 1-0 victory over San Antonio FC on Saturday night at Carroll Stadium. The Boys in Blue improve to 9-4-2 and move into a tie for second in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference, The Boys in Blue have now scored 16 first half goals this season, the highest total for a USL Championship team. Defensively, the Boys in Blue have held their opponents scoreless in the first half in nine of 15 matches in 2024. The 11 remain at The Mike to host Orange County SC Saturday at 7 p.m. ET. The match will air locally on WNDY and stream on CBS Sports Golazo Network.Single-game tickets are available for all matches via Ticketmaster. For more information on all ticket options click here. For questions, please email tickets@indyeleven.com or call 317.685.1100.
Carmel High Girls Soccer Camp July 22-25
2-4:30 pm @ Murray Stadium Register Here contact fdixon@ccs.k1.in.us for more info
Huge Congrats to former Carmel FC midfielder JD Slivinski playing this summer for USL 2 team Virginia Beach United.
TV GAMES SCHEDULE
Fri, June 21
12 noon FS1 Poland vs Austria
3 pm Fox Netherlands vs France
7:30 pm Para+ Hartford @ Tampa Rowdies (Jordan Farr)
8 pm FS1 Peru vs Chile COPA
8 pm Amazon Prime Orlando Pride vs Utah NWSL
Sat, June 22
12 noon Fox Turkey vs Portugal
3 pm Fox Belgium vs Romania
6 pm FS1 Ecuador vs Venezuela Copa
7 pm ESPN+ Indy 11 vs OC @ the Mike Pride Night
9 pm Fox Mexico vs Jamaica COPA
10:30 pm Apple Seattle Sounders vs Dallas MLS
Sun, June 23
1:30 pm ESPN NY/NJ Gotham vs Washington Spirit NWSL
3 pm Fox Switzerland vs Germany
3 pm FS1 Scotland vs Hungary
4 pm CBS Golazo Portland Thorns vs Racing Louisville NWSL
6 pm Fox, Univision USMNT vs Bolivia COPA America
9 pm Fox or FS1 Uruguay vs Panama COPA
Mon, June 24
3 pm Fox Croatia vs Italy
3 pm FS1 Albania vs Spain
6 pm FS1 Colombia vs Paraguay Copa
9 pm FS1 Brazil vs Costa Rica
Tues, June 25
12 noon FS1 Netherlands vs Austria
12 noon Fox France vs Poland
3 pm Fox England vs Slovenia
3 pm FS1 Denmark vs Serbia
6 pm FS1 Peru vs Canada Copa
9 pm FS1 Chile vs Argentina Copa
Thur, June 27
6 pm Fox USMNT vs Panama COPA
9 pm Fox Uruguay vs Bolivia
Fri, June 28
6 pm FS1 Colombia vs Costa Rica
9 pm FS1 Paraguay vs Brazil
Sat, June 29th
12 pm FS1 Euro Quarters A2 vs B2
3 pm Fox Euro Quarters A1 vs C2
8 pm FS1 Argentina vs Peru Copa
8 pm FS2 Canada vs Chile
Sun, June 30
12 pm FS1 Euro Quarters C1 vs D/E/F3
1 pm ESPN2 NY/NJ Gotham vs Seattle Reign NWSL
3 pm Fox Euro Quarters B1 vs A/D/E/F3
7:30 pm CBS Golazo+Para Angel City vs Orlando Pride NWSL
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USMNT Copa America 2024 squad guide: A golden generation – how far can they go?
Paul Tenorio The Athletic Jun 15, 2024 They call it a golden generation, with big-name players who have experienced the highest levels in Europe and have World Cup experience too. As hosts, they will also have the crowds with them. Could the competition’s invited guests cause an upset at South America’s greatest party?
The manager
The former Columbus Crew coach Gregg Berhalter became the first American to play for and coach the USMNT in the World Cup, guiding a young group to the knockout stage of Qatar 2022 where they were eliminated by the Netherlands. Berhalter returned as coach despite a massive post-tournament controversy involving him, star player Gio Reyna and Reyna’s parents, including his former team-mate and longtime friend Claudio Reyna.
Berhalter’s U.S. teams have played mostly a transition-style soccer, but have shifted from the 4-3-3 used in Qatar to a 4-2-3-1 with Reyna sliding into the No 10 spot. New fans to the team may want to keep an eye out for Berhalter’s sideline bounce passes when the ball runs out of play.
Berhalter was appointed U.S. coach in December 2018 (Brace Hemmelgarn/Getty Images)
The son of former FIFA Player of the Year (and former Liberia president) George Weah, the winger has won a trophy at every club for which he has played and has become one of the leaders and consistent producers for this U.S. team. He scored the opening goal of the World Cup and currently features for Juventus in Serie A.
The U.S. is best when they are playing a vertical game, pushing the ball up the field quickly in transition. With Pulisic and Weah running on the wings and a dynamic midfield that includes Adams, McKennie and Reyna, the U.S. can up the tempo and find space quickly to beat teams.
They will miss the attacking flair of right-back Sergino Dest, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, but this team should still have enough about them to speed play up.
Weston McKennie playing against Jamaica in March (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Weaknesses
Creating chances with prolonged possession.
The U.S. has struggled against teams that sit in a low block, and even at times in an organized mid-block. It forces the U.S. to find ways to beat you through passing and movement in tight spaces and takes away the strength of players such as Pulisic, who prefers to run at players in space.
Robinson and Ream playing for Fulham in the Premier League last season (Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images)
Expectations back home
This U.S. team is largely considered to be a ‘golden generation’ of American players, with the core of this team playing at big clubs in Europe and many of them moving across the Atlantic at earlier ages than ever before.
This was the youngest team, by minutes played, at the Qatar World Cup, so now the players must prove they are worthy of the expectation as they begin to move into their respective primes.
The expectation undoubtedly will be that the U.S. advance to the semi-finals — but it won’t be an easy road. A second-place finish in the group likely means a meeting with Brazil in the quarter-finals.
(Top image: Brace Hemmelgarn, Getty Images; design by Eamonn Dalton)
Copa America 2024 predictions: Who will win it all, how far will the U.S. go? Our writers’ picks
By The Athletic Soccer staff n 20, 2024
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Copa America kicks off today, with the United States as hosts. Reigning champion Argentina takes on Canada in the first game on Thursday.
What can we expect? Will Argentina complete a storybook last dance with Angel Di Maria as he plays one more major tournament with Lionel Messi? Will Vinicius Junior find a way to lead Brazil to a title? And how will the U.S. do in its fifth invitation to the oldest national team tournament?
Here, six of The Athletic’s writers give their predictions…
Paul Tenorio: I’m not going to break away from the crowd here. This tournament falls kindly for Argentina to navigate to the final. There, no matter the opponent, Messi and Co. win a third consecutive international tournament in his new home city.
Felipe Cardenas: Argentina’s quest for greatness has defined this Messi-led group of players. They will have learned plenty from the 2022 World Cup. They took a haymaker in their opening match against Saudi Arabia and got back up. Argentina won a quarterfinal penalty shootout and leaned on multiple players other than Messi to triumph in a tournament setting. The defending champions are battle-tested and very talented.
As reigning World Cup champion, Argentina is looking to defend its Copa America title (Carl De Souza, AFP via Getty Images)
Jeff Rueter: Although the U.S. is the host, doesn’t this still feel like Argentina’s tournament? Like their talisman, the federation has set up firm roots in Miami over the past couple of years. In what might be Messi’s swansong, La Albiceleste should replicate Spain’s feat at the turn of the 2010s: continental title, World Cup, continental title.
Melanie Anzidei: Winning a second Copa America in a row would solidify Argentina’s place as one of football’s greatest teams. This is not the same team that played on American soil in 2016. Far from it. This team is led by a captain who has once again found joy in playing and who has an entire nation behind him. Winning this tournament is personal for their players, and we’ll see that starting Thursday.
Joshua Kloke: Brazil might be a younger team but without the pressure that comes with World Cups, and the expectations Argentina clearly has on them (see the pack of picks above!) I could see Brazil’s talent taking over. If they can play liberated — which can admittedly be a challenge for Brazil — they should make their way through the tougher side of the draw and win their second Copa America title in the last three tournaments.
Thom Harris: Argentina are the sensible choice, but I’m going to be bold and say Uruguay.
They have been a joy to watch under Marcelo Bielsa scoring the most goals in World Cup qualifying, beating both Argentina and Brazil, before smashing four past Mexico in a pre-tournament friendly. Their roster is not only brimming with quality, but the kind of unstoppable athleticism that Bielsa needs to implement his man-to-man marking system, able to disrupt the opposition with aggressive defensive play and launch lethal counter-attacks.
With both nations tied on a record 15 Copa America titles each, I’ve got my fingers crossed for a meeting in the final.
Tenorio: Tough to go into a tournament predicting it will be anyone other than Messi. He is in good form and he will get his opportunities to score and change games.
Cardenas: Luis Diaz scored four goals at the 2021 Copa America, leading Colombia to the semifinals. Messi will take home the player of the tournament trophy, but Diaz will solidify his place as one of the sport’s best attacking players. Now 27, Diaz is hitting his peak. He’ll be a joy to watch this summer.
Rueter: It’s Messi like everything is these days, but Vinicius Jr will lead Brazil to a berth in the final and make a challenge for player of the tournament in the process.
Messi earned the title of best player during the 2021 Copa America (Gustavo Pagano/Getty Images)
Anzidei: The obvious answer is Messi. Even when he doesn’t want to be up there on the podium, he receives the honor again and again. But something about him giving the penalty kick to Lautaro during Argentina’s friendly against Guatemala last week makes me feel like the Inter Milan forward will have a surprise showing this tournament.
Kloke: Brazil is Vinicius Jr’s team now and it feels entirely possible that he uses up all the runway afforded to him and takes flight this tournament.
Harris: I’m going to be bold again… James Rodriguez. Colombia have been in exceptional form under Nestor Lorenzo, unbeaten in over two years, and the 32-year-old has been central to his success. Given freedom to roam in behind the two forward players, he can drop deep to help with the build-up, but also pack a punch in the final third.
How far will USMNT (Canada for you, Josh) get in the tournament? How will their final match pan out?
Tenorio: My gut feeling is the U.S. will bow out in the quarterfinals to Brazil after coming second in a tight finish for the top spot in the group with Uruguay.
Cardenas: After the Copa America draw, I picked the U.S. to reach the semifinals. That’s a bare minimum requirement for the host nation. However, after being thrashed by Colombia 5-1 in a June friendly, I have serious doubts about the USMNT’s ability to win a knockout game at this Copa America. Berhalter’s side will bow out in the quarterfinals.
Rueter: A step behind their 2016 showing: second in Group C behind Uruguay (six points), then a cagey 2-1 defeat in the quarterfinal against Group D winner Colombia.
The U.S. has made it to two Copa America semifinals in previous tournaments (Jeremy Reper/Getty Images)
Anzidei: I’d like to believe the U.S. will surprise us all and push through to the semifinals once again, but that’s only if they finish at the top of Group C. If they are the runner-up in their group, which is more likely, I don’t see them ousting Colombia or Brazil in the second round.
Kloke: Finishing third in a difficult Group A, which would include a confidence-building win, feels likely for Canada. Running until their legs give way against Chile for a result in their final game should inspire some fans back home, but it might not be enough to get a still-developing team into the knockout stage.
Who will ‘do an Enzo Fernandez’ and get a big transfer off the back of a tournament?
Tenorio:Yaser Asprilla. My Colombian colleague Felipe Cardenas wrote in The Radar that the 20-year-old is the Colombian Phil Foden. High praise. He plays in England (for second-tier side Watford) already and has been very good in a short amount of time for Colombia. If he can do it on this Copa America stage, even coming off the bench, that’s a recipe for a big transfer fee.
Cardenas: Asprilla is a great shout by Paul. I don’t know how much he’ll play though. I’m going to choose Ecuador’s Piero Hincapie. His profile is rising after helping Bayer Leverkusen to an undefeated season in the Bundesliga. He’s an athletic ball-playing center back who is also left-footed. That’s a coveted profile at the highest level. If he plays well for Ecuador, Hincapie could make a move to the Premier League.
Rueter: We at The Athletic have all fallen hard for Dario Osorio in 2024, and the Chilean winger seems poised to be Alexis Sanchez’s heir apparent. He’s played just one season with Midtjylland in Denmark, but the 20-year-old could be poised to make the leap to an even higher level.
Anzidei: I’m also excited to see how Osorio will do, as one of the young stars on Chile’s largely veteran squad. And I’ll be paying close attention to 23-year-old Santiago Gimenez, the Argentinean-born Mexican forward. He’s made a name for himself already for Feyenoord, and a breakout performance on the international stage will draw even more eyes to the rising talent.
Kloke: We know Jonathan David is finally going to move on from Lille this summer after being Europe’s next great striker for years now. But whether he goes to the Premier League or elsewhere remains up for debate. Snagging a few key goals for Canada, especially if one of those goals comes against Argentina, could boost his profile and land him at the upper-echelon club he wants to play for.
Harris: Osorio. He has been having his own goal-of-the-season competition in Denmark and one more flash of quality will have the biggest clubs on high alert.
Cardenas: The Copa America is such an important tournament for South American countries. I’m very intrigued to see how it plays out in the U.S. The 2016 edition seems like a distant memory. There wasn’t a North American World Cup on the horizon. This summer, every detail will be overanalyzed. But generally speaking, I can’t wait to see these elite footballers battle for a trophy. That’s what this is all about.
Rueter:Jamaica seemingly can’t get out of its own way lately. Since qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, the team and its federation seemed to be in a better way, with many of the program’s star players returning to secure qualification for this tournament. Leon Bailey appears set to skip out amidst a fresh rift, and time is running out for the Reggae Boyz to make the ambitious leap they aspired to before the 2026 World Cup.
Anzidei: The rematch between Argentina and Chile at MetLife Stadium in the group stage. I was there when Messi missed his penalty kick in 2016. I remember vividly watching a young boy in a Barcelona jersey cry into his father’s arms after the final whistle, and later learning the news that Messi retired. Messi has the chance to rewrite this story, and I’m excited to see what happens.
Kloke: Copa America is a dry run for the United States co-hosting the World Cup in two years. How will the cities and venues handle hosting these games? What kind of buy-in will local fans show? Then there’s the question of transportation around the games, which, boring as that might be, has come up as a topic of conversation during the European Championship. There are early signs of anticipation towards 2026 building in some of the cities, but Copa could determine whether that anticipation will continue.
Harris: From a personal perspective, the energy of the fans. I was at Colombia’s friendly with Spain at the London Stadium in March, and could hardly believe the noise. Yellow shirts were all I could see when I touched down in Miami airport earlier this week, four days and over 1000 miles away from their opening group game against Paraguay at the weekend.
Which team is poised for a big surprise?
Cardenas: Mexico could be a sleeper, but Ecuador is the obvious choice for me. They’re young, athletic and physical. If they can consistently create and finish their chances, Ecuador will emerge as the most dangerous side in the knockout round.
Ecuador has the fans, youth and energy to make a potential run (Michael Miller/Getty Images)
Rueter: Last time the Copa America came stateside, Chile surprised many by besting a pressure-riddled Argentina on penalties. Equally, that feat feels like a stretch, but they have a favorable Group A draw beyond Argentina and would face the winner of the projected weakest group (likely Ecuador). If Osorio dazzles and veteran holdovers have one last dance in their legs, a semifinal run could be in the cards.
Anzidei: I was at Red Bull Arena in March when Ecuador faced Italy in a friendly, and the crowd was split evenly for both teams. That energy fueled Ecuador, so I’m curious to see how their fans show up during Copa America. Ecuador’s group on paper might just be the easiest to get out of. For that reason, they may catch whoever they face in the quarterfinals flatfooted.
Kloke: I’m on the Ecuador train as well. Building confidence through a weaker group should help them in the knockout stage.
Harris: They are not going to win the tournament, but I’m hopeful that Venezuela can carry on their positive form. They look hungry to press, are energetic and gritty in midfield, and have real pace and zip on the wings.
Give us an outrageous prediction…
Cardenas: Messi will turn back the clock and play like he’s 10 years younger, but he’ll revert to 2010 form and end the tournament without a goal. You said outrageous, right?
Rueter: Groups B and C will be entirely absent from the semifinal and final round, as Group A (Argentina, Chile) and Group D (Brazil, Colombia) house all four podium challengers.
Anzidei: Brazil doesn’t make it out of groups, because of the bad juju from Ronaldinho’s publicity stunt last week. Talk about things you don’t do before a major tournament.
Kloke: Everyone knows what I’m going to go with, right? Canada dials up the intensity to 11 against Argentina in the tournament opener, tries to throw some elbows around, scores early and shocks the soccer world with a win. Big-time Senegal over France in the 2002 World Cup opener vibes here.
Harris: We will end the tournament with a new, all-time leading goalscorer at the Copa America, and it will be… Eduardo Vargas.
Lionel Messi needs four goals to equal the record of 17, while Peru’s Paulo Guerrero, like Vargas, needs three. But I fancy Chile to make it to the knockouts, and their No 9 has looked sharp at the top of Ricardo Gareca’s revitalised team. (Top photos: Getty Images)
USMNT’s Weston McKennie: ‘Everyone doubted me… but look at me now’
Weston McKennie summons the pain, transporting his mind to December 2022 and the United States men’s national team’s round-of-16 exit from the World Cup against the Netherlands.
“In a tournament,” he explains, “You have a lot of hope, and within the team, we are family. These are people you grow up with, sharing the same dreams, pushing each other, holding each other accountable and you build a bond. There are photos of us after the game up in the stands crying with our families and crying with each other.
“(The World Cup cycle) is like going to college with a buddy for four years. You make it to graduation and realise we’re going to go our separate ways — you’re going to have your life, I’m going to have my life. But in this case, we have another shot at this and we’re going to do everything that we can to not feel this same way again. You have the World Cup, Olympics and Copa America — they are the big tournaments. And Copa is one where we can showcase what we’ve learned.”
Christian Pulisic shows his emotions after the U.S. team’s exit (Maddie Meyer/FIFA via Getty Images)
When the USMNT meet up at camp, coach Gregg Berhalter greets them with a diagram, lit up on a projector, that shows a zigzagging road through to the home World Cup in 2026.
“It has a bus and shows where we’re stopped at that moment,” McKennie says. “That’s a great picture because it shows all these things are preparing us for 2026 but the bus is stopped here right now and we have to make the most of this moment.”
How to follow Euro 2024 and Copa America on The Athletic…
For McKennie, now 25, Copa America also provides another opportunity to continue a personal redemptive arc after his career, in his own words, edged to its “lowest point” during a loan spell in the Premier League with Leeds United in the second half of the 2022-23 season.
The first half of that campaign had continued McKennie’s steady progress, regularly starting for Juventus in Serie A and the Champions League, before heading to Qatar for the World Cup. In January 2023, McKennie, who also played in Germany for Schalke between 2017 and 2021, continued his European tour, joining Leeds United on loan as Juventus handled the fallout of financial investigations and point deductions within Serie A.
The deal included an option to make McKennie’s transfer permanent that summer, with a fee agreed in the region of £30million ($38m) for a player who had made 24 Champions League appearances. At Leeds, then coached by Jesse Marsch, he formed part of a growing American contingent alongside USMNT team-mates Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson.
(Left to right) Aaronson, McKennie and Adams at Elland Road in March 2023 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
“My time at Leeds was probably one of my lower points, if not the lowest in my professional career,” says McKennie. “I always look at the positive because I was at Juventus, playing week in and week out, and maybe I developed a little bit of comfortability or complacency, knowing I was going to play on the weekend. By going to Leeds and having the performance that I had there and the way that it just turned out in general — four coaches in five months (Marsch was replaced by interim coach Michael Skubala, then Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce took over), just nothing going to plan or how I imagined it.”
Although McKennie’s deal included an option for Leeds to make the move permanent, he says he had aspirations of a return to Champions League football in the event he excelled at Elland Road.
“When I went there, my head was more, ‘OK, I want to go here, perform very well, put up numbers, help the team stay up and then hopefully another Premier League team, top five, comes in and sees how well I’ve played and then they would buy me’,” he says.
“With all the respect to Leeds and their fans, I love Champions League football. I love playing at the highest level. Leeds was more of a place I wanted to go to experience something new, the Premier League. But there’s no better place to be seen by Premier League teams than if you’re playing in the Premier League.
“I won’t be able to know what would have happened if Leeds would have stayed up because it didn’t happen that way. Things turn out the way they do for a reason. And now I’m exactly in the moment that I’m supposed to be in.”
At Leeds, the atmosphere between the club’s supporters, boardroom and players turned toxic. McKennie was caught in the crossfire.
“I like to think I’m someone that has a thick skin,” McKennie says, his voice softening. “When you get little comments here and there, it’s pretty easy to ignore. But then when you open up your phone and always the first thing you see on social is something negative, it’s hard to ignore it. I guess it’s hard for me because I do love it when people can relate to me and I feel like I’m always a happy person.
“Football is a world where it’s sometimes unforgiving. People obviously don’t know what football players go through and the stress football players put on themselves to perform, because it’s not like we want to perform badly. It’s not like we want to lose games. It’s just sometimes you have ups and downs, so it hurts.
Leeds were relegated after a 4-1 defeat by Spurs in the final day of the season (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
“It was probably the first time besides for the World Cup exit where I cried, after the last game of the season at Leeds, when we officially got relegated. I hate to lose and I felt like I really let down the expectations that people had of me going there.”
He pauses briefly, before adding: “When people started attacking me — me as a person in general, not even with football — everyone knows that I’m more thick-boned than than some other players, in that my body shape is the way that it is. But when people started out saying, ‘You fat bast**d’ and ‘you pig’ and ‘you m*nkey’ and stuff like that, people don’t really realise the effect that it has on people. I like to be happy and to make people happy, to make people laugh. So that was a little bit hard.”
When the abuse turned personal, dehumanising and in some cases racist, where did McKennie turn for support?
“Luckily, I had my personal chef, Patrick Contorno, who works with me in Italy, and he was living over in England with me and I had my assistant Charles also living with me.
“If you’re in a down mood in England, it can be hard to deal with it because it’s also very bad weather most of the time. It’s rainy and gloomy and it just sets the mood for you to already be in a sad mood. I had those guys there with me and it helped a lot. If I was there alone, I would have definitely gone into, like, a state of complete depression because I wasn’t performing. I’m my own biggest critic.”
When McKennie returned to Juventus in the summer of 2023, he found another challenge on his doorstep. He appeared, initially, to have been written off, relegated into football’s version of the bomb squad.
“It wasn’t scary, or exciting (as a challenge),” he says, “but it was familiar to the experience of being an American playing soccer for a high-level club in Europe. It’s something that I feel like we all have to go through when we go over to Europe. But I thrive off of it when I have to prove myself again, because then it just makes me even more honest with myself in terms of my efforts, my concentration. Something just clicks.
“It’s like a recipe. I know the ingredients to make it happen and then I’m just… ‘boom’. Without doing any measurements of anything, I can just throw it in. I know it’s going to taste good.
“I knew it was going to be (challenging). I didn’t know it was going to be to that extent; where I didn’t have my locker, I didn’t have a room in the hotel, I didn’t have a parking space. I changed in the locker rooms with the academy kids, even when you had players in the main locker room who had never played a game for Juventus because they’d always been out on loan. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve only been gone for six months. I come back and I am treated like this’.
“I couldn’t even get my shirt number (14), even though nobody else had taken the number. I was like, ‘OK you guys want to treat me like this? I’m just going to show you on the field’.
“I’m not someone that’s problematic. I don’t like to cause problems. I don’t like uncomfortable situations. I don’t like drama. I just try and let my football, my actions and my work ethic show everything about me, because that’s when I feel like I’m at my best.”
McKennie’s revival began when he was invited to join the squad on a money-spinning U.S. tour. It is tempting to wonder whether Juventus’ commercial team remembered at that point that they had a popular USMNT midfielder on the books, but it was on the field, in performances against AC Milan and Real Madrid, that McKennie reminded head coach Massimiliano Allegri of his talents.
“It put me back in consideration. My job was to make that decision much harder for them to make.”
McKennie faces AC Milan at Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, California in July 2023 (Michael Janosz/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
He looks back reflectively on the turmoil at Leeds and Juventus, however.
“It grounded me… what I’m most comfortable with and most honest with is when I put my head down and work. That’s where I’ve had my biggest success. I left Schalke and went to Juventus and nobody knew me. Everyone doubted me. It’s too big of a club. I’ll never play. But look at me now. Three and a half years later, more than 100 games for Juventus and I played a majority of those games. I thrive when my back’s against the wall and everyone’s doubting me. That’s how I became the player I was.”
Last season, McKennie made 29 starts for Juventus in Serie A and played the full 90 minutes of the Coppa Italia final victory over Atalanta. He benefited from his own performances and versatility, slotting in both at right wing-back and central midfield, while he also took advantage of the opportunity when midfield team-mates Paul Pogba and Nicolo Fagioli were suspended for doping and betting offences respectively.
His contract at Juventus expires in 12 months and there has been speculation about a potential move back to England, this time to a club competing in the Champions League in Aston Villa. McKennie says he is in talks with his agent, acknowledging Villa are one of the clubs mentioned, but says the options will be laid out and resolved after Copa America.
He spoke to The Athletic this week as part of his partnership with Puma, the brand he signed up to in early 2024 alongside two USMNT team-mates, Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah, who are also based in Italy with AC Milan. McKennie came to sign with the brand after wearing the Puma Future boot six months before agreeing a deal.
McKennie will resolve his future after Copa America (Puma)
“I did my pre-season in them,” he explains. “I played well. So I thought I may as well keep them. I have had knee problems in terms of patellar tendinitis and I have plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the tissue connected to your heel bone) on my foot. And it was a boot that was super comfortable for my foot. I didn’t have to wear insoles in them and I was not feeling pain when I play. They flew over to Italy, had a whole scanning contraption device, put my foot in, looked at my arches, my size. Whenever I get boots sent to me, it’s specifically for my foot, which is amazing.”
Superstition plays a part, too, with McKennie saying he will not change the colour of his boot to an upgraded model if he’s in good form. He will be hoping this continues during Copa America.
He smiles: “Athletes don’t play competitions to go in there and say we want to get second place, or third. We want to try and win the whole thing. We know it’s a challenge. We know it’s hard. You have defending World Cup champions Argentina in the tournament. But at the same time, we know our quality. We know our ability. We always say we may not be the most talented group, but the one thing that we can be is the type of team that plays for everyone. It’s like a big family.”
Copa America 2024 preview: The Athletic’s complete guide to the tournament
Plenty has changed in North American soccer since the Copa America last came stateside in 2016.
The United States has fallen and risen, rebounding after missing the 2018 World Cup to boast a pool teeming with young and established players in Europe’s top five leagues. Mexico is experiencing an identity crisis and Canada has overtaken Costa Rica as the region’s third power, led by top players like Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David.
The three nations needn’t fret over World Cup qualification thanks to being co-hosts in 2026, so the 2024 Copa America represents their only meaningful competition between now and then.
While this year’s tournament takes place in CONCACAF territory, its narratives and thrills will be dictated by CONMEBOL. Few tournaments can match the passion stirred by a Copa America.
Do you like stars? Of course you do. There are world-class players aplenty to be found in the 16-team field.
By summer’s end, you’ll be singing the praises of fresh faces such as Endrick, Dario Osorioand Kendry Paez. You’ll eagerly cue up “best of” YouTube compilations of Vinicius Junior’s dribbling prowess for Brazil, of Pedro Gallese’s acrobatics in goal for Peru, of Darwin Nunez’s unpredictable nature inside the penalty box for Uruguay.
This will be his first major tournament since Argentina won the 2022 World Cup and we could see the soon-to-be 37-year-old in a rare, pressure-free headspace. It may also be our last chance to catch him on a big international stage, as it’s unclear whether he’ll retire before 2026.
First up, who’s competing? Well… we’ve got individual nation guides on the 16 teams below, but here are a few things to look out for…
Argentina has finally figured it all out, winning the 2021 Copa America and 2022 World Cup. This isn’t a one-man band, though; Lautaro Martinez is among the world’s best strikers and their goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez, revels in big moments.
Since reappointing Gregg Berhalter, the United States has looked like a team stuck in two minds. Its players often play dynamic roles for their clubs, but they resemble a more reserved collective under his guidance. A run to the semifinal would go a long way to restoring faith.
There was a 1-1 draw against the USMNT in Brazil‘s final tune-up friendly. The Selecao flamed out in the group stage of the 2016 Copa America Centenario, but were champions in 2019 and runners-up in 2021. How far will they go this time?
Canada surprised many by appointing Jesse Marsch as head coach in May. Players have grown disillusioned by a pennywise federation, but the talent that helped them top 2022 World Cup qualifying is ready to rebound.
Mexico left some experienced names off its roster — yes, Guillermo Ochoa really won’t be here. They are prioritising giving younger players big-game experience ahead of the World Cup.
When Marcelo Bielsa last coached internationally, he catalyzed the start of a strong decade for Chile. Uruguay will hope he can work similar magic, with Nunez the preferred strike partner for ageless Luis Suarez.
If your focus is more individually driven, there is The Radar: Copa America, which profiles 50 players to watch at the tournament, from established stars to ones on the rise.
There’s also our ultimate data guide to the squads, which will make you look even more clever to your friends. Did you know Jonathan David has the best goals-per-cap rate of any player at the tournament whose name isn’t Lionel Messi? No, me neither.
The United States were host nation and a dark horse in 2016, reaching the semifinal before falling to Messi and Argentina. That proved to be an aberration, as they failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but they are back at the top of the CONCACAF pecking order and trying to size up if a deep run is possible in two years’ time.
It still is a bit odd when a guest nation joins a continental tournament, whether it’s Qatar in the CONCACAF Gold Cup or, well, the United States hosting a second South American jamboree in under a decade. Elias Burke charted the past performances of these guest entries. Perhaps this tournament will see its first champion outside the confines of CONMEBOL…
Antonee Robinson had a career-best season for Fulham, proving to be among the Premier League’s best left-backs. His focus now shifts to the international arena; as he tells Peter Rutzler, it’s time for the USMNT to take the next step toward being a global contender.
(Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Johnny Cardoso is among the squad’s fastest risers in recent years, going from a mysterious prospect in Brazil to a mainstay of Real Betis’ midfield. He gave a rare interview to Jack Lang, giving insight into what motivates him and what he aspires to be.
The USMNT exited the 2022 World Cup in the round of 16, but no player was harder done by than Gio Reyna. Eighteen months have passed since the drama around his lack of playing time and the signs a relationship with Berhalter needed mending. Last week, Reyna spoke with USMNT expert Paul Tenorio about getting his career back on track.
Predictions, Messi vs Ronaldo and the new generation
Elsewhere, our writers have given their predictions for the tournament: who will win it? Which players will shine brightest? And which dark horses could bust the bracket open?
The sport cannot live off those two forever and a rising generation of talent has been desperate to get more time in the spotlight. This tournament boasts quite a few of them…
Paolo Guerrero has his critics, but one thing is clear: the 40-year-old wants few things more than to continue playing for Peru. Here’s a profile on a career like few others.
For U.S. viewers, you can watch every English-language broadcast on FOX’s networks. The majority of group-stage clashes will be shown live on FS1, with select games bumped to FOX and a handful shifting to FS2. The tournament can be streamed on Fubo TV, as well. Spanish-language broadcasts will be shown on Univision and TUDN.
In Canada, you can find Copa America matches on TSN and TSN+ while UK viewers can find broadcasts on Premier Sports, as well as live streams on the Premier Sports Player.
How does qualification for the knockout stage work?
This is as straightforward as brackets get: four groups of four teams, with the top two finishers advancing to the quarterfinal. It’s a fixed bracket from there:
Winner of Group A vs. Group B’s second-place side
Winner of Group B vs. Group A’s second-place side
Winner of Group C vs. Group D’s second-place side
Winner of Group D vs. Group C’s second-place side
In the group stage, the tiebreaking protocol for any two teams on level footing — well, save for irrelevant ties between third and fourth — is as follows:
Cumulative goal difference across all three matches
Goals scored
Head-to-head records, with additional nested tiebreakers in the event of a three-team tie:
Number of points accrued in matches between relevant sides
Greater goal difference between relevant sides
Most goals scored between relevant sides
Fewest red cards
Fewest yellow cards
A random draw conducted by CONMEBOL
Group stage games will conclude after 90 minutes, even if they’re played to a draw. A tie game at full time in the knockout rounds will advance to two 15-minute halves of extra time and advance to a penalty shootout if the game is still deadlocked after two hours of action.
On top of all this, we will be covering all the off-pitch news as it happens, bringing you details from the team camps, media conferences, and any other breaking news.
Away from the Copa America, we will continue to cover the summer transfer window, with our weekly Transfer DealSheet coming out every Tuesday as well as The Athletic 500 Transfer Ratings, which you can read about here.
Go touch grass while you can — a second concurrent tournament is about to kick off.
(Top photo: Mark Thorstenson/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Predicting every game of Copa America 2024: Who will win it?
Ryan O’Hanlon, ESPN.com writerJun 20, 2024, 07:00 AM ET
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The last time the United States hosted a Copa America, in 2016, Brazil got knocked out in the group stages. The U.S. men’s national team lost 4-0 to Argentina in the semifinals. And Argentina lost the final in penalties to Chile at MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and Jets. It was Argentina’s second loss to Chile in a Copa America final in as many years, and it led to Lionel Messi — presumably distraught at being unable to live up to the legacies created by Eli Manning and Ryan Fitzpatrick on that same field — retiring from international soccer immediately following the match.
While Messi has spent his career expanding our collective imagination of what’s possible on a soccer field and in a soccer career, I don’t think anyone could’ve accurately predicted where we’d be eight years later. Messi is in Year 2 of playing for Inter Miami, a soccer team that didn’t exist in 2016. He spent two barely memorable seasons playing for Paris Saint-Germain. Oh, and he unretired so he and Argentina could finally win the Copa America and World Cup in consecutive years in his mid-30s.
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Elsewhere, Chile have since failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and the 2022 World Cup. The other semifinalists in 2016 missed one a piece: the U.S. failed to qualify for 2018, Colombia for 2022. Brazil didn’t make it past the quarterfinals of either tournament, and just two players from their 2016 Copa team are still around in 2024 (Alisson and Marquinhos).
Mexico, meanwhile, continue to lose to the USMNT in the Nations League, a tournament that didn’t exist eight years ago. And Canada are managed by Jesse Marsch — a statement that would’ve been meaningless in 2016 but not so today because he’s managed multiple clubs in the Champions League and the Premier League since the Copa America Centenario.
The Copa America is the kind of tournament that can change the course of soccer as we know it, and it really matters to the teams that participate. So, given all the twists and turns we’ve had since the last time a Copa America was played on U.S. soil, why not look at the state of the 2024 tournament and make some predictions for where this all might end up?
It’s time to look into our stats-filled, analytics-powered crystal ball and predict how every single game of the 2024 Copa America plays out and who, ultimately, will be crowned the winner. Let’s go!
To rate all of these teams, I created a simple model that combines team performance with the talent level of the current squad. For the former, we’re using the World Football Elo ratings, which are a continuously updated set of ratings that either awards or subtracts points based on every game played — adjusted for scoreline, opponent quality and competitiveness of the match.
Given that they’ve won the last continental and global competitions, Argentina are, unsurprisingly, the highest-rated team in the world, with a rating of 2,143. For context: Eastern Samoa are the lowest-rated team in the world, ranking 241st with a rating of 377.
Elo accounts for 60% of the model, and then the other 40% comes from the overall squad value of each team, as estimated by Transfermarkt. We’ve normalized the transfer values to match the Elo scale, and then averaged the two values. And then we turned those numbers into a 0-100 scale — with 100 being the best team and zero being the worst. Here’s how everyone stacks up:
Argentina are in the top tier with Brazil and then … there’s no one from Group A in either of the next two tiers.
Through six matches of World Cup qualifying, Peru have two points and Chile five. The former ranks second-to-last in expected goal differential (minus-0.79) while the latter ranks third-to-last (minus-0.3). A big part of the problem for both countries is that neither one has been able to successfully turn over their team. The average age of Peru’s squad is 28.9, while Chile aren’t far behind at 28.6 — both significantly older than any other team in the tournament.
Canada, meanwhile, come into the tournament with one of the younger squads: 25.6. And the likes of Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies and Lille’s Jonathan David give them higher-end talent than either Chile or Peru. Given how the managerial economy works — the best coaches get filtered up to the club game — Canada’s hiring of Marsch could also give them one of the best coaches in the tournament.
Game-by-game Group A predictions:
Argentina 2, Canada 0 Chile 2, Peru 1 Canada 1, Peru 0 Argentina 2, Chile 1 Argentina 3, Peru 0 Canada 2, Chile 1
This is the weakest group in the tournament. Not only that, but the winner of Group B will also get to play the second-place team in Group A, which is likely to be the weakest second-place team in the tournament.
Luck of the draw plays a bigger role in tournament soccer than anyone would like to admit (see: Croatia’s run to the 2018 World Cup final), and Mexico and Ecuador both got lucky before a game was even played.
Although El Tri feel like they’re at their lowest point in, I don’t know, 25 years, they got a cushy draw and will have a bigger home-field advantage than any other team in the tournament. Without the underlying quality of the talent or even the recent performances changing at all, Mexico could very easily make the semis and suddenly change the vibe surrounding the program.
With the second-youngest team in the tournament, budding young stars in Europe such as Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo and Bayer Leverkusen’s Piero Hincapié, a solid start to World Cup qualifying (11 points, fourth place), and the favorable draw, Ecuador look like a classic dark-horse pick. The only problem: They don’t have anyone who can score goals. Only Peru and Bolivia have created fewer xG in South American World Cup qualifying, and their leading scorer is Félix Torres, who plays center back.
Venezuela tied Ecuador in a relatively even home match at the end of last year and they also drew with Brazil — in Brazil — a few months prior. They cross the ball an absurd amount: 28% of their final-third passes in World Cup qualifying have been crosses — way higher than any other team. That’s generally an incredibly inefficient strategy, but maybe its uniqueness throws their opponents off-balance.
Jamaica’s rating here is a bit inflated because of the inclusion of Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey. He was genuinely one of the best attackers in Europe last season, and although he was called up to the Copa America squad, it appears he’s going to reject the invitation as part of a protest against the unprofessionalism of the Jamaican federation. (History is certainly on his side here.) The likes of West Ham’s Michail Antonio and former Everton winger Demarai Gray are interesting names on paper, but neither one is as dangerous as he used to be.
Although Group B has the lowest average rating among its four teams, Group C has the weakest bottom two. As such, only Argentina has better odds to reach the quarterfinals than Uruguay, while those two, plus Brazil, are the only sides with a higher likelihood of advancing than the U.S. men’s national team.
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After Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay have the third most talented squad in the tournament. In Darwin Núñez, Federico Valverde, Manuel Ugarte, Ronald Araujo, Rodrigo Bentancur, and José María Giménez, they have six players who are at least Champions League-starter level. And at 37 and without functional knees, Luis Suárez continues to absolutely demolish whatever league he plays in. He was the best player in Brazil last year, and he’s been lights out with Inter Miami so far this season, too.
Throw in Marcelo Bielsa, easily the most accomplished coach in the tournament, and you’ve got the first-place side in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying. Unlike most international sides, Uruguay wants the game to be played in transition. Bielsa prefers for the ball to constantly be switching hands because he thinks he’s better at coaching these situations than anyone else in the world. In Núñez and Valverde, he has two of the best transition players in world soccer, too.
We should learn a lot about the USMNT when these two teams meet in Kansas City. The Americans are massive favorites against Bolivia — only Brazil (against Costa Rica) have shorter odds on matchday one — and they should be heavy favorites against Panama, too.
The most likely outcome is that both the U.S. and Uruguay have six points when they meet at the beginning of next month. In that case, they’ll both already be qualified. Sometimes that leads to 90 minutes of both teams staring at the ball, but I’m not sure Bielsa teams are capable of staring at the ball for 90 minutes. With their defined tactical approach and top-end talent, Uruguay might be the trickiest team the USMNT has faced in the Gregg Berhalter era.
As for the rest of the group: Bolivia are the worst team in the tournament. They have the worst results and the least talented squad. Without the advantage of playing at altitude in La Paz, they’ve been uncompetitive for a long time. Panama, meanwhile, took down the U.S. B- or C-team in the Gold Cup semifinals last summer. They also notched an impressive 3-0 win in Costa Rica back in November of last year, and they actually outshot Mexico, 18-6, in a 3-0 semifinal loss in the Nations League that was much closer than the final score.
Game-by-game Group C predictions:
USMNT 2, Bolivia 0 Uruguay 3, Panama 1 USMNT 3, Panama 1 Uruguay 2, Bolivia 0 Uruguay 2, USMNT 1 Panama 2, Bolivia 1
This isn’t your vintage Brazil. There’s no Neymar, you’ve possibly never heard of the fullbacks, and the midfielders almost all play for midtable Premier League clubs.
And yet, the forward line will include some combination of Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior, Real Madrid’s Rodrygo, Barcelona’s Raphinha, Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli, and the duo of phenom prospects in formerly-Girona-but-maybe-Manchester City’s Sávio and Real Madrid’s 17-year-old Endrick. Newcastle’s Bruno Guimarães and Atalanta‘s Éderson were two of the best two-way midfielders in Europe this past season. The potential starting center backs play for PSG, Real Madrid and Arsenal. And Liverpool’s Alisson is the best all-around goalkeeper in the world.
Copa América 2024: Features and reaction
Keep up to date with all the results, news coverage and stories on the biggest names and teams in the United States as the tournament progresses. Copa América 2024
Brazil’s results in qualifying have been substandard so far, but there’s just too much talent for that to continue.
Colombia, meanwhile, haven’t lost a game since February 2022, and that was against Argentina, in Argentina. They’ve moved up to fifth in the Elo ratings in the process, behind Argentina, France, Brazil and Spain — in that order. Liverpool’s Luis Díaz is their one star — and their squad value ranks fifth among all teams in the tournament, behind the USMNT, whom they just destroyed 5-1 in a pre-tournament friendly.
Perhaps most pertinent: Colombia’s previous two opponents in World Cup qualifying were group stage opponents Paraguay and Brazil. They won both matches, and created the better chances in each one.
Paraguay have one of the most exciting young players in the world — 20-year-old Brighton attacking midfielder Julio Enciso — but there’s not a ton of other talent behind him. Not one of their six World Cup qualifying matches has featured more than one total goal — there have been two total non-penalty goals scored across those games.
Incredibly, Costa Rica bring the youngest average team to the Copa America. They had the oldest team at the 2022 World Cup. It was time to turn the team over from their golden generation, but that also means that this is no longer Costa Rica’s golden generation. Their recent results have dropped them down to 59th in the Elo ratings — worse than every team in the tournament other than Bolivia.
Game-by-game Group D predictions:
Colombia 2, Paraguay 0 Brazil 4, Costa Rica 0 Colombia 3, Costa Rica 1 Brazil 3, Paraguay 1 Brazil 0, Colombia 0 Paraguay 2, Costa Rica 2
Predicted Group D standings
1. Brazil: 7 points, plus-6 goal differential 2. Colombia: 7 points, plus-4 3. Paraguay: 1 point, minus-4 4. Costa Rica: 1 point, minus-6
Predicting the quarterfinals
Argentina (77% to reach semifinal) vs. Ecuador (31.1%)
The past two times these two teams played, in World Cup qualifying and in a pre-Copa tuneup, both games ended 1-0 to Argentina. Over those two games, Ecuador attempted just eight total shots.
Although the presence of Messi is the main attraction, Argentina were a dominant defensive team in Qatar. That has remained true in World Cup qualifying — they’ve conceded just 2.3 non-penalty xG across six matches.
Predicted result: Argentina 1, Ecuador 0
Mexico (37% to reach semifinal) vs. Canada (9.8%)
Both of these teams would seem like “surprise” semifinalists — Mexico because of their recent struggles, and Canada because they’re, well, Canada. But the Canadians landed in a group without a strong second team after Argentina, and Mexico are currently the betting favorites to meet Argentina in the semifinals.
Hot tip: When the betting markets suggest that something counter to conventional wisdom is the most likely outcome, adopt it as your own opinion and impress your friends at a rate higher than expectation.
Predicted result: Mexico 2, Canada 1
Uruguay (50.8% to reach semifinal) vs. Colombia (33.9%)
Watching the World Cup qualifying match between these two teams induced emotional effects similar to those normally only associated with various illicit substances. Possession was almost even, both teams pressed high, they combined for 29 shots, and they created nearly 4.0 xG together. It ended 2-2, after a Darwin Núñez goal in injury time.
The big difference in the Copa America? This match won’t be in Colombia.
Predicted result: Uruguay 2, Colombia 1
Brazil (72.4% to reach semifinal) vs. United States (28.7%)
At 21, Ricardo Pepi has never played in an international tournament, but he gets it. “I think anything besides making it out of the group will be bad for us, so we just want to be able to compete and get the best out of it,” he told ESPN. And that’s just the reality facing the Americans.
They should get out of the group — the gap between them and Panama and Bolivia is big enough that not even bad luck should sink them. But after that, they’re just not at the same level as Colombia or Brazil, their most likely quarterfinal opponents.
Yes, they did just draw the Brazilians in a friendly last week, but they were outshot 24-12 and all of their high-quality chances came after the game devolved in the second half, like most friendlies do once substitutions are made:
The USMNT’s best bet for reaching the quarterfinals would be to win the group or hope Colombia win Group D.
In the Copa America, there’s no extra time until the final — a silly format that encourages underdogs to just try to hang on for dear life until the 90-minute mark so they can get to the coin flip of penalties. However, that format does favor the underdogs, which the USMNT will likely be if it makes it this far.
Predicted result: Brazil 3, United States 1
Predicting the semifinals
Argentina (51.5% to reach finals) vs. Mexico (16.3%)
That Argentina percentage above represents both how random soccer is and how much better Argentina is than every other team on their side of the bracket. Despite being so much better than everyone else, it’s still just about a coin flip that Messi & Co. reach the final game.
But if, say, every team in the tournament were equally matched, there would be a 12.5% chance (one in eight) that you’d reach the final. Argentina’s odds are more than four times as high.
Predicted result: Argentina 2, Mexico 0
Brazil (47.0% to reach final) vs. Uruguay (23.9%)
When these teams met in World Cup qualifying, they played a truly bizarre match where Brazil maintained 61% of possession but were outshot 6-2 and lost the game 2-0. Then-manager Fernando Diniz’s free-flowing possession tactics worked horribly with the national team.
I suspect — and most projection models agree — that Brazil will play up to their talent level this summer with a new manager who doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. They have the best goalkeeper in the tournament and the most attacking talent. This shouldn’t be that complicated.
Predicted result: Brazil 1, Uruguay 1 (Brazil advances in a shootout)
Predicting the 2024 Copa America final
Argentina (31.6% to win the tournament) vs. Brazil (26.7%)
A rematch of the 2019 semifinal and the 2021 final — a rubber match of sorts, with Brazil winning en route to winning the title four years ago and Argentina beating their neighbors to lift the trophy last time out. While Brazil have the most talented team in the tournament, we’re still working off a bit of projection here. They’ve lost their past three competitive matches, and we haven’t seen the team play a non-friendly match under manager Dorival Júnior yet. Plus, they’re probably going to have to beat at least two of Uruguay, Colombia and the USMNT — Nos. 3, 4 and 6 in our rankings — to get to the final.
Argentina, though, are maybe the most known quantity in international soccer: be defensively tough, have everyone else do the running for Messi on and off the ball, and then let Messi win the game once you have possession. We’ll see how effective Messi remains after a year of playing MLS and, simply, another year of aging, but this simplified formula just works so well in the international game.
It’s really hard to see Argentina screwing it up before the final. And with the title match in Miami, Argentina’s captain will be playing at home. After years of the opposite being true, you bet against Messi and Argentina at your own risk.
Predicted result: Argentina 1, Brazil 0
So … congratulations to Argentina, the 2024 Copa America champions!
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Will USMNT earn its “Golden Generation” tag at Copa America?
Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondentJun 20, 2024, 08:00 AM ET
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When the term “Golden Generation” is attached to a group of players, it’s the ultimate mixed bag.
On the one hand, the expression points to the high level of excitement surrounding a team. The talent level is so high that fans — and yes, even a few pundits and coaches — begin to dream about what might be possible. They can let themselves dream about previously unexplored heights, the kind that if they’re achieved, they warm the heart years later as you sit by the fire.
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But such a label can be a trap as well — the expectations are so high that they become unrealistic and, rather than inspire the players, they can weigh heavy on a group.
Historically, the U.S. men’s program hasn’t had a whole lot to crow about. It’s high water mark at a World Cup was its semifinal showing in the inaugural edition back in 1930. In the modern era, the U.S. managed a quarterfinal finish at the 2002 World Cup. In the context of a Copa America, there have been two semifinal appearances, one in 1995 and another at the Copa America Centenario in 2016. Credible showings all, but nothing worth jumping up on a table and screaming at the top of one’s lungs.
So why the excitement about this generation of U.S. players? It all has to do with the caliber of the clubs that pay their wages, as well as what they’ve achieved with those clubs.
The number of U.S. players annually taking part in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League seems to regularly hit double digits. In a recent friendly against Colombia, the USMNT fielded a starting lineup comprised entirely of players attached to clubs in the top five leagues of Europe.
Yet, the excitement generated by such success with their clubs is tempered by the reality that, at international level, this generation has yet to surpass the ones that came before it. When the U.S. men reached the round of 16 in 2022, they achieved something that the U.S. men had already done four times prior in the modern era of the team. Winning a Concacaf Gold Cup or Concacaf Nations League, likewise, has long been considered routine.
A so-called “Golden Generation” needs a “Golden Moment” — a signature win or best-ever tournament finish — and without one, the label feels premature.
“They still have to win something of importance, and I think that as of today, they have not done that yet,” said former U.S. international and current analyst DaMarcus Beasley. “Do I think they have the capability? One-hundred percent. I’m a big fan this group, a big fan of how much talent they have.
“But they have yet to put it together when it comes to a big game, whether that’s a friendly or whether that’s a tournament. So it just remains to be seen if this is truly our Golden Generation.”
Herc blames Berhalter for USMNT’s problems finding a striker
Herc Gomez discusses USMNT’s biggest weakness heading into Copa America 2024.
That’s an assertion that U.S. captain Tyler Adams isn’t fighting. He notes that the “Golden Generation” tag is usually applied to teams “that haven’t won anything in the last 10 years,” or even longer. Think England of the mid-2000s, or even the most recent vintage of Belgium, whose current crop hasn’t quite made the international breakthrough so many predicted for it, despite possessing an immensely talented group.
Adams is mindful that achievements at club level aren’t enough.
“I think that when you look at our team and the group of players that we have, we are a talented group of players for sure,” he said prior to the USMNT’s 1-1 friendly draw with Brazil last week. “But I would say that the biggest thing when I think about this team is: That individual success doesn’t correlate directly to team success, and that’s what we’re working towards right now.
“So, it’s great to have everyone playing at a top club around the world. It’s probably the first time in a long time in U.S. soccer that we can be recognized at such a high level. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to have direct success. We’re working towards that success right now.”
For defender Joe Scally, the “Golden Generation” tag isn’t something that is occupying the team’s thoughts: “We never even talk about that at all,” he said.
Labels aside, expectations can still creep into a team’s psyche like a king tide. The water seeps in slowly, and before you know it, you’re enveloped by it. And it’s not just the fans and media that are feeding expectations about the current U.S. men’s national team. Head coach Gregg Berhalter had made his own contribution, speaking openly of taking the U.S. to a place — at least in the modern era — it has never been before. In the context of a World Cup, that means a semifinal. For a Copa America, that means the final.
Copa América 2024: Features and reaction
Keep up to date with all the results, news coverage and stories on the biggest names and teams in the United States as the tournament progresses. Copa América 2024
The talk heading into this Copa America has oscillated a bit. There have been comments, like those from Haji Wright, that the World Cup is the main priority. While true, the timing feels like a way of limiting expectations — the World Cup isn’t until 2026. Other comments have focused on creating the aforementioned “Golden Moment.” Scally mentioned wanting to “do something great for the country.” That is the direction into which Adams is leaning as well.
“I think that you have to have goals. You have to have expectations of what you want to achieve as a group,” Adams said. “But I think building off of 2022, that was a good benchmark of where we’re at right now. We’ve navigated a group stage as a young group. That was important to do with not a lot of World Cup experience.
“Obviously, now it’s about being able to win knockout games and big games, and we have yet to do that. So we need to continue to work towards that, and I think obviously Copa America is going to be a great opportunity for us to do that. But there’s work to be done still.”
The path to reaching that goal won’t be easy. Group C, which includes Bolívia, Panama and Uruguay, is one the U.S. should be able to get past, though there are no guarantees.
Bolivia is a wild card — less is known about them than the other teams in the group, though the Bolivians won’t be able to lean on the benefit of playing at altitude like they do in their home qualifiers. In a tournament setting, Panama has given the U.S. fits on more than one occasion. Uruguay is enjoying an impressive run of form under new manager Marcelo Bielsa.
If the U.S. progresses to the quarterfinals, the Americans will likely face one of two teams they faced in recent friendlies, those being Brazil or Colombia. Getting past either team will require a monumental effort, but it’s an opportunity for this USMNT to show that it is indeed capable of something special, labels be damned.
The USMNT has the experience now. It has been tested at a World Cup. Can it reach its goal? Or even go beyond?
If the U.S. doesn’t, however, what does that mean for Berhalter? So far in his tenure he has proven to be adept at meeting expectations, but nothing more. Would the U.S. Soccer Federation brass dare fire a coach for not being able to beat Brazil? That would be harsh, but it’s what happens when expectations around a team increase.
For now, Adams is thinking of what a win would bring rather than the alternative.
“I think [a knockout stage win] would put a lot of confidence in our team,” Adams said. “We have the belief that we’re able to do that, but now it’s about executing more than anything. Our team gets in situations and we need to be able to execute. That’s the bottom line.”
2024 Copa América team previews: USMNT, Argentina, more
ESPN
Jun 19, 2024, 10:07 AM ETShareLikeOpen Extended Reactions524
It’s time for the 2024 Copa América. With the United States as the host, the next few weeks will be jam-packed with soccer as North American sides take on Central and South America teams in a bid to become the best team in the region. The USMNT boasts plenty of talent with Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Yunus Musah, among others, but can they upset international heavyweights Brazil or current World Cup titleholders Argentina?
It might also be Lionel Messi‘s last major tournament as the 36-year-old enters the twilight of a sparkling career. Could he help his nation to back-to-back Copa América titles? Can striker Santiago Giménez lead Mexico to a deep run in the tournament? Meanwhile, Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior, arguably the best winger in the world, will attract plenty of attention as he looks to become the main man for his nation.
