Analysis

On Saturday, during halftime of the USMNT’s 1-1 draw with Venezuela, the preliminary 40-man roster for the 2017 Gold Cup was revealed. Manager Bruce Arena now has about three weeks to narrow that list down to the final cut of 23 players. The United States will open the tournament on July 8 against Panama. 

This 40-player pool came with several surprises. MLS dominates the list with 32 of the selections being domestically-based. Here are a few of the more interesting decisions from Arena for the 2017 Gold Cup. 

In 2015, a battling Juventus side fought its way to a Champions League final. Overachieving in Max Allegri’s first season as manager, they were roundly beaten by Barcelona. Domestically, the club was enjoying a renaissance. Winning back-to-back-to-back titles, the 2015 final put them well ahead of their post-Calciopoli schedule (the 2006 Italian football scandal that saw Juventus relegated to Serie B).

With the 2016-17 Premier League season in the books, we now know what the league will look like next year. Relegated to the English Championship are Hull City, Middlesbrough and Sunderland. The three promoted sides include newcomers Brighton and Huddersfield and established EPL side Newcastle United.

Depending on who you choose to believe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has already handed in his transfer request and will be looking to leave Borussia Dortmund immediately following Sunday’s DFB-Pokal final against Eintracht Frankfurt or he hasn't.

With the 2016-17 Premier League season in the books, we wanted to take a deep dive into how each team performed based on its payroll.

The final table reflected the spending gap between the top six teams and the rest. In fact, the eight teams that spent over $100 million in wages this season all finished in the top 8 of the table.

Although that might seem entirely too predictable, there was significant performance variance among those teams. Also, ninth place Bournemouth had one of the lowest payrolls, suggesting that they found some good players at a discount.

There’s still another round of matches to play in Serie A. Sure, Juventus have won the title. Sure, they printed some pretty cringe-worthy ‘LE6END’ merchandise and plastered it everywhere. Sure, Napoli and Roma seem set in their Champions League spots. Sure, every position in the league is seemingly sorted, bar Crotone and Empoli bickering about who gets to be the third worst team. Sure, the league is pretty much done and dusted. But we still have one round of fixtures left.

Arsenal’s run of 19 straight Champions League appearances came to an end on a Premier League Super Sunday that was loaded with goals but very little drama. Early goals from both Manchester City and Arsenal put a little pressure on Liverpool, but Georginio Wijnaldum, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana scored three goals in a ten-minute span bridging halftime to put the Reds into the 2017-18 Champions League playoff round at the expense of the Gunners. 

As time continues to roll along, we're going to continuously see plans for the Canadian Premier League (CPL) come to fruition. As of last week, the CPL had officially approved its formative plans, and it's now only a matter of time until the league is a real thing. We can now all watch it develop with excitement.

When will the Canadian Premier League start?