We have ourselves our first Copa America trial-run and it’s on the East Coast.
It was announced on Tuesday that the USMNT have sealed a friendly match against Colombia ahead of their debut in their highly-anticipated hosting of the Copa América this summer.
The door is open for Lionel Messi to play at this year's Paris Olympics, Argentina's under-23 manager Javier Mascherano said.
Argentina secured their place at the Games after beating Brazil 1-0 on Sunday in the final four of South America's qualifying tournament.
ARGENTINA U-23 DEFEATED BRAZIL 1-0 AND IS GOING TO THE 2024 SUMMER OLYMPICS pic.twitter.com/t8eIYg6ppj
The United States women’s national team will be hosting Brazil, Japan and Canada in the 2024 SheBelieves Cup in Atlanta and Columbus.
All four nations competed in last year’s SheBelieves Cup which saw the USWNT win all three games and lift the trophy.
The 2024 edition will have a different format. Rather than having all four teams play each other, the tournament will begin with semifinal games, followed by a championship and third-place game.
SheBelieves Cup 2024 teams
LONDON — Argentine Lionel Messi retained the FIFA men's player of the year trophy on Monday, beating Manchester City's treble-winning Norwegian striker Erling Haaland and France's Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappé to the award.
Spain's 2023 World Cup winner Aitana Bonmati was voted the best women's player of the year.
Messi, who also secured the men's award in 2022 after guiding Argentina to World Cup victory, clinched the Ligue 1 title with PSG alongside Mbappe following that success, before moving to Major League Soccer team Inter Miami.
LaLiga club Real Betis officially announced the transfer of United States men’s national team midfielder Johnny Cardoso on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old defensive midfielder became a regular starter for Brazilian club Internacional where he made 144 appearances. Cardoso mostly played as a defensive midfielder but still managed to tally seven goals and five assists with Internacional.
Real Betis paid $6.3 million for the American according to ESPN as Cardoso signed a five-year contract.
Johnny Cardoso Real Betis transfer
Inter Miami have signed striker Luis Suarez, the Major League Soccer club announced on Friday as the Uruguayan once again teams up with close friend and former Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi.
Suarez has signed a contract for the 2024 season and has also been reunited with former Barca players and treble-winning teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, with who they won four LaLiga titles in five years.
Brazil forward Neymar will not recover from knee surgery in time to play at next year's Copa America, national team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said on Tuesday.
Brazil's top scorer underwent surgery last month after suffering a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus in his left knee on international duty in October.
Lasmar, who carried out the surgery, said the 31-year-old is not expected to be fit until August and they do not intend to take short cuts in the recovery process for him to play at the June 20-July 14 tournament in the United States.
FIFA announced on Sunday that its revamped Club World Cup, to be held for the first time in 2025, will feature 32 teams and will be played from mid-June to mid-July.
Following are details of how the tournament will work:
- The United States will host the 2025 edition of the expanded event, which will be held every four years thereafter.
- The tournament will have eight groups of four with the top two teams from each group going through to the knockout stages -- the same format as the 2022 World Cup.
The anticipation for Copa América 2024 continues to grow especially with the recent reveal of the group stage. In the months leading up to the tournament The18 will be doing power rankings and list our picks for the best 2024 Copa América teams.
The United States men’s national team will face Uruguay, Panama and Bolivia in Group C of the 2024 Copa América. The USMNT Copa América group is looking great.
The draw for the tournament took place on Thursday. It took 50 minutes until a ball was drawn, but the groups for the 2024 Copa América are now official.
2024 Copa América groups
The CONMEBOL Copa América 2024 draw is set