It’s all up for grabs, and though there are clear favorites, shock results are bound to happen in international soccer. ESPN previews each of the Copa América’s 16 teams in the tournament, with everything you need to know about the sides, split into their groups.
Nickname:La Albiceleste (The White and Sky Blue) FIFA rank: 1 Manager: Lionel Scaloni Record in past 12 months: 12W-0D-0L Group stage fixtures: Canada (Thursday, 8 p.m. ET); Chile (June 25, 9 p.m. ET); Peru (June 29, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024: +175
Can’t-miss star: Ángel Di María.Lionel Messi would be too obvious — so it is time to pay tribute to Di Maria, who retires from international football after this tournament. The 36-year-old will be badly missed. Di Maria is that rarest of things — a genuine world-class player who seems without ego, consistently doing what is needed to improve the team. He has been key to all Argentina’s recent triumphs.
Breakout candidate: Valentin Carboni. The 19-year-old seems most likely to emerge as the Di Maria replacement. Alejandro Garnacho has more pace, but the lanky left-footed Carboni has enchanted the coaching staff with his elegant quality, sufficiently versatile to cover a number of attacking positions. Born in Buenos Aires, but used to play for Italy at under-17 level.
Why they won’t win it all: It is hardly a surprise that Argentina are at the top of the World Cup qualification table. They were the only team that went into the competition as a consolidated unit. The Copa gives the others a chance to catch up. Argentina, meanwhile, might have been treading water. Their friendlies this year have been too easy, teaching them little. And the big question remains unresolved: how long can the team go on with its model of Messi plus 10? Scaloni flirted with resignation last November, almost certainly provoked, at least in part, by a glimpse of the end of the Messi era. Much of the past 18 months have felt like a prolonged lap of honor after the triumph in Qatar.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Placed in by far the easiest half of the draw, it will take a major shock for Argentina not to reach the final. As the games become more competitive, an interesting dilemma emerges. Does the status of world and Copa champions mean that the pressure is off? Or might the fact of having something to lose prove nerve-wracking? Argentina go into the tournament as justified favorites, and there will be moments when their possession-based football delights fans, with the rhythm suddenly switching as they bear down on goal. And whatever happens, they should emerge from the Copa with one aspect of their 2026 World Cup challenge enhanced. A collapse at the heart of the defense so nearly cost them the title in Qatar. The Copa is a clear opportunity to consolidate Lisandro Martínez in the back four. — Tim Vickery
Messi: There’s not a lot of time left in my career
Lionel Messi says he’s enjoying playing football more because he knows “there’s not a lot of time left” in his career.
Nickname:Canucks FIFA rank: 49 Manager: Jesse Marsch Record in past 12 months: 4W-3D-5L Group stage fixtures: Argentina (Thursday, 8 p.m. ET); Peru (June 25, 6 p.m. ET); Chile (June 29, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+6600
Can’t-miss star: Jonathan David.Alphonso Davies is typically penciled in here, but David had the better club season, scoring 26 goals in all competitions for Ligue 1 side Lille. Davies is also slated to play left-back, which means his influence might be muted against the tough trio of South American teams — starting with Argentina — that comprise Group A. If Canada is to get out of the group stage, David will need to be banging in the goals.
Breakout candidate: Moise Bombito. The back line has long been one of Canada’s biggest weaknesses, but Bombito showed well in two recent friendlies against the Netherlands and France with his passing and speed. The Colorado Rapids defender has an opportunity to stake his claim to a starting spot and could prove to be an unlikely catalyst for Canada getting out of the group.
Why they won’t win it all: There just hasn’t been enough time for new manager Jesse Marsch — who was hired last month — to have implemented his high-pressing system and generate some cohesion. Granted, Canada did record a credible 0-0 draw against France, this after a 4-0 defeat to the Netherlands in which the Reds played well for stretches but ultimately ran out of gas. Whether that effort against France can be replicated while generating a consistent attack remains to be seen. All told, the demands of Marsch’s style, as well as a talent gap when compared to the hemisphere’s best teams, make it too big of an ask for Canada to come close to being a contender.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Getting out of the group ought to be the primary goal here. On paper that’s certainly doable, especially given the pace of players such as Davies and Tajon Buchanan. While Argentina are heavy favorites to top Group A, Chile and Peru are beatable. Both teams have struggled in South American World Cup qualifying, occupying eighth and 10th place respectively, but they won’t be pushovers either. That will require limiting the damage in the group stage opener against the reigning World Cup and Copa America champions, and then grinding out results in the last two games. This tournament will be mostly about laying foundations ahead of the 2026 World Cup. — Jeff Carlisle
Nickname: La Roja (The Red One) FIFA rank: 42 Manager: Ricardo Gareca Record in past 12 months: 5W-3D-4L Group stage fixtures: Peru (Friday, 8 p.m. ET); Argentina (June 25, 9 p.m. ET); Canada (June 29, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+3300
Can’t-miss star: Alexis Sánchez. With more caps (163) and goals (51) for Chile than any other player, Sanchez is keen to point out that at 35 years old he is not a spent force. Enthused by the project of coach Ricardo Gareca, Sanchez is buzzing around behind the centre-forward, more involved these days in setting up the play than finishing off the moves.
Breakout candidate: Darío Osorio. After a long wait for another superstar, there is a cautious sense of optimism around the 20-year-old, a leggy left-footed winger who likes to cut in from the right. He had a fine season in Denmark and scored a splendid debut international goal against France in March, but is fighting to shake off a late season injury.
Why they won’t win it all: Chile’s second game is against Argentina in New Jersey — same venue and same opponents as the 2016 Copa final win, the greatest moment in the history of the national team. Eight years ago seems like light years ago. Chile did not make it to either of the two subsequent World Cups and have made a bad start on the way to 2026 — hence the recent change of coach. Theirs has been a typical South American problem: a drought of talent following a golden generation. The process of renewing the team has been extremely weak.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Chile have pinned their faith in the “Gareca factor” — the hope that Argentine coach Gareca can reproduce what he did with Peru and build a team that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. The new man has certainly made a promising start, with goals and good performances in his first three friendlies. Can this be continued now that the competitive games have come? The group looks easy enough, so Chile can expect a quarterfinal, although a semifinal would seem to be the limit of their chances. The main aim is to build momentum for the coming six rounds of World Cup qualifiers. — Vickery
Nickname:La Blanquirroja (The White and Red) FIFA rank: 32 Manager: Jorge Fossati Record in past 12 months: 4W-3D-5L Group stage fixtures: Chile (Friday, 8 p.m. ET); Canada (June 25, 6 p.m. ET); Argentina (June 29, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+5000
Can’t-miss star: Pedro Gallese. Peru is not known for producing goalkeepers, but they can be proud of Gallese. Over a decade in the national team and with more than 100 caps, the Orlando City keeper has been reliable and occasionally outstanding. He would walk into a best all-time Peru XI.
Breakout candidate: Piero Quispe. He’s is a little, skipping, give-and-go midfielder who was Peru’s player of the year in 2023 and has since made an encouraging start in Mexico. Some say that he is too much of a lightweight for the top level. The Copa is a chance for him to prove them wrong and launch his international career.
Why they won’t win it all: For a few years, former coach Ricardo Gareca performed a minor miracle with Peru, building a team that added up to more than the sum of its parts. Post-Gareca, things returned to normal for a country that has gone 11 years without one of its clubs reaching the knockout stage of the Copa Libertadores, and which is not producing many successful exports. Peru lie bottom of the 2026 World Cup qualification table with just one goal scored in six games. And midfielder Renato Tapia, probably the team’s best outfield player, walked out following a row with the local federation. Everything seems stacked against the Peruvians.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: After a few gentle friendlies, these will be the first competitive games in the reign of the new coach, Uruguayan Jorge Fossati, who has immediately implanted his trademark three centre-back system. Fossati will probably try to focus on defensive solidity, and trust that clever attacking midfielder Edison Flores can buzz effectively around the centre-forward. The opening game with neighbors and bitter rivals Chile is crucial. In a perfect world, this Copa will be to Fossati what the 2016 version in the USA was to Gareca. Eight years ago, Peru travelled north in apparent disarray, but in the course of the competition found the group and the momentum that took them to Russia 2018 and very nearly to Qatar. — Vickery
Nickname:La Tricolor (The Tricolors) FIFA rank: 31 Manager: Félix Sánchez Bas Record in past 12 months: 8W-2D-3L Group stage fixtures: Venezuela (Saturday, 6 p.m. ET); Jamaica (June 26, 6 p.m. ET); Mexico (June 30, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+1800
Can’t-miss star: Moisés Caicedo. He has been bestriding the Ecuador midfield like a prince since he was a teenager, and at 22 he already has more than 40 caps to his name. He is at the heart of everything that Ecuador do, winning the ball, driving forward, linking the play with quick passes and running beyond the strikers to shoot at goal.
Breakout candidate: Kendry Paez. He was making and scoring goals in World Cup qualification months before his 17th birthday. A left-footed attacking midfielder with the air of an Ecuadorian Phil Foden, he is full of surprise shots and passes at clever angles. This is an eagerly awaited first senior tournament for the Chelsea-bound wonderkid.
Why they won’t win it all: Despite a solid start to their 2026 qualification campaign, pressure is mounting on Spanish coach Felix Sanchez, who was in charge of Qatar in the last World Cup. Some even speculate that this tournament might serve as a referendum on his job security. One of his problems is that the wealth of resources at centre-back is not matched by those at centre-forward. The team are highly dependent on all-time top scorer Enner Valencia, who was overplayed during 2022 and 2023, and has since been paying the price.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Expectations in Ecuador are fluctuating wildly, from hopes of a semifinal to fears of group stage elimination. Both are possible, and plenty hangs on the opening clash with Venezuela. Pick up the points there, avoid Argentina in the quarters and a place in the last four is within the grasp of a young, physically imposing team who are not easy to play against. The key question is whether they can score enough goals, given their lack of depth at centre-forward and the absence of the strong, quick and direct wingers who have typically been a feature of recent Ecuador sides. — Vickery
Nickname:Reggae Boyz FIFA rank: 55 Manager: Heimir Hallgrímsson Record in past 12 months: 12W-4D-5L Group stage fixtures: Mexico (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET); Ecuador (June 26, 6 p.m. ET); Venezuela (June 30, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+15000
Can’t-miss star: Michail Antonio. With Leon Bailey out of the picture, on paper, Antonio is the star. When healthy, the West Ham United striker is brilliant in the air and a clever dribbler. So why just on paper? That’s because the England native hasn’t solidified himself as a reliable big-game goal scorer for Jamaica since his 2021 debut, but that could change this summer.
Breakout candidate: Shamar Nicholson. A fully fit and available Jamaica roster likely wouldn’t have Nicholson in the XI, but that doesn’t deny the fact that he’s been an invaluable striker. Soon to be heading back to Spartak Moscow after a loan with Clermont, the 27-year-old has been lights out for Jamaica with eight goals in his past seven games.
Why they won’t win it all: Injuries have seriously hurt their chances, as seen in recent World Cup qualifiers where they narrowly sneaked past Concacaf minnows such as the Dominican Republic and Dominica through one-goal margins. As arguably the weakest team in their group — and with a worrisome Copa América past that features six losses in six games — one can argue that Jamaica may not have enough to even get out of the group stage.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Sure, Jamaica could be seen as the worst in their group, but on the other hand, the reality is that there isn’t a significant difference between all four teams. If they can at least steal a point from Mexico in their first game, and if Nicholson continues his impressive form, there’s no reason they can’t qualify for the knockout round. That said, there are plenty of questions regarding their roster, likely leaving them at third or fourth in Group B. — Cesar Hernandez
Nickname:El Tri (The Tricolor) FIFA rank: 14 Manager: Jaime Lozano Record in past 12 months: 11W-4D-8L Group stage fixtures: Jamaica (Saturday, 9 p.m. ET); Venezuela (June 26, 9 p.m. ET); Ecuador (June 30, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+1200
Can’t-miss star: Edson Álvarez. To quote West Ham supporters: “Midfield maestro, from Mexico, Edson ole ole ole.” For club and country, Alvarez is a rock in the heart of the XI, often doing the dirty work with crucial interventions and crunching tackles that stop opposition. At his best, the player is capable of producing defensive midfield masterclasses with his aggressive work rate and stamina.
Breakout candidate: Santiago Giménez. Recently finishing the Eredivisie season with 23 goals, the young Feyenoord striker is a dark horse candidate for Copa América’s Golden Boot award. More than just a sturdy goal scorer with surprising acceleration, the 23-year-old is also an excellent passer in the final third. Could a performance lead to a summer move to a bigger club?
Why they won’t win it all: With an eye toward the 2026 World Cup, Mexico are currently in the middle of a generational change. When the tournament kicks off, many fans will be surprised to learn that high-profile veterans such as Hirving Lozano, Guillermo Ochoa and Raúl Jiménez were left off of the roster. During part of that process, the latest losses against Uruguay and Brazil have further strengthened the notion that head coach Jaime “Jimmy” Lozano and his men are still a work in progress.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Mexico should finish in the top two of their group, especially with their status as the (slight) favorites among the four. Assuming no early hiccups and that a backup goalkeeper is able to fill the immense gloves left by Ochoa, Mexico’s knockout round fate probably will be decided by if/when they potentially meet Argentina. If they meet in the quarters or semis, that’s likely where they’ll exit. No Argentina matchup? It then wouldn’t be a stretch to see them as finalists. If Alvarez and Gimenez live up to their expectations, Mexico could make a deep run. — Hernandez
Nickname:La Vinotinto (The Wine Red) FIFA rank: 54 Manager: Fernando Batista Record in past 12 months: 4W-4D-3L Group stage fixtures: Ecuador (Saturday, 6 p.m. ET); Mexico (June 26, 9 p.m. ET); Jamaica (June 30, 8 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+6600
Can’t-miss star: Salomón Rondón. The tragedy of the Qatar World Cup qualifiers was that Rondon was either in China or England, and regulations stopped him going home during the COVID pandemic. Now their big centre-forward and the reference point of the attack is available, and he will want to use this Copa to show that he is not in physical decline.
Breakout candidate: Kervin Andrade. There are high hopes of 19-year-old attacking midfielder Andrade, a squat little figure with close control and a rocket shot who is making a good impression in Brazil with Fortaleza. He was called up this year to the Venezuela squad and is likely to be gently introduced during the course of the tournament.
Why they won’t win it all: Venezuela can cause problems to stronger sides, but they run into the problem of the underdog — if they charge forward, their defensive unit can look vulnerable, but hanging back can leave them too timid and passive. It is not an easy balance for them to strike, and there would seem to be almost no chance of them finding the right blend over the course of six games. They are the only side in the competition who have yet to play in a World Cup, and a Venezuelan triumph on July 14 would be one of the biggest shocks in Copa history.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: For Venezuela, everything is geared around qualifying for the 2026 World Cup and making their World Cup debut. The 1-1 draw away to Brazil last October was a massive morale boost, and Argentine coach Fernando Batista will be delighted that his side have conceded just three goals in the six qualifying rounds. The priority in this Copa, then, is to emerge with faith intact. There are no real hopes of winning, and even a repeat of 2011’s semifinal would be seen as a bonus. A quarterfinal would be nice, but the most important thing is that Venezuela emerge from the competition confident that they will be back in North America two years from now. — Vickery
Nickname:La Verde (The Green) FIFA rank: 85 Manager: Antônio Carlos Zago Record in past 12 months: 2W-1D-11L Group stage fixtures: U.S. (Sunday, 6 p.m. ET); Uruguay (June 27, 9 p.m. ET); Panama (July 1, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+15000
Can’t-miss star: Ramiro Vaca. He moved back home after failing to make much of an impression in Belgium with Beerschot, but he is an important player in the national team, bringing quality to the midfield with his range of passes, his well-struck shots and his set pieces. Vaca turns 25 during the competition.
Breakout candidate: Diego Medina. He made a good impression at the start of the year in the South American Under-23 championships as an aggressive and athletic right-back. He is happy in the wing-back role if Bolívia go with a back three, and will look to consolidate his place in the side during the Copa.
Why they won’t win it all: Thirty years ago, Bolívia went to the U.S. for the World Cup with a generation of talent that they have been utterly unable to replace. The recent retirement from international football of all-time top scorer Marcelo Martins Moreno has worsened matters still further. After last week’s 3-1 defeat to Ecuador, a local newspaper delivered a damning verdict, pointing out three areas where the team urgently needs to improve: defending, retaining possession and setting up chances.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Bolívia are frequently offered up to the hosts in the opening game in a move aimed to get the tournament off to a good start. Often they have refused to follow the script, rising to the occasion and holding out for a draw. But hopes are not high this time. There was optimism a year back, after some good results in friendlies, but all that was instantly swept away when World Cup qualification got underway. Following a disastrous start, Argentine coach Gustavo Costas gave way to Brazil’s Antonio Carlos Zago, without much improvement. Qualification for the 2026 World Cup, however, is still possible — Bolívia always look to pick up points at the extreme altitude of La Paz. Priority in this Copa is for a young side to emerge from the competition with self-esteem intact. — Vickery
Nickname:La Marea Roja (The Red Tide) FIFA rank: 45 Manager: Thomas Christiansen Record in past 12 months: 14W-2D-6L Group stage fixtures: Uruguay (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET); USA (June 27, 6 p.m. ET); Bolívia (July 1, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+15000
Can’t-miss star: Michael Murillo. The pacey Marseille fullback will be a handful for opponents who will have to deal with his take-ons and influence in the attacking third. Excellent in the air and also capable of finding the back of the net, Murillo is set to be one of the leaders on either end of the pitch.
Breakout candidate: Adalberto Carrasquilla. After earning the MVP award for 2023’s Concacaf Gold Cup, can Carrasquilla gain even higher praise at the Copa América? Well-rounded in the midfield but also a threat when carrying the ball forward, the Houston Dynamo player will easily be one to watch. It wouldn’t be a surprise if a European team took a chance on the 25-year-old after the tournament.
Why they won’t win it all: Credit should be given to the gradual improvements made by manager Thomas Christiansen. The coach and his players punched above their weight with a spot at the 2023 Gold Cup final and earned a respectable place within the top four of the 2023-24 Concacaf Nations League. But against CONMEBOL opponents? That’s a tough ask, and Christiansen doesn’t have the depth of talent needed to go far — let alone possibly making it out of the group stage.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Stranger things have happened in tournament soccer, but there aren’t very many scenarios in which the U.S. and Uruguay aren’t in the top two of Group C. Due to the luck of the draw, Panama just happen to be in a group with two teams that are in the conversation of dark horses.
Third or fourth in their group is the expectation, but if they can get at least one surprise result vs the U.S. or Uruguay, Panama might have an unexpected fighting chance to continue their run when they close out the group stage vs. a questionable Bolívia. — Hernandez
Nickname:La Celeste (The Sky Blue) FIFA rank: 15 Manager: Marcelo Bielsa Record in past 12 months: 8W-3D-2L Group stage fixtures: Panama (Sunday, 9 p.m. ET); Bolívia (June 27, 9 p.m. ET); USA (July 1, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+500
Can’t-miss star: Federico Valverde. He is the often overlooked quiet force of the Real Madrid team, balancing out the side with his spirit of sacrifice and extraordinary lung power. With Uruguay, he is free to shout louder. His midfield dynamism is at the heart of the side, working box to box and unleashing his ferocious shots.
Breakout candidate: Facundo Pellistri. Loaned out first to Alaves and then to Granada, Pellistri has been strangely neglected by Manchester United but has enjoyed a fine time with Uruguay. The 22-year-old might have been their most effective attacking player in the Qatar World Cup as a pacy right winger with the vision of a playmaker.
Why they won’t win it all: Bielsa’s football is notoriously high tempo and high energy. Can the team maintain the required intensity at the end of the European season? This could be especially difficult in the intense summer heat of some of the Copa venues. As Leeds United fans will recall, when the plan goes wrong, a Bielsa team can leave itself extremely open, and in the toughest half of the draw, where there is less margin for error, this could be a problem.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: It is easy to see why Bielsa was attracted to the Uruguay job. With the old generation leaving the scene after Qatar, he had a dynamic new generation to work with; an impressive spine of Ronald Araújo, Jose Gimenez, Manuel Ugarte, Valverde and Darwin Núñez, plus the wingers Uruguay usually produces and Bielsa loves so much. They ended last year as South America’s in-form side, comfortably beating Brazil and winning away to Argentina, and the recent destruction of Mexico has merely confirmed that impression. No one will relish facing them — and 100 years after Uruguay’s historic Olympic gold medal, they are candidates for a title once more. –– Vickery
Nickname: Stars & Stripes FIFA rank: 11 Manager: Gregg Berhalter Record in past 12 months: 11W-2D-5L Group stage fixtures: Bolívia (Sunday, 6 p.m. ET); Panama (June 27, 6 p.m. ET); Uruguay (July 1, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+1200
Can’t-miss star: Christian Pulisic. Pulisic has long been the face of the USMNT, and he largely delivered at the 2022 World Cup, scoring the game winner against Iran that put the U.S. through to the knockout stages. Now he is coming off arguably his best club season, having scored 12 goals and added eight assists for AC Milan.
Breakout candidate: Giovanni Reyna. Reyna is a known commodity among U.S. fans, but his club career has stalled due to a combination of injury and poor form. He has shined in recent competitions with the U.S., however, and was the Player of the Tournament at the Concacaf Nations League this past March. The Copa is a big step up, though. If the U.S. do make a deep run, they’ll need Reyna at his best playing in an attacking midfield role and providing the chance creation the team needs.
Why they won’t win it all: The 2022 World Cup revealed that the U.S. struggled mightily with chance creation, finishing in the bottom half in xG both among teams that reached the knockout rounds (tied for 12th) and for the tournament as a whole (23rd out of 32). Have the U.S. improved since then? Tough to say. Their only match since then against a non-Concacaf team ranked 50th or higher was a 3-1 home loss to Germany in which the visitors were far superior. Until the U.S. deliver against a top opponent, there will be doubts that their attack is good enough to push the tournament hosts into the elite.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: The U.S. have gone about managing expectations for the Copa in an odd way, talking about the opportunity in front of them while at the same time speaking of how the World Cup is the bigger priority. In a group featuring Bolívia, Panama and Uruguay, the U.S. will be expected to progress. Elimination in the group stage would be looked upon — justifiably — as a colossal failure, and put manager Berhalter’s status under threat. If the U.S. do progress, a likely matchup with Brazil or Colombia awaits in the quarterfinals, where the USMNT would be an underdog against either side. The U.S. recently were thrashed 5-1 by Colombia before securing a credible 1-1 draw against Brazil. Getting past either of those teams seems beyond the U.S. at the moment. The play of Reyna and oft-injured holding midfielder Tyler Adams will be critical to the U.S. team’s chances. — Carlisle
Why Gomez is preaching caution for USMNT against South American teams
Herculez Gomez warns the USMNT not to expect easy games against South American teams going into Copa America.
Nickname:Seleção Canarinha (Canary Squad) FIFA rank: 5 Manager: Dorival Júnior Record in past 12 months: 5W-3D-4L Group stage fixtures: Costa Rica (Monday, 9 p.m. ET); Paraguay (June 28, 9 p.m. ET); Colombia (July 2, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+225
Can’t-miss star: Vinícius Júnior. In the Qatar World Cup, Vinicius was the newcomer who had only recently forced his way into the team. Things have changed. He is now Brazil’s most dangerous attacking player, and to his stunning wing play he has added the capacity to operate more centrally. A good tournament could seal the Ballon D’Or this year.
Breakout candidate: Endrick. The stocky, left-footed Endrick, who turns 18 in July, came off the bench in three consecutive games this year to score three goals, all of them important, all of them in different styles. The talent of the Real Madrid-bound prodigy is such that everyone will want to see how he gets on in his debut tournament.
Why they won’t win it all: After a disastrous 2023 for the team, new coach Dorival Junior is attempting to steady the ship. The Copa is his competitive debut, and on the evidence of the first four friendlies, the team have yet to recover the defensive solidity that was a hallmark of the 2016-2022 Tite era. With Brazil in by far the most difficult half of the draw, they will surely be tested as they go through the competition, and it will be fascinating to find out how a young side responds under pressure.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: After winning four Copas in five between 1997 and 2007, Brazil have won only one of the past five — and that was on home soil. Even so, they are contenders for this title. In full flow they can be an exhilarating sight, and if Vini Junior, Rodrygo and company can be well backed up by the likes of Alisson, Marquinhos and Bruno Guimarães, then they will take some stopping. The prospect of a semifinal against Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay is deliciously enticing. Whatever happens, Brazil should emerge from the tournament having put 2023 behind them and ready to put a swift end to any doubts about their presence in the next World Cup. — Vickery
Nickname:Los Cafeteros (The Coffeemakers) FIFA rank: 12 Manager: Néstor Lorenzo Record in past 12 months: 11W-3D-0L Group stage fixtures: Paraguay (Monday, 6 p.m. ET); Costa Rica (June 28, 6 p.m. ET); Brazil (July 2, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+1000
Can’t-miss star: Luis Díaz. The Liverpool winger is now the undisputed king of the team, especially after those two goals that brought a first ever World Cup qualification win over Brazil last November, just days after his father had been freed from a kidnap. He’ll cut in from the left and occasionally wander across the attacking line.
Breakout candidate: Richard Ríos. He was an unknown playing futsal in Brazil where he was discovered and transformed into a dynamic part of the Palmeiras midfield that won last year’s league title. The 24-year-old was successfully introduced to the national team this year and highlighted his value with a first goal for Colombia in the 5-1 rout of the USA.
Why they won’t win it all: The long unbeaten run under coach Nestor Lorenzo is a cause for concern for anyone who has followed the history of the Colombian national team. Their fans will be out in force, and expectations are high, but dealing with euphoria is vital in tournament football, and this has often been a problem. Older supporters will recall that 30 years ago Colombia went to the World Cup in the USA on a run of one defeat in 33 games — and that story ended in tragedy with a group stage exit. In by far the more difficult half of the draw, there are plenty of opportunities for their Copa campaign to go wrong.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: Lorenzo was an inspired choice to coach the side. The Argentine was a long-term assistant to Jose Pekerman, who took Colombia to the World Cups of 2014 and ’18, and has an undoubted flair for the top job. Lorenzo’s teams is well constructed, with attacker James Rodríguez free to float in a side that is otherwise highly structured. They know where they seek to win the ball, either sitting deep with their lines compact or pressing high. A possible problem — and here the 5-1 win over the USA can be deceptive — is a lack of goals. It was the reason they missed the Qatar World Cup, and although they are off to a sound start in the 2026 qualifiers they have only six goals in six games. But the semifinals certainly look like a realistic target. — Vickery
Nickname:Los Ticos (The Ticos) FIFA rank: 52 Manager: Gustavo Alfaro Record in past 12 months: 7W-2D-8L Group stage fixtures: Brazil (Monday, 9 p.m. ET); Colombia (June 28, 6 p.m. ET); Paraguay (July 2, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+8000
Can’t-miss star: Francisco Calvo. No Keylor Navas? No problem. Following the retirement of the iconic goalkeeper, the captain’s armband has been in safe hands with Calvo in June’s wins in World Cup qualifiers. Forceful in his defensive abilities but also with an eye for long passes, the presence of the FC Juarez defender will be highly significant this summer.
Breakout candidate: Brandon Aguilera. Costa Rica’s latest No. 10 wasn’t a veteran superstar, but instead, a versatile 20-year-old Nottingham Forest player who just wrapped up a short League One loan. Earning an assist in his last Costa Rica appearance, the midfielder still has much to prove and isn’t a guaranteed starter, but there’s a reason he made his Premier League debut in January.
Why they won’t win it all: Aguilera is a young player to keep an eye on, as is Manfred Ugalde up top, but it’s difficult to see the two players and their teammates going far without the insurance plan of Navas in net. The goalkeeper was a literal savior between the sticks, and while Costa Rica’s roster can likely hold their own without Navas against Concacaf opposition, the same can’t be said when you throw CONMEBOL into the mix as well.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: World Cup qualifying is off to a great start and they have some future stars to look forward to, and yet, at the Copa América, Costa Rica face the unenviable task of trying to halt Brazil and Colombia in Group D. To make matters more difficult, those will be their first two opponents, possibly leaving them with a consolation match against Paraguay to close out the group stage. The consensus is that Costa Rica will suffer an early exit, although this is a good time to remind everyone that we just surpassed the 10-year anniversary of a similar Group D conversation at the 2014 World Cup when Costa Rica finished first ahead of Uruguay, Italy and England. — Hernandez
Nickname:Albirroja (The White and Red) FIFA rank: 56 Manager: Daniel Garnero Record in past 12 months: 3W-4D-4L Group stage fixtures: Colombia (Monday, 6 p.m. ET); Brazil (June 28, 9 p.m. ET); Costa Rica (July 2, 9 p.m. ET) ESPN BET odds to win Copa 2024:+6600
Can’t-miss star: Miguel Almiron. With league titles in Paraguay, Argentina and the USA plus more than five seasons in the Premier League, Almiron is Paraguay’s main star. But at age 30, just two goals in competitive games for his country is a disappointing return. Might this be the moment when his speed and left foot make an impression?
Breakout candidate: Julio Enciso. He made his Paraguay debut in the last Copa shortly after his 17th birthday, but has yet to make much of an impact. The Brighton striker picked up an injury and missed all of last year’s World Cup qualifiers. Paraguay are desperate for him to return and kick start his international career.
Why they won’t win it all: Morale is on the floor, as coach Garnero confessed after last week’s 3-0 loss to Chile. Garnero replaced fellow Argentine Guillermo Barros Schelotto after a poor start to the World Cup qualification campaign, but things have yet to improve. In the six rounds, Paraguay have managed just one goal. The heyday of Roque Santa Cruz aside, a lack of firepower has been a frequent Paraguayan problem — made worse by the impression that the current defensive unit is not as solid as some in the country’s past.
Realistic chances at Copa 2024: With Colombia first up followed by Brazil, the fixtures have not been kind to Paraguay. Coach Garnero came in full of attacking intentions, but it could be that his team’s best bet is to defend deep and rely on traditional virtues of resilience. This is an approach better suited to tournaments than to the league format of World Cup qualification. Back in 2011, for example, Paraguay made it all the way to the final of the Copa without winning a single game and going through on penalties. Paraguay’s dogged tradition means that they should never be underestimated, but it would be a surprise if they get out of the group. — Vickery
(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports illustration)
Welcome to Copa América 2024, the tournament that’s a bigger deal than it seems
Henry Bushnell Senior reporter Tue, Jun 18, 2024, 12:00 PM EDT·8 min read The 2024 Copa América — a mini-World Cup for the Western Hemisphere — kicks off Thursday in the United States. It will stretch from coast to coast, capturing TV audiences throughout the Americas. It will feature megastars, like Lionel Messi, plus a vibrant array of Latino flair.One of its core questions, though, is: Will casual fans in the host country care?Millions of Mexican Americans and Colombian Americans, of Argentine Americans and Venezuelan Americans, will joyously erupt for the Copa América. This, many of them know, is arguably the most competitive men’s international soccer tournament in the four-year interim between World Cups.But the 2024 Copa América, specifically, is a novelty in a country mostly unfamiliar with it.
Here, then, is an attempt to familiarize you — with the basics, the narratives, the problems, and the driving forces behind this one-of-a-kind event.
What is Copa América?
Copa América is the South American men’s soccer championship, a century-old competition among the continent’s 10 national teams (and often others).
Its cadence, size and format have varied over the years. Now, it’s a quadrennial tournament much like the European Championship (Euros), played in even-year summers between men’s World Cups.
It typically features 12 teams, with two invited from other continents. But in 2024, it will temporarily expand to 16. More on that below.
Is Copa América a big deal?
In South America, perhaps the planet’s most soccer-crazed continent, it’s a massive deal. It’s historic, prestigious, anticipated, fiercely contested and festive. For years, it was massive enough to crush Messi — before finally liberating him in 2021.
Outside the Americas, it’s a bit less so. Its global footprint is dwarfed by its European equivalent, the Euros. That, however, is largely due to western Europe’s economic might — and its willingness/eagerness to commercialize and market the sport.
At their core, the two tournaments are comparable. They’re soccer’s biggest outside the World Cup — the toughest to win, the most lucrative, the most acclaimed. And this year’s Copa América, in some ways, is even bigger.
How and why is this Copa América different? And who’s in it?
Struggling to find a satisfactory South American host, CONMEBOL — the 10-member South American soccer confederation — struck an agreement with CONCACAF, its North and Central American counterpart.
CONCACAF would help organize the 2024 edition in the United States; in return, it would get six spots in a 16-team field.
Christian Pulisic and the USMNT will compete against some of the powerhouses of South American soccer in the 2024 Copa América. (Mark Thorstenson/ISI Photos/USSF via Getty Images)
Wait, so why is the 2024 Copa América in the U.S.?
Copa América hosting duties typically rotate from one South American nation to the next — from 1989-2011, for example, each of CONMEBOL’s 10 members hosted once.
In recent years, though, the COVID-19 pandemic and instability have disrupted the rotation, and left organizers scrambling for stand-ins — first Brazil, and now the U.S.
In 2024, it was supposed to be Ecuador’s turn. But Ecuador, citing security and infrastructure concerns, relinquished the responsibility. “We’re not ready to organize the Copa América,” said Francisco Egas, the president of its soccer federation, in November 2022. So, with less than two years to go, CONMEBOL did not know where its 2024 championship would be played.
Brazil, its biggest, richest and most capable deputy, seemed willing and able to host. But Brazil had also hosted the previous two Copa Américas — first in 2019, in line with the standard rotation; and then in 2021 when Colombia and Argentina pulled out last-minute.
So, pushed by necessity but also pulled by financial and political benefits, CONMEBOL leaders turned to the States. Conversations accelerated at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. An agreement was reached and announced in early 2023.
Hasn’t there already been a Copa América in the U.S.?
Yep, but that one was even more novel. It was a one-off “Centenario” edition in 2016. It was not moved to the U.S.; rather, it was essentially created by the U.S. Soccer Federation, in partnership with CONMEBOL, one year after the regularly scheduled 2015 Copa América, as a cash-grab and opportunity to pit the U.S. men’s national team against elite opponents.
Practically, though, the 2016 and 2024 tournaments will be very similar. Same format; six of the same host cities; 15 of the same 16 teams.
How did that 2016 Copa América Centenario go?
It was fairly successful. On the field, Chile beat Argentina in a glamorous but brutal final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. In the stands, 1.48 million tickets were sold, an average of roughly 46,000 per game. In total, the event generated a “one-off profit of around $80 million” for U.S. Soccer, its then-vice president, Carlos Cordeiro, said a few years later.
In South America, fans always get excited about any Copa América, but some are unhappy that their crown jewel has been shipped off to North America again.
In North America, those who understand the gravity and importance of the tournament seem excited; but many non-Latinos in and around the American soccer community feel that the tournament has been poorly promoted and might fail to break through a crowded U.S. sports scene.
CONMEBOL’s commercial chief, Juan Emilio Roa, told Yahoo Sports that an estimated 25-30% of match-going fans would be ones traveling from South America; most of the rest will be U.S. residents.
How are Copa América ticket sales going?
Roa told Yahoo Sports on June 7 that just over 1 million tickets had been sold — a little more than 31,000 per game. That’s around 50% of capacity across all games, most of which will be played at NFL stadiums.
Naturally, matches featuring teams like Argentina and Mexico are close to or already sold-out; others, though, could be pretty empty.
Argentina, the defending 2022 World Cup and 2021 Copa América champions, are the current favorites to win this year’s tournament. (Michael Miller/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
One reason that roughly 50% of tickets remain unclaimed is that the prices, to many, are obscene. A single upper-deck ticket for Argentina’s opener against Canada, in the second-to-last row of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, costs $307 at the time of writing. Even for Peru-Chile at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the following day, a standard 200-level ticket costs $208. The average tournament-wide ticket price, according to Vivid Seats, is $283.
Why are tickets so expensive?
It’s unclear who, exactly, is to blame for the obscene prices.
Roa confirmed that they are based on the “dynamic pricing” model often utilized by American ticket brokers such as Ticketmaster and SeatGeek.
For a standard Copa América in South America, CONMEBOL would have complete control over all aspects of the matchday experience, including ticketing. But here, they have had to work with a variety of interested (and capitalistic) parties stadium-by-stadium, city-by-city. Rather than sell tickets on a single platform, they have essentially delegated that task to each venue — some of which use Ticketmaster, some of which use SeatGeek.
The complexities, and the somewhat last-minute nature of all these arrangements, have been challenges, and presumably reasons that tickets did not go on sale until late February.
When and where are the games?
They’re scattered across the U.S., in 14 different cities, with each hosting no more than three games.
Some games, certainly in the knockout rounds, should be great. Others, between prideful but less-prominent teams stuck in cavernous NFL stadiums, will feel a bit soulless.
The tournament as a whole will probably struggle to differentiate itself from all the other high-level soccer being played in the United States this decade. But for CONMEBOL, financially, it will almost surely be successful.
“The North American market is an amazing market, in terms of everything — in terms of viewerships, in terms of sponsorship, in terms of exposure,” Roa said. The inclusion of Mexico’s national team has likely allowed CONMEBOL to tap into many millions more dollars.
“And for sure, having Argentina and Leo Messi play in this Copa America … increased the interest around the world,” Roa added.
“We received calls and emails and contacts through our [commercial] agency, directly to CONMEBOL, from all around the world, como nunca antes, like never before,” Roa said. “Because, obviously, they have interests in the States. And all the things that happen in the States — it takes another dimension.”
The Summer of soccer starts today in Germany. England comes in as co-favorites along with Spain. Germany have struggled in Cup play – and are looking to use their home status to get them back in. Of course Italy won the last Euro’s then didn’t qualify for the World Cup – so they will be looking for Redemption as well. Tons of stories about the games – but bottom line is we have soccer to watch at 9, 12 noon, & 3 pm for the next month. Along with Copa America starting Thurs – giving us a couple of games each night. Summer of Soccer is here – enjoy. I am going to give my official picks next week. Sorry got bogged down this week.
US Men tie Brazil 1-1 – Starts Copa America next Sun vs Bolivia 6 pm
What a difference a game makes –after a woeful showing vs Colombia last weekend – the US tightened up and played Brazil to a wonderful 1-1 tie on Orlando in front of 60K –70% Brazil fans. GK Matt Turner made 11 saves – trailing only Howard’s 15 saves in the World Cup vs Belgium for most saves in a game. Honestly though while Brazil out possessed and outshot us – the US should have won this game. Brazil’s GK Alisson saved the day when he stonewalled both Pulisic and later Aaronson in the final minutes. (full highlights) The US did hold on for the last 15 minutes – but again – the US could have won this one. The US has only beaten Brazil 1 time in 18 tries – and this is the first tie. I thought the defense really stood out as Robinson, Ream, and Scally we fantastic. Remember this group only gave up 2 goals vs Colombia – and this time Turner played very well – vs struggling vs Colombia. I thought the front line was also strong – of course Pulisic was legendary as normal and playing the entire game here’s Pulisic’s masterful Free Kick Goal – showed just how much of a difference he can make. I like Pepi up front but still think Haji Wright should be our #9 in Copa. The Berhalter bashers are going to have to wait another few weeks as the team he put out there as marvelous vs Brazil. We’ll see how he manages Copa – a tourney we really need to get to the Final 4 of. Speaking of Copa here’s the Roster for Copa with starts Thurs night with the US playing Sat at 6 pm vs Bolivia.
The 26-player Copa América roster:
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City), Sean Johnson (Toronto FC), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest)
DEFENDERS (9): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic FC), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo), Mark McKenzie (Genk), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham FC), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Tyler Adams (Bournemouth), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Nottingham Forest), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven)
FORWARDS (7): Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin), Folarin Balogun (Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Tim Weah (Juventus), Haji Wright (Coventry City)
Indy 11 Bring 11 game unbeaten streak home vs San Antonio this Sat Night at the Mike
The Boys in Blue closed out a two-match road trip Sunday night with a win against Birmingham Legion FC. Indy sits at 8-4-2 in third place in the Eastern Conference and return home to host San Antonio FC this Saturday, June 15 at the Mike. Single-game tickets are available for all matches via Ticketmaster. Great Story about Carmel Dad’s Club’s own Cam Lindley and his journey back to Indy 11.
Good luck to those players representing Indiana ODP this weekend in Cincy — especially our Goalkeeper’s
Carmel High Girls Soccer Camp July 22-25
2-4:30 pm @ Murray Stadium Register Here contact fdixon@ccs.k1.in.us for more info
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USMNT’s Copa América prep ends with a step in the right direction
Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent ESPN Jun 13, 2024, 07:00 AM ET
ORLANDO, Florida — As United States men’s national team goalkeeper Matt Turner prepared to answer questions in the postmatch mixed zone Wednesday, he found himself face-to-face with United States legend Kasey Keller. The former USMNT keeper offered up his congratulations to Turner for the latter’s heroics in the 1-1 draw against Brazil.After Keller had departed, Turner remarked, “That was cool. What a guy.”It was fitting that the two should exchange a quick word, as they now share the rare distinction of avoiding defeat against Brazil. It was Keller’s stellar performance against the Seleção back in the semifinals of the 1998 Gold Cup that almost single-handedly led the U.S. to a 1-0 win. The stunned look on the face of Brazilian World Cup winner Romario, as Keller made save after save, remains etched in the memory.
On Wednesday, it was Turner’s opportunity to shine. To be clear, it wasn’t perfect. Turner’s wayward pass in the 17th minute helped set the table for Rodrygo to put Brazil in the lead. But Turner righted himself, delivering 10 saves, including a blast from Rodrygo in the 74th minute. The fact that the U.S.’s record against Brazil now stands at 1-18-1 reveals just how uncommon such a result is.Contrast this performance with that of last Saturday against Colombia, one in which the U.S. were shellacked 5-1. Turner seemed overwhelmed at times, and given the way that he has struggled for minutes and form while at Nottingham Forest this season, concern was starting to mount that he might not be the man to start in goal for the U.S. For the moment, he has quieted those doubts.
“It’s been a tough couple of months for me personally on the pitch,” he said. “So to have the opportunity to be out here again and feel the trust that my teammates have in me and my coaches have in me here, it’s huge. It speaks volumes to me. So I was grateful to be able to perform well tonight. It won’t always be like that, but I think you are only as good as the guys around you.”Turner’s performance in large part mirrored that of the team; there were blemishes, but it was a huge improvement on last Saturday, one replete with increased resolve and execution. Christian Pulisic delivered the equalizer with a powerful free kick in the 26th minute, and he came agonizingly close to winning the match in the 68th minute only to be thwarted by Brazil keeper Alisson. Brenden Aaronson suffered the same fate after being set up by Pulisic 15 minutes later. The defense, much maligned after the Colombia debacle, bent plenty in the face of attackers like Vinícius Júnior and Raphinha, but it held firm.The teamwide eagerness to do the dirty work provided the backbone to earn a most unlikely result.
“I think it was just a willingness to defend, get numbers behind the ball in transition, getting numbers back much [quicker], just a lot smarter and not losing balls in the wrong areas and just giving them easy opportunities,” Pulisic said. “And yeah, just a team spirit of willingness to also suffer at times and then find our chances. So, definitely a big step in the right direction.”
Herculez Gomez and Sebastian Salazar debate the biggest storylines and break down the best highlights that soccer in the Americas has to offer. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only)The U.S. also used its collective brain as well. The team, as well as manager Gregg Berhalter, has been criticized for at times wanting to play the ball out of the back at all costs, and that predictability — or stubbornness — worked against it in the Colombia match. On Wednesday, there was more of a willingness to hit long passes and fight for second balls, especially from goal kicks.”I think our biggest takeaway from the game on the weekend was that sometimes you switch up from the game plan. You can’t just be robots out there,” defender Chris Richards said. “You have to have a feel for the game. And so I think that’s what we did tonight, with mixing it up and rather than just playing out the whole time. Sometimes you had to go direct and it’s OK to reset.”International tournaments, and the friendlies that precede them, are invitations to become a prisoner of the moment. The U.S. isn’t quite as terrible as it was against Colombia. It’s also dangerous to think that a draw against Brazil means everything is sweetness and light. The U.S. midfield remains a work in progress.One should also consider the U.S. team’s rather curious history under Berhalter where it has delivered some dreadful performances ahead of major tournaments. In 2019, prior to that year’s Gold Cup, the U.S. lost preparation games to Jamaica and Venezuela, the latter by a 3-0 scoreline. Prior to the 2022 World Cup, there was a heavy 3-0 defeat to Japan, which was followed by a dour 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia. In both cases the U.S. went on to have successful tournaments. Granted, it’s not a guarantee of anything, which might explain Berhalter’s muted reaction to this match, even as he lauded his side’s teamwork and intensity. “We feel like we made a little step. It’s not a huge step, but it’s a little step to be able to play against an amazingly talented Brazil team and bend but not break,” he said.
It would be a stretch to say the U.S. is operating at its peak, but there is certainly a sense of increased momentum about the group that wasn’t there following the Colombia result. And the manner of the result against Brazil provides some hope. There was a time when the U.S. was notoriously difficult to play against. That trait hasn’t shown itself with the same level of consistency in the last decade or so. That it did so on this evening counts as a positive development. It will be needed in the coming weeks.Now the Copa America awaits. Group C, in which the U.S. will face Bolívia, Panama and Uruguay, ought to be navigable. But the U.S. isn’t in the kind of position where it can just turn up and expect to get results. That does seem to be one of the primary takeaways from these last two friendlies. It’s a lesson that shouldn’t need reinforcing given this team’s level of experience, but better for it to happen now than in the actual Copa itself. For now, the U.S. can enjoy a rare result against one of the world’s best.As Berhalter said, “It’s a good end to preparation camp. We’re ready for Copa America.”
USMNT 2024 Copa America squad: Every player on the roster analyzed
You’re tired of hearing this by now, but it’s still true: this is a young and relatively inexperienced United States men’s national team. Of the 26 players Gregg Berhalter called in for the Copa América, only three have appeared in at least 50 senior international matches. Another trio has crested the 40 cap mark, while 12 players enter the tournament with fewer than 20 caps.
However, this isn’t the byproduct of a youth movement like Mexico’s. The program is saving plenty of promising players 23 years old or younger for the Olympics in Paris, including Kevin Paredes, Bryan Reynolds and Gianluca Busio. The U.S. also enters Copa América in relatively good health, though its one major absence, Sergiño Dest, will force Berhalter into some tough decisions.
The tune-up friendlies showed two different sides of this team: being played off the field in the opener against Colombia, then staying resolute to play Brazil to an evenly matched draw days later. We don’t quite know what to expect from this team, but that’s the beauty of a major international competition: the element of unpredictability. Playing on home soil can’t hurt, either.
Here are the 26 players who will represent the United States as they look to match or exceed their semifinal finish in the 2016 Copa América Centenario.
Players are listed in alphabetical order by position. Ages and cap totals as of June 13, 2024
A positional logjam kept Nottingham Forest from registering Horvath for the Premier League, leaving him without a place to play until a January move to Cardiff City. He immediately became the Bluebirds’ starter, performing commensurate to league average as Cardiff finished 12th in the Championship.
Although his club career has become fairly nomadic, Horvath has been steady when called upon by his national team. Among his nine appearances was a crucial shift from the bench in the 2021 Nations League final, when a handful of saves (including a stifled penalty kick in extra time) allowed the United States to win the competition’s inaugural installment. A capable deputy, Horvath won’t be daunted if called upon for a big moment this summer.
For decades, the nation’s goalkeeper pool was among its strongest. A litany of Premier League starters stole the headlines. Still, another proud tradition is that of the veteran third-stringer — an experienced netminder who provides additional wisdom even if their number is seldom called.
Like Marcus Hahnemann and Nick Rimando before him, Johnson has been Berhalter’s trusted man; this summer, he’ll reprise his role from the 2022 World Cup. It’s a spot he had to earn, fighting off the emergence of Drake Callender. Amidst a bounce-back second season with Toronto FC, the 35-year-old remains a vital part of the locker room’s leadership corps.
Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest) — 41 caps, 29 years old
What seemed like a dream move last summer for Matt Turner quickly devolved into a nightmare. Signed from Arsenal to be Forest’s starter, the club kept Turner busy early and often. The club’s frenetic nature in the transfer market took over. They signed yet another international goalkeeper, Matz Sels, following previous moves for Turner, Odysseas Vlachodimos and Keylor Navas in successive windows. By March, Forest had dropped Turner to the bench.
Turner has had some questionable missed saves, particularly a few low-likelihood shots through his legs, but he remains the USMNT’s best shot-stopper by some margin. Questions about his distribution persist, but he’s organized the defense better than anyone in the role since Tim Howard.
It can be tough to assess players on Celtic and Rangers given their dueling dominance in Scotland. Since joining Celtic in 2021, Carter-Vickers has actualized the promise that made him a hot prospect early in his career. Still, it hasn’t made him a regular starter for the USMNT. He looks good in defense and possession, but nearly everyone does with a perennial champion.
Under Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou, Celtic has been as possession-dominant as any team in Europe. Carter-Vickers plays plenty of short passes that pad his completion rate, but his line-breakers and diagonals give the attack a jolt. Those will be vital for the U.S. to progress upfield this summer, while his defending in the sky (70.6% aerial win rate) and on the ground (13% dribble-past rate, among Scotland’s best) could position him to retain a starting role for years to come.
After struggling to develop international-caliber left backs for decades, the U.S. is in a relative golden age at the spot. Having represented Denmark in youth international ranks, Lund’s 2023 commitment to the U.S. provides another option that regularly plays in a major European nation.
Lund was initially hyped as a progressive option down the flank, a threat to find space out wide, collect the ball and take off on the dribble. His first season with Serie B side Palermo saw him refine his defensive chops, too, when disrupting opponents’ progress on the ground and winning aerial duels. His future looks bright — and he could be ready for some late minutes to stretch a game this summer.
Historically, a central defender is primarily assessed for their ability to stifle progress. The job description is in the name, after all. While McKenzie isn’t exactly a slouch at defending, he’s on this squad predominantly for his work with the ball at his feet.
McKenzie is among the best ball-progressing defenders in Europe beyond the continent’s top five leagues. He averages 6.3 progressive passes per 90 minutes, ranking in the 96th percentile of fbref’s “Men’s Next 14” leagues. He averaged 5.8 passes into the final third per 90 as Genk finished 5th in Belgium’s Pro League, helping bypass a midfield block. He may not project to start often at the tournament, but if he comes on, expect some scintillating long distribution.
Even on a struggling Nashville side, Moore’s defensive work kept him in contention for this squad. Moore is a proactive tackler, averaging 6.24 “true” tackles per 1,000 opposing touches since the start of 2023. Still, he’s most likely third in this position’s depth chart, behind Scally and an out-of-position attacking alternative like Tim Weah or Weston McKennie.
One aspect of Moore’s game does lend itself well to late-match game states. He offers a dangerous long throw, with the 19th most heaves into the box of any MLS player since the start of 2023. If the U.S. needs a goal late in a game, he could be the man for the moment.
Tim Ream has become a crucial veteran presence in the USMNT’s backline. (Photo by Brad Smith, Getty Images)
In a few years, discussing Ream’s international career will be laden with “what if?” scenarios. The center back didn’t find consistency with the USMNT until 2019, having been frozen out by Jürgen Klinsmann during the 2014 World Cup cycle. In 2022, he anchored the backline at the World Cup, with his defending and passing acumen garnering praise from his teammates and Pep Guardiola alike.
Father Time remains undefeated, however, and Ream played just once after mid-February. That felt like a ceremonial sendoff in Fulham’s season finale at Craven Cottage against relegated Luton Town. The lack of recent involvement adds rust to the squad’s most senior member, though starts in both tune-up friendlies suggest he’ll be relied upon again this summer. Whatever transpires, his leadership will be vital for a youthful USMNT at this tournament, whether he’s a regular in Berhalter’s lineups or not.
Last season was a breakout year for Chris Richards, the first time he logged over 2,000 minutes for a club’s senior team. A rash of injuries and a relegation scare forced Crystal Palace to deploy Richards in midfield, only playing at his primary position for 1,266 of his 2,091 Premier League minutes. However, the time he did spend along the backline showed that he’s coming into his own as a defender.
In the 1,266 minutes, Richards was among the Premier League’s most active aerial duelists and one of the division’s most effective tacklers. Although his rate of winning aerial duels was pedestrian, he capably kept opponents from beating him on the dribble. After missing the 2022 World Cup due to injury, Richards is on track to establish himself as the program’s best defender.
There’s a case to be made that Robinson is already this program’s greatest left back. Granted, that speaks volumes about the lack of options in the role for decades, where the team’s starter was often playing out of position (see: Eddie Lewis, Carlos Bocanegra, DaMarcus Beasley and Fabian Johnson). It’s also a distinction that’s deserved on his own merit. This season, “Jedi” put forth a season that has him in the upper echelon of Premier League left backs.
Robinson is a capable one-on-one defender, leading all Premier League fullbacks, averaging 5.16 interceptions and blocked passes per 1,000 opponent touches. He also created 1.27 chances per 100 touches of the ball, 17th among the league’s 46 full-backs and wing backs who played at least 900 minutes in 2023-24. That creativity and progressive play may be even more vital this summer given Dest’s absence from the opposite flank.
Robinson was in line to start at the 2022 World Cup before a torn Achilles tendon ruled him out for the tournament. He’s worked hard to recover to his previous form, including the spring that makes him a threat in the air on both ends of the pitch.
The data suggests he isn’t quite the same defender as before that injury. He’s less likely to attempt a tackle or interception than before, and his current aerial duel win rate of 66% is his lowest since becoming a regular starter in 2019. He’s also completing fewer long passes than he had before his injury (45.3% this season). He is, however, still acclimating after switching clubs this winter. Nevertheless, he’s a favored figure of Berhalter’s and a program veteran with a point to prove.
Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach) — 11 caps, 21 years old
The projected “next man up” following Dest’s injury, Scally has been a fixture in Mönchengladbach’s lineup for three seasons. He has logged over 6,000 Bundesliga minutes before turning 22, and Scally figures to have a long career ahead of him. The question is if he’s ready to be the top option in a major international tournament — and how closely he’ll be able to replicate Dest’s role. In the USMNT’s tune-up games against Colombia and Brazil, he faced world-class challenges lining up opposite Luis Díaz and Vinicius Jr.
Scally doesn’t carry the same upfield compass that guides Dest’s every decision. Instead, he’s a more traditional full back, prone to slinging effective short passes and prioritizing his defensive responsibilities over the attacking ones. If he isn’t the first-choice option as the tournament progresses, he’s capable of playing all three defensive roles.
When healthy, Tyler Adams can impact a game like nobody else in the USMNT pool. His recovery defending is tireless, and he expertly reads an opponent’s build-up sequence to stymy it before danger strikes. The problem has been that requisite availability, as 2023-24 saw him log the fewest minutes in any season (just 121 in the league) since his professional debut in 2015.
The good news: Adams is well-versed in Berhalter’s system, easing his reassimilation. While some in the pool are better at breaking lines with their passes and others enter in better form, none can match Adams’ all-around defensive midfield skill set. For the USMNT to be at its best this summer, they’ll need him to be on the field more often than not.
While a slew of promising young Americans developed in MLS and Europe, Johnny Cardoso honed his craft in Brazil. The midfielder emerged with Internacional and was a starter in 2022 and 2023, catching eyes with impressive facilitation that fed his team’s forward line. It also drew the attention of Real Betis, who signed him in January 2024 and promptly thrust him into their starting lineup.
The trick will be combining his passing acumen with the more defensive-minded role he adopted at Betis. His defensive work rate stood out and forced ample turnovers, even as he’s adjusting to greater involvement in that phase of the game. If everything comes together, he’ll be the worthy alternative to Adams this team has long needed.
He isn’t the pool’s most athletic midfielder, nor does he rack up highlight reel actions on a regular basis. Sometimes, the greatest compliment a player can be paid is that they are easy to overlook; simply, De la Torre makes midfield work look neat and tidy with the ball at his feet.
The midfielder was a regular fixture in the Celta Vigo lineup thanks to his usefulness in build-up play. Few midfielders in all of Europe boasted a greater volume of carries and dribbles. He also improved his ability to collect the ball in the box rather than staying at the heart of the park. He’s often overlooked due to buzzier alternatives in the role, but fans shouldn’t stress if he enters a match.
Weston McKennie (Juventus) — 53 caps, 25 years old
Being versatile is a blessing and a curse. Sure, it helps keep a player in contention for playing time throughout their career. As McKennie has learned over the years, however, the frequent role changes can come at the cost of refining one’s skills as a club plugs holes. McKennie finally stayed in a consistent role for a full season in 2023-24 — to the delight of Juventus and his career alike.
McKennie is an infectious personality, a camera operator’s best friend with his every reaction. He’ll likely stay in the lens’ sight this summer with his proactive defensive work and his improved game in possession, more comfortable playing distributor on top of his established off-ball work. Tack on his prowess in dead-ball situations, and McKennie is among this team’s most important members.
Here’s a good example of how a typical club season for a 21-year-old player can have an outsized impact on such a young national team. Musah made a big leap when he left Valencia for AC Milan last summer, going from being a starter for a relegation-zone club to a rotational figure for a top-tier side. His minutes regressed and he played a myriad of roles.
It sets him up for a possible breakout in 2024-25, but doubles as a setback for a player who was among the USMNT’s most important from a young age. Musah’s transition year comes at a time when it’s clear that Gio Reyna needs to start for this team to generate consistent chances, and he projects to be the odd man out to accommodate. He may not be as involved as he was when he turned heads with his tidy and effective play at the 2022 World Cup, but fear not: Musah’s career is still decidedly on the rise.
A strong showing in Copa América could help Reyna overshadow the drama of the 2022 World Cup. (Photo by Shaun Clark, Getty Images)
Perhaps a move to Nottingham Forest isn’t in a player’s best interest as the club cycles through options like a video gamer overhauling a roster in record time. Injuries kept Reyna from featuring regularly for Dortmund, and a lack of alternatives sent him to the City Ground late in the January window. The club seldom played with an attacking midfielder, however, and 2023-24 was a lost season for a player who has already suffered a few of those since emerging in 2020-21.
Still, Reyna has an eye for creating chances that few USMNT players have had since Landon Donovan’s heyday. He’s dangerous whether his team is exploiting a transition moment or in a sustained phase of possession, and he’s made himself undroppable for his nation even as his club career has stagnated. His frustration with a lack of involvement at the 2022 World Cup will forever be part of his legacy, but a strong Copa América could help overshadow that.
Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven) — 11 caps, 22 years old
In most eras, Tillman would have a clear role in attacking midfield. It’s the role he occupied as PSV dominated the Eredivisie in 2023-24, scoring nine goals and assisting 10 more en route to a title-winning season. With that act following the 10 goals he scored on loan with Rangers in 2022-23, he should be a certain starter this summer, right?
Unfortunately for Tillman, he hasn’t found a clear role for the U.S. Berhalter often opts for three central midfielders, too withdrawn a spot for Tillman’s skill set — and, historically, a role that would be Reyna’s or Musah’s to occupy. His central channel preference makes him a cumbersome option on the wing. He’s an undeniable talent and an impactful player on his day; maybe this summer will see him find a home in Berhalter’s setup.
A firm Berhalter favorite, Aaronson has struggled since leaving RB Salzburg for Leeds in 2022. Following their relegation, he spent last year on loan with Union Berlin. Some late heroics helped the club avoid relegation from the Bundesliga, but he’ll return to Elland Road with a point to prove to the English club’s fanbase.
Even in the most difficult stretch of his career, his tireless work rate remains unimpeachable. Aaronson is more of a spark plug for this team as constructed than a starter, able to change a game by sheer force of will whether it’s in midfield or on the wing. Even in a rotational role, Aaronson could kick off a comeback this summer.
When Balogun committed to the United States instead of England or Nigeria, it seemed like a massive coup. Seldom has the USMNT enjoyed dependable output from a center forward, with Brian McBride and Jozy Altidore being rare exceptions in this century. Coming off of a strong season with Reims, a $43 million move to AS Monaco seemed like evidence that the USMNT finally had a top-tier striker.
At this stage, Balogun is more of a volume scorer than a pinpoint finisher. He has woefully underperformed his expected goal output since the start of 2023, and was dropped from the Monaco lineup midway through the season. His assimilation with the USMNT hasn’t been seamless either, with three goals from a dozen caps. Still, a striker’s legacy is determined by tournament performances more than friendlies. His first major competition since committing will be a timely test of his mettle.
Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven) — 25 caps, 21 years old
Alongside Malik Tillman and Dest, Pepi had some fine moments as PSV dominated the Eredivisie, scoring seven goals and adding two assists. Unfortunately, those moments largely came from the bench, limiting Pepi to just 572 minutes in league action. It’s an understandable plight for a young striker, especially when veteran Luuk de Jong scored 29 goals as the team’s starter. Still, it wasn’t the “leap” many have hoped to see since Pepi left FC Dallas in 2021.
That super-sub season may actually give the USMNT a boost entering this tournament, though. Pepi was a hard omission from Berhalter’s World Cup squad, but enters the Copa América already equipped to impact a game from the bench. Pepi’s time in the spotlight may not be far away, but he could be vital in brief spurts this summer.
It feels odd given his age and the fact that he only finally enjoyed a full season as a major European club’s starter, but Pulisic is the most capped member of this squad. The resurgence of the program has been carried on his shoulders, and he finally has a supporting cast of a similar standard. It eases the pressure on him to do it all, which could bring even more of his best to the international level.
Pulisic has proven to be more of a finisher than a creator — more of a Clint Dempsey than a Landon Donovan. He flourished playing on the right at AC Milan after years out left (and left out) with Chelsea… although Berhalter favors him on the left. When Pulisic plays with freedom, he can take over a game like nobody else on this roster.
Josh Sargent (Norwich City) — 23 caps, 24 years old
Even as 2023-24 saw Balogun struggle and Pepi toil on the bench, it wasn’t a complete dud for USMNT strikers. Following Teemu Pukki’s move to Minnesota United, Sargent finally enjoyed a full season as Norwich’s starting striker. He rewarded them handsomely, bagging 16 goals on 11.2 non-penalty xG as the club returned to the promotion playoffs.
In a perfect world, he would be neck-and-neck with Balogun for starts at this tournament. However, Sargent was a question to make the roster due to a nagging foot injury suffered late in the Canaries’ campaign. Strikers, like all soccer players, are famously dependent on their feet, and his ability to impact this tournament is an open question. The fact he made the squad does give some confidence that he could be ready.
Tim Weah (Juventus) — 39 caps, 24 years old
Weah is another versatile player in the pool whose club role changes on an annual basis. Once a striker and often still a winger, Juventus found him to be a capable wing back this past season — a revelation that could come in handy given Dest’s injury.
As a wing back, Weah’s dribbling prowess and skill at executing a give-and-go helped Juventus qualify for the Champions League and win the Coppa Italia. He was also adept at making an impact in defensive phases, a credit to his reading of a game. If he’s a winger this summer, he’ll be among the USMNT’s most important attackers. If he shifts to Dest’s role, however, he could be an X-factor for which few opponents are adequately prepared to contain.
Haji Wright (Coventry City) — 10 caps, 26 years old
When Haji Wright broke into the pool in 2022, conventional wisdom was that he was a target forward — the role that saw the 6’3” striker flourish in Turkey. One of just three United States players to score at the World Cup in Qatar, the fit up top looked suspect. As Balogun committed to the program and Pepi and Josh Sargent continued to develop, it seemed certain that Wright would be a peripheral figure in the coming years.
Credit to Coventry City for unlocking a new side of Wright’s game in his English soccer debut. Playing out wide for the first time, he managed to score 16 goals and add six assists in the league, proving his end product would translate to playing along the touchline. That revelation unlocks greater tactical flexibility and should help Wright see the field often throughout the tournament.(Photo: John Todd, Stephen Nadler/Getty; Design: John Bradford)
Euro 2024 predictions: Best player, dark horses, biggest disappointment? Our writers’ picks
We are just a day away from Euro 2024, with hosts Germany taking on Scotland in Munich on Friday night.
What can we expect? An outsider victory? A Kylian Mbappe-inspired French romp? England out in the group stages? Whatever we get, there will be drama (we hope). Let us know in the comments section what you expect to happen.
Here, six of The Athletic’s writers give their predictions…
Oliver Kay: France, because they have the strongest squad — not just in terms of talent and depth in all positions but also know-how and a proven ability to perform when the stakes are high.
Liam Tharme: France. Tournaments are won over decades of youth talent and nobody does it like Ligue 1. Didier Deschamps has found the perfect balance between system and superstars.
James Horncastle: I like how Roberto Martinez has carved out a niche as custodian of international ‘Golden Generations’. First, Belgium, and now Portugal. The balance Portugal have in midfield is encouraging and I’m waiting for Rafael Leao to deliver on his potential at this level.
Mbappe and Deschamps will be hopeful (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Nancy Froston: France have been such a force in recent years and they do not look any weaker.
Carl Anka: Germany. Host nation, favourable side of the draw, and decent players under a clever tactical mind in Julian Nagelsmann.
Nick Miller: France are the correct answer, but Deschamps has been there so long, aren’t they due a meltdown? What about the Netherlands? They have loads of good defenders, as well as Jeremie Frimpong and Xavi Simons, while Memphis Depay seems quite cross about leaving Atletico Madrid, so he’ll have some fire in his belly.
Horncastle: It’s on home soil. These are the final games of his career. Imagine ending your career by winning the Champions League and the Euros. It’s going to be Toni Kroos.
Froston: Jude Bellingham. You build everything around players as good as him. If England can manage a good run, it’ll be thanks to him.
Anka: It’s Kroos. This sport doesn’t often grant happy endings, but Kroos is about to have a superb swansong.
Miller: Kroos. Are we all blinded by the sheer wattage of the narrative? Perhaps, but that doesn’t make us wrong.
We all want it for Kroos, don’t we? (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Who will be the best young player (under 23 on June 14)?
Kay: There are a few English candidates, but I’ll say Jamal Musiala. He looks ready to make a big impact at Euro 2024.
Tharme: Between Musiala and Florian Wirtz. Both should rise to the occasion on home soil.
Horncastle: Arda Guler or Kenan Yildiz. Yildiz’s dribbling has generated crazy hype and Guler scored six times for Real Madrid in 377 La Liga minutes. The kid is shy but special.
Froston: Benjamin Sesko. A ‘burns bright in the group stage’ candidate feels about right.
Anka: Lamine Yamal. The 16-year-old (16!) has all the tools to be a game-breaking forward.
Miller: Xavi Simons. If I’m sticking with my ‘the Dutch are good’ theory, he’ll be at the centre of it.
How many penalties will fail to find the back of the net — in normal time and shootouts?
Tharme: There were four shootouts in 2020, the most since Euro 1996 (also four). Let’s take an assumed average of three missed from another four shootouts, that’s twelve. Let’s go for 15 total with only three not scored in regulation time.
Horncastle: Italians would say all of Jorginho’s — which is harsh given how cool he was from the spot in the semi-final against Spain three years ago.
Froston: This is the era of the water-bottle cheat sheet, so I fancy four penalties missed in regulation time and 13 in shootouts.
Kay: Unlike Liam, I haven’t given this the slightest thought and I’m struggling to get a handle on the numbers. One? A 100? I’ll say 10.
Anka: It’s still mostly a gamble. Three misses in the groups. Two in knockout games. 12 across collected shootouts.
Miller: Well, I’ll pick a number out of the air and say 14.
Who will ‘do an Enzo Fernandez’ and get a big transfer off the back of a tournament?
Kay: These days, so many of the best young talents are already at big clubs. Maybe it’s the perfect shop window for someone like Albania’s Armando Broja, who is surplus to requirements at Chelsea.
Tharme: Ukraine and Shakhtar Donetsk’s Heorhii Sudakov. A pure No 10, two-footed, with plenty of Champions League experience at Shakhtar Donetsk, even at 21.
Horncastle: Define ‘big’. What if Albania winger Jasir Asani was good enough to earn a move back to Europe after a year in South Korea’s K League with Gwangju?
Froston: Nico Williams. It seems likely that clubs will be tempted by his €50million (£42m; $54m) release clause at Athletic Bilbao.
Anka: Belgium and PSV Eindhoven’s Johan Bakayoko is a dribble-heavy, left-footed winger who likes to cut inside and shoot from the right wing. That’s the sort of forward Premier League clubs like spending dough on.
Miller: Bakayoko, Sudakov and Williams all get another couple of thumbs up, but people love a tempo-setting central midfielder, so I’ll say that Benfica will have someone’s pants down for Turkey’s Orkun Kokcu.
Tell us one thing you really want to see happen…
Kay: I would love to see England win it. But that’s such a boring answer. Failing that, I’d really like one of the smaller nations to win it. Denmark, Croatia, even Belgium. It would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Horncastle: One of the five Italian coaches to win the thing.
Froston: Limited minutes for Cristiano Ronaldo. With every embarrassing tantrum, it gets harder to remember why he is one of the best ever.
Will he be smiling in July? (Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)
Anka: Wingers get chalk on their boots before driving at defenders. Loads of long-range efforts after the ball spills out from a corner.
Miller: Kroos strolling off into retirement having joined your Zidanes, your Xavis, your Iniestas in the ‘winning absolutely everything there is to win’ club.
Tell us one thing you really don’t want to see happen…
Kay: I really hope the tournament is trouble-free. I also hope I can walk through a market square on the day of an England game without cringing in embarrassment at fans singing dismal songs about “10 German bombers”.
Tharme: Germany out in the groups (again).
Horncastle: Please don’t judge Luciano Spalletti as if he’s been in the job for two years when he only stepped into the breach last August.
Froston: Opening ceremonies/pre-game performances from peppy Europop singers or ageing rockers that completely sap the atmosphere.
Anka: Manchester United, could you behave yourself and avoid any news announcements and massive dramas for the foreseeable future? Thanks.
Miller: I think I’m getting soft in my old age, but I used to love penalty shootouts… now I find them incredibly stressful. So as few of them as possible, please.
Which nation are the dark horses?
Kay: We’ve been calling Croatia and Denmark dark horses for so long, I don’t feel I can do it again. I’ll say Serbia.
Tharme: Hungary. They had an excellent Nations League in 2022 against some European big-hitters and have evolved tactically under Marco Rossi.
Horncastle: Austria. I do wonder: what if Ralf Rangnick hadn’t taken the caretaker job at United when he did? I think his “open heart surgery” approach would appeal to Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford.
Froston: Can Croatia be dark horses? Nobody is saying otherwise, so I’m choosing glory for Luka Modric.
With 175 appearances, Modric is Croatia’s most-capped player (MB Media/Getty Images)
Anka: Hi, hello, it’s me, one of the people who said Turkey would be a dark horse at Euro 2020. I am warning you that Serbia will bloody England’s noses and reach the quarters.
Miller: Ukraine. They won’t win it, but they’ve got a great collection of young, exciting players and, well, the country could do with a good news story.
Which player/team will be the biggest disappointment?
Kay: It could be England. This tournament, amid heightened expectations, feels like it could be boom or bust.
Tharme: Portugal. They have underwhelmed since scrapping their way to the Euro 2016 trophy and have a ridiculous squad, with backups better than most teams’ first choices.
Horncastle: England. Three years ago was as good an opportunity to win a tournament as any. England didn’t seize the moment.
Froston: Adam Wharton. But not the player himself. I just do not think we will see much of him in the tournament, which has the potential to be disappointing after his impressive debut.
Anka: Portugal have the pieces to make a deep run, but a lot depends on how Ronaldo is catered for.
Miller: I fear for England, but I can see Italy doing a rather lacklustre job of being defending champions.
How far will England go and predict the manner of their final match in the competition…
Kay: A semi-final defeat by France is probably the most likely outcome, but I can see it falling short of that.
Tharme: At least to the semi-finals, likely against France. Southgate’s record against teams that have previously knocked England out is good but this would be the ultimate test. Harry Kane has scored all 15 penalties since missing against France in the World Cup quarter-finals, so I’d back him to score.
Horncastle: Tharme has allowed himself to get carried away. His penance will be a tactical breakdown of England’s defeat to hosts Germany in the last 16.
Where/how will it all end? (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Froston: Quarter-finals. Shirts pulled up over teary eyes, dejected players lying prostrate on the pitch after a plucky defeat.
Anka: Quarter-finals. I struggle to articulate how grateful I am to Southgate and his team for creating an England side for so many to believe in, but July 11 2021 was the chance to win silverware.
Miller: 1-1 draw with Serbia, 1-1 draw with Denmark, 3-0 win over Slovenia, finish second in the group, play Germany in the knockouts. There, England will take the lead but ultimately lose in extra time.
Give us your most outrageous prediction…
Kay: The format gives teams a safety net, where even third place in the group might get you a place in the knockout stage. But Group B is horrible. Reigning champions Italy knocked out in the first round.
Tharme: No 0-0 draws.
Horncastle: Georgia ride Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s wings out of the group stages. If Kvara recaptures the form he showed in Napoli’s title-winning season, anything is possible.
Froston: Redemption for Rangnick with a decent run for Austria.
Anka: Mbappe scores the goal to knock Spain out.
Miller: France out in the group stage. No logic to it, but you never said we had to back any of this up.
What might make you get emotional?
Kay: Seeing one of the less-fancied teams perform the way Morocco did at the last World Cup.
Tharme: A Pascal Gross goal. A stalwart of Brighton, an everything midfielder who has got better with age and finally made his senior Germany debut aged 32 last September.
Horncastle: Croatia taking back-to-back knockout games to extra time and penalties.
Froston: Any underdog who takes a big team all the way only to lose at the death.
Anka: The first rest day.
Miller: I’m a sucker for parents in the crowd watching their kids succeed, so anything close to Mario Balotelli hugging his mum in 2012.
Euro 2024: How are England, France, Germany, Spain and the other favourites shaping up?
The European Championship begins on Friday and managers across the teams considered potential champions have had plenty of last-minute issues to deal with.
The final pre-tournament friendlies are complete and in some instances have provided more questions than answers, while injuries have led to some late rejigging.
So how are each of the eight teams considered most likely to win the competition shaping up and are they ready to hit the ground running?
How to follow Euro 2024 and Copa America on The Athletic…
Not great, really: one win, one draw and two defeats in the warm-up games and — something we haven’t been used to under Gareth Southgate — a few murmurs from within the camp about the omissions of Harry Maguire, Jordan Henderson, Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Marcus Rashford from the final squad.
From a distance, this was felt to be England’s best chance of success for a long time but the closer the tournament has got, the more doubts have begun to resurface about the strength of the squad in certain areas (defence, midfield) and the balance of the team.
Central defence, left-back, midfield. John Stones is expected to be fit to face Serbia despite a couple of injury scares, with Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi likely to start alongside him in central defence. Luke Shaw is still on his way back from a hamstring injury, so Kieran Trippier, a right-back, is likely to deputise at left-back on Sunday — not ideal.
The question in midfield is balance and whether that means one of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kobbie Mainoo or Conor Gallagher plays alongside Declan Rice. Alexander-Arnold looks like the favourite at this stage to start against Serbia. Southgate has experimented with him there previously, but not in a game of this magnitude.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
Under Southgate, they have started tournaments well. They have enough quality in attacking areas to trouble any team — Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden in support of Harry Kane —but they just need to make sure they have the balance right to get off to a positive start and build momentum.
If everything goes to plan, England could be on course for a semi-final with France. But that entails winning the group — with Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia, that’s not a formality — and then winning two knockout games. Do all of that and expectations would be high going into a semi-final, even against France. But… one step at a time.
In their two pre-tournament friendlies, France beat Luxembourg (ranked 87th in FIFA’s world rankings) 3-0 and drew 0-0 with Canada, ranked 49th.
Manager Didier Deschamps saw these games as dress rehearsals, an opportunity for his team to play together and get minutes under their belts.
The performance against Luxembourg was promising and their forward line showed glimpses of flair. Kylian Mbappe was involved in all three goals, but Luxembourg did not test them defensively.
France were underwhelming against Canada, who matched Les Bleus. They struggled to dictate the midfield and allowed Canada to have goalscoring opportunities.
Some niggling injuries are affecting the starting XI. France seem too top-heavy, with an array of attacking talent, but there are concerns about their back line.
Ibrahima Konate and Dayot Upamecano were the first-choice centre-back pairing against Luxembourg, but Konate started less than half of Liverpool’s league games last season, while Upamecano started just over half of Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga matches. There are calls for William Saliba, who had an impressive season for Arsenal, to start.
The two-man midfield of N’Golo Kante, now playing in Saudi Arabia and an unexpected starter, and Eduardo Camavinga did not function well against Canada. Midfielders Adrien Rabiot and Aurelien Tchouameni have been struggling with calf and foot injuries respectively, but are expected to be back this week. Meanwhile, Deschamps has used Antoine Griezmann further up the pitch, which makes him less available in the build-up area.
Mbappe also only played 15 minutes against Canada after he sustained bruising to his knee in the first friendly. Deschamps explained that no risks were to be taken.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
France are still among the favourites to win the tournament. On the way to the 2022 World Cup final, they conceded one goal in every game bar one. Deschamps will want to make sure France’s defence is as efficient as their attack, which boasts some of the best individual quality on offer.
Captain Mbappe has described the Euros as “more complicated than a World Cup” given the teams’ familiarity with one another. They do not have an easy group stage, with fixtures against Austria, the Netherlands and Poland. It may be a slow burner as they ease themselves in, but equally don’t be surprised if they are the first to light up the European stage.
Two mediocre performances. One, a disappointing draw with Ukraine. The other, a come-from-behind win over Greece. That second game, in Gladbach last Friday, was really a successful failure. Germany played well in the second half, but in a way that emphasised the candidacy of the players assumed to start in reserve.
Julian Nagelsmann has built a system around a particular group and their respective abilities. While he was no doubt delighted by the impact of Leroy Sane, David Raum and Niclas Fullkrug against the Greeks, accommodating those players in the starting line-up would involve a major tactical rethink on the eve of the tournament.
Less outstanding issues, more unanswered questions. Is the midfield of Toni Kroos, Robert Andrich, Ilkay Gundogan really balanced enough? Does a team without any real width have enough precision through the middle? Should Manuel Neuer still be starting?
The Neuer issue is likely to drag. He made a bad error against Greece — among some very good saves — and there are polls running on German tabloids about whether fans would prefer Marc-Andre ter Stegen to start. Nagelsmann is already knocking back questions about Neuer’s place in the team during press conferences, so goalkeeper and head coach will need a nice, uneventful start against Scotland if that conversation is to go quiet.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
They could be anything at all. Germany are much better than they were under Hansi Flick and have certainly evolved under Nagelsmann. They have a shape and a clear way of playing. However, they are still a team in recovery and all of their systems, which govern the sharp, precise football that Nagelsmann wants them to play, have only been a few months in development.
It should not be forgotten, either, that while those two wins over France and the Netherlands were enough to fire the public’s enthusiasm, Germany were hardly perfect in either and exhibited flaws (defensive vulnerability, exposure to transitions) that were tolerated in light of the bigger picture.
They could win this tournament. They have the quality and the players to do it. But it could also go badly wrong. It does also feel as if a good result is really important if they are to have the public on their side. It has been a difficult decade since the 2014 World Cup, full of failure and scandal, and while Germans do seem newly interested in their national team, it might not take too much for them to disassociate themselves again.
Initially rocked by injury. Italy lost their most experienced centre-back, Francesco Acerbi, then their most precocious one in Giorgio Scalvini. These casualties haven’t stopped coach Luciano Spalletti from continuing the experiments he made with a back three in March. Agonisingly, Nicolo Barella hasn’t featured in the warm-up games against Turkey and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The all-action Inter Milan midfielder is a doubt for this weekend’s opener against Albania in Dortmund, but at least Davide Frattesi, his Inter team-mate, has carried on his prolific form for the national team. The box-to-box midfielder has scored four goals in nine appearances under Spalletti and could be one of the revelations of the tournament.
The team is still learning to play together. Partnerships are new all over the pitch. The Nazionale finds itself in the midst of a generational transition. Spalletti hasn’t been in the job a year. He is introducing alternative systems. Italy played 4-3-3 against Turkey then 3-4-2-1 against Bosnia. Nicolo Fagioli has been thrust into the team on the back of 98 minutes for Juventus following the end of his seven-month ban for betting on football. Federico Chiesa hasn’t been able to snap out of his funk and it remains to be seen if Gianluca Scamacca, dropped from the squad in March, can be as good for his country as he has been for his club (27 goals and assists) this season.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
Encouragingly, Italy began to look like a team against an admittedly depleted Bosnia. Whether it’s Federico Dimarco or Andrea Cambiaso, the left flank has creative instincts. The Fagioli and Jorginho pairing in midfield has potential and was neat and tidy in Empoli at the weekend. Scamacca and Frattesi bounce off each other well from their days in Roma’s academy and their time at Sassuolo. However, the Azzurri still look a little glitchy at the back without Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci. As such, it will fall on the two Alessandros, Bastoni and Buongiorno, to keep everyone on their toes and lead the defence. If Chiesa continues to struggle, Spalletti’s first big decision could be to drop him for Giacomo Raspadori, another player, like Frattesi, who is used to playing with Scamacca.
Spain have achieved some on-pitch stability under coach Luis de la Fuente after recent scandals involving the federation’s former president, Luis Rubiales.
Two resounding wins in their most recent friendlies have raised hopes about this side. Barcelona midfielder Pedri scored twice in a 5-1 rout of Northern Ireland on Saturday — his first goals for the national team after several spells out through injury — after a Mikel Oyarzabal hat-trick helped them to a 5-0 victory against Andorra. There will be tougher tests to come, but the signs are promising for La Roja.
De la Fuente has returned to a 4-3-3 system after experimenting with a 4-2-3-1 in friendlies three months ago against Brazil and Colombia. Unai Simon is their undisputed No 1 after a fine season with Athletic Bilbao, while Dani Carvajal will start at right-back following his role in Real Madrid’s record-extending 15th European Cup/Champions League triumph.
There are doubts over the centre-back partnership: naturalised Frenchmen Aymeric Laporte and Robin Le Normand have tended to start for De la Fuente but Nacho could replace Laporte. Bayer Leverkusen’s impressive left-back Alejandro Grimaldo looks set to start after Valencia’s Jose Gaya was ruled out of the tournament with injury.
Rodri, Pedri and Mikel Merino are fairly established in midfield, while exciting youngsters Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal will flank captain Alvaro Morata up front. Yamal, 16, will become the youngest player in Euros history if, as expected, he plays against Croatia on Saturday.
What are the main outstanding issues to resolve?
De la Fuente’s contract has been renewed until the 2026 World Cup, but fans still have their doubts about him and some of his decisions have been questioned.
Choosing to leave out the veteran defender Sergio Ramos and Madrid’s promising winger Brahim Diaz were seen as two controversial decisions — the latter chose to represent Morocco earlier this year after making just one senior appearance for Spain. Cutting Barca’s 17-year-old centre-back Pau Cubarsi from his final list for the Euros was also a decision that raised eyebrows after a fine breakout season for the Blaugrana.
The team’s leadership qualities will be tested in Germany. And while their style of play is still based on dominating possession, they will need to be more direct than in previous tournaments. Yamal and Williams could be key to that.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
Spain are joint-record holders of this competition with three trophies and De la Fuente led them to last year’s Nations League title — their first trophy since the all-conquering generation of 2008-2012 — so they are expected to be very competitive. The players see themselves as one of the favourites and will hope to reach the latter stages after they lost in the semi-finals of Euro 2020.
But the lack of established stars in their line-up is a contrast to countries such as France, England and Germany and could count against them. They will need to find a consistent source of goals if they are to have any hope of emulating Iker Casillas, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and co.
Busy. Most nations have played two pre-tournament warm-ups, but manager Roberto Martinez wanted three for Portugal, reflecting his desire/need to fine-tune not only the starting XI but also the formation.
Results and performances have been mixed – they beat Finland 4-2 with goals from Premier League players Diogo Jota, Ruben Dias and Bruno Fernandes (two), then they lost 2-1 to Croatia (Jota again on the scoresheet) before breezing past the Republic of Ireland 3-0 on Tuesday. Cristiano Ronaldo, who like Ruben Neves joined up with the group a bit later because the Saudi Pro League season ran until May 31, got his first minutes back with the team and scored twice (Joao Felix netted the other).
The results followed a slightly worrying trend since the qualifiers – Portugal sauntered through their group with 10 wins from 10 but against pretty feeble opposition (other than Slovakia, their opponents were ranked 72nd to 202nd in the world) and in the five friendlies since, they have beaten three teams who are not at Euro 2024 (Sweden, Finland, Ireland) and lost to two teams who are (Slovenia and Croatia).
Injury-wise, they lost midfielder Otavio before the friendlies started, replacing him with Manchester City’s Matheus Nunes. Pepe, who will become the oldest player to feature at a Euros aged 41 if he gets on the pitch in Germany, hadn’t played since April but got 45 minutes against Ireland.
What are the main outstanding issues to resolve?
Martinez wanted to fine-tune and, while he may know his preferred XI/system in his head, it hasn’t been seen on the pitch yet. He made seven changes for the second friendly and then another six for the third, also switching between 4-3-3 and 3-4-1-2.
Portugal have possibly the most talented squad at the whole tournament, with an abundance of options in each position. That’s no bad thing, obviously, but only if Martinez can fashion a coherent and settled side.
The left side of attack hasn’t been nailed down because Jota often plays in the middle, Felix’s form is inconsistent and Rafael Leao looks more effective as a substitute. Issues over Pepe’s fitness don’t help either and probably dictate the formation (a three with him, a four without him).
After the Croatia defeat, Dias said the players needed to put their egos to one side and focus on a collective effort. Blimey.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
More fine-tuning, but given the group they have been handed (Czech Republic, Turkey and Georgia), Portugal and Martinez can probably afford to keep calculating that formula and still have more than enough to get through.
They still have the experience of Jan Vertonghen, Axel Witsel, Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne (502 caps between them), but this is a younger, fresher squad, free from some of the baggage and internal tensions that have dogged Belgium in the past.
The only real talking point surrounds the absence of Thibaut Courtois, who recovered from injury in time to play in the Champions League final but still hasn’t forgiven coach Domenico Tedesco for preferring Lukaku as captain for a qualifier against Austria last June.
What are the main outstanding issues to resolve?
Thomas Meunier limped out of their final warm-up game against Luxembourg on Saturday and stayed in Belgium for further medical treatment when his team-mates left for Germany on Wednesday. For the opening game against Slovakia at the very least, Fulham’s Timothy Castagne is set to revert to right-back. Maxim De Cuyper, of Club Bruges, could fill in at left-back.
In the absence of Courtois, Belgium’s first-choice goalkeeper for the tournament will be Koen Casteels, who has just signed a deal to join Saudi Arabian club Al Qadsiah on a free transfer from Wolfsburg.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
Even if they are less formidable than during the peak years of their “golden generation”, Belgium have a range of creative and goalscoring options between De Bruyne, Leandro Trossard, Jeremy Doku and Lukaku, with Yannick Carrasco, Lois Openda and Johan Bakayoko in reserve. Lukaku approaches the tournament looking far sharper than he did at the last World Cup.
They are in one of the gentler-looking groups along with Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine. Win the group and they will face a third-placed team in the round of 16. Progression to the quarter-finals looks like a realistic goal. Getting any further would be a cause for celebration.
Oof. Well, if you go only by results, everything looks rosy. The Netherlands have won six of their past seven matches, the only exception being a late 2-1 loss to Germany in March. On Monday, Ronald Koeman’s side completed their preparations with a 4-0 win over Iceland and looked as stylish as they ever have under the former Barcelona manager.
But the Iceland game brought terrible news. Midfield lynchpin Frenkie de Jong, who had been racing to recover from an ankle injury, was declared unfit for the tournament. The Barcelona pivot is key to the Netherlands’ build-up play and is one of their two truly world-class players, alongside Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk.
What are the main outstanding issues to resolve?
Exactly that, who replaces De Jong in midfield? Less than 12 hours after De Jong was ruled out, one potential replacement, Atalanta’s Teun Koopmeiners, was himself removed from the Euros squad after suffering an injury during the previous night’s warm-up.
Full-back Ian Maatsen has been called up in their stead, but Koeman is expected to name PSV Eindhoven pairing Jerdy Schouten and Joey Veerman in midfield. The pair are excellent technicians but lack De Jong’s explosiveness and ability to shine in wide as well as narrow spaces.
The other question mark is left-back. Koeman wanted to play with wing-backs, but an injury to Feyenoord’s Quilindschy Hartman meant he had to abandon that plan. This is now a problem position. Options include Manchester City’s Nathan Ake, Girona veteran Daley Blind, and now Maatsen — Ake will likely start and create a back three when in possession, with right-back Denzel Dumfries pushing higher to play as an auxiliary winger.
What can we expect from them when the tournament begins?
Teams who win the Euros tend to excel in defence rather than attack and the Netherlands have some outstanding centre-backs in the shape of Van Dijk, Ake, Matthijs de Ligt and Micky van de Ven.
However, everything in front of them is relatively untested. Xavi Simons will be this side’s main creator in attack and has been in good form in recent months, although he does his best work with structure around him. The Netherlands’ inexperienced midfield and relative paucity of top-class goalscoring options means expectations at home are relatively low.
One player arrives at Euro 2024 with the best goals-per-cap rate, and it’s not Cristiano Ronaldo.One player will break the record as the oldest men’s player in European Championship history, and it’s… not Cristiano Ronaldo.Nearly one in five players competing in Germany play their club football in one country, but which one?
Allow The Athletic to sprinkle some data-led seasoning on top of your tactical insights before the summer’s tournament, breaking down the make-up of each squad and providing some curious tidbits to fuel your excitement before the games begin.
This is your definitive data guide to the squads at Euro 2024…
How to follow Euro 2024 and Copa America on The Athletic…
A total of 218 clubs have players representing their country in Germany this summer, but some are providing plenty more than others.
Among the clubs with the most players selected for Euro 2024, it is unsurprising to see Europe’s elite leading the way. Champions League winners Real Madrid have 12 players represented in the tournament — spanned across seven countries — but it is the 2023 finalists, Manchester City and Inter Milan, who have the strongest footprint in Germany with 13 players apiece.
That is before you consider each club’s representation in the Copa America in the United States this summer, with many club managers carefully managing their pre-season plans in a summer packed with international football.
From a European perspective, Pep Guardiola and Simone Inzaghi will be the busiest men keeping a close eye on their players’ fitness across the next four weeks.
Player call-ups per league
Like many recent major tournaments, the Premier League again leads the way as the league that provides the most players — slightly ahead of Italy’s Serie A.
Unsurprisingly, the top five leagues represented are made up of… well, the so-called ‘top five European leagues’. Ligue 1 has fallen a little behind its peers, with a comparatively low 29 players playing in France’s top division.
The Premier League’s 96 players span 21 of the 24 countries at the Euros, the widest coverage of any league in the world. The English skew is unsurprising but the range of representatives — from Portugal (10) down to Turkey and Romania (both one) — underpins the global brand of the Premier League.
Across the tournament, 114 players play their football in England, with 18 in leagues below the Premier League. That 114 figure accounts for 18 per cent of the tournament’s total — nearly one in five players, for those requiring the quick maths.
Italy are just behind (17 per cent), with 104 players — 91 of them from their top division, Serie A. Similar to the Premier League, Serie A provides players for a wide selection of nations — 19 in total, the second-most of any league.
At the manager level, the representation from Italy is highly impressive, with five — Luciano Spalletti (Italy), Francesco Calzona (Slovakia), Vincenzo Montella (Turkey), Domenico Tedesco (Belgium), Marco Rossi (Hungary) — comfortably more than any other nation.
Spain (Luis de la Fuente and Roberto Martinez), France (Didier Deschamps and Willy Sagnol), and Germany (Julian Nagelsmann and Ralf Rangnick) are the only other nations with more than one manager represented, further highlighting the hotbed of elite coaches currently coming out of Italy.
As a final fun fact, the two German managers bookend delightfully as the oldest (Ralf Rangnick, 65) and the youngest (Julian Nagelsmann, 36 years) in the tournament.
Among the 24 nations, Steve Clarke’s Scotland have the oldest squad, with an average age of 28.3 years old.
Clarke has led his country to back-to-back Euros, maintaining a level of experience and consistency of selection during qualifying that has allowed his side to develop together. Within the squad, Billy Gilmour (23) and Tommy Conway (21) are the only players aged 23 or below heading into the tournament (and Conway was a late call-up) — only Romania (one) have fewer players in that age bracket.
As The Athletic’s Jordan Campbell reported in his nation guide, Scotland’s 26-man squad named for Euro 2020 had a combined caps total of 448 — of which veteran goalkeepers Marshall and Craig Gordon accounted for 99. The total is now 757, with 14 players over the quarter-century mark.
That experience will give them a fighting chance to improve upon their previous, winless campaign three years ago.
Behind Scotland are fellow Group A side — and their opening-day opponents — Germany, whose average squad age of 28.2 years old is the second-oldest in the tournament.
The experience of Manuel Neuer (38), Thomas Muller (34) and the soon-to-be-retiring Toni Kroos (34) will be crucial for the hosts this summer, but the fact a lot of their players are at their peak age suggests that they have a squad that is ready to win now.
Ironically, their creative spark is catalysed by two of their youngest players, Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz (both 21) — who will play as dual No 10s and be given the freedom to find pockets of space to inflict maximum damage to their opponents.
At the individual level, Portugal’s 41-year-old centre-back Pepe arrives at the tournament as the oldest player.
If he takes to the field in Germany, Pepe will break the record as the oldest player in European Championship history, currently held by Hungary’s Gabor Kiraly (40 years, 86 days).
Behind Pepe is compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo. You may have heard of him.
With a higher likelihood of scoring than Pepe, Ronaldo could become the oldest player to score a goal in Euros history, surpassing Austria’s Ivica Vastic (38 years, 257 days).
Ronaldo holds the record for the most European Championship games (25), and is the only male player to have represented his country across five editions of the tournament. Barring a disaster, the 39-year-old will extend that record to six this summer.
Who has the youngest squad?
The Czech Republic come into the tournament with the youngest average squad age, at 25.3 years old.
Manager Ivan Hasek will hope strong club connections can generate cohesive performances — 15 of the 26-man squad play for either Slavia Prague, Sparta Prague or Viktoria Plzen.
It is a young squad, too, with only two players aged 30 or over — the fewest of any nation in the tournament.
Turkey (25.8 years old) and England (26.1 years old) are not far behind as the youngest squads in the tournament, and will be hoping to blend youth and experience to go far in the competition.
Individually, England have three of the youngest players to be named in Euro 2024 squads — Kobbie Mainoo (19), Jude Bellingham (20) and Adam Wharton (20) — and no national team provides more in a table of the top 20 youngest players.
There is one player who does stand out, though. Spain’s Lamine Yamal has taken European football by storm for Barcelona this season, and if he takes to the field in Germany, he will become the youngest player in the history of the European Championship — just shy of 17 years old. His 17th birthday is the day before the final on July 14.
Having an older squad does not necessarily mean you are the most experienced on the international stage, so which nation has the most caps per player?
Croatia edge out Portugal here, but we must acknowledge the outliers dragging up the average.
No national team at this Euros has more players with 100-plus caps than Croatia, with Luka Modric (175), Ivan Perisic (131), Domagoj Vida (105) and Mateo Kovacic (101) boosting their average quite significantly.
A word must also go to Switzerland, whose average caps figure of 42.7 is the third-highest on the list. Rather than specific individuals, Switzerland have spread the experience across the squad, with 10 players aged 30 or above — the most of any nation and the only side with double figures in that age bracket.
Yes, we know what you are thinking — how is Xherdan Shaqiri still only 32?
Between Switzerland and Croatia, Portugal’s average caps are dragged up by Ronaldo (207), Pepe (137) andRui Patricio (108) in particular.
At the individual level, Ronaldo’s 207 international caps are more than any other player at the Euros. It feels like this will be the last time we see him — and Modric — in a major international tournament, but we have said that before.
What we do know is that this will be Olivier Giroud’s final tournament for France, having recently announced his impending retirement from international football.
Giroud will almost certainly bow out as France’s all-time top goalscorer as he looks to extend his record of 57 goals.
Sticking with the theme of goals, it is difficult to look beyond Ronaldo once again, with the 39-year-old holding the record for the most goals (14) of any player in European Championship history.
However, the all-time top goalscorer in men’s international football does not boast the best goals-per-cap rate among all players heading into the tournament. That honour belongs to Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku, who arrives in Germany with a rate of 0.74 goals per cap — 85 goals in 115 appearances.
After bagging two more goals against Luxembourg last week, Lukaku is now the second-highest European men’s international goalscorer behind Ronaldo — and the joint-sixth highest of all time.
Lukaku has been finding things more difficult at club level, but he looks at ease when representing his country. His 14 goals in eight games during qualifying was more than any other player and set a record as the most within a single qualification period. Impressively, only one of those goals came from the penalty spot.
Ronaldo will be coming into the tournament off the back of a prolific club season, but his 35-goal return needs to be asterisked due to the quality of the Saudi Pro League.Harry Kane (36 league goals in the 2023-24 season), Mbappe (27) and Robert Lewandowski (19) come into the tournament with strong goalscoring outputs but keep an eye on Ukraine’s Artem Dovbyk, whose 24 goals for Girona were the joint-fifth-highest of any player in the top five European leagues.Ultimately, we want the biggest names in Europe to do what they do best in an international shirt.Friday cannot come soon enough.(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
Christen Press’ long journey back from injury: ‘The last six months have been the best of my life’
On Tuesday, Christen Press returned to team training with Angel City FC, exactly two years to the day from when she tore her ACL in a 2022 match against Racing Louisville. While her involvement in training is still limited, with her only taking part in the warm-ups and a passing drill to start, it’s one of the many milestones Press can celebrate on the arduous journey she’s undertaken for a full return to the sport.
As she noted in a call with The Athletic, most of those milestones have been reached in private. At first, she wanted this moment to be private too — well, as private as it could be with a full team and staff around, but in a closed practice where she could evaluate how she felt. With further thought, she changed her mind: this milestone was one that could be celebrated, and with so much uncertainty still left about what milestones remain, she might as well embrace this one.
“If this is something we can all celebrate, let’s just go for it, because this journey has been really, really long,” Press said on Monday, a little more than 24 hours out from the return to training. “When you don’t play, you do have a different relationship with the fanbase, and it’s nice to see this as the re-entry point. People are going to get videos of me in team training, and I’m just going to be around.”https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8FPTUapSHV/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com&rp=%2Fathletic%2F5556789%2F2024%2F06%2F11%2Fchristen-press-angel-city-uswnt-interview%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A2460.5%2C%22ls%22%3A1449.4000000059605%2C%22le%22%3A1715.5%7D
Back in February, Press referenced her “relentless optimism” that has helped her on this wildly unpredictable recovery process, which required four surgeries and resulted in her missing out entirely for competing for a 2023 World Cup roster spot. Her fourth surgery was timed right around when the USWNT was heading to New Zealand, which released her from being tied to a recovery timeline and feeling the pressure to return.
“When I found out I had to have the fourth surgery, I was like, well, I’m not going to the World Cup because I’ll be in surgery during the World Cup,” she said in February. “So that was the moment I actually exhaled. I had to grieve that.”
The release from external timelines has extended to another tournament, the Olympics, which Press said on Monday she’s never really focused on in terms of a potential return. Despite the standard recovery timelines lining up from her fourth and final ACL surgery, last summer’s World Cup experience wasn’t something she wanted to repeat.
“There’s no way your mind can’t start doing the math, right?” Press said this week, saying she’d catch herself counting down the weeks to this summer’s tournament. She doesn’t want to turn off the part of herself still dreaming and striving for a roster spot or any accomplishment on the field, but it’s all a balance.
There’s also a delicate emotional balance in other ways through the recovery process. She’s been in with the team at their training facility, watching the rest of the players train; she’s been at games supporting Angel City, too. Injuries can be isolating, but there’s a weight to being around the team, unable to participate.
“Some of the hardest days of my week are game days when I watch my team play, and there’s a lot of nuance to that. I do feel part of the team. I’m very loyal and dedicated to my teammates and to the club, but it’s actually really hard and painful to watch,” she said.
Having her own space at her physical therapy clinic provided a healing environment. One that lives outside the specific pressures and stresses of the week-to-week grind of the NWSL season, one where the coaches turn from a Friday night result to the new outlook of Monday morning.
“It was a huge blessing to be able to be outside of that, and then the re-entry has been just so great because I have been in a bubble. I’ve been saying, I’ve been bubble-wrapped for so long and now to get in and experience the shift in moods, the shift in energy that comes with preparing for a game and dealing with the results is really important,” she said, now having been more integrated with the team over the past three months.
She’s adjusted now, but shifting from the PT clinic, where she saw the same three people every day, to the full Angel City experience was a bit of a shock.
“It was so social,” she said, laughing a little, recalling just how many people were suddenly talking to her on a daily basis. “Oh my god, I am so introverted. I can’t be around 23 people that are asking me about my life. This is wild! I kept being like, I want to wear a shirt that says, ‘Please don’t ask me about my knee today.’”
Press during her return to training on Tuesday. (Photo: Angel City)
With the integration underway and the public milestone achieved, Press has also been busy with the return of The RE-CAP Show, which she hosts with Tobin Heath. Now into their third season, they’ve already recorded with guests like former USWNT player Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle (who both are in the Angel City investment group, too).
Press and Heath were among the first players to balance active careers with stepping into the media realm, a path shared by the likes of Sam Mewis, Becky Sauerbrunn, Lynn Williams, Midge Purce and others. But still the far more common path is for a player to retire, then start talking about soccer for a living. Press and Heath embrace the tension and perspective this provides.
“Neither Tobin nor I are retired, and neither Tobin nor I have put that chapter behind us,” she said. “We always say it’s a very unique insider/outsider perspective with the USWNT.” As she noted on Monday’s call, you can’t get cut from the national team — a player can always get left off a roster, but they’re also always in contention for the next one. “With the national team, we’re both like, ‘You never know.’ If we can play, we’re going for it right?”
Press noted that discussing the NWSL felt different to her on the show — she’s actively contracted to a team, after all. But either way, her and Heath approach the show with an “active eye” rather than two players who are looking back. But they’ve also focused on building a community along with their foray into the media space. Press has been providing videos with an intimate look into her recovery process for paying members of RE-INC, something that she didn’t think she’d want to create in a more public forum.
“We’ve been able to stay inside the women’s soccer community, having a relationship with our community and our fan base through it all,” Press said.
“We’re simply having the same conversation that we have on our living room couch. I carry a weight of being thoughtful and careful and intentional all the time, inside my own home, so it’s easy for me to translate that. So when we have our banter back and forth, we can stand in a place where we’re challenging each other, and that makes the show more of a provocation than an answer,” she continued. “It’s a question. It’s not an answer.”
Press’ reputation is built in many ways around that thoughtfulness, but it’s not an act either. And sometimes, the way she approaches the world in her “cerebral” fashion means that she wants things to make sense, like her ACL injury and all four surgeries. “I want this fairy tale story where I come back, I’m delightful — that’s actually what I want. ‘I went through all of this, and now you all find me delightful.’”
Press is also all too aware of another reputation, one earned because she’s not afraid to ask for what she wants. She’s fought for everything she wanted. She knows her value.
“Before, you called me a diva, and now I’m delightful. It’s not going to be like that; that’s not what life is. But I will say, the last year of my life — maybe even shorter, the last six months — have been the best of my life because of the space that my ACL created for me to heal as a human. I’m still on that journey, and I intend to stay on that journey.”
Press strikes the ball during training on Tuesday. (Photo: Angel City)
Press said this time has allowed her to process and work through all the things she wanted to work through when she actively took a break from the national team, following the previous Olympics. That was the last time she put on a USWNT jersey, after all, and it was and still is a big part of her identity. There have been chapters of her life since then though, and through the recovery process she has asked herself time and time again not when she wants to come back, but how.
She acknowledged there will be fear and pressure with this milestone and the ones yet to come, but the simple goal is for her to be delightful as a human being, for others to be around. Someone that can mentor or be good on the field, laugh at themselves and tease a little too. That doesn’t feel like too much to ask.
“Getting that role in the team where I can be happy and joyful and chasing excellence, really appreciating what I’m doing and what I’m able to do.” That’s what’s important, after a stretch when she did not enjoy the sport itself. “Because if I go back, and I go back and feel the same way that I did about soccer and winning and scoring, then that will feel like a bigger failure than not making it back at all.”
“The competitor in me and the perfectionist in me and the Capricorn in me and the Enneagram three in me just wants to be this delightful, great soccer player that has so much fun and scores all these goals and can totally deal with stress and is always laughing,” she said.
That’s the dream part. The real answer is simple. “With delight.” (Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
#INDvSA Preview
Indy Elevenvs San Antonio FC Saturday, June 15, 2024 – 7:00 p.m. ET Carroll Stadium – Indianapolis Dino Night
SETTING THE SCENE The Boys in Blue return to The Mike on Saturday to host San Antonio FC. This serves as the lone meeting between the two sides in USL Championship action this season, but the pair met up in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 (5.8) with Indy coming away with a 2-0 victory.
Indy is coming off a 1-0 win over Birmingham Legion FC and sits at 8-4-2 in third place in the Eastern Conference. San Antonio fell to Tulsa, 2-1, its last time out, and is 4-5-5 in the Western Conference.
IND
SA
14
Games
14
26
Goals
18
21
Goals Conceded
17
15
Assists
15
68
SOT
51
61
Shots Faced
57
2
Clean Sheets
3
SERIES VS. SAN ANTONIO Sunday marks only the third meeting all-time in USL Championship competition between the teams, but fourth meeting overall.
Indy Leads 1-0-1 | GF 4, GA 3
Recent Meetings May 8, 2024 ^ | W, 2-0 | Home Oct. 14, 2023 | D, 3-3 | Away Aug. 27, 2022 | W, 1-0 | Home ^denotes U.S. Open Cup match
GOALS The Boys in Blue have scored in 14 straight USLC matches to open the 2024 season, bringing their total to 26 goals (3rd USL). The streak is the longest to open a USLC campaign and is the longest run overall within the same season for the club. In total, Indy has scored in 17 straight regular season matches dating back to Sept. 30, 2023.
The Boys in Blue have 15 first-half goals this season, the second highest total in league play (Charleston, 16).
TOTW REGULARS Jack Blake has been named to the USL Championship Team of the Week five times in 2024, the most for any player in the league, while Aedan Stanley has three nods and a Player of the Week accolade to his name. Additionally, four players have had at least one selection in Younes Boudadi, Adrian Diz Pe, Benjamin Ofeimu and Augi Williams.
In total, six players have earned team of the week nods, while seven total have received either team or bench honors.
LAST TIME OUT BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Sunday, June 9, 2024) – Indy Eleven went on the road and defeated Birmingham Legion FC, 1-0, on Sunday.
Indy’s leading goal scorer Jack Blake got things started for the visiting team in the 34th minute, converting on his fifth penalty kick of the season. In addition to being a perfect 5-for-5 from the spot in 2024, Blake now has eight goals this campaign (T3 USLC) and 11 total over two seasons with the Boys in Blue. His five successful PKs are also the third most all-time for an Indy player in USL Championship action.
Indy is 6-for-6 from the spot this season (Williams).
The Boys in Blue outshot Birmingham 21-14 in the match, including a 9-1 advantage in shots on target. Blake posted a season-high eight shots and four on target.
Defensively, Callum Chapman-Page won a game-high three tackles and led the match with four clearances. Hunter Sulte was forced to make one save and picked up his second clean sheet in seven matches.
Scoring Summary IND – Jack Blake (penalty) 34’
Discipline Summary IND – Bench (caution) 90+3’
STREAKING The Boys in Blue are now unbeaten in 11 straight matches across all competitions, including a club-best seven straight wins in USL Championship matches. The last loss for Indy came on April 13 against Charleston Battery, who sits just three points ahead of third-place Indy in the Eastern Conference standings entering the weekend. Indy is now only one of 12 teams in USL Championship history to make it seven straight wins.
The Boys in Blue have outscored their opponents 22-6 in those matches, while posting five clean sheets and never conceding more than one goal.
4.17 Chicago Fire FC II^ W, 1-0 4.20 at Colorado Springs Switchbacks SC D, 1-1 4.27 North Carolina FC W, 2-1 5.4 at Monterey Bay F.C. W, 1-0 5.8 San Antonio FC^ W, 2-0 5.12 at Miami FC W, 3-1 5.18 Hartford Athletic W, 4-1 5.22 Detroit City FC^ W, 3-0 5.25 Phoenix Rising FC W, 2-1 6.1 at Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC W, 2-1 6.9 at Birmingham Legion FC W, 1-0 ^denotes U.S. Open Cup match
THIS IS MAY Indy Eleven finished off the month of May going 4-0-0 in USL Championship action and 6-0-0 across all competitions. The four wins for the Boys in Blue are the most so far this season for a side in the USLC to take maximum points in a month.
TOP-10 TEAMMATES Sebastian Guenzatti (6th, 73) and Augi Williams (9th, 71) serve as the only pair of active teammates in the USL Championship’s top 10 for all-time regular season goals. Williams currently sits at five goals in 2024, while Guenzatti has three. Williams also has a pair in U.S. Open Cup action this season to lead Indy.
ALLOW ME TO ASSIST YOU Aedan Stanley has a league-best seven assists, which includes his first career multi-assist game, a two-helper performance against his old club Miami FC on May 12. He also has a team-high two in Open Cup games. Stanley has 15 career USL Championship assists, posting no more that three in a season before 2024.
2024: 7 | 2023: 3 | 2022: 3 | 2020: 2
THE [NEW] GAFFER 2024 is Indy’s first season under head coach Sean McAuley, who previously served as interim head coach/assistant at MLS-side Minnesota United FC. McAuley helped Minnesota to playoff appearances in each of his first three seasons, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2020. In 2015, he hoisted the MLS Cup with Portland Timbers. McAuley opened his playing career with Manchester United and played for Portland Timbers and the U-21 Scottish National Team, among others.
McAuley got his first career win in the USL Championship on March 16, 2024, a 2-1 defeat of Memphis 901 FC.
USLC : 8-4-2 | USOC: 3-0-0 | OVERALL: 11-4-2
IN THE WIN COLUMN The Boys in Blue had 13 regular-season wins in 2023 tied for the second most during a USL Championship season (2018) and behind the 19 victories from the 2019 season. Indy currently has eight in 2024, a total not reached until August 12 a season ago.
US Men lose 5-1 to Colombia play Brazil Wednesday night at 7 pm on TNT
Ok so I watched again before writing this. On the bright side we were down 2-1 with 75 minutes to go to a team that is unbeaten in 22 straight games in South American qualifying which included wins over Brazil, England, Germany and more. The bad news – we subbed in Cameron Carter Vickers at center back and immediately gave up 3 goals. The Celtic Man Vickers should not see the field again this summer – Miles Robinson is 5 times better than him – MLS player be damned. (Heck I would prefer Miles & Zimmerman at the centerback spots there right now – at least they will fight!) Each were dumb give-aways, but 5-1 is hard to explain when 2-1 or even 2-2 looked to be the result coming with 15 minutes left. Also on the bad side – our starting keeper Matt Turner was HORRIFIC – of the 5 goals I would say 3 of them were definitely save-able balls. I am not sure Tim Howard gives up more than 1 on the night. It’s time to give Ethan Horvath a game – Turner is proving his 4 months with no games at Nottingham Forest have cost him.
On the good side right back Joe Scally was amazing – basically keeping the electric Liverpool man Luis Diaz in check – while in for Dest. Dmid Johnny Cardosa was fantastic until the 75th minute mark when his giveaway gave up the deciding 3rd goal, he’s no Adams – but he proved the #6 should be his spot when Adams is not healthy. I thought Weah was good on the right wing, (not so good at right back) and substitute Haji Wright was electric when he checked in for Pulisic. I think Haji deserves a shot up top as the #9 – Balogen seemed disconnected like he has been for months now. Of course everyone is calling for Berhalter’s head again – and while I am not pleased with the result – GB did not give-away 3 balls inside his own half leading to 3 stupid easy goals. Now – he needs to regroup this team – get them ready for Brazil and NOT lose by more than 1 goal to Brazil. We had 0ver 60% possession on the night – which is nice but Colombia outshot us 17-5. I have always thought the US should be a counter attacking team rather than trying to control the tempo – with Pulisic and Weah on the wings – Mckinney in the midfield – and Reyna quarterbacking the middle – I just love the idea of counter attacking with a vengeance. Maybe we’ll see that vs Brazil and into the Copa America. Listen lost to Brazil by 3 goals or more – not advance past the group stages of Copa and Berhalter should be fired. We’ll finish 2nd in the group on Copa but my excitement for this team going to the Semi’s is basically dead at this point. I am hoping for a 3-2 or 2-1 loss on the night? Wouldn’t a 2-2 be nice? Listen Mexico righted the ship vs Brazil why not the US?
Here’s my starters for Wed night 7 pm on TNT vs Brazil:
Indy 11 Bring 11 game unbeaten streak home vs San Antonio this Sat Night at the Mike.
The Boys in Blue closed out a two-match road trip Sunday night with a win against Birmingham Legion FC. Indy sits at 8-4-2 in third place in the Eastern Conference and return home to host San Antonio FC this Saturday, June 15 at the Mike. Single-game tickets are available for all matches via Ticketmaster. Great Story about Carmel Dad’s Club’s own Cam Lindley and his journey back to Indy 11. The 11 Ladies will host King’s Hammer FC Wed night 7 pm at Grand Park Events Center – tix just $10.
Euro’s Start Friday
The European Championships start Friday — I have included some preview stories below – I will have my full preview and predictions Friday. Copa America of course starts the following weekend as the summer of soccer 2024 on Fox gets underway.
Carmel High Girls Soccer Camp July 22-25
2-4:30 pm @ Murray Stadium Register Here contact fdixon@ccs.k1.in.us for more info
GAMES ON TV to WATCH
Wed, June 12
7 pm TNT, Tele US Men vs Brazil
Fri, June 14 Euro 2024 Begins
3 pm Fox Germany vs Scotland
8 pm Amazon Prime KC Current vs Chicago Red Stars NWSL
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The U.S. men’s national team’s game against Colombia was always meant to be a tune-up for Copa América this summer. A pair of games, ending Wednesday in Orlando against Brazil, was the last chance for the U.S. to test options before the tournament. On Saturday in Landover, Maryland, the U.S. had plenty to take away on what not to do.They were sloppy in the back and gave Colombia several chances, and Los Cafeteros did not waste them.The result was an ugly 5-1 scoreline that leaves the U.S. knowing they have plenty of work to do before the Copa América starts — especially considering Colombia is a potential knockout round opponent if the U.S. advances from the group stage.“We’re nowhere near the level we need to play at if we want to win games coming into Copa América,” U.S. winger Christian Pulisic said. “It’s better that it happened now, but we can’t be anywhere near playing like that and expect to win games.”The concern about this U.S. team was whether they could beat big opponents on big stages. This game only enhanced those questions.“We’re not framing it as a lesson learned,” U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter said. “We’re actually framing it as a wake-up call. Really poor performance against a top team and I think if you give, or I know if you give a team like that the opportunities that we gave them, you’re going to have no chance to win. It’s never going to happen. And that’s what’s really disappointing about the game.”
Should fans worry about the U.S. defense?
Simply put, it was one of the worst performances in recent memory we’ve seen from the U.S. backline.
Part of that might be chalked up to the level of the opponent, but there were also far too many mistakes from players who are considered some of the most reliable in this U.S. pool. The U.S. made errors that gave too many chances to Colombia, and Colombia finished those looks easily and gratefully.
The issues weren’t isolated to one or two players. Center back Tim Ream wasn’t as clean as we have come to expect in a U.S. uniform. Part of that might be because he played just one Premier League game for Fulham since February 17. If Ream is going to be the starter in Copa, getting these minutes in the friendlies is vital, but the hiccups probably aren’t unexpected.
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Antonee Robinson, who has been one of the highest-floor players for the U.S. in the last three years, had an off day. Cameron Carter-Vickers had a poor giveaway that led directly to a goal in the second half. Johnny Cardoso struggled in midfield starting at the No. 6 in his biggest opportunity so far in a U.S. jersey. Even goalkeeper Matt Turner, who didn’t play much this year for Nottingham Forest, looked shaky in net, giving up a couple of goals at the near post.
Colombia’s third goal saw seven U.S. defenders in the box, yet none picked up the late Colombian runners for an easy finish. It was the start of a final 15 minutes that was as ugly as you’ll see.
“From the 75th minute on, it was, I think, a lack of respect for our opponent, the game of soccer, what we were doing,” Berhalter said. “And the sad thing is it overshadows how we got back into the game, how we were aggressive, how we had them on their heels, and they were struggling for a moment when it was 2-1, and we weren’t able to capitalize that on it and then the game went to pieces late in the match.”
The attacking side for the U.S. has typically been the area we’ve spent most of our time analyzing. What can the U.S. do better to find more goals? Against Colombia, however, there were just too many bad moments that gave Los Cafeteros easy looks at goal in transition and it led to a blowout loss.
The U.S. is going to have to be much better against Brazil on Wednesday, and in the Copa after that.
Did the U.S. get a necessary ‘wake-up call’?
Multiple times during the press conference, Berhalter called the performance a “wake-up call.” It better be for the U.S.There has never been this much hype around a U.S. men’s national team. The starting lineup consisted completely of players who play overseas. There were starters from AC Milan, Juventus, Monaco, Crystal Palace and Fulham, among others, on the field. The expectations going into the Copa América are to contend for a trophy. What we saw on Saturday night was far short of that.This performance puts everyone on notice. No doubt that means Berhalter, too, as he has been entrusted with taking this team from young upstarts into a group that should be peaking when the World Cup comes to these shores in two years’ time.“We take responsibility as a coaching staff, for sure,” Berhalter said. “We can’t put this all on the players. It’s our job to prepare them with a game plan, and then it’s about execution. And I think that this game will help us understand that when we don’t do things we’re supposed to do, we’ll get hurt really quickly.”
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The Copa is about playing big games against big opponents. That’s what these friendlies were supposed to be, too.“It’s about understanding what it takes to beat teams like this,” Berhalter said. “And when I said a wake up call, there’s some glaring things that you have to address if you’re going to compete at this level. And so we just go back to work. Our mindset the whole time is we want to improve. We want to get better. We want to use every opportunity, every game we play to keep improving. And we’ll certainly keep the same theme in this one.”It will be difficult to know where to start. As noted above, the U.S. was sloppy and disjointed defensively, even before things got truly ugly late. The bright moments in the game were never connected enough to truly threaten Colombia for extended periods.
What were the USMNT’s early errors?
The frustration for the U.S. wasn’t just about the hole they found themselves in 20 minutes into Saturday’s game against Colombia. It was how they found themselves there.
Robinson went to the ground to prevent a ball from sliding in behind him, but there was no run coming. That led to an easy first goal. Then, Tim Ream’s mistake playing out of the back eventually led to a corner kick that wasn’t cleared and was finished by Borre at the back post. Again, a preventable goal.The U.S. was lucky to avoid a third when Antonee Robinson turned it over in the 61st minute inside his own half and the counter led to Luis Diaz’s shot hitting off the inside of the post, rolling across the face of goal and out.
The U.S. is very much still the underdog against teams like Colombia and, on Wednesday in Orlando, Brazil. The U.S. was 3-13-5 all-time vs. Colombia going into the game, their second-worst record against any opponent. The worst? Brazil. The USMNT is 1-18-0 against the Seleção all-time. Considering the records, considering the opponents, the U.S. has to play a clean game. They can’t give away easy half-chances. If they do, the result is what we saw against Colombia: Two mistakes from the back line, and two goals for Colombia.he final 15 minutes was a true lesson in the level needed to compete against good teams. There was a lot of bad and a lot of blame to go around.“You can go back and check the goals,” Berhalter said, of spreading the issues around beyond one or two individuals. “It’s midfielders not recovering, it’s guys losing the ball in positions when our fullbacks are high, they got hung out to dry a number of occasions. It’s a second phase from a set piece. It’s a miscue on a ball that’s going out of bounds in the first six minutes of the game. So, it’s a collective thing and the reason why I’m so disappointed is because guys just didn’t do their job.”
Weah was a rare bright spot for the U.S. against Colombia. (Photo by Greg Fiume/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
When we talk about core players for the U.S. men’s national team, so often the same names come up: Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams. Weah, though, has been one of the most consistent starters and performers for the U.S., putting in quietly dangerous outings in qualifiers, Qatar, where he scored the first goal of the tournament for the U.S., and Nations League.
So much of the damage Weah has caused for the U.S. has been through his verticality on the wing. He takes defenders on, can beat you to the end line and is also dangerous arriving in the box to finish. On Saturday, he showed a bit more of what he can do.
Weah dropped centrally to get on the ball, turned after receiving a pass from Gio Reyna and curled a pass wide to Folarin Balogun. Weah then sprinted into the box, signaling to Balogun where he wanted to get it back, then blistered a shot to the far post when Balogun laid it out to him.
With the right back spot somewhat open, there has been talk about playing Weah there considering he has played right wingback for Juventus. His goal against Colombia showed some of the attacking edge you might lose by dropping Weah deeper on the field.
Pulisic left the game at halftime due to managing his minutes. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
How did Christian Pulisic look in 45 minutes?
Pulisic played just 45 minutes for the U.S. on Saturday, as he was pulled at halftime in a planned substitution to manage his minutes ahead of the Copa América tournament, but there were a few important takeaways from the 45 minutes .First, Pulisic wore the armband. We’ve seen Pulisic take on more of a leadership role with this U.S. team beyond just his on-field performances. He seems willing to embrace other aspects of leadership, and though this is not the first time seeing him wearing the captain’s armband, I think it’s taking on more significance for the team’s biggest star. Secondly, Pulisic was the most dangerous player for the U.S. in the first half, and that is what the USMNT is going to need to see from the winger if they want to be successful in the Copa. Pulisic was the best-attacking player for the U.S. in Qatar and tends to step up on the biggest stages. Coming off of a career club season, the U.S. will need him to carry it over. Against Colombia, he hit the post on a header and also served in a dangerous cross in the 42nd minute. One thing we didn’t see that I wonder if we will during the Copa: Pulisic and Weah switching sides during the game to unbalance opponents, especially considering Pulisic’s success playing on the right for AC Milan.
What next for USMNT?
Wednesday, June 12: Brazil (Camping World Stadium, Orlando), friendly, 7 pm ET
USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner apologises to fans after 5-1 defeat to Colombia
United States goalkeeper Matt Turner apologised to the national team fans after their 5-1 defeat against Colombia on Saturday.Gregg Berhalter’s side suffered a heavy defeat in Maryland in their penultimate warm-up match for this summer’s Copa America, which the U.S. is hosting.Jhon Arias, Rafael Borre, Richard Rios, Jorge Carrascal and Luis Sinisterra were all on target for Colombia, with Timothy Weah’s goal just before the hour mark proving to be just a consolation for the U.S.“We didn’t have any answers for the way Colombia changed themselves, changed the way they pressed,” Turner said after the match. “They had a different intensity about them that we didn’t have for the game. “So it’s really, really disappointing in front of such a great crowd to perform like that, so I want to apologise to the fans as well, because that’s not what we’re about and we need to bounce back in a big way.”
Weah was a rare bright spot for the U.S. against Colombia. (Greg Fiume/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
The Nottingham Forest goalkeeper said he was “obviously disappointed” with his personal performance and added that he and his team-mates “need to look in the mirror” after the result. The U.S. play Brazil on June 12 to conclude their preparation for the Copa America. They get their campaign underway against Bolivia on June 23, before taking on Panama four days later and finalising their group stage campaign against Uruguay on July 1. (John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
USMNT international Brenden Aaronson to stay at Leeds United
U.S. international midfielder Brenden Aaronson will stay at Leeds United this season after a positive conversation with head coach Daniel Farke, sources briefed on the situation tell The Athletic.Aaronson still had an active release clause in which he could have left on a free loan again and had interest in Germany, but opted to return to Leeds. Aaronson spent the 2023/24 season on loan at Union Berlin. The player feels he has unfinished business in England and Farke plans for the American to play a key role in their promotion push, sources say.Leeds lost in the Championship playoff final against Southampton after finishing third in the table.
Aaronson, 23, had a difficult start to life in Germany, but finished strong. He appeared in 30 of the club’s 34 league games and all six Champions League games.The Yorkshire Evening Post first reported Aaronson was likely to stay at Leeds this summer.The Athletic first revealed the relegation release clause in Aaronson’s contract last summer, which meant interested clubs needed only to cover his full salary as part of the deal. That clause remains active.Aaronson appeared in 36 of the club’s 38 Premier League games in 2022-23 as they suffered relegation. He was criticized by fans for lack of goal contributions, particularly with his hefty price tag. Leeds initially signed Aaronson in the summer of 2022 for £25million ($30m) from RB Salzburg. The U.S. international is preparing for the Copa America and already has 40 caps with the national team.
Euro 2024 Group A guide: Germany’s narrow No 10s, resolute Hungary and Scotland’s set pieces
Six groups, with 24 teams in total, playing 51 games in 31 days — Euro 2024 is going to be relentless.
To help you navigate and prepare, The Athletic has compiled guides to each of the groups. They detail each team’s tactics, key players, weaknesses, stats and quirks.
Expect screengrabs to show team shapes and tactics-board GIFs demonstrating attacking rotations and pressing structures. There will be podcast clips and videos embedded for further reading/listening.
First up, it’s… Group A, where the host nation Germany are joined by Hungary, Scotland and Switzerland. All four were at the previous European Championship three years ago, though none of them went beyond the quarter-finals. It is a group of back threes, No 10s and set pieces. Let’s go.
Had they not qualified by virtue of being the hosts, Germany might not have been at this tournament. By their standards, 2023 was disastrous — six defeats from their 11 games, including three consecutive losses for the first time since 1985.
It was their most defeats in a calendar year since 2018 and also their most goals conceded (22) since 2012. Bad records to break at any time, especially in a year without a major tournament and with evidence that the problems we saw during their 2022 World Cup group-stage exit had not been solved.
Nagelsmann became the second-youngest men’s national-team head coach in Germany’s history, replacing Hansi Flick — who was sacked after just 25 games. When asked the classic football-philosophy question in his first press conference, Nagelsmann described it as “healthy aggression towards the opponent’s goal, which doesn’t only apply when in possession. We want to cause problems for our opponents.” He alluded to principles rather than patterns in attacking, saying that “it won’t be as complex as it can be in club football. It’s about giving the players something to identify with.”
Despite the limited time he’s had in the job, Nagelsmann has trialled various systems and personnel — 31 players featured in his first six games. He started with a narrow 4-4-2, followed by a 4-2-3-1 with a pure No 9, switched to a back three with Kai Havertz at wing-back, and settled on a 4-2-3-1 with Havertz as a false nine. The Arsenal forward frequently drops in to overload midfield, while central midfielder Toni Kroos rotates out to the left frequently. This pushes the left-back, Maximilian Mittelstadt, upfield.
Boldly, the attack is structured around two 21-year-olds in Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz — narrow No 10s who play either side of captain Ilkay Gundogan. This trio have freedom to roam and rotate.
Build-up is patient, packed with short passes trying to shift opponents so that lanes into the No 10s are opened. Expect up-back-through patterns, centre-backs trying ambitious balls into the forwards and occasional passes in behind if the opposition play a high defensive line and do not put pressure on the ball. With three (arguably four) No 10s, Germany have plenty of midfield runners to attack that space — see their second goal away against France in a March friendly.
They press aggressively, locking on man-for-man out wide. The 4-2-3-1 tends to shift to a 4-4-2, allowing them to mark and cover opposition central midfielders before stepping out, though they take risks by pushing full-backs high to press opposition full-backs. Considering Nagelsmann hasn’t been in charge for long, it is well co-ordinated.
Germany showed against France and the Netherlands, their other opponents in March, that they can disrupt the build-up of Europe’s best sides. Equally, when played through, their back line is exposed, centre-backs are pulled wide and opposition midfielders can exploit space in behind the Germany full-backs.
High risk, high reward.
Key player(s)
Kroos came out of international retirement in February at the age of 34, after nearly three years away, and says he will hang up his boots for good whenever Germany’s tournament ends.
He is ninth on Germany’s caps list, and made his return in the impressive wins at home to the Netherlands and away to France in March. He provided assists in both games — a precise chip into midfield for Wirtz’s kick-off goal away to the French, and an inswinging corner for Niclas Fullkrug’s winner against the Dutch.
Kroos joins Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lothar Matthaus and Lukas Podolski as Germans to play in four European Championships. Nagelsmann’s play-style suits, and needs, Kroos’ distribution and line-breaking abilities.
Finishing. They were the most wasteful team at the World Cup 18 months ago, scoring six goals from chances worth over 10 expected goals. In their 25 games under Flick, no player reached double digits for goals. So this problem predates Nagelsmann, and there is no straightforward solution.
Havertz suits the passing style but has been a wasteful finisher in recent seasons, whereas Nagelsmann’s goalscoring options have box forwards and target man profiles. Borussia Dortmund’s Fullkrug is the standout, with 11 goals in 16 caps — including five in 10 substitute appearances. He came off the bench in all three World Cup games, scoring twice.
Fullkrug (12 league goals), along with Deniz Undav (18) and Maximilian Beier (16), were three of the top five German scorers in Europe’s top-five leagues in 2023-24. They all play in the Bundesliga.
German strikers currently fit one of three categories: stylistically suited (Havertz), experienced (see Thomas Muller) or goalscorers (the three above).
Kai Havertz (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
One thing to watch out for
Germany must fight the form books to win. They reached four semi-finals and three finals in eight major tournaments between 2002 and 2016, winning the 2014 World Cup. Since a semi-final finish at Euro 2016, however, they have not won a knockout game.
Compounding that, none of the past 10 host nations have won the European Championship — France in 1984, Italy in 1968 and Spain in 1964 are the only three countries to win the competition when staging it. England (Euro 2020), France (2016) and Portugal (2004) have all lost the final on home soil more recently.
How to follow the European Championship on The Athletic…
Steve Clarke’s contract was extended until 2026 in March. It was recognition for Scotland achieving Euros qualification, and how they did it. Clarke, Scotland’s longest-serving national team manager since Craig Brown between 1993 and 2001, has evolved a squad and implemented a clear style.
He coached Scotland to and in Euro 2020, their first major tournament in 23 years. No wins and only one goal from the three group matches made for a sobering tournament, despite an excellent defensive performance to draw 0-0 against England at Wembley.
Qualification suggests they are better this time around. Scotland won their first five group games, notably beating Spain 2-0. They play a 3-4-2-1 and defend in a 5-4-1.
It is a partial truth but really an oversimplification to see their system as a way to fit Kieran Tierney and Andy Robertson, two top-level left-backs, into the same team. Tierney plays left centre-back, as Scotland’s best forward passer and with impressive range, and underlaps in attack. It allows Robertson to play a wing-back role, perfect for his athleticism and final ball.
Clarke plays two narrow No 10s behind a target-man No 9. The first-choices for that pairing are John McGinn and Ryan Christie, who both play on the opposite side to their dominant foot. This sets them up to deliver back-post crosses and hit switches when they have their back to goal. The latter is important as they are often the out-ball when the back five win duels and launch counter-attacks.
“A few years ago, we played with that deep block against the teams seeded above us and made it difficult for them and looked to counter,” said Clarke after March’s friendly defeat against Northern Ireland. Scotland are evolving beyond just underdog football, and on their good days mix build-up between playing through the thirds and hitting the forwards directly.
They defend across the pitch more, sometimes sitting deep but pressing high specifically at opposition goal kicks. This is typically man-for-man, and they drop to a mid-block quickly if the press is broken.
Key player(s)
McGinn is Scotland’s top scorer (17) under Clarke, playing in all but three of his 55 games in charge. McGinn’s role varies, sometimes crashing the box, linking play in deeper positions, providing the final ball himself and offering a long shot.
Scotland will benefit from McGinn going into the tournament on the back of his best-ever top-flight season, one in which he helped Aston Villa to fourth place in the Premier League, and a return to the European Cup/Champions League after 42 years.
“The way we play, the way the team is structured, is for that striker to help the midfield to score goals,” said Clarke. This applies to Scott McTominay, too. The Manchester United midfielder plays deeper than McGinn in build-up but attacks the box as an auxiliary striker. He scored seven of Scotland’s 17 qualifying goals “I’d be lying if I said I’d expected it,” said Clarke. “I tweaked his position a little bit, I allowed him a little bit more freedom to get forward and suddenly he was scoring goals.”
What’s their weakness?
Scotland’s recent performances against Spain and England are exceptions to the rule. Under Clarke, they have only won once in 10 games against opponents who were in the top 20 of FIFA’s world rankings. Their starting XI, individually and collectively, is better than at the previous Euros, but Clarke partly picks a consistent team because of a lack of quality depth options — especially at right wing-back beyond Nathan Patterson and Aaron Hickey, who both miss this tournament through injury.
Scotland were excellent for 70 minutes in March against the Netherlands, mixing their attacking and defensive approaches, but eventually faded and lost 4-0.
Before beating Gibraltar 2-0 last Monday, they had gone seven games without a win (19 goals conceded) for the first time since 1997-98. That run also included friendly defeats against England and France, and draws in the final two qualification matches after sealing their place in Germany, and quite crudely suggests a glass ceiling. Scotland are not a nation with great tournament history, with group-stage exits in all 11 appearances at World Cups and European Championships.
One thing to watch out for
Austin MacPhee is Scotland’s set-piece coach, working with both them and Villa at club level since the start of the 2021-22 season. Scotland have plenty of height and in playing a back three have aerial threats aplenty for both boxes — their success or not in defending crosses often determines their results against better teams.
There were identical headed goals by Lyndon Dykes (who misses these Euros through injury) from inswinging corners in the 3-0 win against Ukraine in the 2022 Nations League. James Forrest’s deliveries to the corner of the box, at the near post, resembled typical Villa inswinging corners from the left.
McGinn, who works with MacPhee at Villa, delivers fantastic deep inswingers from the right. That delivery created goals against Austria, Denmark (both 2021), Armenia (2022) and, most significantly, the winner in their 3-2 victory at home against Israel in 2022 World Cup qualification.
Switzerland: perennially decent. They have qualified from the groups at four of the past five major tournaments but only won one knockout tie, beating France on penalties at Euro 2020.
Yakin had promised the “best World Cup ever” from “the best Switzerland national team that has ever existed”, and they fell well short. Euro 2024 qualifying then did little to vindicate him, with too many draws (five) meaning Switzerland finished second behind Romania in a favourable group. The Swiss FA have publicly backed Yakin, who said he would “try a few things” in the March internationals.
He has trialled a permanent 3-4-2-1 with and without the ball, though Switzerland have attacked in that shape previously. The team is structured around three key left-footers, who are all among the nation’s four most-capped players.
Ricardo Rodriguez plays on the left of the back three, as he does for his Italian club side Torino (who play the same shape). Central midfielder Granit Xhaka is often the deepest midfielder in build-up and sometimes a box-crashing threat. Right-winger Xherdan Shaqiri has a free role. He provides back-post inswinging crosses and picks apart defences with dribbles or long shots. Switzerland often hit big switches to him and Shaqiri is supported by an overlapping central midfielder.
Against inferior opposition, their individual quality shines and they score stylish cutback goals — see Renato Steffen’s hat-trick in their 5-0 win over Belarus, where all three goals came from cutback moves from the left. When facing a superior side, expect early crosses, as Switzerland rarely get sustained possession upfield and struggle to play through a co-ordinated high press.
They had the second-highest possession average (71 per cent) in qualifying, but this is less a reflection of controlling matches and more that they faced weaker opposition. Yakin says Switzerland want to dominate the ball but they must shore up the defensive base — 11 goals conceded was the leakiest defence of any team to qualify for these Euros.
In the March internationals, they mixed between mid-block defending in a 5-4-1 or 5-2-3, and pressing man-for-man. It worked better, keeping clean sheets against Denmark and the Republic of Ireland (who also played back threes).
Key player(s)
Other players might play bigger roles in qualifying, but Shaqiri’s finals record speaks for itself. Switzerland have scored 28 goals across their past five appearances at World Cups and Euros, and 13 were either scored or assisted by Shaqiri, an ever-present at those tournaments. He is a triple threat of dribbler, passer and finisher, takes set pieces and can play as the false nine too, which he did in March’s game in Dublin.
At the other end, Switzerland will hope goalkeeper Yann Sommer can carry his club form into the Euros. He kept 19 clean sheets and only conceded 19 goals in 34 games last season as Inter Milan won the Serie A title — his international record is 34 clean sheets in 89 caps, conceding less than a goal per game (88 in total).
What’s their weakness?
Conceding late goals. Six of the 11 scored against Switzerland in qualifying came after the 80th minute and contributed greatly to them having so many draws. These goals had no repeatable pattern but a common theme of individual errors despite sound structures: the back five losing/not tracking runners in-behind (without enough pressure on the ball) in settled defence, losing first contacts at crosses and defending set pieces badly.
Such poor game-management belies their individual experience — Sommer, 35, was in goal for all six of those concessions — and is atypical for a team defending in a back five. It needs resolving.
One thing to watch out for
Burnley’s Zeki Amdouni. Vincent Kompany, his manager last season who is now in charge at Bayern Munich, has called the 23-year-old a “natural goalscorer”. He was Switzerland’s top scorer in qualifying (six), averaging a goal every 83 minutes. He is a flexible forward, equally threatening against set defences as in transition, with the ball at his feet or attacking crosses/passes in behind. He may not start, but could prove an excellent substitute.
Hungary have grown exponentially as a footballing force in the past two years.
Questions were asked of Marco Rossi after a group-stage exit at Euro 2020 and their failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.
The Italian, in charge since June 2018, is their longest-serving national-team boss since Lajos Baroti in the 1950s and 1960s. Hungary’s 2022-23 Nations League performance set a marker, finishing second in a group that included Euro 2020 winners Italy and runners-up England, plus Germany.
Those games showed Hungary at their best under Rossi: defensively strong, dropping into a typically-Italian 5-4-1 in their own half. They conceded just seven big chances across the six Nations League games, half as many as they created (14). Successful and sustainable.
Rossi’s favourite game of that Nations League run was not Hungary’s first win in Germany (1-0) since 2004 or in England (4-0) since 1954, but rather the 1-1 draw at home to the Germans. His explanation: because they “could only get behind us twice or three times, it was an almost perfect 90 minutes from a professional perspective”. Germany had 67 per cent possession that day but were outshot 11-6, and only managed one big chance and one shot on target (Hungary had four big chances and seven efforts on target).
The Nations League success proved no fluke, as Hungary qualified for these Euros without losing. They only conceded seven goals in their eight matches and 2023 became their first calendar year without a defeat since 1976. Hungary defend with more aggression now than at Euro 2020, where they had the least intense defensive approach based on opposition passes allowed per defensive action (25.9).
The centre-backs, especially Adam Lang on the right side, defend touch-tight. Central midfielders mark aggressively and the No 10s stay high to press centre-backs. The No 9 drops onto either the midfield pivot or a centre-back who steps out.
Hungary often lock on man-for-man when opponents play wide. All these jumps, especially from centre-backs, can leave exploitable space in-behind if the timing is not perfect. Equally, when well co-ordinated, it forces turnovers from which they can counter.
No 9s rarely have good games against Hungary. Since Euro 2020, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Harry Kane and Timo Werner have started a combined nine games against them and only scored one goal. Three very different strikers, all of which Hungary can defend. They are adaptable.
Their biggest vulnerability in settled defending is direct balls and runs inside the wing-back, especially back-post crosses delivered from their right and targeting left wing-back Milos Kerkez. Hungary defend better than they attack, but their rotational build-up approach has caused problems when they play long.
On paper, it looks like a box midfield in a 3-4-2-1, though the left No 6 regularly rotates out to the left centre-back spot, pushing that side’s centre-back and wing-back upfield.
Here’s how that looked against Italy in September 2022, where another of their typical rotations can be seen — the wing-back and No 10 trading places (see Loic Nego out wide).
Similarly against Germany three months earlier, this time with Callum Styles, of Barnsley in League One, the third tier of English football, fulfilling Andras Schafer’s role and no wing-back/No 10 rotation on the right.
All this is designed to get more bodies on the last line, especially when they are up against a back four.
Their first pass typically is short, but under pressure Hungary’s back line play direct to the No 9 rather than through midfield. Expect wing-back to wing-back switches and runs in behind, while their build-up patterns of defender to No 9 to No 10 to release the wing-back are reminiscent of Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan.
Hungary are strong at seeing out leads: they are unbeaten in the last 28 games when scoring first, which includes going ahead against France (once), Germany (three times) and England (three times).
Key player(s)
Dominik Szoboszlai became captain after Adam Szalai’s international retirement in September 2022. The 3-4-2-1 structure frees the Liverpool midfielder to play No 10 and rotate, maximising his passing range. Sometimes he drops into the box at goal kicks, receives from the goalkeeper and hits long balls.
Szoboszlai is Hungary’s key man against low blocks and weaker opposition, though this owes to the No 6s too.
The first-choice pairing here are Adam Nagy and Schafer. Nagy has played 57 of Rossi’s 63 games, and is often the lone pivot when Schafer rotates to left centre-back. The pair are tough tacklers, Schafer is a comfortable dribbler from the back and Nagy likes a diagonal.
What’s their weakness?
Dominating games. After all, Hungary had the fewest open-play sequences of 10-plus passes at Euro 2020. In qualifying, their possession ranged between 36 and 72 per cent, and they only managed eight goals from open play. When they have played expansively, notably at home to Serbia in qualifying, they looked vulnerable to counter-attacks.
“It could be harder against them (group opponents Montenegro, Bulgaria and Lithuania) than it was against the classy teams in the Nations League,” said Rossi before the start of qualifying. “It will almost be a completely new situation for us to have the burden of being favourites on our shoulders.”
Rossi emphasises they are a “young, developing team,” but in the group matches against Switzerland and Scotland — both likely to go with back fives themselves — Hungary will have to play more than just underdog football if they are to qualify for the knockout phase.
One thing to watch for
Set pieces. No team bettered Hungary’s six set-piece goals in qualifying. Szoboszlai takes most of these, and is also 17 out of 18 from the penalty spot in his senior career (94 per cent).
Like Scotland, playing three centre-backs and a tall No 9 means Hungary have aerial threats aplenty, and they defend corners almost exclusively man-to-man. Here’s their national-team analyst, Istvan Beregi, examining set pieces.
How will Italy set up under Luciano Spalletti? What’s the Spanish quirk we should look out for? What can we expect from Albania?
Euro 2024 is nearly upon us and The Athletic will be running in-depth tactical group guides so you know what to expect from every nation competing in Germany.
We’ll look at each team’s playing style, strengths, weaknesses and key players, and highlight things to keep an eye on during the tournament.
Expect to see screengrabs analysing tactical moments in games, embedded videos of key clips to watch, the occasional podcast clip and data visualisation to highlight patterns and trends — think of yourself as a national team head coach and this a mini opposition dossier for you to read pre-match.
This time we’re looking at Group B, which features Spain, Italy, Croatia and Albania.
If you haven’t watched Spain for a while and have only a basic idea about how they might play, you are still probably on the right track.
Under head coach Luis de la Fuente, Spain are still looking to dominate possession in a 4-3-3 shape on the ball with a focus on combinations down the flanks between the winger, the full-back and the No 8.
The prominence of Spain’s wingers, such as Lamine Yamal, has also led to more crosses into the penalty area. In Euro 2024 qualifying matches, De la Fuente’s side had the fourth-most crosses per game (26.3) of the 53 nations competing for a place in the final tournament.
This approach tallies well with the head coach’s choices for the striker position. Morata is strong in the air and Joselu has been making a positive impact off the bench, too, scoring four goals from his nine substitute appearances.
On top of that, Mikel Merino, Fabian Ruiz or whoever is playing as a No 8 constantly makes off-ball runs into the box to provide the winger or the full-back with multiple options.
Another feature of Spain’s game in possession is Morata’s tendency to drop and offer himself as a passing option in the middle of the pitch, which makes him a viable option as a false nine if he is needed to play that role.
Off the ball, Spain defend in a 4-4-2 — like the majority of the top football teams in the world — with one of the central midfielders moving up next to Morata or Joselu. When they lose possession, they focus on winning the ball back quickly to limit the opponent’s transitions.
The level Rodri has maintained in the last couple of years positions him as one of the best midfielders in the world, if not the best. He is vital to Manchester City and Spain.
Rodri’s ability to dictate the tempo, receive the ball under pressure and split the opponent’s line is only matched by his off-ball prowess. He is always in the right position when his team have the ball, which allows him to win the ball back quickly once it is lost, and his defensive presence is complemented by his smart positioning when Spain are out of possession, too.
Great players might drop a level or two on the international stage, but Rodri elevates Spain to another dimension.
(Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Pedri has only featured twice for Spain since the 2022 World Cup, and the recurring muscle injuries meant that he only started 21 matches for Barcelona in the 2023-24 season.
His match fitness is a concern, but he is Spain’s best No 8 and his performance against Northern Ireland on Saturday should bring back some hope regarding the levels he could reach in the tournament.
What is their weakness?
Not necessarily a weakness in their playing style, but missing Gavi, one of their best midfielders, is Spain’s biggest problem entering this tournament. Gavi was the only player to feature in all of De la Fuente’s games until his injury against Georgia. His off-ball movement and intensity were crucial in Spain’s qualifiers and those qualities will be missed.
One thing to watch out for…
If Spain’s passing combinations down one side of the pitch are halted by the opponent’s defence, they look to switch the ball quickly to the other side to try to put their winger in a one-versus-one situation or create an overload using the full-back.
Looking at the number of attempted switches of play — which is defined by Opta as any pass that travels at least 60 per cent of the width of the pitch — Spain’s 7.5 per game was the second-most of all teams competing in the Euro qualifiers after Georgia (8.1). In terms of successful switches of play, their 6.5 per game topped the charts.
These switches of play are often played by Rodri, who is instrumental to a similar attacking move at City.
One example is Ferran Torres’ goal in the 3-1 victory against Georgia last November. Here, Fabian Ruiz roams towards the right wing and combines with Oihan Sancet to find Rodri…
… who switches the play to Nico Williams and Jose Gaya before Georgia’s defensive block can shift across…
… leaving their right wing-back, Otar Kakabadze, in a one-versus-two situation. Williams finds Gaya’s overlap, while on the other side, Torres starts his run to attack the back post…
… and Spain’s left-back plays the ball towards that area, for Torres to head the ball into the net.
Until last March, Luciano Spalletti looked set on playing with a back four. However, the Italy manager said that he wanted to do “something modern” before the friendlies against Venezuela and Ecuador in March.
“There is an openness now to being footballers who know how to interpret multiple systems within the same match,” said Spalletti. “Before we had little time and we only focused on one system. Even when we lost, I said we would stay in that system, but now there is more time to do something different.”
The difference was moving to a back three instead of the back four Italy implemented in Spalletti’s games in the Euro qualifiers. In his first six games, Italy’s 4-3-3 in possession depended on wing play with flexible rotations between the full-back, No 8 and the winger to break down teams in the wide areas.
In this example, against Ukraine last September, Barella’s movement drags Taras Stepanenko and creates space in midfield, which is attacked by Italy’s full-back, Federico Dimarco, after combining with Mattia Zaccagni. Complementing that movement was Giacomo Raspadori dropping from a centre-forward position to provide a passing option, but the interesting role in Italy’s wide combinations is the opposite full-back — Giovanni Di Lorenzo in this sequence.
After Dimarco plays the ball to Raspadori, and the Napoli forward combines with Davide Frattesi (Italy’s No 8 above), he finds Di Lorenzo unmarked in a narrow position after Ukraine’s left-winger Viktor Tsygankov has dropped to protect his left-back.
The time Di Lorenzo has on the ball allows him to pick his pass, but despite the move not ending in a goal, it’s an attacking sequence that Spalletti’s team has been using regularly when Italy have played in a 4-3-3.
That move resulted in their only goal against England the following month. Here, Barella’s rotation to the left-back space forces Kalvin Phillips to press Destiny Udogie as Phil Foden focuses on the Inter Milan midfielder. Italy’s left-back then combines with Stephan El Shaarawy to exploit the space in England’s midfield, before carrying the ball forward…
… and playing it wide to the left-winger. Meanwhile, Italy’s right-back, Di Lorenzo, advances on the other side…
… and is in a position to receive the switch of play, with Marcus Rashford late to the action. El Shaarawy spots Di Lorenzo, but his pass is intercepted by Declan Rice and the ball falls to Domenico Berardi (out of shot) on the right wing.
Di Lorenzo’s narrow positioning allows him to make an underlapping run behind Kieran Trippier, which is found by Berardi, before the right-back’s low cross into the penalty box is attacked by Gianluca Scamacca to give Italy the lead.
As for the back-three scenario, Italy have used different formations in possession while maintaining a solid 5-4-1 shape without the ball. Against Venezuela, Federico Chiesa’s participation meant that Spalletti’s 3-5-2 on the ball was lopsided because the Juventus forward excels in space and one-versus-one situations down the wing rather than central areas.
The 3-2-4-1 shape used against Ecuador was more fluid, and Raspadori’s link-up play helped Italy’s passing combinations in central areas.
Despite attacking in a different shape, Spalletti’s side focused on combinations between the No 10, wing-back and No 6, allowing the wide centre-backs to exchange positions with the wing-backs.
The common theme in Italy’s attacking game is their dependence on passing combinations in wide areas and rotations between the players in those spaces, regardless of the shape.
Their key player(s)
After an impressive season with Inter, Barella is entering Euro 2024 as his country’s shining light. The midfielder’s ability to win back the ball in midfield and help the team defensively strengthens Spalletti’s side without the ball, but it’s his technical ability and the options he provides in possession that make him crucial to this side.
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Barella constantly drops to help Italy build up the attacks, while also supporting the passing combinations out wide with his precise passing and off-ball movement. The latter is another feature of his game that allows him to be an offensive threat in the opposition penalty area with late runs from midfield.
(Adam Hunger/Getty Images)
What is their weakness?
Once Italy lose possession, they look vulnerable on defensive transitions. They leave large spaces between their defensive line and the rest of the team. Rashford’s goal in the 3-1 loss against England last October is a scene that Spalletti would preferably avoid in the upcoming tournament.
The back-three formation has provided more central cover when Italy are transitioning from attack to defence, but it’s still an area that opponents can exploit.
One thing to watch out for…
Italy’s corner threat.
Throughout the qualifying matches and in their recent friendlies, Italy’s attacking corners have been one of their main offensive solutions. In terms of expected goals (xG) per 100 corners — which allows us to level the playing field when comparing across teams — their rate of 5.7 was the sixth-best of the 53 nations that competed for a place in this summer’s tournament.
There’s not much deviation from how Croatia have been playing under Dalic in previous tournaments.
They still set up in a 4-3-3 formation, and they are still built around the midfield trio of Marcelo Brozovic, Mateo Kovacic and Luka Modric, with flying full-backs as prominent as ever down the wings. However, matches against Armenia and Latvia showed they can mix it up by playing Andrej Kramaric as a No 10 in a 4-2-3-1.
Croatia’s possession game is mainly built on the technical abilities of Brozovic, Kovacic and Modric. The experienced trio drop deep to control the game with the ball.
Their fluid movement, passing combinations and interchanging of positions allow them to play through opponents and progress the ball into the final third. In front of them, the front three usually occupy narrow positions to present themselves as passing options to the midfielders…
… and create space for the full-backs to attack. In this example, from the 2-0 victory away to Turkey in March 2023, Borna Barisic and Josip Stanisic are high up the pitch, flanking a narrow front three of Ivan Perisic, Kramaric and Mario Pasalic.
Earlier in that game, Josip Sutalo’s long pass into the advanced right-back Stanisic had led to the opener.
Here, Pasalic’s narrow positioning occupies Turkey’s left-back, and Sutalo finds Stanisic’s run behind the defence, before the right-back plays the ball into Pasalic. Meanwhile, Kovacic is making a late run into the box and the ball falls into his path after Perisic and Pasilic fail to find a shooting angle. The City midfielder doesn’t hesitate and scores to make it 1-0.
The profiles of the players playing in Croatia’s front line complement their tactical approach. When Kramaric starts as the side’s centre-forward, his movement and link-up play allow him to drop and overload the midfield.
In addition, choosing Lovro Majer or Pasalic to play as the team’s right-sided option rather than an out-and-out winger means Croatia can overload the central areas and use Majer or Pasalic to play through their opponents.
Their key player(s)
Croatia’s midfield of Kovacic, Brozovic and Modric is a trio that most nations dream of, even if they are into their thirties. Together, they provide a balance of technical ability, press resistance, ball carrying, athleticism and defensive quality.
On top of that, their experience at the international stage will be needed. Brozovic (96 caps) and Kovacic (101) are among the wiliest players at the tournament, while Modric (175) is the country’s most-capped player of all time. After guiding their team to third and second place in the two most recent World Cups, they will be hoping to emulate that success in a European Championship.
What is their weakness?
The four goals Croatia conceded in their eight qualifying matches could had been more — their non-penalty xG conceded was 6.4. At times, their back line has been porous — defenders made mistakes and Dominik Livakovic’s saves were important.
The Fenerbahce goalkeeper registered a ‘goals prevented’ figure of 2.3 in Croatia’s qualifying campaign. There are ways past this side’s defence, but the hard part is beating Livakovic.
One thing to watch out for…
In their last six penalty shootouts, Croatia lost only once (in the 2023 Nations League final against Spain). Their shootout victories helped them progress at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, beating Denmark and Japan in the last 16 and Russia and Brazil in the quarter-finals of the two tournaments respectively.
In the last World Cup, Livakovic saved three penalties against Japan’s Takumi Minamino, Kaoru Mitoma and Maya Yoshida, before stopping Brazil’s Rodrygo in the following round. If Croatia advance to the knockout stage in Euro 2024, their continuing record in the shootouts is something to keep an eye on.
Unlike the rest of Group B, Albania favour a more direct approach on the ball. Playing out of a 4-2-3-1 shape, Sylvinho’s team play to their centre-forward with long passes to flick on to one of the wingers and fight for second balls.
Their other option for moving the ball up the pitch are direct passes to their wide players, Jasir Asani and Taulant Seferi, which come in the form of quick deliveries from the full-backs, or diagonals from the centre-backs and midfielders.
Off the ball, Albania drop into a medium-low block in their own half, with the experience of Djimsiti and Hysaj essential to their defensive organisation. However, they are a proactive side in this situation — always on the front foot and looking to win the ball back as quickly as possible in their own half to start the counter.
Once they win possession, the pace of the wide players, Nedim Bajrami’s ball-carrying ability, and the accurate passing of Kristjan Asllani and Ylber Ramadani make Albania a threat on attacking transitions.
Asllani and Ramadani’s vision and passing ability empower the forwards’ runs behind the defence, which is a feature of how this Albania side attacks the opponents.
Their key player(s)
Ramadani and Asllani, Albania’s double pivot in midfield, are the complete package. The duo’s defensive positioning supports the defensive line and allows Sylvinho’s side to retrieve possession in the middle of the pitch. Their defensive awareness is complemented by their smart positioning when Albania are in possession of the ball — constantly adjusting their positions to provide passing options for their defensive line — and their ability to receive the ball with their back to the goal. Asllani, in particular, knows how to use his body to shield the ball, which makes him harder to dispossess.Down the right wing, 29-year-old Asani, who was called up to the national team for the first time in March 2023, was one of Albania’s most impressive players in the Euro qualifiers. The winger’s dribbling ability gives him an advantage in one-versus-one situations to use his best asset, which is ball striking. Asani finds team-mates with inch-perfect passes, and his trademark finish is cutting inside before finding the far corner.is goal against Poland last September is a glimpse of what he can do when he is allowed to shoot.Normally, players of this profile are a burden on the defensive side of things, but Asani regularly tracks back to support his right-back, Hysaj. In the two games against Czech Republic last autumn, Sylvinho used Asani as a situational wing-back when Albania were in the defensive phase to prevent Czech Republic from overloading their back four.
What is their weakness?
Despite the experience of their defensive line, Albania’s front-footed defending in their own half could be vulnerable against three sides who excel on passing combinations and off-ball movement.
Albania’s 0.78 non-penalty xG conceded per game in the Euro qualifiers will be tested against stronger opponents who have the collective and individual tools to break down defences and score from difficult situations.
One thing to watch out for…
Long-range shots.
Five of Albania’s 12 goals in the Euro qualifiers came from outside the penalty area, which partly explains their xG overperformance.
In addition to Asani’s three strikes against Moldova, Poland and Czech Republic, Asllani and Bajrami also scored important goals from distance on Albania’s road to Euro 2024.
Sylvinho’s team isn’t the most complicated attacking unit, and goals from individual moments of brilliance could get Albania in the lead and let them play a favourable game state, where they can drop deeper and attack on transitions.
Welcome to your third Euro 2024 group guide: Group C.
To help you navigate and prepare for the tournament, The Athletic have compiled group guides, containing each team’s tactics, key players, weaknesses, stats and quirks.
Expect screengrabs to show team shapes and tactics board gifs demonstrating attacking rotations and pressing structures. There will be podcast clips and videos embedded for further reading/listening.
Group C features Gareth Southgate’s England, alongside Serbia, Slovenia and Denmark — England beat Denmark in the Euro 2020 semi-final. It is a group of back fives, build-up rotations and high-scoring No 9s.
Serbia (formerly part of Yugoslavia) are at their first Euros as a nation-state, after gaining independence in 2006. Head coach Dragan Stojkovic, whose contract ends after the tournament, has said qualifying from the group “would be a success”.
Those who watched them at the 2022 World Cup can expect the same setup: a back five, wing-backs and two defensive midfielders, but either two No 10s and a lone No 9 or one No 10 behind a front two.
Their attacking style is mixed, with a 62 per cent possession average in qualifying — about the same as England and Italy. Against better opposition, though, their strengths are playing direct. Aleksandar Mitrovic is the main focal point but likes to drop in, and is paired with off-the-shoulder Dusan Vlahovic or Luka Jovic.
Crosses are Serbia’s main route to goal, especially down the left and particularly from the wing-backs. They had the most headed shots in Euros qualifying, while only Spain and Portugal (seven each) had more headed goals than Serbia’s five. Look out for up-back-through attacking combinations to find the No 10 by playing into the No 9, and then releasing the wing-back.
Against a mid-block, Serbia pull one of the defensive midfielders out to create a makeshift back four, pushing the outside centre-back to the touchline and the wing-back upfield — this allows them to overload the last line.
In attack, they can be devastating. Serbia have scored in 33 out of 39 Stojkovic’s games and have scored three or more on 13 occasions. They won their 2022 Nations League group featuring Norway, Slovenia (also in this Euros group) and Sweden, with the best attack of any League B team (13 goals in six games). No wonder Stojkovic has labelled his team a “golden generation”.
Key player(s)
Mitrovic and Dusan Tadic, even with the pair moving to relatively lower-quality leagues last summer — Mitrovic from Fulham to Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, and Tadic from Ajax in the Netherlands to Turkey’s Fenerbahce.
Mitrovic’s international record speaks for itself: 58 goals in 91 caps, with 12 braces and three hat-tricks. When he is on it, Mitrovic is hard to stop, especially for opponents who struggle to defend aerial balls into the box.
Tadic, now 35, still puts up outstanding creative numbers. Only four players bettered his four assists in qualifying, and Serbia’s attack — particularly from central spaces — gains another gear entirely when the No 10 is on the field. He has every final pass in the book: through balls to lock-pick defences, crosses from either side for the No 9s, cutbacks and one-twos to connect with the wing-backs.
Dusan Tadic is still a key player — even at 35 (Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)
What’s their weakness?
Conceding goals. Serbia have only kept four clean sheets in 15 games since the World Cup, particularly problematic as Serbia have only played two teams ranked in FIFA’s top 20 (USA and Belgium) in that time. Impressively, Serbia have only had three losses by two or more goals under Stojkovic, but this owes more to their attack than a watertight defence.
Behind Costa Rica, Serbia had the second-worst 2022 World Cup group-stage defence. They faced 50 shots worth 7.6 expected goals and conceded eight times. It cost them qualification, drawing against Cameroon and losing against Switzerland despite leading in both matches. “At this level there are no excuses. We had the talent to score goals, but it’s often not just about talent, but about organisation,” said Tadic.
Their porousness owes to build-up errors against a high press (see their friendly against Belgium in March) but mainly aggressive use of wing-backs defensively. Rather than keeping a flat back five, Serbia jump their wing-backs to opposition No 8s/No 10s, vacating space in behind and pulling centre-backs wide to cover against wingers.
When Serbia press, they push the wing-backs up to press from a 3-4-3. It often leaves them three-v-three on halfway, reliant on their defenders to win duels.
One thing to watch for
The Tadic-Mitrovic combination. One has assisted the other 21 times (unsurprisingly, 19 have been Tadic to Mitrovic) in 76 caps together. This included three goals in Euros qualification and one against Switzerland at the World Cup. No prizes for guessing the goal method — an early, near-post cross for a glancing header.
Three major tournaments for England under Gareth Southgate: one quarter-final finish (World Cup 2022), one semi-final (World Cup 2018) and one final (Euro 2020). They have gone incredibly close and vanquished certain national demons but do not yet have silverware to show for it.
Southgate has evolved England into a style more like 2008-2012 Spain than the England teams of the same era. “We’ve been more dominant in the games we’ve played. We have had complete control in pretty much every match,” said Southgate at the end of 2023.
England turning their 4-3-3 into a 3-2-5 attacking shape is synonymous with how most top Premier League sides attack. Southgate has said they are “looking at creative solutions”, having trialled Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield and Rico Lewis in a hybrid full-back/midfield role. Expect to see short buildup with central midfield rotations to push a full-back upfield.
Southgate and England have not got the credit they deserve for such a composed qualification campaign. They were unbeaten in their first 10 games post-World Cup, with a first win in Italy since 1961, before they lost 1-0 to Brazil at Wembley in March. It meant they went unbeaten in 2023, their first calendar year without defeat since 2011.
Southgate has stressed the importance of “adaptability”, individually and collectively. England can expect back fives and mid/low-blocks in the groups, but will need to win midfield battles and show their defensive side against better teams in the knockout stages.
While the discussion will no doubt fixate on England’s attacking options, their defensive record has been excellent up to now. At the past two tournaments, England kept more clean sheets (eight) than goals conceded (six) in 12 games, and only allowed four goals against in eight Euros qualifying matches. Only Argentina (39) bettered England’s final-third regains at the World Cup (34). Even so, the absence of Harry Maguire through injury, and the lack of clarity about when Luke Shaw will be fit, means England head into Euro 2024 with more defensive questions than many expected.
Key player(s)
Harry Kane. Responsible for 12 goals and three assists at the last three major tournaments, he has been directly involved in over 40 per cent of England’s goals. Italy’s then head coach Roberto Mancini described Kane as the “complete striker” when England won in Naples in March 2023.
His creative side has grown internationally, suited to supplying England’s plethora of dribblers out wide (Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon, Jarrod Bowen) or as No 10s (Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden). Kane (eight goals) was fourth top scorer in qualifying and is on his best penalty streak of his career — since missing in the quarter-finals against France, he has scored all 15, including four for England. Oh, and 2023-24 was his best-ever scoring season (36, including five penalties).
Collectively, defending counter-attacks. England’s ambition to dominate games against even the best means their counter-press has to be spot on. Southgate said it was “exceptional” in the 3-1 win away to Scotland, but it was not in the Wembley defeat against Brazil. England’s high line gave too much space for Brazil’s front three to run in behind, and they duly conceded their most big chances (seven) in any game under Southgate.
One thing to watch for
Goals in the final 15 minutes before half-time. England have shown remarkable consistency in wearing teams down with possession. They scored five without conceding between 30 and 45 minutes at the World Cup, the joint-most with Argentina. It was also England’s best 15-minute period of the game in qualification for that World Cup (nine/39 goals) and this Euros (eight/22 goals).
Euro 2022 and World Cup 2022 went entirely differently for Denmark. At the last Euros, they made the semi-finals for the first time since they won the tournament in 1992. Their cross-heavy 3-4-3 was awkward to defend against, especially right-footed left wing-back Joachim Maehle.
But they flattered to deceive in Qatar. Head coach Kasper Hjulmand was consistent in his pre-tournament message, wanting to evolve beyond “underdog” football to “be proactive, dominate as much as possible, go for goals”. Tunisia cancelled out their shape in the first game (0-0) and, after losing to France (2-1) on matchday two, they switched to a 4-3-3 for the final match versus Australia.
Denmark lacked incision. Their switches to Maehle were as predictable as defendable. Australia won 1-0 with a counter-attack goal. We “haven’t played with the tempo and the rhythm,” said Hjulmand afterwards, adding that “the structures just go out of the match”. It was the only time in Hjulmand’s tenure (50 games) that Denmark have gone three games without a win.
The numbers made for stark reading: No wins and only one goal scored, from a set piece; the only team to not complete a through ball; the most switches of play per game; the lowest dribble success rate.
Against inferior teams in Euros qualification, Denmark stuck with the 4-3-3, but played a 3-4-3 in both games against Slovenia, their strongest opposition. It gives a stronger defensive base, settling into a 5-4-1 or 5-3-2, and gets midfielders closer to support Maehle, who has played off the right too.
Christian Eriksen and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg are the first-choice midfield partnership, balancing a passer with a ball-winner. This means Hjulmand can be creative with his front three, mixing between playing a front two with one No 10, or a lone striker and two No 10s.
Expect switches of play, especially to Maehle, from Crystal Palace’s Joachim Andersen (one of five Palace players in Group C), who plays right centre-back. There will be penetrative runs from No 8s against a low block and plenty of early crosses and cutbacks — the wing-back and midfielders like to crash the box.
Key player(s)
The quality of Eriksen and Maehle is known, with Hjulmand saying Eriksen is the “best player in Denmark”. Their success at this Euros will depend on the performances of and service to Rasmus Hojlund.
Denmark’s recent issue with No 9s has been a wild variety of profiles (Jonas Wind, Martin Braithwaite, Yussuf Poulsen) and the lack of a consistent scorer. Maehle is the only player with 10+ goals under Hjulmand, and he used a different striker in each World Cup game.
Pressure, then, on Hojlund, who only made his senior debut in late 2022 and was not part of the World Cup squad. He has settled into senior international football fantastically, with seven goals in 14 caps. All of those were in qualifying and, while he has not scored in four friendly appearances since, Hojlund’s goal-scoring variety is promising: a mix of one-touch finishes from crosses/cutbacks — which Hojlund throws himself at — and angled finishes, similar to his penalty-box-based debut season at Manchester United.
What’s their weakness?
Denmark are not a strong team from losing positions, which speaks to a lack of a plan B — they might change shape but their tactics remain the same. They have lost five of their last six when conceding first, not coming from behind since they won 2-1 in France in March 2022.
Aside from Hojlund (who is likely to start), they lack a goalscorer from the bench and Denmark have not had many tactical acid tests. They were the only top 50-ranked FIFA team in their qualifying group and Hjulmand’s side have only played one team ranked higher than them (Switzerland in a 0-0 friendly draw in March) since the 2022 World Cup.
One thing to watch for
Straight corners. They played eight of these at the World Cup (from a total of 21) and nine at Euro 2020 (of 39), the most of any team at either tournament. With Eriksen’s delivery, Hojlund’s height plus three centre-backs, Denmark are stacked with set-piece quality.
Slovenia are back, at their first major tournament since the 2010 World Cup. At a glance, not a lot looks to have changed. Matjaz Kek managed them in South Africa in 2010 and is in his second stint as national team boss, having returned in November 2018. They play a 4-4-2, as they did then, though none of the 2010 squad remain.
It is a team built on structure: “I like to give players freedom, but I demand their full responsibility,” said Kek ahead of the March friendly win (2-0) at home to Portugal. “We must be able to suffer defensively, but we must also think about when we have the ball. We cannot just wait in a block,” he added.
The switch to 4-4-2 came at the end of the 2022 Nations League, when they finished third in a group featuring Sweden, Serbia and Norway, having initially played a back three. In the 19 games since the system switch, Slovenia have 13 wins, four draws and only two defeats, outscoring opponents 34-16 and keeping seven clean sheets. That form meant 2023 was their best calendar year ever for wins (seven, from 10 games) and goals-per-game (two).
Their style is devoutly risk-averse. They set up to press high at opposition goal-kicks but quickly retreat to a 4-4-2 mid-block.
When building up, expect to see the first pass or two short, but under pressure they play long to the front two, looking for flick-ons and second balls. They like wide combinations, especially one-twos, but rotations are minimal. A central midfielder occasionally plays between the centre-backs, though a common tactic is rolling the ball-side winger infield to act as an auxiliary No 8 in support of the No 9.
Slovenia are stubborn to build up against, pressing aggressively when teams pass into midfield. Of teams to make the finals, only Georgia (109) made more tackles in qualifying (Slovenia made 91).
They force teams round and into crossing. Despite Slovenia playing a back four and theoretically being vulnerable to a front-five overload against wing-back systems, they make aggressive winger and full-back pressing jumps against a back-five. This forces the outside centre-back to pass long and pins the wing-back.
Slovenia are dangerous on counter-attacks, especially as they leave their front two up when defending deep. Expect to see launched passes or dribbles from midfielders. They have repeatedly scored from opposition goal kicks too, when they punt upfield and Slovenia win the aerial duel, then quickly play in behind the high line.
Their opener at home to Portugal was a classic counter-attack, going end-to-end in 13 seconds and five passes. Second-best was Benjamin Sesko’s second goal in the 2-0 qualifying win at home to Finland. Fittingly, they sealed their place in Germany by beating Kazakhstan at home, with the winning goal coming from a counter-attack.
Slovenia might be the weakest team in the group but they keep games tight. Sixteen of their 26 wins under Kek have been by one goal, with eight of 12 losses by a single goal. In many ways, they play an ideal, disciplined tournament style — they only received 10 yellow cards in 10 qualifying games, the fewest of any nation going to Germany, and qualified automatically for the first time ever.
Key player(s)
Goalkeeper and national team captain Jan Oblak gets his “fulfilment of a childhood dream”. He made his international debut back in late 2012 but will finally represent Slovenia in a major tournament. The Atletico Madrid goalkeeper’s shot-stopping has dipped in recent years, admittedly from one of the world’s best to closer to average, but his international record is solid: Oblak has 30 clean sheets and only 53 goals conceded in 64 caps.
At the other end, Slovenia have another match-winner in Sesko. He has just turned 21, but at 6ft 4in (193cm) provides a phenomenal profile and has had an excellent debut season at RB Leipzig. “He is physically strong, technically gifted and mature,” said Kek on Sesko in 2023. “There aren’t many strikers like this in the world. I think he has steadily improved, becoming more concrete in his decisions.”
Sesko brings a lot in build-up, able to take aerial balls and bring midfielders into play, as well as chase channels. Most importantly, though, he scores goals — every type you can imagine, and at an excellent rate.
Sesko, Slovenia’s youngest player and youngest goalscorer, has 11 goals in 29 caps. There is every chance he wins the goal of the tournament, with an eye for an outrageous finish — check his volleys against Sweden and Norway in the 2022 Nations League, one scored with either foot.
Individually, a lack of major tournament experience — none of these players have featured at a Euros or World Cup before. There is a lack of depth, with only four players in Europe’s top five leagues. Slovenia need their individuals at both ends to shine. “They have the privilege to rotate, we do not,” said Kek ahead of the Portugal friendly in March. “We must take advantage of everything we have.“
One thing to watch for
Josip Ilicic, now 36, has been recalled by Kek for the tournament despite not playing international football since November 2021. He is the joint-fifth-most capped player in Slovenia’s history (91), with Samir Handanovic, and third top-scorer. Ilicic scored Slovenia’s winner in a friendly against Armenia in early June, his first international goal since November 2021.
Ilicic was released by Atalanta at the end of 2021-22, after five seasons there, now playing for NK Maribor in Slovenia’s top flight. A versatile forward, most likely to play a wide midfield role, given the established front two of Sesko and Andraz Sporar (they started six out of 10 qualifiers together). Atalanta head coach Gianpiero Gasperini once said that Ilicic was “worthy of the Ballon d’Or”. He has a chance for a fairytale career ending.
What tactics do the Netherlands employ? What should we look out for from France? And what can we expect from Ralf Rangnick’s Austria?
The 2024 European Championship finals start on Friday and The Athletic is running in-depth tactical group guides, so you know what to expect from every nation competing in Germany over the next month or so. We will examine each team’s playing style, strengths, weaknesses and key players, and highlight things to keep an eye on during the tournament.
Expect to see screengrabs analysing tactical moments in games, embedded videos of key clips to watch, the occasional podcast clip and data visualisation to highlight patterns and trends — think of yourself as a national-team head coach and this a mini opposition dossier for you to read pre-match.
Here’s Group D, which features France, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland.
Logically, France haven’t moved away from the approach that guided them to the final of the 2022 World Cup, where they lost to Argentina on penalties.
After shifting his reigning world champions to a back four on the eve of that tournament 18 months ago, Didier Deschamps has continued with that shape since then, with Antoine Griezmann playing in a midfield three after he impressed in that role at the World Cup.
France’s main attacking threat comes from the wide areas, where the focus is on finding Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele in one-v-one situations.
Mbappe and Dembele have the upper hand over most full-backs in the game because of their quick acceleration and dribbling ability in isolated situations, but the French wingers also look to combine with advancing full-backs, especially the left-sided Theo Hernandez, who regularly occupies a higher position than Jules Kounde, the right-back. When Deschamps wants more attacking power from his full-backs, Jonathan Clauss usually starts rather than Kounde.
To balance Hernandez’s forward surges down the left, Adrien Rabiot maintains a deeper position in midfield, alongside Aurelien Tchouameni and in front of the remaining defenders.
The left-back’s advanced position on that side allows France to attack multiple lanes and support captain Mbappe in wide areas, either by allowing him to move inside, combining with him or simply creating space for him to go to work.
The biggest question entering this tournament is who will lead France’s attack.
Olivier Giroud, Marcus Thuram and Randal Kolo Muani have all started as the team’s centre-forward since the World Cup. Giroud’s link-up play has been vital to Deschamps’ team for many years, but Kolo Muani’s off-ball movement and runs in behind provide a different profile, while Thuram offers a balance between both.
Off the ball, France’s defensive shape moves to a lopsided 4-4-2 with the right-winger dropping next to the flattened midfield line. This way, Deschamps frees Mbappe of any defensive responsibilities and keeps him in an advanced position to be a threat on the transition.
France’s defensive organisation is empowered by the individual quality of their defenders. From their duelling ability to their pace, the French defensive line isn’t easy to beat, and if bypassed they are usually able to recover their positions.
Their key player(s)
There is no doubting Mbappe’s star qualities or Tchouameni’s all-round skill set, but the key player for this France side is surely Griezmann. The Atletico Madrid forward has played across the front line throughout his international career, scoring 44 goals for France since his debut 10 years ago.
That switch to a No 8 role in 2022 enhanced his importance to this side. From a deeper position, Griezmann can make late runs into the box to attack crosses, or find team-mates with accurate passes in the final third.
In addition, Griezmann is aware of his positioning when France are defending in a 4-4-2 mid-block, while having a defensive impact across the pitch with his well-timed sliding tackles.
Before that game, Gareth Southgate’s assistant Steve Holland hinted at the idea of attacking France down Mbappe’s side. “There is always a plus and a minus to everyone,” Holland said. “It’s that cat-and-mouse of, ‘Yes, we have still got to try to deal with him’ but we also have to try to exploit the weakness that his super-strength delivers. Trying to adapt your team to cover for that while still trying to create your own problems is the challenge.”
Despite losing by the odd goal that day, England’s approach worked and only small details cost them.
More often than not, the now Real Madrid winger occupies a central position rather than attacking the back post when the team is attacking the wide areas. From there, Mbappe constantly offers himself as a cutback option while the centre-forward is dragging the defensive line deeper.
In this example from a Euros qualifier last October against the Netherlands, also group opponents this summer, Mbappe is ready to attack the penalty area while Kingsley Coman finds Clauss’ overlapping run down the other side.
As the right-back approaches the ball, Mbappe adjusts his movement to present himself as a cutback option with Kolo Muani’s movement forcing defenders Virgil van Dijk and Nathan Ake deeper. Clauss spots him and plays the correct pass, but Lutsharel Geertruida manages to intercept.
In the 14-0 victory against minnows Gibraltar the following month, Mbappe managed to score from a cutback from the other side.
Here, he is in a narrow position with Theo Hernandez down the left wing. The left-back makes a run behind the defence, which is found by Youssouf Fofana’s pass, before Hernandez plays the cutback into Mbappe, who holds his run to keep a distance from the defenders and finishes into the bottom corner.
Netherlands
Manager: Ronald Koeman
Captain: Virgil van Dijk
Qualifying record: P8, W6, D0, L2, GF17, GA7
Euro 2020: Round of 16
Most caps in squad: Daley Blind (107)
Top scorer in squad: Memphis Depay (45)
How do they play?
Alternating between a back three and four, Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands continuously change their shape from game to game, or within the same match — as in this example from the 1-0 away victory against Greece last October.
Despite that, the differences between the 3-2-4-1 and 4-2-3-1 on the ball are minimal. Apart from having one centre-back fewer and a more attacking profile in the front line, the Dutch still look to find their No 10s between the lines and combine to create an advantage for their widest players — whether these are wing-backs, a wide forward or an overlapping full-back.
When attacking from a back three, Koeman’s side either try to find the wing-backs directly or play through the opposition to force them into a narrow shape, before using the wide players. In this example from last September, also against Greece, Frenkie de Jong finds Cody Gakpo in between the lines, which forces Manolis Siopis to react…
… leaving Xavi Simons in a bigger space in midfield. Once Gakpo dribbles by the Greece midfielder, the positions of Simons and right wing-back Denzel Dumfries give Kostas Tsimikas a dilemma: moving inside to limit the space for Simons provides Dumfries with an advantage, and vice versa.
Tsimikas decides to hold his position to prevent Gakpo playing the ball to Simons in a dangerous situation, but in turn it creates room out wide for Dumfries to attack and the Liverpool forward finds him with a pass through the defence…
… before Dumfries crosses the ball towards Wout Weghorst, who scores to make it 3-0.
On the other hand, the 4-2-3-1 provides a different profile in the front line; rather than having two wing-backs, it’s an overlapping full-back and a winger. Often, one of the wingers would roam inside the pitch to create space for the advancing full-back.
Here against the Republic of Ireland, also last September, Donyell Malen’s movement drags James McClean inside and creates space for Dumfries to attack. The right-back’s run is found by De Jong with a chipped pass over the defence, and Dumfries heads the ball across goal for Weghorst to score the winner.
Out of possession is where the difference between their shapes is most stark, with an additional centre-back making it a back five instead of a back four.
In addition, the Netherlands are able to press higher up the pitch if needed, with their centre-backs accustomed to aggressively marking opponents in advanced positions.
Their key player(s)
Netherlands’ spine coming into the tournament was composed of Van Dijk, De Jong and Simons — and they will be weakened significantly by De Jong’s absence because of the ankle injury that has troubled him for months.
His presence in the Netherlands’ midfield has been vital to the team, on and off the ball. His ball-carrying ability helps the team evade the press, while moving them up the thirds where his precise passes are crucial. Complementing that is his superb tackling and defensive positioning when his team is out of possession.
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With De Jong ruled out of the tournament on Monday, Jerdy Schouten and Joey Veerman are the likely pairing for the Netherlands’ first group stage game against Poland on Sunday. Schouten was always expected to partner De Jong, but Veerman’s promotion does at least come at a moment of career-best form, with the 25-year-old impressing during the Netherlands’ 4-0 warm-up win over Iceland on Monday evening, creating Xavi Simons’ opener beautifully. Other options in midfield include Atalanta’s Teun Koopmeiners and ex-Liverpool midfielder Gini Wijnaldum.
They have strength elsewhere. Captain Van Dijk’s defensive prowess and ability to cover space are essential to this side’s defensive phases and on transitions. Meanwhile, his diagonals to the wide players and progressive passes through the lines are the base of Koeman’s attacking ideas. The Liverpool centre-back also empowers their defensive and offensive set pieces with his aerial ability.
Koeman relies on Van Dijk’s trademark diagonals (ANP via Getty Images)
Much will be expected of Simons at this tournament.
Whether as a No 10, narrow forward or a winger, he is able to receive the ball in the tightest of spaces and dribble past opponents to create chances for his team-mates. Simons’ creativity and technical ability on the ball are the catalyst to Netherlands’ passing combinations through the centre and out wide. In 2023-24, he managed double figures for both goals (10) and assists (13) at RB Leipzig, where he was on loan from Paris Saint-Germain.
What is their weakness?
The Dutch defence was solid in most of their qualifying campaign, managing five clean sheets in six games against Greece, Gibraltar (twice each) and the Republic of Ireland. But against stronger opposition, their back line has suffered. In their two group matches against France, they conceded six times.
On top of that, they let in four against Croatia and three against Italy in the 2022-23 Nations League finals last June, and two against Germany in March.
One thing to watch out for…
As the Netherlands’ wide forwards combine with their wing-backs in the final third, one feature of this attack is the wing-backs rotating positions with the forwards to be a threat inside the penalty area.
In this example, in a 2-1 loss against France last October, left wing-back Quilindschy Hartman plays a one-two with Steven Bergwijn, which allows them to cut through the French defence, as Hartman attacks the vacant space and curls the ball into the near corner.
On other occasions, the narrow positioning of the wing-backs creates space for the Dutch forwards in wide areas.
Here, Dumfries and Simons combine down the right side, but it is Daley Blind’s movement from a narrow position that is the catalyst to the goal. The left wing-back’s positioning attracts Greece’s right-back, Lazaros Rota, and frees Gakpo towards the back post. Dumfries then finds the unmarked Gakpo, who scores to double Netherlands’ lead.
Austria’s cautious and reactive football under their previous manager, Franco Foda, is a thing of the past.
Ralf Rangnick’s arrival in summer 2022 after their failure to qualify for the World Cup has transformed the team’s playing style to an energetic and proactive one, which the players have warmed to. “Maybe we’re fed up with playing a certain kind of football, like we’ve always had in previous years,” said their currently injured captain, David Alaba, after a 1-1 draw with France two years ago.
Under Rangnick, Austria operate in a 4-2-2-2 in possession with narrow No 10s behind two forwards. One of their main attacking ideas is to find this front four with direct passes on the ground, so they can combine with each other.
They access the front four through their full-backs or directly from the centre-backs, who usually position themselves wider in the build-up phase with one member of the midfield double pivot dropping to support.
In this example, against Turkey in March, Maximilian Wober and Kevin Danso split up, with Xaver Schlager dropping in between them to provide those centre-backs with better passing angles in to the No 10s or the front men.
In another example, in the 2-0 win against Slovakia three days earlier, Wober’s wider position in the build-up phase allows him to find Marcel Sabitzer between the lines, before he passes to Romano Schmid behind the defence, and the latter plays a ball across the goal for Andreas Weimann to double the lead.
When they aren’t able to play through their opponents, Austria go direct with long passes towards Michael Gregoritsch or Marko Arnautovic and look to win the second ball, which is helped by the close proximity of their front four players when in possession.
Off the ball, the team’s high-intensity approach suits their players, with many having either played within the Red Bull club network, of which Rangnick was the tactical architect, or worked with coaches influenced by him.
This high-octane style creates numerous transitional situations, which fit the profiles of their midfielders and forwards, who are adept at winning the ball back quickly and attacking space.
In terms of the high press, Rangnick’s side start with a 4-4-2 shape…
… but then adjust by dropping a midfielder to provide a safety net or mark players moving in between the lines, and one of the wide forwards moving inside.
In this example, against Germany last November, Sabitzer moves inside to mark Ilkay Gundogan as Xaver Schlager drops deeper to protect the midfield with Nicolas Seiwald pushing forward to press Leon Goretzka. Germany’s decision to start the move down their left side means that it’s Austria’s far midfielder, Sabitzer, who moves inside the pitch, with his team-mates Konrad Laimer and Christoph Baumgartner pressing down the other side.
In case Germany build their attack down the right side, the movement of the Austria players mirrors them: Gregoritsch and Sabitzer press Mats Hummels and Jonathan Tah, Schlager marks Gundogan and Laimer moves inside to keep an eye on Goretzka, with Seiwald (out of shot) dropping deeper to zonally defend the midfield.
In that March friendly against Turkey, it only took two minutes for this pressing scheme to give Austria the lead.
Kaan Ayhan playing the ball to his left-back, Cenk Ozkacar, triggers the press, with Laimer moving towards Ozkacar, Schlager marking Hakan Calhanoglu, Seiwald (again out of shot. Nothing personal, Nicolas!) defends against Turkey’s No 10, and Schmid moves inside to press Salih Ozcan.
Under pressure, and with no passing options, Turkey’s left-back returns the ball to Ayhan…
… who tries to play through the press to Ozcan, but Schmid is in the correct position to pressure the midfielder with Austria’s forwards close by.
Baumgartner manages to win the loose ball, and though his shot is saved, Schlager scores from the rebound.
Their key player(s)
Gregoritsch has scored eight times in his past 12 matches for Austria, including a hat-trick against Turkey, but it’s not only about the goals.
The tall Freiburg centre-forward is an aerial outlet to Rangnick’s side when they can’t build up the attack, and a link-up player when they are passing through the thirds. Meanwhile, his well-timed runs behind defences provide Austria with a threat on the transition.
(Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
What is their weakness?
Two major injuries will hinder Austria’s chances this summer, because missing Alaba and Xaver Schlager is more than just playing without your best players — both of them are necessary for this style to succeed.
Real Madrid defender Alaba is the captain of this side, and Austria will miss his leadership of the back line, proactive work off the ball and prowess in terms of defending the penalty area — when they play deeper, Austria’s low block isn’t as strong as their high press.
Schlager’s anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury playing for RB Leipzig just over a month means that Austria’s midfield will be without one of their best ball winners, who has also been essential to their build-up and switch of play from one side of the pitch to the other.
To make things worse, their first-choice goalkeeper Alexander Schlager is also out of the tournament with a knee injury.
One thing to watch out for…
Due to Austria’s approach on the ball, their full-backs have space to attack down the wings and the No 10s complement that by positioning themselves in the half-spaces. The passing combination to look out for is the out-to-in pattern, where one of the double pivot or centre-backs plays the ball to the advancing full-back…
… who then finds the No 10 between the lines or behind the defence.
In this example, Patrick Wimmer’s narrow position allows him to attack the space behind Turkey’s right-back, who moves up to face Alexander Prass, Austria’s left-back. Prass finds Wimmer’s run…
After sacking Fernando Santos, Portugal’s Euro 2016-winning coach, last September following defeats to the Czech Republic, Moldova and Albania in three of his six matches during eight months in charge, Poland decided to promote their under-21s coach, Michal Probierz, to the top job.
Under Probierz, the senior side have maintained a back-three shape which moves to a 5-3-2 when they are defending in the middle third or deeper. Aerially, it’s hard to get the better of towering centre-backs, Jan Bednarek and Jakub Kiwior, who have featured regularly alongside a third defender in the heart of the defence.
Poland’s attacking strength lies with wing-backs Nicola Zalewski and Przemyslaw Frankowski. Probierz’s team focuses exclusively on attacking wide areas by finding their wing-backs high up the pitch, or playing long passes into the channels towards their centre-forwards.
Crosses from Zalewski and Frankowski are Poland’s main threat in the final third, with left wing-back Zalewski able to cross with both feet. This ambidexterity is a useful tool, because he can dribble with his right foot and cross with the left before the opposing defender reacts.
In this example, against Latvia in November, Zalewski dribbles towards the byline with his right foot, while Frankowski moves into the penalty box to overload the back post…
… before connecting with the left wing-back’s left-footed cross to give Poland the lead.
Their key player(s)
If you are a country’s leading appearance holder and record goalscorer, it’s hard for you not to be their key player.
Lewandowski has scored for Poland in the World Cup, the European Championship, in qualifying for both, and in the Nations League. He is also able to score every type of goal: left foot, right foot, header.
But going into the tournament there are concerns about his fitness, after the Barcelona striker had to be withdrawn after half an hour of Poland’s final warm-up match, against Turkey on Monday. It will be a massive blow to Poland if he is not fit to take part in the tournament.
Poland’s crossing-based playing style complements Lewandowski’s penalty-box presence and aerial finishing. Also, playing two strikers up front lessens the load on Lewandowski, who turns 36 in August, and allows him to drop deeper to link the attack or roam to the channel, while the other centre-forward provides a central threat.
Making plenty of the chances for Lewandowski is Zalewski, on the left wing. Since a 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic in November, Zalewski has solidified his status as this team’s main creator. The left wing-back’s dribbling ability provides him an advantage in one-v-one situations, and allows him to beat the defender in front of him before crossing into the penalty area.
(Visionhaus/Getty Images)
What is their weakness?
A lack of attacking diversity — which makes Lewandowski’s involvement so important.
Poland’s attacking approach is simple and effective. However, they are over-dependent on wing-backs Zalewski and Frankowski in terms of chance creation. Their two main options for ball progression are either long passes to the centre-forwards, or circulating the ball towards their wide areas.
Opponents analysing Poland’s games will deliver a clear plan before the match: stop the wing-backs.
One thing to watch out for…
Despite only making his international debut in October, Jakub Piotrowski’s attacking skill set perfectly fits Poland’s style of play. Featuring as a No 8 in midfield, Piotrowski’s off-ball movement complements the team’s wing play by providing passing options for the wing-backs and wide centre-backs, or making late runs into the penalty area.
Piotrowski’s runs from midfield helped him score 17 goals for Bulgarian champions Ludogorets last season. In this example, against Botev Plovdiv in March, he makes a late run into the penalty area, which is found by the right-back, Aslak Witry, before the Pole heads the ball home.
Moreover, Piotrowski’s long-range shots and threat on attacking set pieces offer Poland attacking solutions they are definitely in need of.
Indy 11 Advance in US Open Cup, Host Phoenix Sat @ Home
Indy Eleven is on to the Quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup for the first time in club history after a 3-0 defeat of USL Championship rival Detroit City FC on Wednesday night at Carroll Stadium they will travel to face Atlanta United July 9 or 10. The 11 return home this Sat at 7 pm @ the Mike vs Phoenix for Racing Indy Night. *Eleventh Anniversary Ticket Special Available While Supplies Last – Tickets Start At $5.25(Offer valid online only.) or watch on CBS Sports Galazo Network.
Roster Set for US Men’s Friendlies
U.S. Soccer announced the 27-man roster for the United States Men’s National Team ahead of two friendlies to prepare for Copa América. The team will report to Washington, DC on May 28th. The roster will come together for friendlies against Colombia on June 8th in the DC area and on June 12th against Brazil in Orlando. For the most part, it will be the pool that USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter selects the final roster for Copa América, which is due June 15th. The final Copa América roster must be a minimum of 23 players but can have up to 26 players.
GOALKEEPERS (3): Ethan Horvath (Cardiff City), Sean Johnson (Toronto FC), Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest)
DEFENDERS (9): Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic FC), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo), Mark McKenzie (Genk), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham FC), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
MIDFIELDERS (8): Tyler Adams (Bournemouth), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Gio Reyna (Nottingham Forest), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven), Timmy Tillman (LAFC)
FORWARDS (7): Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin), Folarin Balogun (Monaco), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Tim Weah (Juventus), Haji Wright (Coventry City)
Roster for US Women’s Friendlies
The United States Women’s National Team has a roster for Emma Hayes’ first matches in charge. Today, U.S. Soccer announced the 23-player roster for two friendlies against South Korea on June 1st in Colorado and June 4th in Minnesota.
GOALKEEPERS (3): Jane Campbell (Houston Dash), Aubrey Kingsbury (Washington Spirit), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage)
DEFENDERS (7): Tierna Davidson (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Emily Fox (Arsenal FC, ENG), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC), Casey Krueger (Washington Spirit), Jenna Nighswonger (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Emily Sonnett (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Sam Staab (Chicago Red Stars)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC), Hal Hershfelt (Washington Spirit), Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon), Rose Lavelle (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Lily Yohannes (Ajax)
FORWARDS (7): Crystal Dunn (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Catarina Macario (Chelsea FC), Alex Morgan (San Diego Wave FC), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit), Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego Wave FC), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars)
TRAINING ROSTER (3): Croix Bethune (Washington Spirit), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns), Kate Wiesner (Washington Spirit)
Congrats to Bill Spencer’s Carmel FC U12 Gold Girls on their way to Challenge Cup Finals Weekend Congrats to the 2009 Girls Blue Team headed to Challenge Cup Finals See More https://carmelfc.teamapp.com/articles?_list=v1
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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Good Luck to Matt Antisdel as he moves on to Arizona – we’ll miss you Matt !
Boys in Blue move on to U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals against Atlanta United
INDIANAPOLIS (Wednesday, May 22, 2024) – Indy Eleven is on to the Quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup for the first time in club history after a 3-0 defeat of USL Championship rival Detroit City FC on Wednesday night at Carroll Stadium.Indy Eleven opened the scoring by way of a Detroit City own goal off a Benjamin Ofeimu cross from the right side. The Boys in Blue have scored their first goal in the 14th minute or earlier in each of their three U.S. Open Cup matches this season (CHI 4’, SA 2’). The home team would tack on two more in the first half with Douglas Martinez finding Augi Williams (33’) for the tally and Aedan Stanley connecting on a corner to Ofeimu (36’). Williams now has a pair of Open Cup goals for Indy this season, while Stanley has a team-best two assists. Indy Eleven continues the streak and is unbeaten in its last eight matches, dating back to the Third Round win over Chicago Fire FC II on April 17. The Boys in Blue also become the second Indiana club in the history of the tournament to reach the Quarterfinals (Indianapolis Inferno 1992). The Boys in Blue will play out of the East Division in the Quarterfinals on the road against Atlanta United (MLS) July 9 or 10.
2024 Third Round | April 17, 2024 | Chicago Fire FC II (MLS NEXT Pro) 0:1 Indy Eleven (USLC) Round of 32 | May 8, 2024 | Indy Eleven 2:0 San Antonio FC (USLC) Round of 16 | May 22, 2024 | Indy Eleven (USLC) 3:0 Detroit City FC (USLC)
Remaining U.S. Open Cup Schedule Quarterfinal | Tuesday, July 9 – Wednesday, July 10 Semifinal | Tuesday, Aug. 27 – Wednesday, Aug. 28 Final | Wednesday, Sept. 25
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup | Round of 32 Indy Eleven 3:0 Detroit City FC Wednesday, May 22, 2024 – 7 p.m. ET Carroll Stadium | Indianapolis
Scoring Summary IND – Own Goal 14’ IND – Augi Williams (Douglas Martinez) 33’ IND – Ben Ofeimu (Aedan Stanley) 36’
Discipline Summary IND – Ben Ofeimu (caution) 7’ DET – Devon Amoo-Mensah (caution) 61’ IND – Jack Blake (caution) 65’ IND – Max Schneider (caution) 90+1’
Ian Darke’s Premier League team-by-team season grades
Ian Darke, ESPN.com writerMay 21, 2024, 01:00 PM ET
Manchester City and manager Pep Guardiola are insatiable. Six out of the last seven Premier League titles, including an unprecedented four in succession, and you know that by August, they will be hungry for more. How does Pep do it? Not even he can explain it.But City did not have things all their own way in what was a thrilling season featuring a record number of goals. So how did your team rate? Here are my end-of-season grades.
Erling Haaland won the Golden Boot again despite missing two months with injury, Phil Foden was Footballer of the Year, and Rodri has gone 50 league matches unbeaten. But the clincher in City’s faultless final stretch was the return to fitness of pass-master Kevin De Bruyne.
A magnificent effort to total 89 points — their best since Arsene Wenger’s “Invincibles” 20 years ago. Declan Rice‘s signing from West Ham United was inspired, and Kai Havertz silenced his doubters. However, not even a run of six straight wins at the end of the season was quite enough. GRADE: A-
The bombshell news on Jan. 26 that Jurgen Klopp would be leaving at the end of the season came with Liverpool five points clear at the top of the table. But while winning the League Cup and always looking dangerous in attack, the Reds’ defending was often less convincing. Despite an initial boost in form following Klopp’s announcement, Liverpool seemed to run out of stream in costly defeats by Crystal Palace and Everton. GRADE: B+
How Slot can use Ten Hag’s struggles to adapt to the Premier League
Mario Melchiot shares his advice for Arne Slot ahead of his first season in the Premier League as Liverpool manager.
Aston Villa will be deliriously happy at a top-four finish and a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League. Unai Emery’s team was lethal at times at Villa Park, with Ollie Watkins developing into an elite striker with 19 goals and 13 assists. The Villans were less convincing on the road, however, and the 6-2 aggregate loss to Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League semifinals was a reality check. GRADE: A-
Fifth place in a first year without Harry Kane, the team’s talisman who left for Bayern Munich, was no calamity, but disappointing in the context of their early-season charge to the top with 26 points from the first 10 games. Manager Ange Postecoglou’s adventurous and attractive style of play made him an instant hit with supporters, but the apparent absence of a Plan B means the honeymoon is probably over. GRADE: B-
Assessing Man United’s worst-ever Premier League finish
The ESPN FC Live team grade a Premier League season to forget for Manchester United, who finish way outside a Champions League spot in eighth.
Mauricio Pochettino’s departure by “mutual consent” comes as a big surprise after the club’s excellent finish to the season. It looked like he had found a winning blend after months of erratic form, but his exit — apparently amicable — suggests either he and owner Todd Boehly see the future rather differently. Or Pochettino has other plans. GRADE: B-
Eddie Howe’s side finished strongly to claim seventh place, but they need Man City to win the FA Cup on Saturday in order to clinch a European place. A long injury list and a less-than-watertight defence away from home meant the Magpies could never hit last season’s heights despite 21 goals from Alexander Isak, third-top scorer in the league. GRADE: C+
It was Manchester United’s worst finish of the Premier League era, and as a result, the Red Devils will need to beat Man City in the FA Cup Final to salvage a berth in continental competition next season. Injuries in defence certainly played a role in the team’s lackluster performances, but United lacked shape or identity with opponents storming through a vacant midfield. Head coach Erik ten Hag will do well to survive the winds of change sent blowing through Old Trafford by new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. GRADE: F
Pickford: Everton kept fighting as a team after the points deductions
Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford explains how his team kept a positive attitude even after getting hit with a points deduction from the Premier League.
Eye-catching wins as at Arsenal and Spurs coupled with fearful beatings in four other London derbies meant this was a topsy-turvy season for West Ham. Manager David Moyes leaves memories of some great European nights and lofty finishes in the league. But despite the menace of Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta, the Hammers’ form was patchy, with no clean sheets since Jan. 2. GRADE: C+
New boss Oliver Glasner inspired an electric finish to the season, guiding Palace to six wins in their final seven games to sneak into the top half of the table. The Eagles were a different side after gifted duo Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise finally got fit and firing, while Jean-Philippe Mateta was a revelation with 16 goals. Can they keep these stars together at Selhurst Park for another go next season? Given the interest from bigger clubs, it will be a challenge. GRADE: B+
Roberto De Zerbi’s reign ended with one win in his final 10 games. Injuries did not help, but there is no hiding from the fact that a talented team regressed this season — having finished sixth in 2022-23 — and the restless De Zerbi tinkered too much with his starting XI, which ultimately cost them. GRADE: C-
A triumph for Spanish tactician Andoni Iraola in his debut season, especially after a poor start that had observers wondering if the Cherries had made a mistake bringing him in to replace Gary O’Neil. Pleasing football, 48 points, a comfortable midtable finish and 19 goals for Dominic Solanke. GRADE: B+
You feared for them after losing top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic to the Saudi Pro League but, despite fading into 13th place, Marco Silva’s team was never in trouble. The emergence of Rodrigo Muniz to fill the boots of Mitrovic was important. Some top displays included a 2-1 win at Arsenal.
Overall, there will be no complaints at Craven Cottage. GRADE: B
One of the few teams to beat Manchester City, Wolves might have finished higher in the table if the speedy Pedro Neto played more often alongside Hwang Hee-Chan and Matheus Cunha. Manager Gary O’Neil kept them well clear of the relegation zone, but one win from the last nine games rather spoiled the upbeat mood. GRADE: C+
Three home wins in a week — including a terrific display in the Merseyside derby — clinched the Toffees’ survival in the Premier League. That was quite an achievement for Everton boss Sean Dyche in the face of a points deduction after an independent commission found the club had breached Profit and Sustainability Rules, a dearth of goals, and ongoing doubts about Everton’s alleged takeover. The blue half of Liverpool desperately needs some calmer times. GRADE: B-
You know Brentford and their supporters are happy the club stayed up after a difficult season blighted by a long injury list and the suspension that ruled out top striker Ivan Toney until January. He will likely move to another club during the summer transfer window, giving likeable manager Thomas Frank a chance to refresh his squad. GRADE: C
One stat above all others sums up Forest’s struggles: They kept only one clean sheet in the last six months of the season. But they kept their heads just above the relegation zone thanks to a trifecta of attacking talent, Chris Wood, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Morgan Gibbs-White. They were just enough to compensate for a bloated squad, VAR rows, and a change of manager from Steve Cooper to Nuno Espirito Santo. GRADE: C-
A fairytale with an unhappy ending as the Hatters return to the English Championship. Head coach Rob Edwards and his team won lots of friends, but not enough points, and ran out of road with only one win after January. GRADE: C
Teams like to copy Pep Guardiola’s tactic of playing out of the defense, but it isn’t easy — unless you have City’s caliber of players — which is exactly what Burnley discovered this season. Indeed, it all looked a little naive from manager Vincent Kompany and his players. After winning the Championship at a canter in 2022-23, the Clarets were expected to do better but went straight back down. GRADE: D
A shadow of the team who were promoted, Sheffield United conceded a whopping 104 goals this season. One of the weakest teams in Premier League history, the Blades need a major reset. GRADE: F
USMNT roster questions: How to replace Dest and who will make Copa America cut?
Yesterday, we took your questions right after the USMNT squad was announced for the training camp and friendlies that will precede the 2024 Copa America. The squad contains 27 players and the final group of 26 that will play in the Copa America will likely come from this list.Nturally, you all had questions. We tried our best to answer them based on what we’ve reported about this team over the years. Here are some of the bits from that session.
Quintin R. asked: What is the reasoning for calling 27 into camp? Expecting injury or someone not to be fully fit come June 23? Seems odd to leave one guy at home.
Paul Tenorio: My guess is that it’s about getting a closer look at Tillman considering the central midfield depth chart is stacked for the Olympics, too. Plus it provides some insurance as the U.S. evaluates the health and availability of Tyler Adams and Josh Sargent.
“Timmy made a good impression on us in January,” Berhalter told us earlier today. “When we’re looking at this roster versus the Olympic roster, there are some other guys that were in contention as well, but we felt like the balance of it would be better to keep them with the Olympic group and move Timmy to the senior team,”
Adam F. asked: Why is Shaq Moore on this roster?
Paul Tenorio:Bryan Reynolds is going to be on the Olympic squad and Berhalter said that of the right back options, he valued Moore’s ability to defend in one-on-one situations.
“We know he’s getting back to his form right now,” Berhalter said. “He has been out for a while, but he’s been able to get on the field now and get some more minutes and he’s a guy when we were looking at our matchups this summer, a lot of these wingers are very good one-v-one and we think that’s a strength of his, so there’s something we took into consideration.”
Berhalter also said they are looking at Weah, McKennie, Musah and center backs as potential right back depth options.
Henry K asked: Could we potentially see Pulisic slide over to the right wing position and have Weah stand in as a right back to replace Dest?
Tom Bogert: It definitely feels like a possibility, right? It’ll probably depend on the matchup, but it seems like an option.
It’s worth noting that Christian Pulisic played the majority of his minutes on the right for AC Milan this year and was excellent. Obviously, he has different responsibilities with the national team (and he’ll be playing in a different system,) but he’d be plenty comfortable on that side.
The most ultra-attacking lineup from this roster has Weah at right back, Pulisic right wing, Gio Reyna at the No 10 and Wright at left wing.
Pulisic has played well at right wing for AC Milan this season (Getty Images)
Paul Tenorio: Berhalter said one of the main tasks of the training camp ahead of the Copa America is figuring out what they want to do at right back.
“Obviously with Sergiño going down, we have to figure out the right back situation and there’s a couple of different options we can look at,” Berhalter said. “We have like-for-like with Joe Scally and Shaq Moore. We have a winger that can play there with Timothy Weah, who’s played that for his club. We have center midfielders who can play there with Weston and Yunus, and then we have center backs that we’re looking at, can they play there? So, we just wanted the ability in this training camp to have options, to have flexibility. Some of it may revolve around a back three. But the first objective is to see how we’re going to fill that right back position because we know we’re going to be missing Sergiño.”
Austen B. asks: Out of attacking, midfield, and defense, where is the USMNT most likely to challenge the contenders and mostly likely to struggle? I know the USMNT has not had great success scoring against top competition (at least in the World Cup), yet to me their midfield and attacking was still a “strength” in that they have been able to keep possession and put pressure on opponents, whereas the defense seems to lack lock down defenders and at times show lapses against dangerous attacks.
Paul Tenorio: I think yours is a fair assessment. The area where the U.S. has been best against top opponents is in midfield. MMA was the clear winner at the World Cup in its ability to match up against England, especially. The U.S. was quite dangerous at times in transition, they got into the right spaces, but the final pass (and sometimes the pass before the pass) was lacking. I’m thinking of against Wales specifically and I wrote about it then.
Can the U.S. be more dangerous in the Copa America? Can they be more deadly with chances in the final third? We’ll see. And I definitely have concerns with defending on the right side of this lineup.
Seth R. asks: Does this roster give you any hints as to what overage players will be selected for the Olympics squad?
Paul Tenorio: I think it gives hints not just at overage players, but also some of the younger players who could play a role.
Berhalter mentioned Kevin Paredes, Aidan Morris and Bryan Reynolds as players who they see as getting more minutes at the Olympics than they would here. I think all three would have probably made this team if there was no Olympic tournament.
Overage players I think are under consideration: Zimmerman, Auston Trusty and Brandon Vazquez, among others.
Zendejas has played well for Club America but misses out on the USMNT roster (Alfredo Moya/Jam Media/Getty Images)
Collin J. asks: With Alejandro Zendejas playing well for Club America, why is he off the roster while a struggling Brenden Aaronson is on it?
Tom Bogert: It’s definitely a tough omission for Zendejas and probably disheartening on a personal level — what more could he have done? Zendejas has 14 goals and eight assists in 3,176 minutes this season for Club America and will play in the Clausura final.
Unfortunately for him, the winger position is loaded and now has a new, versatile entrant in Haji Wright (who had spent his time with USMNT at the No 9 before excelling at left wing with Coventry this year).
It’s tough for Zendejas that, if he had stuck to his original international allegiance with Mexico, he might have been a starter at the Copa America for them rather than fighting to make the U.S. roster.
Jody R. asks: If both Adams and Sargent are unable to go, who do you think the next man up would be? Pefok?
Paul Tenorio: If Sargent can’t go, I doubt there’d be a like-for-like sub there. You’d probably just roll with Pepi-Balogun-Wright as your No 9 options and carry an extra midfielder or add a winger.
I think if Adams goes down, there is probably just a plan to keep Tillman on the squad as a midfielder who can provide depth at several spots.
Adam T. asked: Why is Gregg Berhalter obsessed with MLS players?
Paul Tenorio: There are four MLS players on the 27-man roster, one of which I would expect not to make the Copa roster (Tillman), the other of which is an injury replacement for the injured Sergiño Dest (Shaq Moore) and probably would not have been on the squad if not for the Olympics taking a Euro-based right back (Bryan Reynolds), the third of which is the third goalkeeper.
Miles Robinson is basically the top MLS player on this squad and judging him off the league he plays in probably is more of a you problem than a Berhalter problem.
Harry P asks: Any insight into (reigning MLS MVP) Luciano Acosta potentially switching allegiances and joining the USMNT?
Tom Bogert: Acosta remains in the process of becoming a United States citizen (and thus eligible to represent the USMNT), but it’s taking a bit longer than they hoped because when Lucho left the D.C. United to sign with Atlas, he left the country and would not have qualified as a resident at that time. Acosta has argued he couldn’t come back because of COVID-19 (Lucho signed with Atlas in December 2019), but the government didn’t see it that way. TBD on timing, but this is definitely still in the works.
One key reason Acosta is getting citizenship is the hope to play for the USMNT.
“Obviously (I would accept a USMNT call-up), if it came,” Acosta told us last year when we revealed he was in the citizenship process. “It’s one reason I started the process.”
(Top photo: Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
USWNT head coach Emma Hayes talks Olympic roster preparations and the role of NWSL
On Wednesday, U.S. women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes arrived at Newark airport just outside New York City following a fifth-consecutive successful title run with Chelsea in the Women’s Super League. She was only in New York — a place she considers home, previously spending seven years in the U.S. developing as a young coach — for a short time.“I’m lucky to be born in England, but made in America,” Hayes said on Thursday to the Today Show.On Tuesday, she named the roster for her first USWNT camp, causing some excitement by listing Crystal Dunn as a forward. She’ll have two chances to stand on the U.S. sideline next month with a set of friendlies against South Korea in Denver and Saint Paul.“I want to focus on the performance. I want to get to know the players. I want to make sure that, in the limited time we have together, we make the most of it,” she said from a tall stool inside Studio A at Rockefeller Center. “And for me, pressure is a huge privilege.”By Thursday morning, Hayes was making the rounds with American media, confident as she sat for half a dozen television interviews before settling in front of a round table of USWNT coverage regulars.Hayes spoke for nearly an hour with three things becoming clear: the transition process has been slowly happening since November, she sees NWSL and USL Super League as crucial parts of the USWNT’s development, and nothing is set in stone — especially not the Olympic roster.
Easing into the role
“Everything, to be honest,” Hayes said when detailing what U.S. interim head coach Twila Kilgore shared with her during the transition process. She rattled off a list of lessons from the 2023 World Cup, team personnel, and the collective bargaining agreement with the USWNT Players Association. “Culture, traditions, I want to maintain and uphold the right things.”Hayes’ conversation with Kilgore also touched on the games the USWNT has played so far this year and the finer details like the timeline of a roster selection process.“We’ve been on many long calls late at night,” she said, referencing the time difference between the U.S. and England. “Certainly been to bed quite late in the last few months, but she’s been a humongous help.“I feel like I’ve been able to quietly get to know the job without being in the job, and I think that’s really helped every little detail, whether it’s processes on game day to how they operate in the hotel to which kit they wear. When I go into camp, I know all of these things.”Her brief trip to the U.S. last November helped too, and most of the time between now and the Olympics has already been planned thanks to Kilgore’s information and what Hayes saw firsthand.“All the May camp preparation is done, all the sessions are planned,” she said. “All of the June schedule is planned out in terms of our meetings, our meeting points. July is planned. Everybody is clear on what’s going on — now it’s about getting the players.”
The American women’s soccer ecosystem
Before taking the USWNT gig, Hayes had provided an outside assessment of the team’s 2023 World Cup performance in a column, focusing primarily on player development and the fact that the team was “massively short of creative talent.” Asked if she would continue to be critical of the program, Hayes expressed that she, like any coach, wants more for the team and federation.
“That’s clear for everyone to see,” she said, gesturing widely. “I don’t always view that as a negative thing. Sometimes you need something like that in life to serve as a reminder if you don’t grow. I always say all the time, what got you here won’t get you there. It’s an opportunity now to evolve.”Hayes said the focus needs to be on improving day in and day out, which isn’t limited to U.S. Soccer.“We need our league, the NWSL, to be hugely competitive. We need the USL (Super League) for lots of reasons, a development pathway for players that don’t necessarily make the NWSL to come in and to be given a place to play,” she said. “That in itself will create competition. Competition is healthy.”That synergy was apparent Thursday as Hayes’ media availability took place at NWSL’s offices. (The league made sure she had access to NWSL+, the league’s streaming platform.) While she watches and will continue to games across the league, it’s a feat she admitted she can’t do on her own.“Across the breadth and depth of this country, that cannot be covered solely by me,” she said. “There will be a coaching and analytics team that will be scattered across the country.”Hayes added that she has seen a noticeable tactical improvement across the league this season.“We have to compete with what’s going on in Europe, and I see lots of good developments in the (NWSL). I’ve seen good international players come into the league. All of these things have to happen in order for the U.S. team to compete at the top level,” Hayes said. “My job is to make sure that I work together with all of those stakeholders so that together, we have got the experience of what’s been done in Europe to be able to say look, we have to drive to the next space.”
Assessing all options, including forward Crystal Dunn
Hayes spoke about the roster for her first camp but did not touch on too many individual players that did or did not make the cut. Crystal Dunn’s name came up a couple of times, however, thanks to the fact that Dunn is joining the forward pool in Colorado and Minnesota.
“I don’t publish the order,” Hayes said, smiling. “I had nothing to do that with.” She paused, holding the joke as long as she could before finishing, “I’m being cheeky.”
Hayes coached Dunn at Chelsea during the 2017-2018 season, but she said she’s seen the conversations about Dunn’s position over the years as well. Hayes knows how important it is for Dunn to “find a home” on the field.“For me, it’s less about, ‘Is she going to play in that position?’” Hayes said. “I would like to see her a little bit further forward this time around knowing I already know what she can do at left back.”
Dunn isn’t the only player Hayes is evaluating. She said the 18-player roster for the Olympics is not decided, and what she sees in camp will take her a step closer to knowing that final list. It’s part of why she didn’t want to comment on any individual player.
“I have to analyze players and analyze which players are closest to making that roster,” Hayes said. “I need to see it, feel it, be around it to get a sense of the tactical understanding of everyone — see where everybody is at.”
Hayes will focus on the process and the performance. She’s learned to focus on that over her years of coaching. She’s less worried about where a team is today; it’s where a team is at the end that counts.
“Are the USA at their best possible position today?” She rhetorically asked the group of reporters. “No, but it’s about where we finish when we need to that matters to me. So I want to focus on that instead of where we are in the world rankings, where we are in comparison to Spain”
Even though she’s been watching the team from a distance since she got the job in November, the time with players in June will show her how much of a gap between the team today and the team at the Olympics can be closed. She wants to be realistic about it.“I’ve come from a club level and what I have learned is the best development is done at club level,” she said addressing prospective USWNT players via the reporters in the room. “So go back to your clubs, play, compete, get healthy, and put yourself in the best possible place.(Photo: USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
It was, after about half an hour, feeling like an office party at a karaoke bar. Chelsea’s travelling support were rolling through all the hits and by the end, Emma Hayes was taking requests. “We want five!” they said. Duly it arrived. “We want Fran!” came the calls, and on went Fran Kirby for her final game in a Chelsea shirt. When she scored Chelsea’s last goal, on 85 minutes, it felt like Chelsea were bending the world to their will. “What’s the score?” the fans asked Hayes repeatedly, and gladly she held up her fingers in immediate reply. It took her a little longer for goal six, probably from the extra effort of taking both hands from her pockets.
Emma Hayes’ side won 6-0 at Old Trafford on the final day of the season (Alex Livesey – The FA via Getty Images)
The only omission from their setlist was a chorus of oles. Had it been against a bigger rival, they might have whipped those out after the second goal arrived inside nine minutes but, as it was, Chelsea were too focused to break off for that kind of interlude.It helps when Manchester United barely showed up, let alone with the energy to gatecrash. Hayes’ leaving party was exactly that, and the force of it all was such that United’s decision to parade their FA Cup trophy at full time to fans unable to travel to last week’s Wembley final felt like witnessing a proposal at somebody else’s wedding. It had all the hallmarks of one: the Hayes kids flinging confetti at each other, Sam Kerr and Erin Cuthbert striking comedy poses in front of the trophy as if in a photo booth.Even Hayes seemed a touch delirious, at one point turning to her bench and mouthing: “Who scored?” and shrugging towards her players during one particularly rampant patch. Certainly, she was taken aback by the ludicrous nature of it all, the ease with which, on its final day, it all fell into place. To emerge from this season with a fifth successive league title is, to put it one way, a bit of a leap in plot terms, given where we were a month ago, and rich with irony given it was her nemesis, Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall, who opened the door for her to write her ending with a 2-1 win over runners-up Manchester City this month, a match that tilted the title race in Chelsea’s favour.
Still, a sunny stroll was a nice change for Hayes given the pace of the past few months, and how quickly it looked like her final season at Chelsea would fall apart. Hayes had been hoping for a quadruple until losing the Continental Cup to Arsenal in March — the game that ended with her shoving Eidevall at full time in response to the “male aggression” she said he had exhibited on the touchline — and her decision to recite a poem in lieu of an apology at her subsequent press conference seemed to precipitate a wider unravelling and betray a more muddled line of thinking.Within a fortnight, the quadruple had halved to a double after a defeat to Manchester United in the FA Cup. To attend Hayes’ post-match press conference was to see a more guarded, circumspect figure, one visibly wary about saying the wrong thing. In the end, she did: her remarks that “nobody died” and that the goal for the end of the season was for everybody to get out alive did not play well with a fanbase anxious given recent events.These were rare missteps for Hayes, a manager who, if anything, has given the impression over the years of being frustrated by too much good press rather than the reverse (the title of her audiobook, To Kill the Unicorn, is about curing the delusion of the manager as a mythical being who has all the answers). So came the backlash. This season has been the most bruising of Hayes’ career from a PR perspective and the stakes have been so much higher given the number of eyeballs on her since it was announced in November she would take over as manager of the U.S. women’s national team this summer.“Sometimes I wish I was in the old, old days where maybe it was a small press pack,” Hayes said in her final press conference before playing United. “I actually did that early on. You could sit and have little off-the-record conversations, but also share good things. Now, it’s just an exercise of not tripping up. You say too much and get whacked for it. You don’t say enough then it’s just something dull, a repetitive function that we have to serve.”She continued the theme after the match. “If I wasn’t a football manager or had to do a press conference every three days, I’m that person in the social group who sits in the corner. I’m not front and centre in my life. I don’t live like that. So I find some of this job really, really hard because I just want a quiet life. That’s what I’m most looking forward to — being out of the British media, having a different life and being in a situation where I only have to do this and games every six weeks.”Hayes will know it has been a slog for the women’s game to reach this point in the public consciousness. The sport has exploded over the past two years in particular and with the publicity has come scrutiny that Hayes probably felt underprepared for.As the face of the WSL and the sport’s loudest advocate, she has felt it more than most managers. Opposition fans grow weary at the focus on Hayes and Chelsea and the woman at the centre finds being used as a rent-a-quote burdensome, for all she understands the need to keep pushing for more. There is, though, no obvious heir to her role as a mouthpiece for the sport as a whole. Aston Villa’s Carla Ward is taking a career break for similar reasons to Hayes’ desire for a break. City’s Gareth Taylor feels too guarded, United’s Marc Skinner too emotional and Eidevall too explosive on the field. Someone shaping a club to the extent Hayes has feels less likely in the era where women’s teams continue to move in-house. Maybe they won’t make them like her anymore.Not that Hayes could be persuaded to stay. “I categorically cannot carry on,” Hayes said on Saturday. “I don’t have another drop to give, whatever it is. When you deal with people, I have such high standards for myself that maintaining that has become impossible. I can’t keep up with the demands from players on a daily basis in terms of their emotional needs, in terms of everything. I found that to be gruelling this year.”
The moment Chelsea were confirmed as WSL champions (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
She detailed discussions with Chelsea’s sporting directors over improving player care and performance psychology. For those who want to find something deeper in Hayes’ departure, maybe there is a lesson here: after Chelsea’s 8-0 win over Bristol City on May 5, she had warned that female coaches would continue to leave the game if football did not appreciate their wellbeing. “If you’re a parent, forget about it,” she said. She would love to see a duo of two mothers or co-head coaches. “You have to give up a lot in this job,” she went on. “I don’t wish it on anyone.”In time, maybe the game will reflect that it failed one of its greatest managers; maybe this is just the reality of management, at this point in the WSL’s life. Maybe it just has to be that consuming. Maybe it’s different for women. In any case, the next generation will benefit from Hayes’ wisdom, even if Hayes has been burned out by it all.“Staying on top of emotion is something I’m really good at,” she said at her final press conference. “Sometimes, I really hate that. You have to do that a lot as a manager, which is probably one of the reasons I’m leaving this job. I miss Emma, and feeling like I don’t have to watch every word I say or worry about what my body language looks like in every situation because the camera’s on me.”Her final few weeks at Chelsea engendered a kind of ‘grieving’ among her family members who had taken the club to heart. Often, Hayes declined to talk about it with any finality “because I don’t want to cry because I have to do my job”. She had learned to “kick the emotions in the back of my head” but imagined “sobbing my heart out” at some point on Sunday, once it was all over and after she had hosted a barbeque for her son Harry’s birthday.
That has been the odd dichotomy of Hayes’ tenure: a winning machine but always with the disclaimers — maybe even anchors — that she is human, too. After exiting the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona in April, Hayes’ eyes brimmed with tears; her press officer mouthed: “You OK?” before they plunged into a short press conference where Hayes took only six questions. At the Football Writers’ Association dinner to honour Hayes, she teared up while thanking her late father, Sid, the one who had told her to go out and make the English game into what had been built in the United States. An underappreciated facet of this season is that Hayes has trundled through it all while grieving for her father. The menopause, Hayes has said on more than one occasion, has also presented unique challenges.
“Don’t think I’m not, like, feeling it,” she said after her final game at Kingsmeadow. “Today was really, really hard for me to coach. Really, really hard. There was a lot going on.”
Still, Chelsea did the job that night: fans ordered goals and Chelsea served them like they were waiting tables. Even when Guro Reiten managed a hat-trick on 77 minutes, Hayes was urging Chelsea back to the centre circle to rack up the goals that would put them in control on the final day. As the PA system reminded the crowd when the teams came back from the break that this would be the final 45 minutes at Kingsmeadow for Hayes, Kirby and Maren Mjelde, the evening bubbled with a sense of purpose, the mood music changed entirely after City’s 2-1 defeat by Arsenal in the earlier game.
The win put Chelsea in control of their own destiny, albeit not always convincingly, and half the time it was tricky to work out what Hayes was thinking. She conceded the title live on Sky, flanked by upcoming striker Aggie Beever-Jones, after a 4-3 defeat by Liverpool.
She insisted later that the interview — which Sky pundit Karen Carney called “weird” — was not an attempt at a mind game. You half-believe Hayes, given the sincerity with which she later insisted she expected City to win, but initially, she conceded it was “the right tactic” for her to “take the pressure off” her own players before City played.
Over the past year, Hayes has pulled so many tricks that looking for the real meaning sometimes felt like untangling a cat’s cradle. At the least, she is adept at spinning situations to Chelsea’s advantage, and maybe all the strangeness served to take the spotlight from the players. She insisted it was her squad who spearheaded the title charge after City’s slip-up, but it’s hard to believe Hayes was truly willing to abandon all hope: “It all came from them. They never gave up that belief… I learned so much from them today. I really did. I learned a lot about the importance of belief.”
Hayes allowed herself some time to rest on Sunday, then will move to her new in-tray. She is exhausted, but the thought of going to an Olympics, she says, is “not tiring” and will re-energise her. She has USWNT player and staff calls on Monday, a call with U.S. leadership teams on Wednesday, a flight to New York and press obligations on Thursday in Denver, a meeting with staff on Friday, and a first meeting with the team on the following Monday.
It is a full-circle moment given the call from Sid that started it all: when out in Atlanta and bowled over by the 1996 and 1999 U.S. teams, he told Hayes to get out there. When she finally does, it will be with the hope of a simpler life, and maybe a team already used to celebrity and fighting culture wars, with players who will be masters of the things that have most jaded Hayes in her final few years in England. Still, Hayes will likely prove unignorable: it is difficult to imagine how she will ever be less box office as long as she is herself.
It’s been equally difficult, over the past few weeks, to try to understand Hayes’ legacy. When she announced her departure, it was easy: an immeasurable impact on a sport and a club. May onwards made for a strange time to quantify it all given the events post-Continental Cup final, and the view among opposition fans that what happened there irreparably damaged her reputation. Hayes is no longer a universally-liked figure. Furthermore, she has never won the Champions League as a head coach, let alone built a European dynasty a la Lyon or Barcelona. To what extent those will exist as asterisks on her roll of honour might only become clear if an English team wins the Champions League in the coming years. Deeming a return to club management “unlikely”, Hayes seemed to pass up on ever doing so.
You can’t believe it bothers her much. Knowing that she has nothing more to give is in itself closure. Hayes is simply too exhausted to summon regrets and what-ifs. Is she the greatest domestic manager the women’s game has known? Certainly in the WSL era; more broadly, her only rival is Vic Akers, Arsenal’s European Cup-winning manager for whom Hayes was assistant coach, and who pushed the game forward in a similarly visionary way. Hayes endured more scrutiny and greater competition at a more transformative time for the women’s game. It will take a while for anyone to catch up to seven league titles, five FA Cups and two League Cups.
Memory is a slippery thing. In five years, will anyone still read the footnotes at the bottom of title five? That they did it without Sam Kerr, that Arsenal and Stina Blackstenius half won the title for them, that the off-field sideshow threatened to consume it all?
More on Emma Hayes, the incoming USWNT head coach…
This has been a gruelling season for a club beset by injuries and it feels like they’ve made it over the line by constant reinvention and sheer force of will since losing Kerr and her replacement, Mia Fishel, to anterior cruciate ligament injuries at the start of the year. Had Chelsea won the FA Cup this year, it would have been their fourth in a row. That underlines the breadth of their dominance.
The Manchester United manager, Skinner, mused afterwards that the days of clubs winning five titles in a row are “gone”. He said: “I’ve seen the growth from no teams, not professional, all the way to teams that have had the advantage because they professionalised quicker. In the era when it has been professional, Chelsea still managed to deliver that situation. It leaves a space and hopefully, we can fill that space going forward.”
His point was probably that Hayes’ departure and the relentlessness of her dominance leave the door open for others as Chelsea transition but it seemed muddied by his concession that even in the professional era Chelsea stayed ahead of the pack and found a new edge. That constant reinvention gave the illusion that Hayes and Chelsea could go on forever. Hayes has pulled back the curtain on it all to show a coach and players barely limping over the line, and one not always given to enjoyment.
Still, a video of Hayes and son Harry, in a hotel room, singing about winning five titles in a row did the rounds on Saturday night. As with Hayes, there is always a point, a message. That one: I will enjoy this, and I don’t care what anyone else thinks.
(Top photo: Naomi Baker – The FA via Getty Images)
The clear winner in MLS Soccer this week was Raccoon Messi at the Red Bulls vs Philly game see. Pulisic scores a Brace on Mom’s Day weekend and celebrates with his mom as he wear’s her maiden name on his back. Disappointing week as Tottenham blew their chances to knock off Man City at home when Son was smothered on this play by City’s backup goalie Ortega (love Pep’s response) – leaving the EPL race all but over to the Blues. Arsenal will fall just short again unless West Ham can upset Man City at City – fat chance. The only thing up for grabs is 6th place and a Europa league place. The complete and utter lack of drama in the EPL final weekend proves once again why American sports are superior to Europe.
Man City has only beaten 2 of the top 10 teams this season – but have the best overall record by beating the crap teams. The US has playoffs. No offense but when a team wins the Super Bowl –they have to beat the best teams – same in the NBA, same in Hockey and at the end of the season when it counts – not some early or midseason – no one cares game. Championship games to win it all. While the European leagues have no one cares blasé games down the stretch except perhaps relegation – – imagine what even a top 4 playoff would look like in the EPL – the interest and excitement darn near challenging Champions League in popularity. But alas the Europeans know best. Enjoy this weekend’s games where the only real drama is will Germany’s Bayern Leverkusen extend Europe’s longest unbeaten streak EVER to 51 games by becoming the first German team to finish undefeated in a season?
Indy 11 host Hartford Sat & Detroit City Wed in US Open Cup
Indy Eleven won 3-1 at Miami FC Saturday night and is now unbeaten in six straight across all competitions, including four in USL Championship action. The four matches are the most since a stretch of six from August 9-Sept 2 last year. The win improves Indy to 4-4-2 in league action, and moves them up to 4th in the East. The Boys in Blue return to action Saturday when they host Hartford Athletic for Hometown Heroes Night. Action begins at 7 p.m. ET and will air locally on WNDY & ESPN+. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster. The 11 will host Detroit City Wed in US Open Cup Sweet 16 action at the Mike.
Games on TV
Sat, May 18 – Final Day Germany
9:30 am ESPN+ Dortmund vs Darmstadt
9:30 am EPSN+ Union Berlin (Aaronson, Pefok) vs Freiburg
9:30 pm ESPN+ Bayer Leverkusen vs Ausburg
9:30 am ESPN+ Stuttgart vs Mgladbach (Scalley)
12 noon CBSSN Lecce vs Atalanta ITALY
1:45 pm Fox Nashville SC vs Atlanta United
2:45 pm Para+ Torino vs AC Milan (Pulisic, Musah)
7 pm ESPN+, TV8 Indy 11 vs Hartford @ the Mike
7:30 pm CBS Galazo Tampa Bay Rowdies (Jordan Farr GK) vs FC Tulsa
7:30 pm Ion Washington Spirit (Rodman, Hatch, Sullivan) vs Angel City FC NWSL
9:30 pm Ion TV KC Current vs Racing Louisville (Demelo) NWSL
9:30 pm Univision America vs Guardlajara
Sun, May 19 Final Day EPL
11 am USA Arsenal vs Everton
11 am NBC Man City vs West Ham
11 am CNBC Brighton vs Man United
11 am Golf Channel Chelsea vs Bournemouth
11 am Peacock Shefield United (Trusty) vs Nottingham Forest (Reyna)
11 am Peacock Fulham (Jedi, Ream) vs Luton Town
11 am Peacock Crystal Palace (Richards) vs Aston Villa
12 noon Para+ Inter Milan vs Lazio
1 pm ESPN+ Barcelona vs Rayo Vallecano
5 pm Para+ NY Gothem (Williams, Ohara, Mewis) vs Chicago
6 pm Para+ Orlando Pride vs Seattle Reign (Lavelle, Huerta, Cook) NWSL
Wed, May 22 Europa League Finals
3 pm Para+ Bayer Leverkusen vs Atalanta
Sat, May 25
3 pm ESPN+ FA Cup Final Man City vs Man United
Sat, June 1
3 pm CBS Champ League Final Real Madrid vs Dortmund
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The last matchday of the 2023-24 season in the Bundesliga means things get started with a fury on Saturday morning with all 18 clubs kicking off simultaneously at 9:30a. Then on Sunday morning the Eredivise completes there season with kickoffs at 8:30a, the EPL kicks off at 11a, and in France they will be kicking off at 3p. La Liga and Serie A still have one more weekend left so will have games scattered across this weekend before wrapping up their season next week Sunday. There’s quite a bit of action including some significant situations still to be settled so let’s get to it.
Saturday
Union Berlin v Freiburg – 8:30a on ESPN+
Brenden Aaronson started last weekend and Union Berlin were leading 2-1 against 17th place Koln but two late goals would see Berlin drop three points and fall into the relegation playoff spot. Now Berlin, who started the season in the Champions League need a win on Saturday against 8th place Freiburg (who are still within striking distance of Europa Conference League) and a loss by Mainz to Wolfsburg or they will finish no better than the relegation playoff spot. If Berlin were to lose and Koln can win again, this time against Wolfsburg, while making up a three goal differential it would be a straight and stunning drop for Berlin to the 2 Bundesliga. Berlin have lost five of their last six and have just one win since mid-February. Rumors this week suggest that Aaronson will not be back in Berlin next season regardless of the outcome on Saturday but also that Leeds do not plan to keep him for next season so it seems as though he will be on the move this summer.
Wolfsburg v Mainz – 9:30a on ESPN+
Kevin Paredes has started two straight for Wolfsburg and will finish the season just under 1,500 minutes across all competitions for his club who head into the final weekend in 12th place. It’s been a solid, if not spectacular, season for Paredes as he builds on the 500 minutes he saw in the 2022-23 campaign. Wolfsburg are comfortably middle of the table in 12th place but can play spoiler to Mainz who are holding on to hopes of safety.
Hoffenheim v Bayern Munich – 9:30a on ESPN+
John Brooks has not appeared in three straight matches and has not started a game since he picked up a red card in early March and served a two match suspension. Hoffenheim are in seventh place, one point ahead of Freiburg for Europa Conference League qualifying and three points (and a three goal differential) behind Eintracht Frankfurt for sixth place and Europa League qualification. Hoffenheim’s opponent this weekend are Bayern Munich who’s fate has been settled in an unusual way as they are currently in second place, fifteen points behind first place Bayer Leverkusen (who will look to complete their unbeaten run through the Bundesliga when they face Augsburg).
Stuttgart v Borussia Monchengladbach – 9:30a on ESPN+
Joe Scally, Jordan Pefok and Borussia Monchengladbach go into the final weekend clear of relegation thanks to a draw against Frankfurt last weekend with Scally picking up the assist on Gladbach’s only goal. Scally has started all but a handful of matches for Gladbach this season and has racked up more Bundesliga minutes this season than any other American, still just 21 years old. Pefok did not appear last weekend and has not started a match since March, he has also been in a goal drought with his last goal coming in late February. Gladbach’s opponent this weekend is third place Stuttgart who technically don’t have much to play for this weekend but could pass Bayern in the standings with a win and a Bayern loss.
Heidenheim v Koln – 9:30a on ESPN+
The second leading minutes man for American’s in Germany is Lennard Maloney who returned from injury last weekend to see 24’ minutes off the bench in Heidenheim’s 1-1 draw with Freiburg. Maloney has missed five matches due to injury and came off the bench in two other matches immediately after his return from said injuries but has otherwise started every match for a Heidenheim side who came into the season as an odds on favorite to return to 2 Bundesliga but have had a solid season and are currently in 9th place, tied with Augsburg and Werder Bremen. Heidenheims opponent this weekend are Koln who need a win, a loss by Union Berlin, and to make up a three goal differential in order to crawl into the relegation playoff spot for one final chance to maintain their Bundesliga standing for next season.
Torino v AC Milan – 2:45p on Paramount+
Christian Pulisic had a pair of goals last weekend in AC Milan’s 5-1 romp over Cagliari to bring his season total to 12 goals and 7 assists in league plan and 15 goals and 9 assists across all competitions. It has been a fantastic individual year for Pulisic though without any team awards to show for his accomplishments as Inter Milan have won the league title going away. Yunus Musah also started and went the full 90’ last weekend in the win, returning from his one game yellow card suspension. It’s been a quieter year for Musah but he’s started the last four games he’s been eligible for and with two more strong appearances to close the season could finish with over 1,500 league minutes and 2,300 minutes across all competitions. Milan face tenth place Torino in their penultimate match with Milan having already sealed second place and Torino out of the European competition running.
Sunday
PSV Eindhoven v RKC Waalwijk – 8:30a on ESPN+
Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi close out their season with league champion PSV Eindhoven Sunday morning with a match against RKC Waalwijk who are tied with Excelsior for the relegation playoff spot. Tillman started and went the full 90’ last weekend in PSV’s draw with Fortuna Sittard while Pepi came on for the final 20’ but neither player made the scoresheet as the match finished 1-1.
Burnley v Nottingham Forest – 11a on Peacock
Gio Reyna was strikingly absent from the matchday squad for Forest last weekend as they fell to Chelsea 3-2 to remain three points ahead of Luton Town for the final relegation spot heading into the final matchday. It’s been a bust of a transfer for Reyna who will return to Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund this summer with an uncertain future ahead of him. It looks as though Matt Turner may also need a move this summer as he hasn’t appeared for Forest since late January, shortly after the team brought in Matz Sels, though frankly Sels has not preformed any better than Turner in his spell.
Chelsea v Bournemouth – 11a on Peacock
In a bit of more positive news Tyler Adams returned to the field for Bournemouth last weekend getting ten minutes off the bench in their 2-1 loss to Brentford. It was just Adams third appearance in what has been a lost season but it is good to see him back on the field heading into the Summer and the USMNT’s upcoming involvement in the Copa America. Bournemouth are solidly middle of the EPL table in eleventh place. They are facing a hot Chelsea side that have won four straight and are making a late push currently three points ahead of Newcastle United and Manchester United for Conference League play and looking to overtake Tottenham for Europa League qualification.
Crystal Palace v Aston Villa – 11a on Peacock
Chris Richards looks to have secured a spot with Crystal Palace moving forward. Richards made the starting lineup in December and hasn’t looked back, starting and going the full 90’ in all but three matches in which he was left out due to injury in early April. Richards will finish the season with over 2,000 minutes in EPL play and 2,500 minutes over all competitions. Palace enter the final week in twelfth place and are facing fourth place Aston Villa who can’t move up or down on the final weekend.
Luton Town v Fulham – 11a on Peacock
Tim Ream faces a more uncertain future though he recently signed an extension with Fulham. Ream signed a one year extension that would take him through the 2024-25 season but he hasn’t seen the field for Fulham since mid February. Antonee Robinson on the other hand has played nearly every minute for Fulham this year, missing one match due to muscular problems back in September and just an additional 58 minutes across the remainder of the season, he’ll finish with over 3,200 minutes in league play. Fulham are in fourteenth place, easily safe from relegation and face a Luton Town side that are all but mathematically eliminated. Luton would need a win, a Forest loss and to make up the 12 goal difference in order to avoid the drop.
Sheffield United v Tottenham Hotspur – 11a on Peacock
Sheffield’s disastrous EPL campaign comes to a merciful close this weekend with the only outstanding question being just how many goals will they allow in their record setting season. Sheffield have allowed 101 goals and will face a Tottenham side that need a result this weekend to ensure they hold off Chelsea for fifth place and Europa League qualification. Auston Trusty has started the past eight for Sheffield and looks set for a return to the Championship as he is signed with the club through the end of the 2026-27 season.
Real Betis v Real Sociedad – 1p on ESPN+
Real Betis pulled ahead of Real Sociedad last weekend with a win over Almeria but fell back to seventh place midweek when they settled for a draw with Las Palmas while Sociedad was beating Valencia. Sociedad now holds a one point lead for sixth place and Europa Conference League qualifying heading into their head-to-head matchup. Betis need at least a draw to keep their hopes alive as a win would seal sixth place for Sociedad. Johnny started again last week and has over 1,100 minutes since joining Betis in January.
Granada v Celta Vigo – 1p on ESPN+
Luca de la Torre was an unused substitute last weekend and hasn’t started a match since he was injured in early March. Celta Vigo have four wins over that time and with a five point lead over Cadiz a result of any kind this weekend against relegated Granada would guarantee they are safe heading into the final weekend.
Monaco v Nantes – 3p on beIN Sports
Folarin Balogun came off the bench late in the first half last weekend to replace the injured Breel Embolo and picked up an assist on the opening goal as Monaco would go on to win 2-0. With the result his side are guaranteed to finish in second place heading into the final weekend as they take on a Nantes side that are just guaranteed safety. The assist was Balogun’s second in three weeks and his seventh of the season giving him fifteen goal contributions across all competitions.
Monday
Bologna v Juventus – 2:45p on Paramount+
Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah lifted the Copa Italia trophy on Wednesday but saw their manager dismissed on Friday in what has been a turbulent week. McKennie started the match while Weah came on in the final minutes to put in a defensive effort and see out the 1-0 victory. Juventus have had a disappointing league season including a draw to last place Salernitana last weekend, though the point was enough to ensure that they will qualify for Champions League play next season. They face third place Bologna on Monday who are tied with Juventus on points and lead them in goal differential by +3.
USMNT’s core is moving away from MLS and that’s fine for now
In one respect, however, the match was unlike any other in history. For the first time since Major League Soccer’s launch in 1996, the red, white, and blue game-day roster did not feature a single player from the U.S. first division. Atlanta United‘s Miles Robinson, the only MLS player to even make the training camp roster for those games, was left off the 23-man matchday squad because of injury and looking at where American players play, it’s unlikely this will be the last time such an occurrence happens.In a sense, the impact of current MLS players on the U.S. national team is waning. At the 1998 World Cup, 16 of the 22 players came from MLS. In 2002 and 2006, that number was 11 out of 23. In Qatar? Just nine of 26 players came from the first division, with only Nashville SC‘s Walker Zimmerman playing more than 45 minutes.Now, this isn’t to say that MLS (and USL Championship) aren’t having an effect on the senior national team. They clearly are, especially as the majority of those called up started their careers in MLS or the development academies. U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter pointed to the growth of the league as a key element in the development of the player pool.
“MLS is a critical step in everything that we’re doing in U.S. Soccer,” Berhalter said in a November interview with Telemundo. “When you see the amount of investment that the owners have made in Major League Soccer, and actually soccer in America, it’s a great thing. The reason why we are where we are is because of the investment from MLS,””We don’t get hung up on where the players are coming from. We’re looking at how we grow this team, grow the player pool, and give experience to a broad selection of players.”Consider this: 17 of the 26 players on the 2022 World Cup roster played for an MLS NEXT academy, while 20 of the 21 men on the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup roster were, or had been, in an MLS academy. Additionally, 14 players with USL or League One experience made that U-20 roster including Joshua Wynder, who has since moved to Portuguese side Benfica in the USL’s first seven-figure transfer.It’s a strange spot for MLS and, to a lesser extent, USL. The league needs to move its best young players along to other clubs and reinvest the money in player development, a virtuous cycle that also means talented young Americans will end up playing overseas. While 2023 saw homegrown players set a record, with 174 playing 168,163 minutes across 2,829 games, three aging defenders — Matt Miazga, Tim Parker, and Zimmerman — were the only Americans on the Best XI team. The top three MVP candidates — FC Cincinnati playmaker Luciano Acosta, LAFC winger Dénis Bouanga and Atlanta United midfielder Thiago Almada — came from abroad, with no American winning the league’s MVP since Mike Magee in 2013.
An emerging league is, almost by definition, a place where the most talented young players leave and that is, for now at least, a feature not a bug.”All of the work that we do day to day is focused on giving opportunities for our players to reach their full potential, whether it’s in the academy or the first team, so that eventually some of them become high-level players in MLS,” Charles Altchek, president of MLS NEXT Pro, said in an interview with ESPN. “Whether they stay in MLS or end up moving around the world depends on where they are in their lifecycle as a player, what they want to achieve and where they want to be.”USL is adopting this same philosophy: they want to be a place where Americans start a career, not finish it.”I feel very strongly that the most valuable currency in soccer for player development is firstly in playing minutes, especially meaningful and competitive games in front of thousands of fans,” USL head of global football development and sporting director Oliver Wyss said during a phone call with ESPN.”Our clubs are ideally positioned to provide this environment and the full pathway that already has and will have an even bigger direct impact on developing the next generation of U.S. national team players and also allow the USL to become a bigger player in the global transfer market.””I encourage all of our teams to look at our top players as assets, and not as expenses. Ultimately, if these assets can be transferred to Europe, and you get a six- or seven-figure transfer amount plus a future sell-on percentage, the return of investment on these players is going to be significant for a club.”The growth of domestic leagues means there’s more opportunity than ever before for Americans to see the field, but there’s also more competition. The trend for MLS clubs seeking quality is to target players in their mid-20s. In other words, men in their prime who are also depreciating assets in a sport that prioritizes youth and potential.While this is good for the level of play, it’s not great for younger Americans trying to break through who can see opportunities to get on the field blocked by these expensive acquisitions. As a result, the percentage of minutes played by Americans in MLS has decreased even though available minutes have increased because of league expansion. One worthwhile comparison is Japan, a footballing country in a similar place to the U.S. in this regard.
Tom Byer, a man who has had a significant impact on the development of soccer in the Asian nation, offered an observation during an interview. “With Japan, the majority of the national team players play in Europe, but the gap between those best players in Europe and the players in the J.League is tiny,” he said. “Almost no Japanese player makes it over to Europe to play until they’ve played about 150 professional games in the J.League.”Closing the gap should, and is, a goal of MLS, and one that it’s slowly achieving. But the truth is, at the end of the day, it’s neither MLS nor the USL’s job to make the U.S. men’s national team better. They are three separate and distinct entities with their own goals and metrics for success. Still, there’s the reality that what’s good for one is good for the other — a strong tide raises all boats, or something like that — and there’s a World Cup not too far away across all of North America.”When the national team is successful, it’s good for soccer fans in this country and for MLS,” Altchek said. “That’s why we’ve worked really closely with the Federation for decades now on providing those opportunities for players and working with them on call-ups and releasing players for different competitions.””We want the U.S. to win the 2026 World Cup or at least go farther than they’ve ever gone before. Having the men’s national team there with a bunch of players who played or are playing in MLS will be icing on the cake.”
Europe’s top soccer leagues: Title fights, UCL, relegation
Dale Johnson, General Editor, ESPN FC May 14, 2024, 04:56 PM ET
Manchester City will seal the title with a victory at home to West Ham on Sunday. For Arsenal to win the title, they must win at home to Everton and Man City lose or draw. If Arsenal win and Man City draw, the Gunners would win the title on goal difference.
As it stands, only fifth gets a Europa League place with the other slot, by right, going to the FA Cup winners.
Man United take on Man City in the FA Cup final on May 25 (stream live on ESPN+, U.S. only). If Erik ten Hag’s team lift the trophy then they will be in the Europa League (UEL). If Man City win the cup, then the UEL position transfers to the sixth place in the Premier League
Despite poor results, Spurs are in a strong position to finish fifth with a six-point lead over Newcastle and Chelsea. Spurs still need a point away to Sheffield United on Sunday to be absolutely sure.
Spurs could also be confirmed in the Europa League on Wednesday if both Chelsea (go to Brighton) and Newcastle (visit Man United) drop points.
Man United can now finish no higher than sixth but, because of their vastly inferior goal difference, that will become seventh at best if they don’t beat Newcastle.
Europa Conference League (1)
Pending the FA Cup final, sixth will go into the Europa Conference League. Newcastle hold it, with Chelsea and Man United close behind. The UECL place will drop to seventh if Man City win the FA Cup or if Man United win the FA Cup and finish fifth or sixth. It would still be one of Man United, Newcastle and Chelsea — one of them will miss out on Europe completely. If Man United win the FA Cup and finish seventh or eighth, the UECL place goes to sixth.
Luton are effectively relegated due to their vastly inferior goal difference to fourth-bottom Forest. On the final day, Luton would need to beat Fulham and Forest lose to Burnley with a goal difference swing of 12.
Leicester City and Ipswich Town have been automatically promoted to the Premier League. Leeds United, Southampton, West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City compete in the playoffs for one more place.
LaLiga – three rounds to go final weekend May 25-26
Atletico are almost certain to take the fourth place, holding an eight-point lead over Athletic Club
It will be sealed on Wednesday if Atleti get a victory at Getafe, or if Athletic fail to win at Celta Vigo.
Real Madrid winning the Champions League cannot benefit another team in LaLiga. The team with the highest UEFA coefficient in UCL qualifying will be promoted direct to the group stage.
Europa League (2)
Athletic won the Copa del Rey and are almost certain to finish in the top six, so we can safely say the place for the cup moves over to the league — fifth and sixth will enter the UEL.
Either Atlético or Athletic will take one of the places, with Betis and Real Sociedad battling it out for the other.
Valencia and Villarreal have slim hope. Villarreal go to Genoa on Tuesday. Then on Thursday, Real Sociedad host Valencia (who really must win) and Betis are at Las Palmas.
Europa Conference League (1)
This will go to seventh in the league, probably between Real Sociedad and Real Betis, while Valencia and Villarreal require a mini-miracle from here.
One relegation spot is to be decided, with Cádiz giving themselves hope by beating Getafe on Sunday. They still have a lot to do to catch Celta Vigo, Rayo Vallecano or Mallorca. On Wednesday, Cádiz are at Sevilla, Celta Vigo are at home to Athletic Club and Rayo Vallecano host Granada
Bundesliga – one round to go final day May 18
Title
Bayer Leverkusenare still unbeaten and have already secured the first championship in their history.
Dortmund are in the UCL final, and if they win it a UCL place will be given to sixth in the Bundesliga. The European Performance Slot is a league benefit, so it will be an additional place to Dortmund’s as titleholders. Eintracht Frankfurt, who are guaranteed a place in the UECL at worst, are in sixth but could be overtaken by Hoffenheim on the final day. One of those two teams will be fully backing Dortmund against Real Madrid on June 1. Frankfurt need a point at home to RB Leipzig to secure sixth. If they lose, then Hoffenheim can climb above them with a victory at home to Bayern. A small goal difference swing of three is also required.
Europa League (2)
There are a few complicating factors to the UEL places, which right now go to sixth in the league (Frankfurt) and the winners of the DFB Pokal. The final of the DFB Pokal on May 25 (stream live on ESPN+, U.S. only) sees Leverkusen take on Kaiserslautern who, incredibly, could win the cup despite almost being relegated to the third division, as they sit four points above the 2. Bundesliga relegation zone with one game to be played. If Kaiserslautern pull off an almighty shock and do what no other team has done all season (beat Leverkusen), the league slots will be unaltered: sixth into the UEL and seventh into the UECL. If Leverkusen win the final, sixth and seventh will get a place in the UEL.
If Dortmund win the UCL, Germany would surrender the place in the UEL earned by Dortmund in the league. So, Dortmund would qualify as UCL titleholders in fifth, with sixth getting the European Performance position. The only way seventh can get a UEL place is if Leverkusen win the cup.
Europa Conference League (1)
If Kaiserslautern win the cup, then it will be Frankfurt, Hoffenheim or Freiburg who enter the UECL in seventh. If Leverkusen win the cup then eighth gets the UECL place, and it opens up.
Hoffenheim will definitely finish in the top eight so, like with Frankfurt, it might just be a question of which competition they play in — UCL, UEL or UECL.Freiburg sit in eighth with a three-point gap to Heidenheim, Augsburg and Werder Bremen. On the last day, Freiburg travel to relegation-threatened Union Berlin knowing victory, if Hoffenheim draw or lose, could see them finish seventh; a draw would guarantee they finish eighth. But if they lose, they can be overtaken as they have worse goal difference than the three teams below them. Heidenheim are at home to Cologne, who have to win to have any chance of staying in the top flight, Augsburg travel to Leverkusen, who haven’t lost to anyone all season, and Bremen host Bochum, who could still be relegated.
Relegation (2+1)
Two teams are relegated, while third-bottom takes on third place in the 2. Bundesliga (Fortuna Düsseldorf) in a playoff for the right to play in the top flight.
The best Cologne can hope for is 16th and the relegation playoff spot … by overtaking Union Berlin. To go up to the playoff place, Cologne must win at Heidenheim on Saturday, hope Union lose at home to Freiburg, and there be a goal difference swing of four. To avoid the playoff Union must win and, due to goal difference, hope Mainz lose at Wolfsburg or VfL Bochum are beaten at Bremen. St. Pauliand Holstein Kiel have been automatically promoted into the Bundesliga.
Serie A – two rounds to go, final day May 26
Title
Internazionalehave wrapped up the Scudetto as runaway champions.
There’s one place up for grabs, which is held by Atalanta in fifth and they have a game in hand and a three-point advantage so are in a very strong position. That extra match is against Fiorentina and both teams are in European finals; the only possible date to play the game is Sunday, June 2 — a week after the final round of Serie A games is played. Atalanta and Fiorentina will therefore go into the “extra” game in full knowledge of the final position a result will earn.
AS Roma and Lazio are still in contention, but it’s a big ask with two games remaining.
Atalanta, who can finish no lower than seventh so are guaranteed at least UEL football, can seal their place in the UCL if they better Roma’s result at the weekend and at least match Lazio’s. Atalanta go to Lecce on Saturday, and on Sunday it’s Roma vs. Genoa and Lazio are at Inter.
If Atalanta win the UEL (they face Leverkusen in the final on May 22) then Italy will have six clubs in the UCL — the top four, Atalanta as UEL titleholders and the European Performance Spot. If Atalanta finish fifth and win the UEL, sixth will play in the UCL too — meaning Roma and Lazio will be cheering on Atalanta when they face Leverkusen.
Europa League (2)
Atalanta face Juventus in the final of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday, so it’s certain that sixth and seventh will qualify for the UEL.
Atalanta, Roma and Lazio are the main contenders, but there’s a small amount of hope for eighth-placed Fiorentina with that game in hand.
If Atalanta win the UEL to qualify for the UCL and finish fifth, sixth or seventh, Italy will surrender one place in the UEL for the league which Atalanta would have earned.
Eighth place will enter the UECL, which is currently held by Fiorentina but the place could yet be filled Roma, Lazio, or more likely Napoli or Torino .
On Friday, Napoli are away to Fiorentina and must win that to give themselves a real chance of being in Europe next season. Torino face a tough game at home to AC Milan.
If Fiorentina win the UECL to qualify for the UEL and finish eighth, Italy will surrender its place in the UECL.
It’s exceptionally tight, with Empoli level on points with Frosinone and within touching distance of Cagliari, Udinese and Hellas Verona.
Sassuolo are three points from safety and on Sunday host Cagliari in a big relegation showdown. They could pull Cagliari right into it, or be doomed.Also on Sunday, Udinese are at home to Empoli in another huge six-pointer, and Frosinone go to Monza. Then on Monday, Hellas Verona are at Salernitana.Parma and Cesc Fàbregas’ Como have been promoted to Serie A. Venezia. Cremonese, Catanzaro, Palermo, Sampdoria and Bresica take part in the playoffs.
MLS Power Rankings: Messi’s Miami stay top, Timbers struggle
Ryan Rosenblatt May 13, 2024, 12:28 PM
It’s Monday and another week of MLS action is in the books, which means it’s time for ESPN’s Power Rankings. Our Power Rankings are derived from a combination of key season statistics (points per game, goal differential, expected goal differential), recent performance, the Opta computer ratings and the observations of our writers.Who’s climbing the table? Who’s in free fall? We’ve ranked all 29 clubs in the league after Matchday 12. Let’s dive in.
Inter fell behind 2-0 before roaring back to win in Montréal. It wasn’t Lionel Messi leading the way either. Matías Rojas was the man with the magical left foot, scoring a sublime free kick and feeding Benjamin Cremaschi for the winner as the Paraguayan made sure Miami left Canada with three points.
In FCC’s biggest game of the young season, they had the best player and that made all the difference. Lucho Acosta was sensational against Columbus, setting up the first goal and scoring the second to paint Ohio blue and orange.
RSL will be disappointed to have conceded a stoppage time equalizer to the Galaxy, but it’s not like they have much to complain about. They were the inferior team in L.A. and still walked away with a point, even with Zac MacMath having a rough one in goal. Take it and get back to Utah.
Cristian Olivera scored twice as LAFC trounced the Whitecaps 3-0. The Uruguayan has scored five goals in his past three matches across all competitions, and the Black and Gold are doing a better job turning their possessions into chances. This is the growth LAFC needed to show as this season has gone on, which is why they are moving closer to the league’s top teams.
Nobody is going to question this Crew team that has rolled into the Concacaf Champions Cup final, but losing to Cincy at home is going to sting anyway. The Crew have been treading water while they focus on continental competition all season, but treading water is about to get a lot more difficult as they embark on a five-match road trip.
Miguel Berry scoring a stoppage time equalizer? The Galaxy’s 2-2 draw with RSL might seem a little flukey because of the tying goal, but they were the better team for long stretches of this one. A point was the least they deserved.
The unthinkable happened when Dan Gazdag missed a penalty for the first time in his MLS career. And to make matters worse, it would have been an equalizer on a night in which the Union celebrated him becoming their all-time leading goal scorer. Instead, Philly lost to Orlando 3-2.
The Pigeons beat Toronto 3-2 for their first away win of 2024, then they got into a postgame skirmish with the Reds. It was a bizarre scene and one that might cost Sean Johnson a game or two.
The Five Stripes have not won a game since March and, for some of that stretch, they have been able to say, “We were the better team tonight, the ball just didn’t bounce our way.” That wasn’t the case against D.C., as they were soundly beaten at home, turning up the heat on manager Gonzalo Pineda’s seat to scorching.
The Crown have spent a lot of time trying to find a striker since they entered the league and they might have their answer in 23-year-old former first round pick Patrick Agyemang. He has been really good and added the lone goal in Charlotte’s 1-0 win over Nashville to his resume. If he keeps it up, he’s going to be the man in Charlotte for a long time.
With the way Seattle’s season has gone, it wouldn’t have been shocking to see the team fold once it gave up an early goal to Portland. Brian Schmetzer teams don’t make a habit of folding, though, and Seattle stormed back for a win. Don’t look now, but the Sounders are starting to rack up points.
Just when you want to believe in the Rapids, they blow a 2-0 lead and lose. At home. To the Earthquakes. Yikes.
NWSL Power Rankings: KC Current undefeated, Bay FC drop
Megan Swanick ESPNFC May 13, 2024, 03:20 PM
It’s Monday, and another week of NWSL action is in the books, which means it’s time for ESPN’s Power Rankings.Our rankings are derived from a combination of key season statistics (points per game, goal differential, expected goal differential), recent performance, the Opta computer ratings and the observations of our writers.Who’s climbing the table? Who’s in free fall? Our writers and statistical models have ranked all 14 clubs in the league after matchday nine. Let’s dive in.
Next match: Saturday vs. Racing Louisville, 9:30 p.m. ET
The still-undefeated Kansas City Current took a nil-nil draw from Seattle Reign in the midweek (hammering out 19 shots in a game they controlled, though Lauren Ivory’s six saves stymied them), before overcoming North Carolina 1-0 at home Sunday night. With a wicked attack that should scare all opposition this year, Brazil‘s Debinha made her first start since returning from injury and clocked the difference-making goal to become the 12th goalscorer for the Current this season.
Portland’s remarkable season turnaround continues to catch fire as the Thorns beat regional rivals Seattle Reign 4-0 at home Saturday night. Portland’s form is a club-wide accomplishment, but Sophia Smith has been immense in their five-match winning run. After notching one goal and three assists against Seattle, Smith leads both the NWSL goals and assists tallies with eight goals and six assists this season. And across Portland’s five-game unbeaten streak, Smith has accrued a record-setting 11 goal contributions, the most goal contributions in a five game span in NWSL history, per Opta.
Alongside Kansas City, the Pride are one of just two teams still undefeated in 2024. Now sitting second in the standings, Kansas City reclaimed the top spot solely on goal differential this weekend. With a midweek 1-0 victory over Racing Louisville, the Pride handed Louisville their first loss of the year before taking another 1-0 victory from Bay FC Saturday evening. They came into the season humble but with a third of the year wrapped up and newly accrued Barbra Banda clocking her fourth goal in five games (the highest goals per 90 in NWSL) in the midweek, I think it’s safe to say the Pride are the real deal this season.
Next match: Saturday vs. Angel City FC, 7:30 p.m. ET
The Spirit recovered from a loss to ascendant Portland by handing Racing Louisville their second loss of the season. Friday’s 2-1 victory on the road started strong thanks to rookie sensation Croix Bethune‘s fourth goal of the year, which she sent to the back of the net with a cool strike in the fifth minute to capitalize on a corner, bringing her contribution tally to four goals and four assists in nine games for her debut season.
North Carolina picked up a worrying third loss in a row against league-leaders Kansas City Current this Sunday. The streak is concerning, though falling 1-0 to Kansas City isn’t the end of the world, especially considering they held among the league’s most formidable attacks to just one goal (though they have Casey Murphy‘s seven saves to thank for this). Still, they’ve struggled to produce sufficient quality chances in their recent form, scoring only one goal in their past three games and unfurling just seven shots and two on target against the Current.
Next match: Sunday vs. Chicago Red Stars, 5 p.m. ET
Gotham picked up a 1-0 win over Houston Dash in the midweek as Lynn Williams equalled Sam Kerr‘s most goals all time record in NWSL in her sixth match of the year. Still recovering from early season injuries, Gotham then took a respectable 1-1 draw on the road against San Diego Wave Sunday evening. As we head into matchday 10, the reigning champs have picked up respectable wins on slim margins while significantly underperforming their xG, still looking like they have a lot left to give this season.
Sitting mid-table with a game in hand, San Diego are nursing a sizable number of knocks from their starting lineup. Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Gotham saw Alex Morgan, Naomi Girma, Abby Dahlkemper, Sofia Jakobsson, and Melanie Barcenas all sidelined with injury. Concerningly, 19-year-old phenom Jaedyn Shaw left the draw with a stoppage time injury as well. They look like a team still looking for their form, but first priority will be getting everybody healthy.
When it rains it pours. Soon to be US manager Emma Hayes may be looking across the sea with mounting concern, as the USWNT’s starting keeper Alyssa Naeher also left the pitch injured in Chicago’s 3-1 victory over bottom of the table Utah Royals. On the bright side for Chicago, the Red Stars continued their efficient goal scoring operation, as they accrued three goals with just 38% of possession, finishing the weekend as the fifth-highest scoring team in the league.
Next match: Saturday at Kansas City Current, 9:30 p.m. ET
Savannah DeMelo‘s freekick golazo to bring Louisville level wasn’t enough to overcome their visitors, Washington Spirit, as Racing picked up their second straight loss after starting the season unbeaten.
After holding the league-leaders (Kansas City) to a respectable 0-0 draw in the midweek, Seattle took a beating in Portland as they fell 4-0 to their Cascadian rivals Saturday night. Holding Sophia Smith and company at bay is a tall order these days, but Seattle will head home to a tough match with unbeaten Orlando Pride next weekend while nursing their egos from this rivalry rout.
Next match: Saturday at Washington Spirit, 7:30 p.m. ET
Despite Claire Emslie‘s five goals and serious talent in their attacking ranks, Angel City underwhelmed offensively again this weekend, as they produced just three shots on target with 58% of the ball in a 1-0 loss to Houston Dash.
Houston picked up just their second win of the year with a 1-0 victory over Angel City FC on Sunday thanks to Paige Nielsen‘s goal in the eight minute of stoppage time. With that, the Dash have picked up five points from their past four games (one win, one loss, two draws), though they face a formidable five-match unbeaten Portland Thorns in Houston this Friday.
Next match: Friday vs. San Diego Wave FC, 10:30 p.m. ET
Nobody has allowed more goals than Bay FC this season, with 20 goals put past them at the close of week nine. Their 1-0 loss to unbeaten Orlando Pride on Friday required nine saves from Bay FC’s keeper Kateyln Rowland to keep the margin of loss to one goal. It’s hard to find optimism for Bay FC’s dynamic attack until they get their defensive lapses in line.
Next match: Friday at North Carolina Courage, 8 p.m. ET
Expansion side woes continue for Utah Royals, who’ve struggled in their first season back in NWSL. Still, moments of individual brilliance have broken through, including this weekend’s 81st minute strike from 24-year-old Utah-native Cameron Tucker to mark her first-ever NWSL goal. The lone goal came in Utah’s 3-1 loss to Chicago, their seventh of the season (tied with Bay FC for most in the league).
VAR explained: What is it? Why is it controversial? How might the Premier League ditch it?
Here The Athletic looks back at the history of its introduction in England, examines what it was supposed to achieve, why it has fallen so flat, and what would need to happen for it to be dropped.
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is an official, or team of officials, who help the referee during a game by using video footage and technology to review key incidents and provide advice on the correct decisions.
After watching replays, the VAR gives their opinion to the referee at the stadium via an earpiece worn by the on-field official. The referee will then signal as usual to confirm the original decision or make a rectangle shape with their hands either to indicate an on-field review or that the original decision has been changed.
Usually, the outcome is then shown on screens around the ground to inform supporters.
The VAR decision is shown to supporters at Stamford Bridge (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
IFAB (International Football Association Board), the independent body responsible for the laws of the game, states that VARs can only assist a match official in the event of a “clear and obvious error” or “serious missed incident”.
They can step in on decisions over goals, no goals, penalties, direct red cards or cases of mistaken identity.
The process was first proposed by the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) in 2010, along with goal-line technology. The latter was adopted into the professional game two years later, but VAR took longer to be implemented.
The first live trial was conducted in a friendly match between Dutch clubs PSV and FC Eindhoven in July 2016. Australia’s A-League was the first top-flight league to adopt a VAR system in 2017 and was soon followed by Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States.
England’s Premier League was one of the last high-profile competitions to use the technology, adopting it for the 2019-20 campaign, after it had also been used in the Champions League from 2017-18, the 2018 World Cup in Russia and 2019’s Women’s World Cup in France.
The feeling at the Premier League was that spending two years monitoring VAR elsewhere would help it be more effective when it was embraced.
How was it first introduced into the Premier League?
After being given updates on various top-flight trials and reviews of its formal use in Carabao and FA Cup matches, a meeting of Premier League shareholders in November 2018 voted unanimously to introduce VAR for the 2019-20 campaign.
The clubs had voted to delay its implementation seven months previously following a debate over its use in some of those cup games, but smoother VAR performance during the 2018 World Cup allayed fears from some supporters and decision-makers.
English football was duly introduced to the VAR hub in Stockley Park, west London, and the concept of each Premier League game having a set of officials based in an office on an industrial estate just outside the capital as well as on the pitch.
The VAR hub at Stockley Park in the summer of 2019 (Chris Radburn/PA Images via Getty Images)
On the first weekend of VAR being introduced, the Premier League said around 70 incidents were VAR checked. Manchester City’s 5-0 win at West Ham saw seven checks and two decisions overturned. A Gabriel Jesus goal was ruled out, with provider Raheem Sterling’s shoulder deemed offside, and a Sergio Aguero penalty was retaken (and scored the second time around) after Declan Rice encroached into the area.
The former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher called it a “great start” and said the overturned decisions “could not have been clear with the naked eye”.
Gallagher added: “It will get better, they will get faster and it will become more commonplace. People will grow into it.”
So why has it proved so controversial?
There was a steady flow of contentious decisions from the outset.
Each of the past four seasons has featured VAR controversies. In February 2021, the VAR invited the referee Mike Dean to consult the pitch-side monitor after West Ham’s Tomas Soucek accidentally made slight contact with the Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic with his elbow. Dean watched the footage on the pitchside monitor and then showed the Czech midfielder a red card — which was subsequently rescinded by a Football Association Independent Regulatory Commission.
A year later, in a game against Manchester City, Everton’s appeals for a penalty for a Rodri handball were dismissed. Despite TV replays showing that the City midfielder misjudged the bounce of the ball and used his upper arm to control it, VAR official Chris Kavanagh did not question Paul Tierney’s decision not to award a penalty.
Then Everton manager Frank Lampard called VAR official Kavanagh a “professional who cannot do his job right”, and the head of referees at the time, Mike Riley, later apologised to the Merseyside club.
Just looking at this season alone, VAR has been at the centre of multiple high-profile flashpoints.
Liverpool’s Luis Diaz saw a goal wrongly disallowed for offside against Tottenham Hotspur in September, while Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was angered by the decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s winning goal to stand — when it was unclear whether the ball went out of play before the goal — for Newcastle United against his team in November.
Both the Merseyside and London clubs went on to make public statements criticising the decisions. Nottingham Forest have written letters of complaint to the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) and even considered suing.
Supporters have grown fed up, too. The long delays and lack of communication with fans in the stadium have chipped away at the spontaneity and joy of watching a game. Players, too, have admitted the emotion of celebrating a goal has been diminished in case it gets disallowed by VAR.
It was Wolverhampton Wanderers, one of the Premier League teams most heavily impacted by bad calls, who acted first and publicly called for VAR to be scrapped this summer. That triggered a vote which will take place when representatives of the 20 clubs assemble for their annual gathering in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on June 6.
A Wolves statement said that “after five seasons of VAR in the Premier League, it is time for a constructive and critical debate on its future. Our position is that the price we are paying for a small increase in accuracy is at odds with the spirit of our game, and as a result we should remove it from the 2024-25 season onwards”.
They also listed a host of the repercussions, including:
Frustration and confusion inside stadiums due to lengthy VAR checks and poor communication
A more hostile atmosphere with protests, booing of the Premier League anthem and chants against VAR
Overreach of VAR’s original purpose to correct clear and obvious mistakes as it now overanalyses subjective decisions and compromises the game’s fluidity and integrity
Diminished accountability of on-field officials due to the safety net provided by VAR, leading to an erosion of authority on the pitch
Continued errors despite VAR, with fans unable to accept human error after multiple views and replays, damaging confidence in officiating standards
That is difficult to know with any certainty, at least until the vote next month, but there is a sense that opinion is split.
Some, with Wolves obviously among them, have had enough while others feel there is a risk that ending VAR would undermine the Premier League’s reputation.
At the same time, there is a sentiment at some clubs that one of the main issues remains one of perception: that the initial idea of a perfect system that eradicated any inaccurate decisions was never realistic.
Dean shows Soucek the red card in February 2021 after an on-field VAR check (Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
What has to happen for it to be abolished?
For a motion to be passed, 14 Premier League clubs need to vote in favour of it.
So is there a chance that will happen?
Behind the scenes, there is scepticism among top-flight executives over whether that number will be reached, with a majority seeking improvements rather than simply washing their hands of VAR.
For their part, the top-flight’s board of directors believes removing VAR is not the correct path forward, suggesting that doing so would increase wrong calls and adversely impact the Premier League’s reputation among Europe’s leading divisions.
It also thinks the void left, having removed VAR, would potentially place even greater criticism on on-field decisions made by match officials and, as a result, increase frustration for supporters.
The league points to innovations such as semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) — which was voted through unanimously in April — and in-stadium VAR announcements as evidence of the efforts being made to improve the system.
The PGMOL remain an advocate of VAR and believes it is a tool that has helped reduce errors.
In December, referees chief Howard Webb said it would “be foolish to take away a tool that can remove clear errors from the game”. They are committed to making it better but will not bow to pressure to speed up decisions at the expense of accuracy. They believe delays are an inevitable part of the process, although they are keen to make improvements to its efficiency.
As well as automated offsides due to be adopted in the next 12 months, the PGMOL want to improve communication of in-stadium decisions when IFAB laws allow for it.
Webb, the chief refereeing officer for PGMOL, attends the women’s League Cup final in March (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
The PGMOL are working at establishing more dedicated VAR officials (rather than using referees who regularly officiate matches) and there is already an unofficial group who are regularly selected as VARs because of their consistency. Of those, Stuart Attwell and David Coote have been selected as VARs for this summer’s European Championships.
They believe the inevitable capacity for human error means VAR will never be perfect, but an independent panel’s assessment that 96 per cent of decisions over the last five years have been correct suggests that, overall, it works.
Webb, who regularly attends shareholders meetings to hear views of clubs, is expected to be at June’s meeting.
What would getting rid of VAR mean for other refereeing technology in the Premier League?
Goal-line technology would likely remain but, when it comes to VAR, the understanding is that the top flight could not cherry-pick some elements and dispense with others. It either continues with all of it or without any of Stockley Park’s reviews.
Have any other countries scrapped the VAR system?
Last month, Sweden became the first country to reject implementing VAR after a fan backlash.
Supporters from clubs — where there must be a minimum of 51 per cent fan ownership — prompted the climbdown after the president of the Swedish Football Federation, Fredrik Reinfeldt, had previously backed the idea. Reinfeldt had approved trials later this year, but those will not now go ahead.
“Sweden is currently the only country among Europe’s 30 highest-ranked leagues that has not decided to introduce VAR,” said Johan Lindvall, general secretary of the Swedish Professional Football Leagues. “The fact that we have not done so is largely due to our democratic model.”
Reinfeldt, president of the Swedish Football Federation (Michael Campanella/Getty Images)
Is video technology equally controversial in other sports?
The replay review process in NFL games involves the ultimate team-oriented system. NFL officials conduct reviews — which, in 2022, lasted on average two minutes and 19 seconds — but not without the support of replay officials stationed in New York at the NFL’s Art McNally GameDay Central (AMGC).
Head coaches can use two game challenges during games (if successful on both challenges, they receive a third). But, in the final two minutes of each half, all challenges or play reviews are initiated only by the replay official.
The process itself has become pretty smooth. Once a challenge or play review is initiated, replay technicians at AMGC use technology to pinpoint the best camera angles for the game referee to review in consultation with replay officials.
An ‘instant replay field operator’ then brings a Microsoft Surface tablet to the referee so he can review the play while consulting with the replay official stationed in New York. The final decision on the review (whether it should be overturned, or whether the on-field call should be upheld) is then made and the referee announces it.
Cricket’s Decision Review System (DRS) assesses a review for a leg before wicket (LBW) appeal (Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Like football, rugby union features split-second decisions and high levels of physical force, and no two challenges look the same.
For a video referee, the potential for inconsistency is high. Yet they have always been more accepted in rugby — even when introducing controversial new high-tackle laws or when making high-pressure calls in the sport’s biggest games.
Cricket’s version of VARs — the Decision Review System (DRS) — largely operates on a review basis. If a team disagrees with a decision, they can refer it to an off-field umpire to watch the incident back and use various forms of technology to determine whether the on-field umpire’s decision was correct.
If the team’s review is correct, they keep their review to possibly use later in the game; if wrong, they lose it.
What about the women’s game in England?
VAR was first rolled out at the Women’s World Cup in 2019. It was subsequently used at the European Championship in 2022 and a 19-strong video refereeing team — which included six women — were sent to Australia and New Zealand in the summer to cover the 2023 World Cup.
But even as VAR was being castigated in the opening months of this Premier League season, a different debate was taking place in the Women’s Super League (WSL).
In October, during Chelsea’s home match against Tottenham, officials failed to spot the ball had crossed the line when Guro Reiten looked to have put Chelsea 2-0 up. With no goal-line technology or VAR in the WSL, the goal was not given.
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes was incandescent, saying it is “ludicrous” and “embarrassing” that there is no VAR in women’s football.
Reiten celebrates, believing she has scored for Chelsea against Spurs (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
The previous month, Chelsea had run a VAR test at Kingsmeadow for their friendly against Roma — it was the first of its kind at a WSL ground. Baroness Sue Campbell, the director of women’s football for the FA, subsequently admitted that VAR “has to come in”.
It may not be long before VAR arrives in the English women’s game. NewCo, poised to take charge over the running of the WSL from the FA next season, intend to prioritise the improvement of officiating.
“The better the refereeing, the better the product itself — it’s one of the priorities, for sure,” Nikki Doucet, the CEO of NewCo told reporters in January. “From a VAR perspective, it’s something we need to figure out. Is that the right thing for our game, based on what’s been done in the men’s game? Is there a new alternative?
“A lot of the stadiums themselves just aren’t ready for that (technology) and so it will require an amount of investment. As we go on this journey, it’s prioritising what has to be done first based on the resources and the investment that we have. It’s definitely something that’s a priority.”
Additional reporting: Phil Buckingham
(Top photo: Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)
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Greg O’Keeffe is a senior writer for The Athletic covering US soccer players in the UK & Europe. Previously he spent a decade at the Liverpool Echo covering news and features before an eight-year stint as the paper’s Everton correspondent; giving readers the inside track on Goodison Park, a remit he later reprised at The Athletic. He has also worked as a news and sport journalist for the BBC and hosts a podcast in his spare time.
Indy 11 host US Open Cup Game Wed 7 pm vs San Antonio @ Butler Bowl
The Boys in Blue return to action Saturday at Western Conference opponent Monterey Bay F.C. Sat at 10 pm on CBS Galazo Network. Indy is coming off a 2-1 home win over North Carolina FC to move to 2-4-2 on the season and sit at eighth in the Eastern Conference. The Indy 11 will host San Antonio in a huge midweek US Open Cup Sweet 16 game this Wed, May 8th at 7 pm at the Butler Bowl. Tix are just $10 each and can be ordered here.
Columbus Crew on to Finals of CONCACAF Champions Cup
What a huge 3-1 win at Monterrey in the Semi-Final (5-2 Aggregate) for the Columbus Crew as they will advance on to the Finals where they will play Liga MX powerhouse Pachuca – winner over Club America 2-1. Probably the biggest win in Franchise history for the defending MLS Champs. They will play for the Championship Sat June 1 in Pachuca on FS1.
Champions League Semi’s Wrap up Tues/Wed 3 pm CBS
Lets start with Champions League – man the games since the knockout stages have just been fantastic – so great that CBS has shown games from the Sweet 16 on – this week Real Madrid @ Bayern Munich was fantastic – as Bayern with Harry Kane up front scored 2 goals at home but of course Real has this magical way in Champions League to find a way and they also scored 2 goals (highlights) – the 2nd leg in Madrid promises to be a great one on Wed 3 pm on CBS. As a longtime Dortmund fan – because they are the German squad who had American’s – first Pulisic then Reyna – I couldn’t help but root for the team with the best stands (the big Yellow Wall) and their 1-0 win over PSG and Mbappe was impressive (highlights). PGS hosts the final Tues 3 pm at CBS – pregame starts at 2 pm.
News
Indiana Pacer Pascal Siakam from Cameroon has some mad soccer skills during his hoops pregame warm-ups before a recent home playoff game. Really cool story from ESPN about how Juve’s American midfielder, who some consider the best mid in Italy this season, McKinney below.
Huge news that USWNT long time right back Kelley Ohare has announced she will retire at the end of her NWSL Season. (Story below). Also in Women’s Soccer news – The US & Mexico officially dropped out of the bid to host the 2027 World Cup in favor of the 2031 one instead. (Story below and smart thinking). The biggest story in European Soccer: Bayern Levekusen has taken Germany by storm with an amazing 47 wins without a loss since the season 23-24 season started. Already securing the Bundesliga Championship over Bayern Munich by 7 pts – Javi Alonso’s squad look well on their way to a Europa League Championship as well after scoring 2 in Roma to take a commanding lead back home Thurs at 3 pm on Para+. I have watched them comeback 3 times now down in the 90th minute to win or tie the game- simply amazing the belief they have. The play Sunday 11:30 am @ 6th place Frankfort on ESPN+.
Congrats to the Carmel FC 2013 Girls Blue team for their Championship at the Mid Ohio Soccer Classic. That’s our CFCGKU member Hattie L in the middle!
Good luck to all our Carmel FC teams playing in State, President’s & Challenge Cup games this weekend at Grand Park. A reminder my CFC GK Training for U12 & below will move from Wed to Thurs at Badger 5:15 pm. The older group will be at 5:45 pm Wed at River Road still.
Good looking crew at the Girls Showcase at Grand Park last weekend. Shane Best, T Ray Phillips, Carla Baker and Mike Arrington.
GAMES ON TV
Sat, May 4
7:30 am USA Arsenal vs Bournmouth
10 am USA Shefield United (Trusty) vs Nottingham Forest (Reyna)
10 am Peacock Fulham (Jedi, Ream) vs Brentford
10 am Peacock New Castle vs Burnley (adams)
12:30 pm NBC Manchester City vs Wolbverhampton
3 pm Peacock Aston Villa vs Chelsea
3 pm ESPN+ Atletico Madrid vs Athletic Club Spain
7:30 pm Ion NY Gotham (Williams, Ohara, Mewis) vs NC Courage (Murphy, Fox) NWSL
10 pm CBS Galazo Net Indy 11 @ Monterey Bay Cal
10 pm Ion Portland Thorns (Smith) vs Washington Spirit (Rodman, Hatch, Sullivan) NWSL
Sun, Apr 28
9 am USA Brighton vs Aston Villa
11:30 am ESPN+ Frankfurt vs Bayer Leverkusen
11:30 am Tele/Peacock Liverpool vs Tottenham
12 noon Para+ AC Milan (Pulisic, Musah) vs Genoa
1 pm CBS Houston Dash (Campbell) vs KC Current NWSL
2:45 pm Para+ Roma vsJuventus (Weah, McKinney)
6:45 pm FS1 Seattle Sounders vs LA Galaxy
Tues, May7
3 pm CBS Dortmund 1 vs PSG 0 UCL
7 pm US Open Cup Games
Weds, May 8
3 pm CBS Bayern Munich 2 vs Real Madrid 2 UCL
7 pm USSoccer.com Indy 11 vs San Antonio @ Butler Field
Wettest conditions field wise I have ever Reffed in – this pass week for CYO at Max Bahr Park with Mike Zanders – yes that’s a pond in the middle of the field. LOL – kids loved it though. Shane with Mike Bertram & Matt Antisdel at the Girls Showcase at Grand Park Friday
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(Photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)
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USMNT weekend viewing guide: Clinching time
Clinching titles, qualification, and safety.
Saturday
Arsenal v Bournemouth – 7:30a on USA Network
With three matches to play, Bournemouth still have a mathematical shot at a top six finish, though it would require a result with title-contending Arsenal this weekend and a collapse of beautiful proportions from Manchester United and Newcastle. With little to play for the rest of the way, it seems likely the team could shut down Tyler Adams for the remainder of the season and hope he’s able to return in the fall free from injury after what has been a lost 2023-24 season.
Birmingham City v Norwich City – 7:30a on ESPN+
Josh Sargent and Norwich City close out the regular season needing just a point to guarantee a spot in the promotion playoffs and facing a Birmingham City side that need a win to pull out of the relegation zone. Norwich could also advance with a loss if Hull City fail to win and make up a seven goal differential.
Wolfsburg v Darmstadt – 9:30a on ESPN+
Kevin Paredes was a halftime substitute last weekend as Wolfsburg overcame a one goal deficit to come back and defeat Freiburg 2-1. The win pulled Wolfsburg six points clear of the relegation zone, nearly guaranteeing their safety with three matches to play. This weekend, they will face a Darmstadt side who are sitting dead last and will be headed back to the 2. Bundesliga next season.
Werder Bremen v Borussia Mönchengladbach – 9:30a on ESPN+
Joe Scally started on the left side and played 90 minutes last weekend and Jordan Pefok came on in the final minutes as Borussia Mönchengladbach played Brenden Aaronson and Union Berlin to a scoreless draw last weekend. The point left ‘Gladbach four points out of the relegation positions with two additional teams cushioning them as they sit in 13th place. Their opponent this weekend is Werder Bremen, who are two spots and five points ahead of them in the table.
Brentford v Fulham – 10a on Peacock
Antonee Robinson continues to start, but Tim Ream hasn’t seen the field in over two months for Fulham. The team is coming off a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace and currently sit squarely in the middle of the EPL pack heading into their match with Brentford.
Sheffield United v Nottingham Forest – 10a on USA Network
Nottingham Forest will look to fend off relegation when they take on already-relegated Sheffield United Saturday morning. Gio Reyna saw just 16 minutes off the bench last weekend in Forest’s 2-0 lost to Manchester City after having started their two previous matches. They face Sheffield United and Auston Trusty, who played every minute of last weekends 5-1 loss to Newcastle. Sheffield’s relegation has been guaranteed and they have already given up more goals than any side in a 38 match season. They are just three goals away from the 100 goals conceded record, which was set by Swindon Town in a 42 match season, with three matches to play.
Monaco v Clermont – 11a on beIN Sports
Folarin Balogun picked up an assist in the first minute, but was pulled at the half with Monaco down 2-1 in what would be an eventual 3-2 loss to Lyon. Despite the loss, Monaco remain in second place with three matches to play and a three point advantage over fourth place Lille for Champions League qualification. Monaco’s opponent this weekend is last place Clermont, who are dead last in the Ligue 1 table.
Sunday
PSV v Sparta Rotterdam – 6:15a on ESPN+
Sergiño Dest’s ACL tear has been confirmed and he will be out for the remainder of the year, but Malik Tillman continues to start and was named to the Eredivisie Team of the Month in April. Tillman had a goal and two assists last weekend in the opening 12 minutes of the win over Heerenveen. Ricardo Pepi saw 12 minutes off the bench last weekend, but was not credited with a goal contribution on any of the eight goals that were scored in the match (he came on with the team up 7-0). With a nine point advantage and three matches to play, PSV can officially clinch the Eredivisie title this weekend when they face eighth place Sparta Rotterdam.
Osasuna v Real Betis – 8a on ESPN Deportes and ESPN+
Johnny played 90 minutes last weekend as Real Betis and Sevilla played to a draw. Betis pulled within two points of Real Sociedad, who fell to Real Madrid. If Betis can close the two point gap on Sociedad over the final five matches, they will earn the Europa Conference League qualifying position. Betis face 11th place Osasuna this weekend who are comfortably middle of the pack.
Union Berlin v Bochum – 9:30a on ESPN+
Brenden Aaronson started and played 74 minutes last weekend as Union Berlin were held to a scoreless draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach to remain just two points out of the relegation playoff position. They are tied with this weekend’s opponent, Bochum, on 30 points and a win by either side would help them to draw clear of the relegation zone with three matches to play.
Celta Vigo v Villarreal – 10:15a on ESPN Deportes and ESPN+
Celta Vigo fell to Deportivo Alaves 3-0 last weekend with Luca de la Torre coming on for the final 36 minutes with his team already down 2-0. Celta are five points out of the relegation positions with five matches to play heading into their match with ninth place Villarreal.
AC Milan v Genoa – Noon on Paramount+
Christian Pulisic started yet again and Yunus Musah also got the starting nod, this time at right back, as AC Milan played Juventus to a scoreless draw last weekend. Milan remain solidly in second place heading into their match against Genoa and with four matches yet to play this season.
Roma v Juventus – 2:45p on Paramount+
Tim Weah started as the right wingback (and put the clamps on Rafael Leao) with Weston McKennie coming on as his replacement with 20 minutes to play last weekend for Juventus. The team will play a Coppa Italia final against Atalanta on Wednesday, so we may see a rotated side again this weekend for Juventus, who are looking like a look to qualify for Champions League play with a eight point advantage and four matches to play.
After Leeds disaster, USMNT’s McKennie is back to his best at Juventus
Bruce Schoenfeld
May 2, 2024, 08:41 AM ET
TURIN, Italy — One recent afternoon, Weston McKennie walked into a pizza parlor.In this part of the world, where he has emerged as one of the top midfielders in Serie A and perhaps Juventus‘ most consistent player, McKennie can rarely go out in public. La Lampara, a restaurant run by the cousin of his personal chef, is a safe haven. He even stores a bottle of Hidden Valley ranch dressing, his favorite condiment, in the refrigerator to swirl on his pizza. But in Leeds, where McKennie was chastised by fans for looking overweight, it all sounds like the start of a bad joke. McKennie spent the second half of last season on loan at Leeds United with the expectation of staying longer. Instead, his introduction to the Premier League was a disaster, marred by accusations by fans that he wasn’t fit and wasn’t making an effort. Suddenly, ranch dressing was no longer just a personality quirk. It was a symptom of the problem that was dragging down the club. “I feel like I let people down,” he says now. At the time, Leeds appeared to be building America’s Team. The investment arm of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers was set to complete a purchase of the historic club and market it across the Atlantic. Manager Jesse Marsch — of Racine, Wisconsin, and D.C. United — had signed two of McKennie’s U.S. teammates, Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson. (They joined Englishman Jack Harrison, who attended high school in Massachusetts and played college soccer at Wake Forest.)
McKennie, who started his career at Schalke 04 and moved to Juventus in 2020, was seen as the missing piece, a tireless box-to-box midfielder who would provide a touch of Champions League quality.
Except … none of it happened. Marsch was fired in February 2023, after McKennie had played one game for him. The sale was postponed, though the 49ers eventually acquired the team at a reduced price. After three seasons in the Premier League, Leeds was relegated. “Because they signed half the U.S. national team, who weren’t very good,” Darragh MacAnthony, the owner of Peterborough, said in a radio interview.
Fairly or not, McKennie bore much of the blame. A player who prides himself on his work rate, he appeared sluggish. In more than 1,400 minutes over 20 games, he managed just one assist. He had broken a foot the previous February. That healed, but his form hadn’t recovered. “He wasn’t playing like himself,” Aaronson says. “He had a lot of expectations coming in, and that just took its toll on the pitch.”
When McKennie was substituted out an hour into the season’s final game, a 4-1 loss to Spurs at Elland Road that sealed the club’s return to the second division Championship, the home fans chanted at him, “You fat bastard!” Leeds’ option to make McKennie’s transfer permanent for a $38 million fee had seemed like a bargain in January 2023. Not surprisingly, the club declined to activate it. “I felt like it was the first time that I had failed,” McKennie says now. “It knocked me down completely. It put me in the situation of having to prove myself all over again.” Then, McKennie returned to Turin in July and discovered that Juventus didn’t seem to want him back. “The situation that he described to me was horrible,” USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter says. “He went from a bad situation at Leeds to going back to Juventus, and all of a sudden you don’t have a parking spot or a locker.” At 25, McKennie’s future as an elite player was far from certain. Now, somehow, he is finishing one of the finest seasons of any American in Europe. A playmaker who can score goals, he’s also a ball-winner who is rarely dispossessed. If he maintains his form, he will greatly enhance the U.S. team’s chances of winning the Copa América this summer in its only meaningful games before the 2026 World Cup. “He’s a difference-maker in the final third, and he can also be a difference-maker in the middle third,” Adams says. “He can do so many things that other players can’t do. I think people are only beginning to see what a difference he can make when he’s playing at his best.” They’re seeing it now in Turin, where he ranks among Juventus’s most popular players. He sits in a private room at La Lampara, waiting for his pizza, both literally and figuratively in a place where not many people thought he’d be. “It was difficult for me, honestly,” he says. “But I did it to myself. And my time at Leeds, as bad as it did go, was very important. It was a big moment in my career as far as my development. I am where I am today because of everything I’ve been through. And I’m happy about it. I wouldn’t change any of it.”
During the mostly turgid “Juventus: All or Nothing” documentary series released in 2021, one of the few entertaining scenes shows McKennie with two of his teammates, club legends Giorgio Chiellini and Gianluigi Buffon, discussing food over lunch at the club’s training ground. “If I don’t eat well, it’s impossible to play,” Chiellini says, in what is probably the most Italian comment ever. McKennie urges Chiellini to consider smothering his pizza in ranch, that uniquely American, buttermilk-based invention. “What are you saying to me?” Chiellini responds in mock horror. He then asks about McKennie’s taste in coffee. McKennie makes a face and reveals, in graphic terms, that espresso sends him directly to the bathroom. Laughter ensues. Hanging out with these guys seems like fun.
McKennie’s appealingly quirky personality makes him a popular teammate everywhere he goes. “Relaxed, bubbly good vibes,” is how Glasgow Rangers’ Rabbi Matondo, who played with him at Schalke 04, describes him. “He’s just in his own world, doing his own thing.” McKennie’s father, a U.S. Air Force officer, moved his family from one base to another. McKennie learned to make friends easily. “I make myself so open and — I don’t know — goofy because I want people to feel comfortable to come talk to me,” he says. At Schalke, he spent hours mastering magic tricks he found on YouTube so he could entertain his teammates. He also tried to initiate Matondo into the Cult of Ranch. “Have you been in America?” he asked Matondo, who grew up in Wales. When Matondo told him he had, McKennie’s eyes lit up. “Did you try ranch?”McKennie also plays Fortnite relentlessly. He has a Harry Potter fascination that has led to a goal celebration in which he appears to wave a magic wand and, lately, a deal to promote the video game. “I dabble in different things,” McKennie says. “I’m just the guy who loves to be free and do what he wants.”
Even in the changing room before games, McKennie seems carefree — so much so that teammates sometimes wonder if he’s properly focused. “Then he crosses the white line [onto the pitch] and he becomes a different animal,” Matondo says. “And you see him running and running and going after the ball everywhere. It’s amazing to me.””He’s like a child,” says Adams. “Both on and off the field. And that’s what makes him great.”But McKennie’s antics mask a vulnerability. “He has so much feeling inside of him,” says Berhalter. “That’s who he is. And being receptive to that is part of getting the best out of him.”At a USMNT training camp in Orlando, Florida, in 2019, Berhalter found McKennie to be distracted. “He could tell that my head wasn’t there,” said McKennie, who was 21 at the time. “That I was a little bit off. Maybe not my happy self.” It turned out that he was having issues with his girlfriend. “I was young, I was in love,” he says. “I just went to Gregg and talked with him — not at all about soccer, but just about life. I legit cried in front of him. I sat there and cried and he hugged me, like a father who’s not a father.”
McKennie has also had to spend stretches of his career striving to gain acceptance as an elite player. “My whole career has kind of been that path where people have doubted me, labeled me as an underdog,” he says. As a teenager, he was chosen for a U17 national team residency in Florida, which set him on the path to becoming a professional. But in 2015, he was cut from the team. That motivated him to not only succeed in American soccer, but to go up against the world’s best players in Europe, where he’d been introduced to the game while his father was stationed in Germany. He turned down a scholarship offer at the University of Virginia, then declined an offer to play in MLS for FC Dallas, his hometown team. Not yet 18, he went to Schalke, where he set out to show the skeptics that an unknown young American could be a Bundesliga standout.”Weston is at his best when people count him out,” says Berhalter. His evolution came in fits and starts. At times, he questioned his decision. “Somewhere deep down, though, I knew I had the potential,” he says.In November, 2017, McKennie scored against Portugal in his USMNT debut. When Berhalter became the U.S. coach a year later, he established a leadership council, consisting of six or seven players who rotate into the traditional positions of captain and vice captain. From the beginning, McKennie was a fixture. Yet he felt uncomfortable as a role model. “I’m too free-spirited,” he says.
Given the armband for the first time at Chicago’s Soldier Field in the Concacaf Gold Cup final against Mexico in 2019, he suffered through one of his worst games as a U.S. international. Then, though the responsibilities of the captain include representing the team with the media, McKennie refused to give an interview. He still spurns official titles, but if you were a fly on the wall, he says now, you’d be surprised to see how far he has come. Invariably, he’s the USMNT member who welcomes new arrivals. If a group of established players are headed out somewhere, Aaronson says, “he’s always the one to text the new guys and make sure they know about it. I’ve seen him do it again and again. I’m really impressed by that.”McKennie also lets his U.S. teammates know that they can come to him with insecurities, competitive issues or other problems. “Maybe you’re going through the same thing that I went through,” he says, “because I’ve had my share of hiccups.” That includes getting sent home from the final round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup for spending one night outside the club’s COVID-19 bubble at a Nashville hotel and bringing an unauthorized visitor into his hotel room during another, which earned him the disgust of former USMNT standout Landon Donovan.” And I remember the times when maybe I thought I didn’t belong,” McKennie says. “So I try to tell the players, ‘You belong. You’re here. Trust yourself. Believe in yourself.'”And then, last summer, McKennie had to convince himself of the same.
Nobody would have questioned McKennie in August if he had asked to get a fresh start somewhere else, especially when it became clear he wasn’t in Juventus’s plans. “A lot of players would have said, ‘I’m done here. I’m leaving'” Berhalter says. “And he did just the opposite. He said, ‘I’m going to prove them all wrong.'”He was included on Juventus’s preseason tour to California and Florida, both to showcase him and to provide a marquee name for American fans. Still, his determination impressed manager Max Allegri, who saw utility in a player who competed each time he stepped on the field. “Weston has this mentality that he’s able to brush things aside,” Aaronson says. “He went back to Juventus and did what he did because he’s not focused on things like other people are. It’s a source of strength for him.”
Start running now and don’t stop until the end of the season, Allegri told him, and McKennie is still running. He began the season as a substitute at right-back, then stepped in when Tim Weah strained a thigh and couldn’t play. Soon enough, he was back in the midfield, using his skill as a distributor to get the ball forward to Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa.
McKennie has operated from both the right side and in the middle, depending on Allegri’s needs. He hurt a knee in January, which necessitated a trip to see a specialist in France, then separated a shoulder in a collision with a Frosinone player in late February. Yet he still ranks among Serie A leaders this season in clearances, progressive passes and assists, an unusual trifecta that illustrates his varied skills.In late December, when the well-regarded Italian daily Tuttosport published its compilation of Juventus player ratings for the season’s first half, McKennie led the team. “Right now,” Weah says, “he’s top-tier. He’s one of the best midfielders in the world.”
Against Frosinone in February, he played one of the better games in memory by an American in Europe before hurting his shoulder in the 82nd minute. He created Juventus’ first goal by making a run down the right side without the ball, then receiving a pass he controlled with a single touch and sending the ball into the box for Vlahovic, who poked it home. Half an hour later he fed Vlahovic again, a pinpoint delivery from a step inside the box, for a second goal. Later, he moved from the right wing to a role as an inside midfielder, from which he was controlling play. Until he collided awkwardly with Kaio Jorge and was taken off, he was clearly the best player on the field. The next day, Tuttosport dubbed him the “King of Assists.”Within days, the local newspaper in Leeds, the Yorkshire Evening Post, would run a story about the interest McKennie was suddenly generating among England’s biggest clubs. The headline: “Leeds United Flop Linked with Manchester United and Arsenal.”
Unlike the vast majority of football professionals, McKennie professes to have no interest in a game unless he’s playing in it. He can’t remember the last time he watched one on television, start to finish. In fact, he may never have done it.”I used to ask him, ‘How do you play football the way you do and have no knowledge of anything going on in the sport?” Matondo says.In summer 2018, while in preseason camp with Schalke 04, McKennie went to Christian Pulisic‘s house in Dortmund with a bunch of other players to see the France-Croatia World Cup final. Except, McKennie didn’t actually see it. “Everyone was on the couch watching the game,” he says. “There were a whole bunch of TVs.” One of them was right in front of McKennie, but he had his head down playing Fortnite.
“They all just laughed at me,” he says. “Like, ‘how can you be playing that right now? This game is so good.’ And I would look up every once in a while. But it just doesn’t interest me. I’ll play soccer and give it everything I have. But that mentality when I’m not playing, I need to switch it off.”
McKennie is deeply involved in fashion and music. He has a real estate business with his brother in Dallas. When his career ends, he says, he could imagine doing something in one of those areas, or maybe becoming an agent, or even a broadcaster, though in that case he’d probably have to watch games. “I enjoy playing football. I want to go as far as I can,” he says. “But honestly, if my career ended tomorrow, I would be happy. And I wouldn’t have regrets for anything that I’ve done.”
At 25, McKennie believes he has plenty of football ahead of him. First comes this summer’s Copa América, which he believes the U.S. can win. “Maybe people don’t look at us against Argentina or Brazil and say, ‘Wow, look at the USA,'” he says. “But that’s why Gregg is so important. Because, yeah, a team can have a lot of individual talent, but when you have a team that has quality and potential and will sacrifice everything for each other, that will make a difference.”
He even fantasizes about that happening at the next level. “Do I believe that we can win the World Cup? Very slim chances,” he admits. “But it’s, what, eight games? If you can catch fire for those eight games, it can happen. The grit, the desire, a little bit of luck as well — that’s what it takes in a football game. That’s the beauty about it. Anybody can be beaten on any given day.”
McKennie’s contract with Juventus is up after next season. Negotiations are ongoing, but his constant yearning for the next challenge may lead him to agree to a transfer, especially if it involves the unfinished business of proving himself in the Premier League. At the same time, he’s more than content in Turin. He lives in a house on a hill outside the city that he rents from a wealthy doctor. He eats at La Lampara, where they nod when he covers his pizza with creamy dressing. And inside and outside the club, his stock keeps rising. The food has just arrived when a young woman approaches his table and begs for a picture. Peeking out from behind her is the manager, Fabrizio. He has a guilty look, as if he knows he should be letting McKennie eat in peace. But what can he do? She won’t be denied. Fabrizio shrugs. “Her favorite player,” he says.
USWNT two-time World Cup winner Kelley O’Hara set to retire at the end of 2024 NWSL season
U.S. women’s national team and Gotham FC defender Kelley O’Hara announced she plans to retire from soccer following the conclusion of the 2024 NWSL season. A stalwart for more than a decade, O’Hara played in four World Cups (winning two in 2015 and 2019) and three Olympics with the national team, as well as adding a WPS championship and two NWSL championships in her professional career.She announced the decision in a video created for Just Women’s Sports as part of her series Kelley on the Street.
O’Hara has played limited minutes for Gotham FC so far this season and has struggled with ankle and knee injuries. “To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you,” she told Claire Watkins in an interview for JWS.
O’Hara’s first cap for the USWNT came in March 2010, and, while she was named to the 2011 World Cup roster, broke out for the USWNT during the team’s gold medal run in the 2012 London Olympics, playing every minute as an outside back. She previously won the 2009 MAC Hermann Trophy as a forward at Stanford (scoring 26 goals and adding 13 assists), but it was the conversion to outside back that cemented her place on the national team for years.
(Notably, the 2012 Olympics were also the source of one of the greatest pieces of old-school USWNT content featuring O’Hara — in which she reports she “got sniped” after wiping out in the grass at a Scottish castle pretending to ride brooms).
O’Hara’s final match for the national team was against Sweden during the team’s exit from last summer’s World Cup in the round of 16. Due to injury concerns, there were doubts that O’Hara would be named to the final 23-player roster for the tournament, and when she received the call from former head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the emotions were clear.
She played over 10,000 minutes for the national team, sitting at 160 appearances, three goals and 21 assists. One of her most famous USWNT goals was the one she scored against Germany during the 2015 World Cup semifinal. It was also her first international goal.
O’Hara’s club career was also successful, starting with her rookie season in WPS with FC Gold Pride, winning the 2010 championship. When FC Gold Pride folded, O’Hara was signed by the Boston Breakers. She intended to play for the Atlanta Beat, her hometown WPS team, but the league folded. O’Hara has been with the NWSL since the beginning, starting her NWSL career with Sky Blue FC, before a stint with the first version of Utah Royals FC, then heading to the Washington Spirit — where she finally won her first NWSL championship in 2021. In January 2023, she signed with Gotham, who won last year’s final.
“It has been one of the greatest joys to represent my country and to wear the U.S. Soccer crest,” O’Hara said in the USWNT press release on Thursday. “As I close this chapter of my life, I am filled with gratitude. Looking back on my career I am so thankful for all the things I was able to accomplish but most importantly the people I was able to accomplish them with.”
As of now, neither U.S. Soccer nor Gotham has shared any intended plans to celebrate O’Hara ahead of her retirement before the end of the 2024 season, though U.S. Soccer could choose to take advantage of their July match at Red Bull Arena for a send-off. (Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Women’s World Cup: Why U.S./Mexico pivoted from 2027 to ‘record-breaking’ bid for 2031
In February, executives from the United States Soccer Federation and their Mexican counterparts welcomed FIFA delegates to Atlanta as official inspections began before the vote this month to decide who will host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
The U.S. and Mexico submitted their joint bid in December, rivalling a proposal from Brazil and a combined European bid from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The U.S. has hosted the tournament twice before — in 1999 and 2003 — but it would have been a first for Mexico.
“We are a very strong and compelling proposition,” said Juan Carlos Rodriguez, president of the Mexican Football Federation, in late February. “We are gonna make a good run of it.”
Behind the scenes, however, doubts had already surfaced. Was 2027 the right time for the U.S. and Mexico to host a World Cup? Would it suit football’s world governing body FIFA to take the tournament elsewhere?
The bid team had previously discussed pivoting to 2031 and, on Monday evening, a statement landed to formalise the U.S. and Mexico’s decision to do just that — only three weeks before the vote was scheduled to take place in Bangkok, Thailand, at the FIFA Congress.
“The revised bid will allow us to build on the learnings and success of the 2026 World Cup (in the U.S., Mexico and Canada), better support our host cities, expand our partnerships and media deals, and further engage with our fans so we can host a record-breaking tournament in 2031,” a joint statement read.
The U.S./Mexico revised World Cup bid has called for “equal investment” with the men’s tournament, “eliminating investment disparities to fully maximize the commercial potential of the women’s tournament”.
The bid is seeking to bring the organisation, promotion and funding for the Women’s World Cup fully in line with its male counterparts.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino claimed that the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand had broken even, generating more than $570million in revenue, even with the prize pool being 10 times higher than the 2015 edition. The 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar, however, generated $686million in ticket sales and $243million through hospitality rights alone, with global TV rights from 2019-22 — the bulk of which was for the 2022 tournament — bringing in $3.4billion according to FIFA. The $440million prize pot for the men’s 2022 World Cup was also far more than the $152million shared by women last year.
Aitana Bonmati celebrates winning the 2023 World Cup with Spain (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Infantino has already provided his answer to those who question the disparity, saying: “I say to all the women, you have the power to change. Pick the right battles. Pick the right fights.”
The U.S./Mexico bid for 2031, though, would like FIFA to set out a timeline towards equal prize money and its vision is set out in the bid book submitted to FIFA for 2027.
The hope is not that FIFA should simply pluck the money out of is reserves but rather that genuine investment into the development, promotion and organisation of the tournament will bring about the revenue which may enable the governing body to eventually level up the prize money.
Now the bid has been pushed back, FIFA has four more years to bridge the gap.
Increase the golden period for international soccer in the U.S.
The 2027 bid book was, in many ways, a copied and pasted version of the men’s edition in 2026. The U.S. submitted the same host cities, while Mexico added a few additional options to Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City.
The 2027 bid wanted to use 2026 as an asset; in essence replicating the relationships between cities, local government, security, transportation infrastructure and stadiums to create a back-to-back bonanza of premium international football that would then roll over into an Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, cementing the United States as the global hub for major sporting events over three years. In bid talk, this was described as “leveraging the efficiencies” of 2026, and big promises were made.
The U.S./Mexico bid claimed the commercial possibilities in the two countries “will accelerate the growth of women’s football unlike any tournament before”. They pledged to bring 4.5million fans into the stadium, capture the highest TV audience for any sporting event in history and generate more than $3 billion in total revenue. For FIFA, which has established offices in Miami and is also launching a revamped men’s Club World Cup in the U.S. in 2025, the temptation was obvious.
And yet, as conversations developed, it became clear that this idea did not make much sense for anyone.
From a FIFA perspective, the imagined boom for soccer in the U.S. is better served by a six-year run-up, stretching from the Club World Cup in 2025 (there may also be a women’s edition in 2026) through to the men’s World Cup in 2026, football within the Olympic Games in 2028 and then capped off with a Women’s World Cup in 2031. This provides more space for soccer to gain further popularity and, in turn, drive up demand and revenue for the competition.
Infantino announces the venues for the 2026 men’s World Cup (Brennan Asplen – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
And while the idea of back-to-back World Cups is tantalising, there were plenty of sectors that were not overly enamoured with the idea. For some host cities and stadiums, it would have meant three consecutive years satisfying FIFA’s very specific criteria for hosting soccer matches and revenue-sharing. Concerns also developed that the potential to maximise the Women’s World Cup commercially, both among broadcasters and sponsors, would be limited by sandwiching the tournament between a men’s World Cup and the Olympic Games.
FIFA is also seeking to drive sponsorship agreements for its expanded men’s Club World Cup — launching across the east coast of the U.S. in the summer of 2025 — but the tournament is struggling to hit the hugely ambitious targets set out by Infantino when the concept was devised. As such, freeing up commercial space for soccer in a saturated market within the next few years may be useful for everyone involved.
FIFA does not comment on commercially-sensitive matters but would point to a recent lucrative partnership with Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco as evidence of its ability to strike deals.
There is another reality to bidding processes that is usually not said aloud: sometimes, you only say you are bidding to put yourself in pole position before the next tournament — and that, increasingly, appears to be an element of the strategy here.
Brazil is a case in point, having lost out on the 2023 tournament but now primed for a coronation in Thailand in mid-May. The European bid remains on the table but multiple sources, spoken to by The Athletic this week on condition of anonymity to protect their roles, have presented Brazil’s success as a fait accompli.
For FIFA, there are plenty of reasons to run with Brazil in 2027. The planet’s most famous soccer nation has never hosted a Women’s World Cup and FIFA is obliged grow football internationally.
It has become anachronistic to think about World Cup bidding processes as a traditional vote where nations submit their bids and every member weighs up the pros and the cons before casting their votes. This is how it is supposed to work but the pattern more recently is to see a contest, a reasonable amount of lobbying, and then everyone appears to agree that bid X is most-suited and bid Y may get something else as consolation, or be rewarded down the line.
This is what happened for the 2030 men’s World Cup selection. FIFA found a way to just about please everybody by awarding it to six countries in one go.
FIFA president Infantino confirmed the opening game would be played at Estadio Centenario in Uruguay, while Argentina and Paraguay would each host a game before the tournament and then move to Morocco, Spain and Portugal. This left Saudi Arabia out in the cold — except, not really, because FIFA has something called the “confederation rotation principle” and by grouping three confederations together in 2030 — Africa, Europe and South America — it left the path clear for Asia and Oceania to host the 2034 tournament.
Once Australia’s executives dropped their interest in the 2030 World Cup, Saudi Arabia was the only bidder. They have already been congratulated by Infantino on Instagram, although FIFA insists the Saudis are undergoing a very intensive bid process — albeit one in which they are the only competitors.
What’s this all got to do with 2027? Well, FIFA would say nothing at all and every bid is considered on its merits, but there is a school of thought that CONMEBOL felt a little short-changed by the 2030 palaver. It had also been particularly kind to FIFA when Argentina stepped in to host the Under-20 World Cup in 2023 at short notice. A first Women’s World Cup for CONMEBOL would be a useful reconciliation.
None of this is to say that everyone was pretending all along for 2027. Nor is it inevitable that the US/Mexico bid will win next year.
Yet by 2031, it will have been 16 years since a Women’s World Cup in a CONCACAF country (when Canada hosted the tournament in 2015) and UEFA nation France hosted the tournament more recently in 2019. England, which had already been looking at 2035 and 2039 as options, as well as a possible joint bid with the other Home Nations, may pivot away from 2031.
Should the U.S. and Mexico be awarded the 2031 tournament, ambitious plans will take shape. The bid wants fan festivals of equivalent size to the men’s World Cup, promising beach football tournaments on the shores of Miami and Cancun, and watchalong parties in New York City’s Times Square. Most boldly, within the U.S., the bid wants to solely use multi-purpose NFL stadiums with at least 65,000 seats, rather than be more cautious with smaller soccer-specific stadiums.
Expect this to become part of the conversation, too: should the Women’s World Cup mirror the men’s by expanding to a 48-team edition? The 2023 World Cup features 32 teams instead of 24 and the competitive balance did not suffer in a way some had worried beforehand. A six-year runway between the announcement of a potential 48-team tournament and the competition itself would allow time for more nations to invest resources into their women’s games and enter the fray in 2031.
As for broadcasters, there is quiet relief at FIFA and in the U.S./Mexico bid because we are now only three years out from the 2027 tournament and FIFA would have been behind in maximising its true broadcasting potential. Some breathing space from the men’s World Cup and Olympics, it is hoped, will further free up the necessary dollars for the 2031 tournament to hit record numbers.
The US-Mexican bid may have said ‘goodbye’ to 2027, but it is ‘see you soon’ for 2031.
(Top photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
Bayern Munich 2 Real Madrid 2: Advantage Ancelotti – and Kroos for Ballon d’Or?
A bout between two of Europe’s genuine heavyweights in a Champions League semi-final was never likely to disappoint – and so it proved.
Bayern Munich and Real Madrid played out an enthralling first leg in Bavaria, with the teams locked at 2-2 thanks to Vincius Junior’s late penalty ahead of next week’s second leg in Spain.
Our experts analyse the talking points.
How do Real Madrid do it?
This was another European knockout tie that appeared to be teetering on the brink of disaster for Real Madrid before they delivered another of their trademark comebacks.
When Bayern’s quickfire brace of second-half goals had swung this game in their favour, Madrid had to take stock. For a while, it seemed that 2-1 was not such a bad result ahead of the second leg at the Bernabeu.
Ancelotti’s tactical switch to 4-3-3 helped provide more cover, especially for stand-in right-back Lucas Vazquez, who was suffering badly against an inspired Jamal Musiala, and also gave his team another chance to take a breath.
The element of phoney war ended when Madrid went for a last push, with substitutes Luka Modric and Brahim Diaz adding energy and ideas. Vinicius Jr’s flick to Rodrygo then tempted Kim Min-jae into a foolish penalty concession and Vinicius Jr again showed his big-game mentality to convert from the spot.
Ancelotti’s changes worked and, as so often in recent years, Madrid had rode out the storm and found a way to turn things to their advantage. At 2-2, with the return at a fired-up Bernabeu, Los Blancos will be confident of making yet another Champions League final.
But neither of these teams are perfect and both have mixed real power with dodgy moments through the competition this season. It is all set up tantalisingly for the second leg next Wednesday.
Leroy Sane was a doubt for tonight’s game due to a pubic bone injury and when the German international was named in the starting line-up, the anticipation was that he would be on the right flank — as he has been for the majority of the season.
However, injuries elsewhere meant Thomas Tuchel shuffled the pack slightly, placing Sane on the left and Jamal Musiala on the right, with Thomas Muller playing alongside Harry Kane in a 4-2-2-2.
For long periods of the first half, the plan looked effective. Sane was put through in a one-on-one within the first minute and was regularly looking to stretch the Madrid back line with runs to receive first-time on his natural left foot.
Sane and Musiala would frequently roll inside into the respective half spaces and leave Bayern’s full-backs to keep the width. In the second half, as Bayern switched more to a 4-2-3-1, Sane assumed his typical position on the right flank and restored parity within 10 minutes.
A driving run, drop of the shoulder and a thundered finish at the near post reignited the clash — his first goal since October 28.
Sane fires in Bayern’s equaliser (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
It was a superb performance and a reminder of Sane’s versatility to play on either flank on the biggest European stage.
Mark Carey
Is Kroos a Ballon d’Or contender?
Madrid were struggling a quarter of an hour into the game as Bayern had six shots while no visiting player had come anywhere close to a chance.
Toni Kroos decided something had to be done, first with a super aggressive challenge on his old team-mate Thomas Muller, which was more about showing an example to his team-mates than actually winning the ball back.
Kroos began to get on the ball, move it around, giving his team-mates time and space to regain their composure. Then came his phenomenal assist for the opening goal, splitting the Bayern defence open completely, giving Vinicius Jr the chance to finish first time.
Kroos sees Vinicius Jr starting to make his run…
… and angles a pass between the two Bayern players in front of him…
… leaving Vinicius Jr free to break clear…
(TNT Sport)
… and score with ease.
Replays showed how he conceived the goal in his head in advance, pointing with his finger for Vinicius Jr to run behind Bayern’s out-of-position centre-back Kim Min-jae, then delaying the pass to allow the Brazilian to sprint into the space before perfectly timing and weighting the assist.
From being under the cosh due to Bayern’s fast start, Madrid were suddenly in full control of the tie. Confidence flowed through the visiting players, while belief seemed to ebb from the home side. Few individual performances have had such an effect on such a huge game.
Kroos completed all 36 of the passes he played in the first 30 minutes, making it a pretty special return to his old club, who must so rue letting him leave for Madrid on a cut-price €25m deal back in 2014. A decade later, the 34-year-old is out of contract in June but will surely renew with Madrid.
He has also recently returned to the Germany national squad in time for the Euros in his home country. Many more performances like this – he also saw a curling shot saved in the second half – and he’ll be a leading Ballon D’Or candidate. And a hugely deserving one.
Dermot Corrigan
How was Kane subdued… but still a scorer?
For a minute there, early on, it looked like tonight might be all about Harry Kane.
Just seconds into the match, Bayern ran a simple little pattern down the left-hand side that ended with Kane pulling toward the ball and redirecting it into the channel to put Leroy Sane in on goal. It was a perfect illustration of his gifts as not only Europe’s leading goalscorer but also perhaps its most creative striker.
A few minutes later, Kane did it again, this time from deeper: he received the ball in midfield and played another perfectly weighted through ball that Sane couldn’t quite figure out how to turn into a goal. Kane’s constant movement posed a problem for Real Madrid’s right centre-back, Antonio Rudiger: how far could he track the dropping striker without letting Sane slip behind him?
Yet for most of the rest of the match, Kane went strangely quiet. Lucas Vazquez stayed deep as Madrid’s right-back to help Rudiger in the Kane-Sane dilemma and Kane started drifting into other channels to look for service. When he finally got through on goal himself, in the 66th minute, Rudiger was there to knock him down with a powerful and well-timed shoulder.
Kane slams home his penalty (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
In the end, Kane turned out to be almost a non-factor, managing just two shots on target from open play and not much creativity after those opening minutes. Chalk up another victory for Rudiger, who had shut down Erling Haaland in the previous round.
But when Jamal Musiala went down for a penalty in the second half, it was Kane who stepped up to the spot, broadcast his chosen side with a deliberate glance that made Andre Lunin second-guess himself, and rolled a simple shot home for Bayern’s first goal of the tie. Even when Kane stumbles — as he did on his way to celebrate the penalty — he’s still the surest thing in Europe.
John Muller
Should Ancelotti send for Courtois?
Andriy Lunin has made some unexpected leaps forward since Madrid’s No 1 goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois sustained anterior cruciate ligament damage in training in August.
He first overcame the challenge of Kepa Arrizabalaga to become first choice and was then a hero of the penalty shootout win over Manchester City in the quarter-final.
However, Lunin has not always looked like a top-class goalkeeper. He was caught out by Bernardo Silva’s long-range free kick in the first leg against City and suffered when targeted with inswinging corners by Barcelona in the recent Clasico.
It might be harsh to blame the Ukrainian for Sane’s goal given both Ferland Mendy and Rodrygo should have got closer, the shot was unexpected, and it was hit with superb power and precision, but there is a rule that goalkeepers should not be beaten at their near post and it was a huge moment in the tie.
Courtois was a welcome presence on the Real bench (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Courtois had a setback in mid-March but has been back training with the team for a few weeks. Ancelotti has already said he will start Saturday’s La Liga game at home to Cadiz at the Bernabeu, a 90-minute test to see how his knee has recovered.
All being well, there will be a heavy temptation to bring Courtois back in for next Wednesday’s second leg against Bayern given how important the Belgian has been for Madrid in the Champions League in the past.
Dermot Corrigan
What happened to Kim Min-jae?
How did Bayern’s defence leave Vinicius Jr that open for Real Madrid’s first-half goal?
The most obvious culprit was Kim Min-Jae, who bit too hard on a double move and left an ocean of space behind him. When Vinicius Jr abruptly switched gears and sprinted for goal, Kim just didn’t have the wheels to catch up.
Speaking of a lack of speed, it didn’t help Kim’s cause that his centre-back partner was Eric Dier, who had wandered too far from goal to keep an eye on Jude Bellingham and made only a half-hearted, plodding recovery run to try to cover for Kim when he saw he was beaten.
Nor was Manuel Neuer particularly quick off his line to block the shot, but these sorts of things happen when you’re 38 years old and still starting Champions League semi-finals.
The real mystery is how, with so many players lacking pace at the back, Bayern allowed Kroos enough time in possession to not only pick his pass behind their back line but to point out to Vinicius where to go and then wait for the run to materialise. What happened to a team that used to have one of Europe’s most fierce high presses?
Bayern were oddly passive here, allowing Real Madrid to complete 90 per cent of their passes in the first half at the Allianz, and when you give Kroos and Vinicius Jr an inch, they’ll take a mile.
Sadly for Kim, his suffering did not end there. He was caught out by another swift Real Madrid passing exchange in the second half, only for Neuer to save well from Vinicius Jr’s shot, but had no safety net when he hauled down Rodrygo for a penalty in the 83rd minute. A night to forget.
John Muller
UK readers can view Real Madrid’s first goal here:
The Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid match dashboard, showing the threat timeline, territory, match stats, shot maps and pass networks
What was said afterwards?
Harry Kane was frustrated at Bayern’s inability to hold on to their 2-1 lead after coming back strongly in the second half.
“Once we got 2-1 ahead, we had two or three good chances,” he told TNT Sport. “This is the Champions League semi-final. We expected a tough game. Real are one of the best teams in Europe who can punish you.
“We started on the front foot and their goal came against the run of play. Second half we played with a higher intensity. We deserved our two goals and it’s a shame we couldn’t get a third.”
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti – who said he had taken off Jude Bellingham as the midfielder was suffering with cramp – was satisfied with his side’s fightback but acknowledged there was scope for improvement.
“We could play better,” he said. “We had problems in the first half with a low block, too deep. We started to put pressure and it was much better. We tried to change something in the second half. We started really well and conceded two goals when our moment was good.”
This was meant to be Kylian Mbappe’s stage. Instead it was journeyman striker Niclas Fullkrug who proved the difference to give Borussia Dortmund a slender advantage in their semi-final with Paris Saint-Germain.
The 31-year-old is in the form of his life after spending the majority of it in the second tier in Germany and is now a regular scorer for the national team.
After Bayern Munich’s thrilling 2-2 draw with Real Madrid on Tuesday night, this was a much tighter first leg, particularly in the first period. That was until Dortmund went direct to Fullkrug, who produced a brilliant first touch before firing low beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 36th minute.
PSG improved after the break, with Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi hitting the post within the space of 10 seconds and Ousmane Dembele blazing over in the final 10 minutes. Fullkrug should have added a second too but it is Dortmund who will head to Paris with a vital goal.
The Athletic’s Peter Rutzler, Seb Stafford-Bloor, Thom Harris and Elias Burke analyse the action.
Just under two years ago, Niclas Fullkrug poked home his 19th goal of the season to spark wild celebrations in Bremen. It sealed a crucial final-day win, and moved the 29-year-old up to fourth place in the goalscoring standings — in the German second tier.
He has always been a proficient striker through the divisions, a functional target man and battering ram at the top of five different teams. But since Fullkrug has turned 30, he has won a Bundesliga Golden Boot, made his international debut, scored 11 international goals — including two at the World Cup — and put his new side in the driving seat for a Champions League semi-final.
Fullkrug hammers home the opening goal (Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)
Fullkrug is unfashionable, but undoubtedly effective. He can sometimes struggle to get into games — he touched the ball just nine times in a cagey opening half an hour here — but his emphatic ability to smash the ball on either foot can blow games apart. It was a crisp left-footed strike to open the scoring, but as his shot map below illustrates, he is a striker who can make the most of any penalty-box situation.
He should have added a second after the break but it was heartening to see a distinctly normal footballer take centre stage.
Across both legs of PSG’s quarter-final victory over Barcelona, they struggled with the long ball. PSG are one of the most aggressive pressers in this year’s Champions League — no team has regained the ball quicker (judged by the opposition passes per defensive action) — but that can leave space in behind if their first press, from those forward line, is not sharp or precise.
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Xavi recognised this and used Robert Lewandowski as his out ball. Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the Barcelona goalkeeper, played the majority of his passes up the field to the Poland striker, and he in turn was able to bring his wide players into play. PSG defender Lucas Beraldo had a particularly difficult game, losing five duels.
Dortmund clearly learned from those matches. Edin Terzic, the Dortmund coach, was able to use Fullkrug in a similar manner. There were early warning signs; Marcel Sabitzer made a curved run from the right to reach a long pass from Ian Maatsen, but the pass was misplaced.
Dortmund were not as precise as Barcelona in the opening stages, often wayward in their attempts to pick out Fullkrug, who in turn could not contest the aerial duel against the PSG defence. But then, Dortmund got one right. Nico Schlotterbeck sold Mbappe a dummy, and used that extra second of space to arrow a ball over the top of the PSG back line.
It was an incredibly simple goal to concede but one that proves PSG are vulnerable. They struggled with their first pressure, allowing Dortmund to play out through Julian Ryerson or allowing the time to arrow a direct pass accurately, which is exactly what happened with the opening goal.
The back line switched off and were caught flat-footed; they were not set to deal with a run in behind, expecting a pass to instead be played onto Fullkrug’s head — normally his main strength. PSG may be better pressers, but simple mistakes are still undermining that.
Peter Rutzler
Is Sancho back to his best?
Sancho’s performance was a reminder of how important environment is for footballers. He has not blazed through the Bundesliga since returning but he has seemed far less inhibited in Germany. Far away from the stifling commentary surrounding his Manchester United career, the expression has returned to his game and the timing and smart decisions that once accented his talent have returned.
They were prominent again. At his best, there is a waspishness to Sancho’s attacking play, which sees him flutter in and out of the attack and influence the game with little touches and tricks across the width of the pitch.
In the first half, he touched the ball more than any other Dortmund player, which described his appetite for the occasion and how difficult PSG found it to keep hold of him.
Sancho’s dribbling came to the fore in the first period (Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)
He completed seven dribbles in the first 45 minutes, too. More than any player in any Champions League game this season. More than he managed in any Manchester United game he took part in.
But on a night when Dortmund needed their crowd, the Westfalenstadion responded to his confidence and his little moments of flare. This was Sancho at his very best. It was him as a spectacle again and after what seems like a very long time, it’s nice to be able to write that again.
Seb Stafford-Bloor
How costly will PSG’s misses prove?
When Mbappe faced up his full-back a few minutes into the second half, it looked as though he would put PSG back on level terms from an acute angle.
As it transpired, his right-footed curling effort towards Gregor Kobel’s left-hand post did not curl enough and hit the post. Minutes later, Marquinhos curled a cross that dropped perfectly between Kobel and the Dortmund defensive line, with Marco Fabian ghosting in. Six yards from goal, it seemed certain he would head in from close range and put PSG on level terms. Somehow, he missed. And missed chances proved to be the story of PSG’s second half.
Mbappe was involved again in the 70th minute, receiving the ball in the same top right-hand corner of the Dortmund box that he almost scored from 20 minutes earlier. This time, he slipped in Dembele, whose tame effort was saved by Kobel. Ten minutes later, he would have the chance to redeem himself after Achraf Hakimi spotted his deep run into the box and played a pass across the box, but his right-footed shot ballooned over the crossbar.
Dembele after his miss (Oliver Hardt – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
“How the French haven’t scored, I can’t believe, frankly,” said Ally McCoist, the co-commentator for TNT Sports, the UK broadcaster of the Champions League.
Fortunately for Luis Enrique, Dortmund could not make the most of several excellent second-half goalscoring opportunities. Shooting practice will surely be on the agenda ahead of next week’s second leg.
Elias Burke
Did hard-working Adeyemi silence critics?
Of all the factors expected to influence this game, Karim Adeyemi’s work without the ball was not among them. Adeyemi has suffered a bad month. From the high of his goal against Bayern Munich in March, his form has plateaued. A silly red card against Borussia Monchengladbach rightly provoked criticism and drew mutterings about his attitude. His stock has not been high.
But what a response this was. Adeyemi’s speed is typically an asset in attack. This evening it was virtue in defence, as he worked as hard as he probably ever has in Dortmund yellow to protect Ian Maatsen, his full-back, from the menacing Dembele-Hakimi threat down the PSG right.
Adeyemi was effective in defence as well as attack (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)
The 70 yards he ran in the first half to chase down Hakimi and end a counter-attack was particularly stirring. He did exactly the same thing in the second half and that was typical of Adeyemi’s night. It was also emblematic of an astute and tactically aware performance in which he gave absolutely everything to prevent Dortmund’s cracks from showing.
Praise is due for Terzic, too. Adeyemi was part of a gameplan in that part of the pitch that worked really well.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
What did Terzic say?
“It was a well-deserved win, a good team performance,” he told DAZN. “We could have scored more goals, but so could they. That’s why the result is OK from my point of view.
“We ran a lot, but that’s necessary in a game like this. You have to earn your way to Wembley. All we need now is a draw in the second leg, but we also want to win next week. We have a small lead and a good opportunity. We don’t have fear. We know the quality of Paris.
“Sancho was extraordinary but we have seen it often training. He translates it onto the pitch. He has quality, we know his quality. It wasn’t just him, and it was important for a good match.”
What did Luis Enrique say?
“Everybody knew that this wasn’t going to be easy. This is the semi-final of the Champions League. The dressing room is a bit down, especially after hitting the post twice. But we had our supporters pushing us on throughout the match. We must recognise that this is an exceptional stadium, with fans who know how to support their team.
“We lacked incision in the final third. We didn’t create a lot more than the opponent, we looked for transitions and counter attacks. The mindset was better in the second half. It’s an opponent at a very good level and we created good chances.
“Both teams created a lot of opportunities. But they scored, and we didn’t. The result reflects how close the game was. It’s a new situation for both teams. In the last two rounds, they had the home game as their second game, whereas it was the other way round for us. We’ll now have the crowd on our side in the second leg. We’ll have to be more effective there.”
A year ago, decision-makers at Real Madrid explored the possibility of Andriy Lunin’s departure as they searched for a reinforcement in goal.The club considered signing David Soria from Getafe in June, although they preferred not to make a permanent investment in that position. When Thibaut Courtois picked up an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in August, they did not hesitate in bringing in Kepa Arrizabalagaon loan without an option to buy from Chelsea.
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But Arrizabalaga failed to impress after returning from an injury he suffered in November, while Lunin has emerged one of the heroes of the season. The 25-year-old produced a fine performance in the second leg of Madrid’s Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City, keeping Pep Guardiola’s side at bay in normal time before saving two penalties in the subsequent shootout.
Nobody would have expected that when Lunin started the campaign behind Arrizabalaga, knowing he could find himself as third choice when Courtois returned. He went out on three separate loans after joining Madrid in 2018 but is now close to agreeing a new deal until 2028, as reported by The Athletic on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian barely smiled in his post-match interviews after that performance against City, which gave an indication of his steely personality.So, who is Lunin? And what does the future hold for him, after stepping in so brilliantly for Courtois?
Born to a father in banking and a mother who worked as a civil servant, Lunin grew up in Krasnohrad, a town of around 20,000 inhabitants in eastern Ukraine.He started out playing futsal and excelled as a striker. His first shirt was that of Real Madrid icon Cristiano Ronaldo and it was only aged eight that he began to play as a seven-a-side goalkeeper in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the country’s northeast. Iker Casillas was his new idol.Lunin had trials with three different teams — Ukrainian sides Shakhtar Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv, along with a football school in Kharkiv. He chose Metalist as his destination, living and studying at their academy from under-12 to under-18 level.
Lunin was Madrid’s hero against City (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
From there, Lunin moved to Dnipro in 2016 and Zorya Luhansk a year later. Then, in 2018, he learned that Madrid wanted to sign him one day after training. Those close to him — who, like all those cited in this article, asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships — say he felt a mixture of happiness and vertigo. He knew the scale of the challenge ahead.
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He received interest from other teams but told his club he only wanted to join Madrid. The deal was done quickly, for around €8.5million ($9.1m; £7.3m at current exchange rates) plus about €4m in variables, with Lunin signing a contract until 2024.
Lunin’s arrival, like those of many other youngsters at Madrid, bore the stamp of their chief scout Juni Calafat and his staff. Calafat, who is a Brazilian-Spanish national, has helped Madrid sign South American talents including Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Federico Valverde in recent years. He has been one of Lunin’s key backers, too. He has always had confidence in the Ukrainian’s potential and believed he deserved a chance as No 1 after Courtois’ injury in August.
Lunin got the chance to meet Madrid president Florentino Perez on his first visit to the Spanish capital in 2018. Those close to the goalkeeper say he was impressed by Perez, who made him feel like a son.
Those sources describe Lunin as a quiet individual who rarely smiles. But, at Madrid’s Valdebebas headquarters, they have always said he is humble, polite, hard-working and methodical — sometimes even too much so.
An early example of that was when he decided to speak in Spanish at his Madrid presentation in July 2018, despite not knowing the language. He spent hours rehearsing a speech from memory, in which he thanked Madrid for “giving me the opportunity to fulfil a dream” and said he was signing for “the best club in the world”.
But his path to the starting XI was unclear. When Lunin joined, Keylor Navas was Zinedine Zidane’s first-choice goalkeeper after helping Real Madrid win three Champions League titles in a row. Courtois had also arrived from Chelsea that summer, having been named the best goalkeeper of the 2018 World Cup with Belgium.
Madrid sent Lunin on loan to Leganes, a club on the outskirts of the city who were then in La Liga. He was second-choice there and returned to the Bernabeu in the summer of 2019, expecting Navas to leave. But the Costa Rican stayed put until September, when he joined Paris Saint-Germain and Alphonse Areola went the other way on loan as a backup for Courtois. By then, Lunin had already joined another La Liga side, Real Valladolid.
That spell did not go to plan either: he was a backup to Jordi Masip and the loan was cut short in January after just two appearances in the Copa del Rey. A spell at second-division Real Oviedo in the second half of that season proved more fruitful, as he helped the team stay up in 15th place with six clean sheets.
Anastasia has often made the headlines in Spain. On several occasions, she has posted on social media or conducted interviews to warn that Lunin would look for another destination if he continued on Madrid’s bench. In February, she told a YouTube show that it would be “difficult for Courtois to return from injury and take the top spot” if her husband continued to play.
Lunin has always stayed patient and insisted on staying at Madrid even when he wasn’t trusted in goal. His contract was extended for a further season that summer until 2025 — but this was not announced publicly and only came to light in 2024. Meanwhile, he also became part of Jorge Mendes’ Gestifute agency. His father had been his agent.
Lunin believes those three loans away improved him and made him mentally stronger, which was key to his return to Madrid. He also had the support of Ukraine coach and legendary forward Andriy Shevchenko during this time, who called him up for 29 games from 2017-2020, giving him six appearances.
In July 2020, Madrid told Lunin he would be part of the squad for the following season as a reserve option, as they did not want to bring in Areola on loan again or sign another ‘keeper. But he fell out of favour with Ukraine, with Shevchenko’s successor, Oleksandr Petrakov, not selecting him from 2021-2022.
Lunin has been active in public and private in showing his support for his home country since the Russian invasion in February 2022. He has kept himself informed of the situation, donated money to the war effort and participated in initiatives to collect and send food and supplies there.
Madrid have also helped him during the conflict, giving him moral and logistical support to assist his relatives still in Ukraine. On the first day of the war, Perez went to see him in person at the club’s Valdebebas training ground to speak with him.
Lunin helped Ukraine qualify for this summer’s Euros (Mateusz Slodkowski/Getty Images)
Lunin helped Ukraine qualify for this summer’s European Championship and he started in their play-off semi-final and final against Bosnia & Herzegovina and Iceland in March — his 10th and 11th caps for the national team.
“The only difficulty is the war in my country,” he said after Madrid’s penalty win against City. “It’s not easy to go to training every day when the worst news is coming out. There is my family, my friends, all my people, my city, my school. I try to help.”
He has barely put a foot wrong this season, playing 29 times — more than the sum of his three full campaigns at Madrid before this term. But at first, he was left frustrated with Carlo Ancelotti’s rotation between him and Arrizabalaga. He felt there was a lack of communication from the coaching staff and he and the Spaniard often found out who Ancelotti had selected through what he told the press.
Errors from Arrizabalaga in the games he started allowed Lunin to take advantage and become Madrid’s undisputed first choice from mid-January. He has conceded 27 goals in 29 games and kept 12 clean sheets. The club opened talks with his agent in March over his renewal.
Ancelotti still believes Lunin has plenty of room for improvement, especially in terms of his aerial presence and footwork. But both he and his staff value the goalkeeper’s professionalism, resilience and growth, which they put down to being released from the pressure of living in Courtois’ shadow. In the dressing room, he is closest to young players such as Brahim Diaz, Valverde and summer signing Fran Gracia.
Despite his improvement, everyone at Valdebebas expects Courtois to return as Madrid’s first-choice ‘keeper once he is fully recovered. The Belgian was on the bench for the Champions League semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich on Tuesday after a separate meniscus injury suffered during his ACL recovery. He could play in Madrid’s potentially decisive La Liga game against Cadiz on Saturday, although a final choice will be made today or tomorrow.
But, for now, Lunin is the man of the moment — to the surprise of almost everyone.
(Top photo: Maria de Gracias Jimenez/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
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(Photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)
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Indy Mayor Pitches MLS and appears to cut out Indy 11 in the process. Interesting press conference by the Mayor. https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/2024/04/25/indianapolis-plans-to-bid-for-mls-expansion-team/73458916007/ No idea what this means for Indy 11 Park and the downtown stadium? Is there a mystery potential new owner for an Indy MLS team – Confusion sets in ? I have long said the Indy 11 owner does not have MLS money and I am not sure we have the corporate support to field an MLS team along with NFL and NBA teams.
FA Cup Semi-Final leaves American offsides
Got a chance to watch the FA Cup Semi’s this weekend while in Cincy for a tourney – and man did Coventry City get robbed in their PK loss to Man United. American winger Haji Wright was dangerous all day and was (Not offsides) on the would be winning goal in ET – at Wembley Sunday. Man U won in PKs though US #9 Wright did score his PK. It will be Man U vs Man City in the FA Cup Finals again in May. Meanwhile Liverpool and Arsenal both lost last weekend leaving the door open for Man City to win the EPL again – games continue this weekend as just 1 pt separates Arsenal & Man City.
MLS – Big Win for Columbus + Big News for LAFC
The Columbus Crew took a huge home 2-1 win over Liga MX power Monterrey for the first leg in the Champions Cup. The return round is Tues night on FS1 10:15 pm on FS1. Big news for LAFC as they announced that French & AC Milan forward Olivier Giroud will be coming to LAFC after the Serie A season ends. Giroud, 37, has scored 13 goals and 8 assist this season while often starting for AC Milan.
Big Games on TV
Of course Champions League is back next week with no English teams left as Germany’s Bayern Munich will host Real Madrid Tuesday on CBS at 3 pm, while Dortmund will host PSG and Mbappe on Wed 3 pm on CBS. Sat gives us some battles of American’s with Fulham and Jedi Robinson hosting Crystal Palace and Centerback Chris Richards at 10 am on Peacock, followed by Juventus (Weah, McKinney) hosting AC Milan (Pulisic, Musah) at 12 noon on Para+. (Man this game on CBS would be cool). Sunday at 12:30 Bayern Leverkusen (German Champ) continues its quest for an unbeaten season as they host top 5 foe Stuttgart on ESPN+. (I watched their amazing comeback in stoppage time at Dortmund last Sunday). Tues night on FS 1 at 10 pm the Columbus Crew carry a 2-1 lead to Monterrey as they look to advance to the finals of the CONCACAF Championship.
Carmel FC 2010 Boys Gold Wins Kolping Cup Championship last weekend in Cincy, Ohio with a 3-0-1 mark. Head Coach Mark Stumpf (left) and Asst Shane Best (right).
Reffing done Right – always a pleasure to ref for ref assignor Nate Sinders & Dave – especially on a Bar BQ Weekend – like the Boys Showcase last weekend and Girls Showcase this weekend. Nate makes some of the best Beef Brisket in the state of Indiana. Good Eatin — thanks Nate !!
GAMES ON TV
Fri, 4/26
3 pm ESPN+ Real Sociadad vs Real Madrid
3 pm ESPN+ QPR vs Leeds United Championship
10 pm Amazon Prime Angel City vs KC Current NWSL
Sat, Apr 27
7:30 am USA West Ham vs Liverpool
9:30 am EPSN+ Bayern Munich vs Frankfurt
10 am USA Wolverhampton vs Luton Town
10 am Peacock Fulham (Jedi, Ream) vs Crystal Palace (Richards)
10 am Peacock Man United vs Burnley (adams)
10 am ESPN+ Blackburn vs Coventry City (HAji Wright) Championship
12 noon Para+ Juventus (Weah, McKinney) vs AC Milan (Pulisic, Musah)
12:30 pm NBC Everton vs Brentford
12:30 pm ESPN+ Leverkusen vs Stuttgart
1:45 pm Fox Austin vs LA Galaxy MLS
3 pm Peacock Aston Villa vs Chelsea
3 pm ESPN+ Atletico Madrid vs Athletic Club Spain
7:30 pm Ion Chicago Starts vs Portland Thorns NWSL
7 pm ESPN+ Indy 11 vs North Carolina
7:30 pm CBSSN Tampa Bay Rowdies (Jordan Farr) vs NM United USL
Sun, Apr 28
9 am USA Tottenham vs Arsenal
11:30 am USA Nottingham Forest (Reyna, Turner) vs Man City
12 noon Para+ Napoli vs Roma
Tues, Apr 30
3 pm CBS Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid UCL
Weds, May 1 Champions League
3 pm CBS Dortmund vs PSG
10:15 pm FS1 Monterrey 1 vs Columbus Crew 2 CONCACAF Champs Cup
10 pm CBSSN Bay FC vs Portland Thorns (Smith) NWSL
The USMNT defender had become a mainstay of the national team while enjoying one of the best campaigns of his club career at PSV Eindhoven on loan from Barcelona.
Now he will be forced to watch from the stands as what he helped create — an almost unbeaten league season, with PSV on course to become champions in May — unfolds without one of its main protagonists.
But even worse for the 23-year-old will be missing out on his second major tournament for the national team.
Dest has been a key performer in PSV’s outstanding campaign (ANP via Getty Images)
Dest played in each of the USMNT’s four games at the Qatar 2022 World Cup and was likely to remain one of the first names on Gregg Berhalter’s team sheet at this summer’s Copa America. Now the USMNT manager has some thinking to do.
Joe Scally, the team’s other bespoke right-back, has put together a decent season at Borussia Monchengladbach. He is 21 and, although his starting place has looked less certain in recent weeks, Scally has been in the starting XI for the Bundesliga outfit on 22 occasions, garnering big-game experience. On Saturday, he was named on the bench but contributed an assist during his 21 minutes on the pitch during Gladbach’s 4-3 defeat at Hoffenheim.
He will be in the mix to step into Dest’s boots this summer, but if Berhalter wants to try to emulate the attacking threat Dest brings, he might need to get creative — perhaps using Juventus’ Timothy Weah as a wing-back or even his club team-mate Weston McKennie.
AC Milan’s Yunus Musah could perform there and Westerlo’s 22-year-old full-back Bryan Reynolds offers another solution if Berhalter does not want to diminish his central midfield options by dragging a key man out wide.
Whatever the fix, it is a headache the national team coach could do without.
Dest competes with Mexico’s Gerardo Arteaga during the CONCACAF Nations League final in March (Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Player of the weekend
Ever the man for the big stage, Sunday brought another show-stopping moment Haji Wright will never forget.
Wright scores from the spot (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
City pushed the Premier League giants to the brink and almost made it to the final, only for Victor Torp’s stoppage-time strike to be ruled out for a negligible VAR offside call, made against Wright.
In the end, a penalty shootout decided the pulsating tie and Wright confidently netted his side’s first after United’s Casemiro saw his effort saved.
Yet it was not to be for the Californian and his plucky team-mates as United eventually prevailed and reached the final next month against rivals Manchester City.
Wright has been a goalscoring threat for Coventry all season, as can be seen from the variety of his shot map below.
“We get the equaliser from the penalty spot and it’s brilliantly dispatched from Wright,” said proud manager Mark Robins afterwards. “(Then) we’re back in it and, 20 seconds from the end of extra time, we get what feels like to be the winner, but it’s a toenail offside. I don’t know how unlucky we can be.
“They’ve written themselves into the history of this football club with the way they’ve come back in this football game, they have to be proud of themselves. It’s just really sad we couldn’t see it through.”
Coventry’s nervous support wait for Wright to find the back of the net (Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images)
Quote of the weekend
Dest’s immediate future may be shrouded in doubt, but he can take solace that PSV remain keen to keep him permanently.
His Barcelona contract runs until June 2025, but with uncertainty over whether the wing-back will be part of the club’s plans next season, PSV president Marcel Brands has made it clear the Dutch club want to sign him regardless of his injury.
“We were in negotiations with him (Dest) and his agent last week,” Brands told Voetbal International. “Yes, that’s going in the right direction. We have to wait and see how or what, but we believe in Sergino and he will get fit again. We would love to keep him with PSV.
“’We had to convince him, but he became more and more enthusiastic and is having a good time. That’s why he wanted to talk to PSV about staying longer.”
Name: Zyen Jones Club: Kosice Position: Right midfield Appearances (all competitions): 11 Goals: Two
The 23-year-old created his side’s winning goal in a key fixture of the Slovakian top flight’s relegation battle on Friday. Kosice are three points clear of the drop and Jones, who joined in January, has one goal and two assists in six league appearances.
Sargent was the provider for team-mate Borja Sainz on Saturday as Norwich drew 1-1 with Bristol City to retain their position in the Championship’s final play-off place with two games remaining.
Sainz and Sargent celebrate Norwich’s equaliser (MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Name:Gianluca Busio Club: Venezia Position: Midfield Appearances: 34 Goals: Seven
The 21-year-old was the star man with his side’s second goal in their 2-1 win at Leco on Saturday, a result that kept Venezia third in Serie B and in contention for promotion. It was his seventh goal of the season.
It was a hugely successful return from injury for the USMNT international as he completed the 90 minutes of Palace’s emphatic 5-2 win against West Ham United, playing a significant role in winning back the ball in the build-up to the hosts’ second goal.
Richards had missed his side’s previous three games with a hamstring problem but slotted back into Oliver Glasner’s three-man defence as Palace edged further clear of trouble.
The Athletic FC: ‘Last Dance’ over for Klopp at Liverpool? Plus: Outrageous Mbappe nutmeg
Klopp’s ‘Last Dance’ looking unlikely at Liverpool
All good things are destined to end. Like Jurgen Klopp’s record at Goodison Park. Like Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool.
True, Liverpool aren’t finished. Not mathematically. It’s three points to the top of the Premier League table, or four if we factor in Arsenal’s goal difference.
Klopp consoles Diaz (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Were the title a two-horse race, he could pray for salvation. But Arsenal and Manchester City — who are a point behind Klopp’s side with two games in hand — both imploding in the few games that are left? We’re somewhere between no chance and none.
Klopp said he was resigning because he was weary. Liverpool, in tandem and as a project, have begun to look weary too. And suddenly in need of the reset that’s coming their way.
Do players ‘really want to win the league’?
Two post-match comments at Goodison jumped out at me. The first was Klopp describing Liverpool’s counter-pressing as “horrible”. That’s an indictment of one of their biggest strengths under him.
From the moment Klopp announced he would resign at the end of the season, this became his version of ‘The Last Dance’, that immense documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. The month behind Klopp has been more like Netflix’s Tour De France series: an elite rider broken by a Hors Categorie climb.
Klopp’s record as he prepares to bow out: seven major trophies in just under nine years, including a Premier League and a Champions League. Understanding him as we do, he’d have wanted more.
But he had the misfortune of coming up against a Manchester City team beyond compare and despite that, he took Liverpool back to the top table. Anfield’s love has been well-earned.
Klopp and Van Dijk (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
How to Slot in?
Perhaps there is an upside to Liverpool’s downturn.
Klopp no longer looks like an impossible void to fill. Liverpool no longer look like they are losing a coach at his absolute peak. His expressions of fatigue sound honest, and are reflected in his body language.
Perhaps, on reflection, a new broom is just the ticket.
Until very recently, replacing Klopp resembled a hospital pass. As it is, and as James Pearce writes, a rebuild is now much easier to embrace. It’s been some ride for Liverpool. But nothing lasts forever.
WATCH: Brighton and Hove Albion vs Manchester City, 3pm ET / 8pm UK. Premier League. USA Network, Sky Sports
Mbappe’s masterful ‘megs + assist
Thoughts and prayers with Nathaniel Adjei. There he was, minding his own business with Lorient in France, when Kylian Mbappe made his name go viral.
You might remember the piece we did recently on the Chigwada spin: a mad bit of skill by Manchester City youngster David Chigwada. Watch it 10 times and you still won’t be sure exactly how he pulled it off.
Mbappe does tricks like that in his sleep and here he is destroying Adjei with a brutal nutmeg (more on the art of the nutmeg here) in Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-1 away win last night. I hate to say it but Adjei, who’s only 21, might just have experienced the most high-profile moment of his career.
From the vaults of the unexpected — Xavi is staying on as Barcelona manager next season.
Why unexpected? Because he announced that he was quitting a while back and has given the impression of being thoroughly sick of life at Camp Nou, calling it a ‘cruel job’. Ever heard of the Barca entorno?
Not only that, in the past week Barca have dropped out of the running in La Liga and the Champions League. But an emergency meeting with president Joan Laporta turned everything on its head. We’re expecting a formal announcement today.
This got me thinking. If U-turns are in vogue, any chance that Bayern Munich go into reverse gear with Thomas Tuchel?
How the USMNT could replace Sergiño Dest for the Copa America
Sergiño Dest put together the best season of his young career in 2023-24.
On loan at PSV Eindhoven from Barcelona, he eclipsed 2,000 league minutes — a clear breakthrough after a few nomadic seasons in Spain and on another loan to AC Milan. He was a fixture of PSV’s ongoing quest for an Eredivisie title, starting in all 25 of his league appearances while making another 12 appearances (11 starts) in the UEFA Champions League and the KNVB Beker.
Monday brought sobering news: The full back had suffered a knee injury in training on Saturday, with an early prognosis ruling him out for up to nine months.
That’s a big loss for PSV’s final four games, and arguably an even bigger one for the USMNT as it seeks to make a run in this summer’s Copa America. Ever since 2022 World Cup qualifying, he’s owned the right back position like few others have in any role under Gregg Berhalter.
Of course, time only moves forward. The Copa América will kick off on June 20, with the USMNT first taking the field on June 23 against Bolivia. Only two months remain for players to firm up their cases for inclusion — and, in the wake of Dest’s injury, for someone else to step up as the team’s first-choice right back.
Whoever steps up, though, the U.S. won’t find another player like Dest. His commitment to ball progression, chance creation (‘SCA’ in the table below means ‘shot-creating actions’) and the audacity to set up his shot comprise a rare blend for a fullback. Add in Dest’s press-resistant dribbling, and the USMNT has a way to break lines even when opponents are adequately stifling primary passing lanes.
The U.S. pool simply doesn’t offer a like-for-like replacement. As such, most viable alternatives will require reconfiguring how the U.S. center backs and midfielders patrol space in all phases of play.
Among those alternatives, one option immediately figures to have an inside track on the role.
A member of Berhalter’s squad for the 2022 World Cup, Scally has now cemented himself as a fixture of Borussia Mönchengladbach’s defense in the German Bundesliga. Although Gladbach’s season hasn’t gone as hoped, sitting 12th in the Bundesliga and four points above the relegation playoff place, Scally has now started 20+ games for them in three consecutive campaigns.
On the same day that Dest injured his knee, Scally came off the bench away at Hoffenheim. He provided an assist — his third of the year, a new career high — but was unable to catalyze a full comeback as Mönchengladbach lost 4-3.
Regardless of the results, though, Scally cuts an entirely different figure as a defender than Dest.
The Bundesliga’s playstyle is generally less free-flowing than the Eredivisie, which does cut into his ability to progress the ball to some extent. So too does Scally’s versatility – he is occasionally used as a left back, right midfielder and even center back.
Still, Scally doesn’t carry that same upfield compass that guides Dest’s every decision. Instead, he’s a more traditional full back. USMNT fans of a certain vintage might compare him to Steve Cherundolo: prone to slinging effective short passes and prioritizing his defensive responsibilities over the attacking stuff.
All said, his regular involvement in a league that is among the world’s best sets him apart from the rest of the pool.
The rest of the pool
Scally and Dest were two of four right backs to make Berhalter’s 26-man roster for the World Cup in Qatar. In the ensuing year and a half, however, both Shaq Moore and DeAndre Yedlin have faded from consideration for a full-strength USMNT compared to Dest and Scally.
Moore has had a rough start to the 2024 MLS season, although the same can be said for the entire team around him. Nashville’s system utilizes his long distribution frequently, but this season he’s performed just below league average in terms of tackling and allowing opposing dribblers to bypass him. Still, he’s a known entity in Berhalter’s planning and could allow for steady progress with his passing.
Yedlin has benefited greatly since being traded to FC Cincinnati from Inter Miami in March. The move from one of MLS’s most porous defenses to one of its best has allowed him to be a bit more aggressive with peace of mind that his teammates will be up to bail out any miscue. Although he’ll turn 31 in July, he’s also displayed an uptick in his upfield carrying volume, albeit not quite at the same rapid rate as when he broke out a decade ago. His crossing isn’t quite up to positional standard, but the 81-cap veteran could be a viable alternative to Scally in big games.
Reggie Cannon has been a steady on-ball defender since joining Queens Park Rangers this September. In his first season in the EFL Championship, he’s let opponents dribble past him just 15.2% of the time – one of the best marks in the league. The problem? Despite this strong run of form, manager Martí Cifuentes (appointed a month after Cannon signed) dropped the former FC Dallas defender from his lineup in February, opting to start center back Jimmy Dunne in a wide role. That lack of minutes could cost Cannon a chance at the Copa América roster, as he’ll struggle to return to peak form in time for the tournament.
The final pair of right backs who may be in contention seemed destined to make the Olympic roster before Dest’s injury. Bryan Reynolds has been a fixture of the U-23 side throughout its preparations, benefitting from earning regular starts in the Belgian Pro League with Westerlo.
Reynolds also started regularly at last summer’s Gold Cup under interim B.J. Callaghan, which could give him a leg up over Nathan Harriel. The Philadelphia Union homegrown is untested at the senior international level but is among MLS’s best one-on-one defenders. If either is picked for the Copa América, it could open the door for Jake Davis (another strong tackler who developed in central midfield) to crack the Olympic roster.
Tim Weah has been used as a right wingback with Juventus (Click Thompson/Getty Images)
The curveballs
If one of the above options doesn’t cut it for Gregg Berhalter, he may be able to find a solution by moving a versatile starter to the back four. Each has viable alternatives who could fill their place if they need to be relocated for the good of their country.
Tyler Adams’ return from a lengthy injury layoff was a sight for sore eyes at the Nations League. The Bournemouth midfielder has played just 211 minutes for club and country since his hamstring tear in March 2023, but he looked like his typically vital self during his two Nations League appearances last month. There’s some precedent for Adams at right back – he played there for the U.S. occasionally in the 2022 World Cup cycle. However, it’s a physically demanding role, and his recent injury history might not allow for it.
Weston McKennie’s best shift at the 2022 World Cup came as something of a right wingback. Against England, the midfielder lived in the right half-space to create a numerical overload that helped the United States in possession and frustrated the Three Lions’ build-up when the ball changed hands. However, he’s had a truly resurgent season for Juventus as a box-to-box midfielder, doing his usual all-around stuff while adding better pass selection and creativity in the heart of the park. While Luca de la Torre (or Gio Reyna, if he isn’t used on the wing) could take his place were he to move to right back, it may create more midfield imbalance than ideal.
Instead, the best bet among projected USMNT starters may be a few lockers down in the Juventus dressing room. This year, Massimiliano Allegri has utilized Tim Weah as a right wingback. The gambit worked wonders until recent weeks, where a poor run of form has Allegri shuffling his lineup on a weekly basis in hopes of keeping his job. At the club’s heights this fall and winter, however, Weah brought his usual direct speed into the role with great success, also showcasing impressive tackling acumen for a career forward.
Although he plays slightly more advanced for his club than he would for the U.S., his movement patterns are closer to Dest’s than a lot of the aforementioned alternatives. Weah has had a full season to get used to making downhill runs against more congested defenses than he finds on the wing, which would cut down on his learning curve tremendously. He would also benefit from having McKennie play in a similar spot as he does for Juventus, allowing for second-nature interplay between the pair as Weah builds a rapport with the center backs.
Moving Weah off of the right wing would also open that role up for Christian Pulisic. The USMNT star has been among the best wide attackers in Europe, enjoying an emphatic bounce-back campaign with AC Milan after some lean years at Chelsea. That uptick has coincided with a shift from his previous role on the left to playing on the right – the same role he played during his breakout with Borussia Dortmund.
The 25-year-old has more than held his own while sharing a forward line with Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud, with 13 goals and 8 assists across 3,169 minutes in all competitions.
Compared to his form with Milan, Pulisic seemed to play less freely in the Nations League. At times against Jamaica and Mexico, he was caught in two minds as he navigated the final third in a role that has never quite brought out his best.
If Pulisic were to shift, the left wing has capable alternatives: Reyna for a creative spark and Haji Wright as an in-form wide forward, to name two.
If there’s a silver lining to be found around Dest’s injury, perhaps it’s the potential for a shake-up that keeps the USMNT from replicating the worryingly stale first 90 minutes against Jamaica. Not only would it put the team’s best player into his best role, but it would also make the USMNT harder to gameplan for due to a lack of previous utilization. Sometimes, those tweaks can make a major difference in a knockout format.
(Top photos: David Jensen/Getty Images; John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
USWNT Olympic roster prediction 2.0: How things look after the SheBelieves Cup
As the interim head coach era of the U.S. women’s national team comes to a close, it’s time for a fresh round of evaluating who’s in and who’s out of Olympic roster contention. In less than four months, new head coach Emma Hayes will have to select just 18 players to take to France. Former USWNT midfielder Sam Mewis recently described the math equation she used when she was trying to figure out if she was in contention for a roster. Mewis would make her own depth chart, writing out the defenders, midfielders, and forwards in her hotel room. It’s likely the current U.S. group is doing the math now after two SheBelieves games, with both requiring comeback victories and the team needing penalties – again – to dispatch Canada.In Columbus, defender Tierna Davidson hinted at balancing the anxiety that leads to hotel room math with every athlete’s mantra about controlling the controllable. “I think for all of us, it’s just taking everything with a grain of salt and to just give everybody a little bit of space to be making the decision that they’re making, and to see different pictures on the field,” Davidson said. “We all know that nothing is guaranteed as a new coach comes in. So I think everyone (is) trying to put their best foot forward but also understanding that it is an unorthodox time for both us as players and the coaching staff, the technical staff as a whole.”As we guess at our Olympic roster 2.0 (see our first edition here), interim head coach Twila Kilgore’s summary of any roster construction provides good context.
“It’s not about young or old or less experienced or more experienced. It’s about getting the right combinations of players with the right amount of experience and different strengths and weaknesses where they can cover each other in different areas and also have some chemistry and make sure that they’re all able to highlight their strengths,” she said.
Now that SheBelieves is over, and Zambia has officially completed the USWNT’s Olympic group, it’s up to Hayes to determine the final roster — with just two international windows to do so.
Defenders (6): Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave), Tierna Davidson (Gotham FC), Abby Dahlkemper (SD Wave), Emily Fox (Arsenal), Crystal Dunn (Gotham FC), Jenna Nighswonger (Gotham FC),
Midfielders (5): Rose Lavelle (Gotham FC), Lindsey Horan (Lyon), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns), Catarina Macario (Chelsea), Emily Sonnett (Gotham FC)
Forwards (5): Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns), Mallory Swanson (Chicago Red Stars), Alex Morgan (SD Wave), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit), Jaedyn Shaw (SD Wave)
Goalkeepers
Meg: I don’t think this combo will surprise anyone. Alyssa Naeher should have done a bit better on that super-quick Japan goal in Atlanta, but it was Canada’s opening goal that’s more troublesome when you’re thinking about your starting goalkeeper. Her form so far this year has been very solid — vintage, in many ways — and she reminded everyone to settle down with another absurd penalty shootout performance against Canada: three saves and a converted spot kick.
Jeff: I think we’ve all shared similar concerns about Naeher’s agility when converging on an open ball or reacting to a powerful shot. The former scenario played out Tuesday night and it cost the U.S. the opening goal. Unfortunately, there’s been very little rotation in net since the CONCACAF W Gold Cup group stage, and any alternative would need to start at least twice in June’s friendlies against South Korea to have any familiarity with the defenders. This is one area where Kilgore could have better prepared some viable alternatives in 2024.It’s also worth stressing that the chance for a player to parlay a really strong stretch with their club into a backup role — “pulling an Aubrey Kingsbury,” if you will — is lessened when the team will only bring two goalkeepers instead of three. Casey Murphy has been Naeher’s main alternative for the better part of four years, and I’d expect that to remain the case unless Hayes rates someone else.
Defenders
Here’s where we had the most debate this time around: do you bring three center backs and three outside backs? Two straight-up center backs and then maybe a defender who can slot centrally if you need them in a pinch? On the outside back front, do we need one of each, or better to have someone who can half-credibly cover both? Is it better to prioritize pure defense on these depth picks, or someone who can slot into the U.S.’s attacking patterns?
Girma is one of the few defenders from the USWNT’s World Cup roster who is still receiving regular starts. (Photo by Brad Smith, Getty Images for USSF)
Center backs
Meg: Everyone watching the opening SheBelieves Cup match was both praying and believing in the healthiest possible vibes for Naomi Girma after she was forced to exit the match in the 18th minute with what turned out to be a day-to-day thigh injury. It seems like the team is being super precautionary and not pushing it. As we discussed last time, Girma is name number one on the S-Tier mission-critical players for the Olympics. Davidson has inched closer to being that primary partner for her, but she might have some rough video review after this tournament going over two of the goals allowed.
Here’s our one shift of this Olympic roster as we move from 1.0 to 2.0: we’ve opted to add Abby Dahlkemper to the mix.
Steph: I think SheBelieves illustrated pretty neatly that you need a third center back as opposed to someone who can shift inside in a pinch. A dedicated center back is perhaps the one area where you don’t want versatility. You want a specialist who can do a few other things but is devoted primarily to being a center back. As we saw against Canada at SheBelieves, you lose a lot with Girma if you’re facing a team trying to play over your backline. Girma is exceptional in her ability to cover the long ball and to control the space to deny runners the ability to look at goal in the first place.
Jeff: Another factor playing in Dahlkemper’s favor is her familiarity with the two other center backs. Tuesday marked the 15th time that she’s partnered with Davidson, albeit the first in nearly three years. She also plays alongside Girma for San Diego, ensuring that any pairing from that trio will have established familiarity at a time when so much of the squad will be acclimating on the fly.
Meg: There is still a chance for Alana Cook to sneak in for one final look, finally returning to the Reign as a sub in an NWSL match last month, but that feels more like a chance than a definite right now.
Nighswonger earned her first USWNT cap in December 2023 (Photo by Andrea Vilchez, Getty Images for USSF)
Outside backs
Steph: Jenna Nighswonger has moved up to at least A-Tier for me, which we described last time as someone around whom to build the roster. I think Nighswonger has shown she’s a big piece of the USWNT’s ability to press, especially enabling Mal Swanson to go full Mal Swanson in their left-side progression.
Jeff: Nighswonger has provided width that was sorely lacking during the Vlatko Andonovski era, where both fullbacks tucked into the midfield rather than running the flank. While Fox is still doing that inverted wingback work on the right, having Nighswonger offer width and progression on the left gives a different element in the build-up — the U.S. sorely missed this in the first half against Canada, and moving upfield along the left was a slog.
Do we think Crystal Dunn knows what her role is moving forward? I wouldn’t be surprised if she is preferred to Nighswonger in the short term, but I still want to know if Hayes will keep her at left back or finally, mercifully, unleash her in midfield.
Meg: I really rate Casey Krueger, and think she should be on the USWNT. This 18-player roster is a killer.
Jeff: Kilgore did opt to bring Krueger in to replace Dunn on Tuesday rather than Nighswonger. It may have just been minute management at Gotham’s request, but we’ve also seen Krueger play right, center, and left in the past few months. If we’re highlighting versatility within the pool, she’s checked all the boxes.
Midfielders
Meg: Somehow, the one from the midfield I’m most on the fence about right now is Rose Lavelle, which isn’t anything Lavelle has done. She missed out on this camp due to injury. Assuming she’s healthy this summer (which, to be fair, sometimes is a greater assumption than anyone would prefer), she still has to make the trip. The USWNT has some different looks at the No. 10 now though, with Jaedyn Shaw getting the nod against Brazil. Catarina Macario could also slot there (or, as always: Dunn).
Steph: I think Olivia Moultrie is a little extraneous if a roster has to get trimmed to 18, and I say that only in the context of that trimming and not at all as a referendum on her talent or ability to play at this level. It’s just that with Macario and Shaw in the mix, and especially if Lavelle gets healthy in time, I think it pushes her down the list a bit. Even though I think she’s on track to eventually work her way deeper into this team.
Lavelle was left off the SheBelieves roster due to injury. (Photo by Omar Vega, Getty Images)
Jeff: If you were listing the 18 most talented players in the pool, or the 18 most important, I wouldn’t spare a thought at listing all three of Lavelle, Macario and Shaw before I even get to the difficult decisions. But with so many high-caliber forwards and wingers, and Horan being a two-way threat, can you afford to take three attacking midfielders and punt on depth elsewhere?
If there’s one thing I’m confident about, it’s that the roster’s biggest snub will either be an attacking midfielder (Lavelle seems most tenuous given her struggles to stay healthy since 2022) or a winger.
Meg: It feels safe enough to note that we know what we’re getting with Horan in this midfield, so let’s move to the No. 6. Sam Coffey has had a very strong start to her 2024. At this point, do we think she’s done enough to cement not just a spot on the 18-player roster for France, but as the team’s starting defensive midfielder?
Jeff: I think so. I’m not an NWSL awards voter, but I would’ve had Coffey as my MVP last season for her work with Portland. She plays with a willingness to advance into the final third only when necessary, which keeps a midfield safety net to stifle a counterattack if the U.S. turns the ball over. Her long distribution can also help unlock the team’s wingers in all phases, and she’s looked the part against high-caliber opponents.
We’ve already rattled off a lot of names we’d want to bring, but we should probably address what the past couple of weeks could mean for Korbin Albert’s hopes of inclusion. The midfield is incredibly crowded right now; we haven’t even brought up World Cup call-ups like Savannah DeMelo, Ashley Sanchez or Andi Sullivan, or the long-awaited inclusion of Jaelin Howell. Hayes’ Chelsea often plays with two midfield pivots in front of the back line, so there could be room for a non-attacking inclusion at the expense of a playmaker.
Still, Albert’s overcommitment against Brazil made her easy to bypass in the Gold Cup final, and the very real locker room chemistry concerns could make this a tournament roster too soon.
Meg: We’re not in that locker room, but those concerns are definitely heightened for an 18-player roster. I think the federation is largely satisfied with her public apology over her social media activity, but I also think that the USWNT technical staff have better options right now for soccer reasons, too.
Morgan has adapted to a new role with the young USWNT. (Photo by Carmen Mandato, Getty Images for USSF)
Forwards
Jeff: This is another area where the only real change from a month ago is an unfortunate injury. Midge Purce was at the top of my “tough omission” list after the Gold Cup, but an ACL tear has ruled her out for the Olympics and all of 2024. A player like Macario or Lavelle could be moved into a new role under Hayes and play as more of a winger, but beyond that, we’re likely talking about the same group of players with similar feelings about each.
Meg: For all the discourse on Alex Morgan, I think she’s going — and it feels like the players agree, based on this quote from Trinity Rodman in Columbus: “Alex is just a voice that we need with the experience. Being in the center, being the person that’s initiating press and attack, I think to have that voice, have that experience, have that veteran status is really good for us to build off of. And also just energy-wise, I think she sets the tone really well.” For as much as we talked about all those options at the No. 10, this team also has plenty at striker, but Morgan’s once again pulled off the return to the USWNT.
Steph: The forward group has been a historically delightful problem for coaches to solve. This team has never lacked scoring talent.
(Photo: Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
U.S. Soccer took a gamble waiting for Emma Hayes, leaving USWNT’s style of play in limbo
In November, U.S. Soccer gambled that it was worth sacrificing a year of continuous preparation under a permanent manager to hire Emma Hayes. For eight months following the 2023 World Cup, interim management has overseen the U.S. women’s national team. To her credit, Twila Kilgore’s tenure as placeholder helped turn over the player pool and saw her team win a pair of tune-up competitions this spring.Still, it’s been a lost year for the program at a time when it was in sore need of a clear new vision. Hayes’ first games as USWNT manager in June are still two months away, bringing the post-World Cup interlude to 10 months — and a full seven months from her appointment in November.With the CONCACAF W Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup in the rearview, it’s time to take stock. Is the program any better prepared to contend at the Paris Olympics than it was when Sweden knocked it out of the World Cup?
The 2023 World Cup cycle (and, by association, the Vlatko Andonovski era) stands out as the low point for the USWNT on the field.The belated 2020 Olympics was a warning sign, as an aging core entered with varying levels of fitness amidst the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team played every game in empty stadia, a far cry from the raucous support it so often enjoys in major tournaments, and the team was ultimately eliminated by Canada in the semifinal.Rather than heeding lessons from that tournament, Andonovski largely ran it back for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The team’s style of play often looked languid as it failed to breach the final third. Multiple players failed to see the field for a single minute as the U.S. advanced from its group thanks in part to a friendly goalpost against Portugal. The relief was short-lived as the U.S. fell to another longtime rival, Sweden, in a round of 16 penalty shootout.Advanced metrics show that the U.S. did do some good things in its four games at the tournament. No team allowed fewer shots per 90 than the squad’s 4.6, and its average xG per 90 advantage of 2.14-0.32 certainly screams “contender” in isolation. However, the issues with build-up and chance creation were clear.The team progressed up the field quickly enough, ranking 11th in the tournament field with a direct speed of 1.71 meters advanced upfield per second of possession.
Speed isn’t everything. Tournaments are notorious for eliciting small sample size judgments, and the trendline is far from definitive. Nevertheless, none of the 10 teams that ranked higher in direct speed advanced any further in the tournament than the round of 16.Progressing the ball upfield with pace is a helpful tool in transition, but the USWNT seemed devoid of ideas once it met the opposing defense in the final third. All four teams that had a more rapid direct speed also bowed out in the round of 16. Unsurprisingly, all five teams that averaged fewer goals per 90 than the U.S. also failed to reach the quarterfinal or further.Playing direct and sharp final third decision-making shouldn’t be treated as a mutually exclusive proposition, mind you. Given the talent at the USWNT’s disposal, there’s the potential to create a near unstoppable balance in attack. With the benefit of hindsight, the federation wanted to ensure the team was better equipped to make smart decisions to score with dependability.
“There was definitely a sense that we need to be better with the ball and have more solutions,” U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker said in September. The federation polled players during the coaching search and much of the focus from the tactical feedback involved building the attack, playing through the midfield and having “creative solutions in tight spaces, having the players and the tactics to beat the low block.”After spending an entire cycle moving the ball despite its midfield — the Prayer Circle Formation, as Kim McCauley so brilliantly branded it — they wanted to make use of their engine room.Enter Hayes, a tactical chameleon who’s well-versed in the art of breaking down low blocks at the helm of her Chelsea juggernaut. She plans for the opponent rather than coaching from dogmatic principles. Each game’s instructions are curated with one aim in mind: winning, above all else.You can see the appeal at surface level, hiring a coach who habitually works to overcome the type of cynical tactics that sunk the team last summer. The catch: the team would have to wait while Hayes admitted her “full focus and attention is on what I do for Chelsea” until that season’s end.
If there’s a highlight performance over the last 10 months, it came in the Gold Cup quarterfinal against Colombia. In the preceding group stage, the USWNT was frustrated by opponents like Argentina and Mexico sitting in a low block as Kilgore maintained a possession-oriented structure perhaps too closely akin to Andonovski’s. Patterns of ball circulation slowed the team’s build-up, giving all too much time for defensive-minded opponents to get into their ideal placements.Colombia was a World Cup quarterfinalist last summer, blessed with one of the world’s great young attackers, Linda Caicedo, and a team that suited her skillset on the break. Kilgore strove to exploit those tendencies by letting her team play direct. It achieved two things: greater attacking intensity going forward, and fewer turnovers in the defensive half that would cater to Colombia’s strengths. A 3-0 win was a statement that the USWNT was back with a point to prove.
Taking a similar scoring initiative was impossible in a rain-soaked semifinal slog against Canada, and the team opted for a more controlled style of play in the final against Brazil, winning 1-0. It got results, ensuring the team won the inaugural Gold Cup.Still, the team wasn’t showcasing the type of consistent goalscoring necessary to be better prepared for the Olympics than it was in the World Cup. Fortunately, SheBelieves was right around the corner, providing another pair of games against high-level opponents to showcase Crocker’s desired “creative solutions in tight spaces.”Japan had other ideas. Kiko Seike became the first player to score against the USWNT in a game’s opening minute since 2003, putting the hosts at an early 1-0 deficit. With some savvy high-pressing the U.S. equalized 20 minutes later before a 77th-minute penalty kick sealed a 2-1 win for the U.S. It was a professional result, but not a showcase of the principles U.S. Soccer strove to install.Up next came Canada, which saw Kilgore drop one of her usual four attacking players for a second pivot at the base of midfield. Intentional or otherwise, this saw the team revert to their Prayer Circle tendencies.“Our attack is not built around one individual player and that is by design,” Kilgore said ahead of the final. “It’s important that we have the ability to score goals from a variety of different ways. And even though we have these predictable moments for us that we’re looking for, it’s important that different people are filling different roles and able to recognize when they’re the one that needs to maybe make an early run or get out ahead of the opponent for a cross.”Just over five minutes into the final against Canada, the USWNT seemed to look through its variety of chance-creation methods after a Lindsey Horan tackle sprung Sophia Smith on the counter.
Huh, that’s a let-off for Canada. Time to set up for another wave of attack.
Oh no, not the Prayer Circle.
No, no, no , no, no, no —
Over half an hour later, Canada opened the scoring after a miscommunication between goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and her defense. Once again, the United States was forced to react to the game after allowing the opponent to establish its terms.
Ultimately, a fresh batch of Naeher shootout heroics saw the USWNT become SheBelieves champions again. The two conceded goals could be chalked up to individual errors.
Then again, the same could be said for the USWNT’s showing last summer: a team largely in control of games, but not showing enough bite to convert ball retention into goals — all while being prone to gaffes.
Is this team really better equipped to contend at these Olympics than it was last year?
If we’re looking for evidence of progress since August, we’ll need to start by looking at individual players. Alex Morgan struggled in the World Cup, but her gritty line-leading work was vital to the proactive success against Colombia. Mallory Swanson and Catarina Macario returned from injuries that limited their 2023 involvement and largely kept pace with the game around them.
The aftermath of the World Cup was always bound to see some program mainstays give way to the next generation. Julie Ertz and Megan Rapinoe both had send-off games, while captain Becky Sauerbrunn has faded from involvement. Horan has stepped up as a team leader, while Naomi Girma is already similarly impactful despite being just 23.
Young players benefited from Kilgore’s call-ups. Jenna Nighswonger has been a breath of fresh air at left back, providing sorely needed width in the build-up in a role that was previously instructed to tuck into midfield under Andonovski. Jaedyn Shaw is the latest attacking revelation, showing precocious decision-making in transition while being a capable first-time finisher. Sam Coffey seems poised to be the team’s defensive midfielder of the future, and Korbin Albert’s all-around game makes her seem like a possible successor to Horan in midfield (pending the off-field issues that could impact her locker room standing).
Having promising young players step up is essential to overcoming a bad four-year spell. But how many players like Nighswonger, Shaw and Coffey will need to reassert their readiness once Hayes comes in? It’s remained an open question just how closely Hayes is watching and assessing her upcoming pool of players. If that answer is less than “with a keen eye,” they’ll need to ace their second first impression to stay ahead of more veteran alternatives.
Ultimately, no matter who makes the 18-player Olympic roster, we don’t know how they’ll look to play in Paris. The questions that hung over the program still don’t have definitive answers.
In appointing a coach who couldn’t start her job for over half a year, the USSF gambled that her quality is so much more irresistible than any alternatives that it was worth spending half a year in purgatory.
The summer’s trio of friendlies come against South Korea and Mexico, both of which won’t partake in the Olympics, but will no doubt want to claim a win over one of the world’s most celebrated teams of any sport. They’ll provide tests at a time when Hayes will still be studying for answers.
Tuesday also saw the final member of the USWNT’s Olympic group qualify. Zambia joined the U.S., Germany and Australia in Group B. Australia was a semifinalist last summer. Germany has its point to prove after failing to advance from its group, while Zambia is riding high on the back of its first World Cup appearance. It won’t be a given that the U.S. will advance to the knockouts, to say nothing of its medal-winning ambitions.
It will be easy to spin a poor showing in Paris as a short-term sacrifice with a focus on the 2027 World Cup, which could potentially be played on home soil. That said, this isn’t a program that has ever treated any major tournament as a developmental tool. When the United States competes in a women’s soccer tournament, it’s there to win. That’s the benchmark that has been established for generations of players and one that the fans hold to account.
This summer, the players’ every performance will be scrutinized, and their future selections will hang in the balance more than Hayes’ job will (or should). If the program’s decision to spend so many months under interim leadership backfires, the blame will fall on them — and unfairly so.
(Photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images for USSF)
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Monaco’s head coach Adi Hutter (left) comforts Balogun as he leaves the pitch in Rennes (Jean-Francois Monier/AFP via Getty Images)
Fiorentina’s Luca Ranieri attempts to stop Pulisic (Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Tillman impressed against Sparta (Photo Prestige/Soccrates/Getty Images)
Westerlo’s Bryan Reynolds (Isosport/MB Media/Getty Images)
Pulisic has been a mainstay and captain of the USMNT (Katie Stratman / Imagn Images)
Steffen has not played for the U.S. since 2022 (Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images)
(Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
(David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
(Bill Barrett/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
(Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
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CEO of U.S. Soccer JT Batson, technical director Matt Crocker, Pochettino and president Cindy Parlow (Luke Hales/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Pochettino is presented to the media at Hudson Yards (Luke Hales/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
The video board announces Pochettino’s appointment at the friendly against New Zealand in Cincinnati (John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)
Matt Crocker was already close to Mauricio Pochettino (Candice Ward/Getty Images)
U.S. Soccer officials met with Klopp multiple times (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Gregg Berhalter was paid significantly less than Pochettino will get (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Emma Hayes was an advocate for Pochettino (Patricia De Brad Smith/USSF via Getty Images)
(Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
(Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
(Aric Becker/AFP via Getty Images)
Morgan in her final game (Meg Linehan/The Athletic)
(Meg Linehan/The Athletic)
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp turned down an approach from the USMNT (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Gregg Berhalter was dismissed on Wednesday (Eduardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)
The USMNT, who will host the 2026 World Cup, exited the Copa America at the group stage (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Berhalter has been replaced after a dismal Copa America for the USMNT (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Crocker started work with U.S. Soccer in April 2023 (Brad Smith/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Weah’s red card against Panama (Eduardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)
The Copa America was the end of the road for Berhalter (Shaun Clark/Getty Images)
Jaime Lozano and Luis Romo leave the field after Mexico’s elimination (Omar Vega/Getty Images)
Argentina beat Canada twice at Copa America (Steve Dinberg/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
David scored against Peru — but goals were scarce for Canada (Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Marsch did an impressive job having only just taken over (Perry McIntyre/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
Horan is a veteran presence in a young USWNT Olympic roster (Getty Images)
Horan and Lavelle have been teammates on the USWNT since 2017 (Getty Images)
Girma has also worn the armband before (Getty Images)
Berhalter was appointed U.S. coach in December 2018 (Brace Hemmelgarn/Getty Images)
Weston McKennie playing against Jamaica in March (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
Robinson and Ream playing for Fulham in the Premier League last season (Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images)
As reigning World Cup champion, Argentina is looking to defend its Copa America title (Carl De Souza, AFP via Getty Images)
Messi earned the title of best player during the 2021 Copa America (Gustavo Pagano/Getty Images)
The U.S. has made it to two Copa America semifinals in previous tournaments (Jeremy Reper/Getty Images)
Ecuador has the fans, youth and energy to make a potential run (Michael Miller/Getty Images)
Christian Pulisic shows his emotions after the U.S. team’s exit (Maddie Meyer/FIFA via Getty Images)
(Left to right) Aaronson, McKennie and Adams at Elland Road in March 2023 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Leeds were relegated after a 4-1 defeat by Spurs in the final day of the season (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
McKennie faces AC Milan at Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, California in July 2023 (Michael Janosz/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
McKennie will resolve his future after Copa America (Puma)
(Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images)
(Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
(Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
Ryan O’Hanlon, ESPN.com writerJun 20, 2024, 07:00 AM ET
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Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondentJun 20, 2024, 08:00 AM ET
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Tim Ream has become a crucial veteran presence in the USMNT’s backline. (Photo by Brad Smith, Getty Images)
A strong showing in Copa América could help Reyna overshadow the drama of the 2022 World Cup. (Photo by Shaun Clark, Getty Images)
Mbappe and Deschamps will be hopeful (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
We all want it for Kroos, don’t we? (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Will he be smiling in July? (Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)
With 175 appearances, Modric is Croatia’s most-capped player (MB Media/Getty Images)
Where/how will it all end? (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)
Press during her return to training on Tuesday. (Photo: Angel City)
Press strikes the ball during training on Tuesday. (Photo: Angel City)
Weah was a rare bright spot for the U.S. against Colombia. (Photo by Greg Fiume/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Pulisic left the game at halftime due to managing his minutes. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Weah was a rare bright spot for the U.S. against Colombia. (Greg Fiume/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Kai Havertz (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
(Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
(Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
(Adam Hunger/Getty Images)
Dusan Tadic is still a key player — even at 35 (Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)
(Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)
Koeman relies on Van Dijk’s trademark diagonals (ANP via Getty Images)
(Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
(Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Ian Darke, ESPN.com writerMay 21, 2024, 01:00 PM ET
Pulisic has played well at right wing for AC Milan this season (Getty Images)
Zendejas has played well for Club America but misses out on the USMNT roster (Alfredo Moya/Jam Media/Getty Images)
Emma Hayes’ side won 6-0 at Old Trafford on the final day of the season (Alex Livesey – The FA via Getty Images)
The moment Chelsea were confirmed as WSL champions (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
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The VAR decision is shown to supporters at Stamford Bridge (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
The VAR hub at Stockley Park in the summer of 2019 (Chris Radburn/PA Images via Getty Images)
Dean shows Soucek the red card in February 2021 after an on-field VAR check (Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
Webb, the chief refereeing officer for PGMOL, attends the women’s League Cup final in March (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Reinfeldt, president of the Swedish Football Federation (Michael Campanella/Getty Images)
Reiten celebrates, believing she has scored for Chelsea against Spurs (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Aitana Bonmati celebrates winning the 2023 World Cup with Spain (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Infantino announces the venues for the 2026 men’s World Cup (Brennan Asplen – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Sane fires in Bayern’s equaliser (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
(TNT Sport)
Kane slams home his penalty (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Courtois was a welcome presence on the Real bench (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Fullkrug hammers home the opening goal (Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)
Sancho’s dribbling came to the fore in the first period (Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images)
Dembele after his miss (Oliver Hardt – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Adeyemi was effective in defence as well as attack (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Lunin was Madrid’s hero against City (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Lunin helped Ukraine qualify for this summer’s Euros (Mateusz Slodkowski/Getty Images)
Dest has been a key performer in PSV’s outstanding campaign (ANP via Getty Images)
Dest competes with Mexico’s Gerardo Arteaga during the CONCACAF Nations League final in March (Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
Wright scores from the spot (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
Coventry’s nervous support wait for Wright to find the back of the net (Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images)
Sainz and Sargent celebrate Norwich’s equaliser (MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Klopp consoles Diaz (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Klopp and Van Dijk (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
Tim Weah has been used as a right wingback with Juventus (Click Thompson/Getty Images)
Girma is one of the few defenders from the USWNT’s World Cup roster who is still receiving regular starts. (Photo by Brad Smith, Getty Images for USSF)
Nighswonger earned her first USWNT cap in December 2023 (Photo by Andrea Vilchez, Getty Images for USSF)
Lavelle was left off the SheBelieves roster due to injury. (Photo by Omar Vega, Getty Images)
Morgan has adapted to a new role with the young USWNT. (Photo by Carmen Mandato, Getty Images for USSF)
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