Game Recaps

Panama-Nicaragua was the 2017 Gold Cup in 90 minutes.

After a first half full of crap offense, crap defense took over in the second half and sparked the match to life.

Poor play on both ends typified what has been an underwhelming and CONCACAF’y Gold Cup with many of regions best players watching from home.

Ultimately, Panama pulled out a 2-1 win in what was quite literally an opening act for the USA-Martinique match. 

The U.S. Open Cup didn’t disappoint on Tuesday, with Sporting KC and FC Dallas combining for three red cards and three extra-time goals in a wild game at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas. 

The home side prevailed 3-0 despite going down a man in the 15th minute. The full highlights are worth the watch:

Alphonso Davies has yet to score in his burgeoning Major League Soccer career, but the 16-year-old Canadian phenom bagged his first and second goals for the national team in only his second international appearance.

With 50 Europa League qualifying matches played this week, we were bound to get an interesting one eventually. FK Suduva and Shakhter Soligorsk delivered with a 2-1 thriller that featured a bicycle kick goal, a red card and an extra time winner.

First, the bike:

Major League Soccer is home to some miserable road teams, with four squads failing to win a single away fixture about halfway through the season.

Two of those sides met Saturday night in Denver. Marlon Hairston scored twice and Tim Howard came up with some big saves as the Rapids beat the Dynamo 3-1, leaving Houston 0-7-2 on the road. 

Houston, Minnesota and Colorado all have seven road losses without a win, though the former two have both drawn twice. New England is 0-6-3 away from home.

Mexico took care of Paraguay in their final warm-up before the CONFACAF Gold Cup, winning 2-1 behind goals from Rodolfo Pizarro and Elias Hernandez. 

Pizarro opened the scoring when he pounced on a rebound and put it in the back of the net.

Chivas making presence felt on the NT tonight. @Rpizarrot w/ the golazo. #ElTriEng pic.twitter.com/nXiyHq2MKf

Dom Dwyer is an American citizen. He celebrated his American citizenship by blasting the USMNT ahead of Ghana in the 19th minute of his first cap.

Everyone, meet @Ddwyer14. @Ddwyer14, meet everyone. A dream #USMNT debut for the 26-year-old! pic.twitter.com/41cLap5kGK

Minnesota United ventured to Yankee Stadium on Thursday and, as has been the case on their travels all season, got thumped. Christian Ramirez capitalized on an error from New York City FC goalkeeper Erik Johanen to give Minnesota an early lead, but goals from Alexander Callens, Jack Harrison and a lovely individual effort from David Villa put NYCFC ahead for good with just over an hour gone.

Mexico already trailed by three when Marco Fabian lashed at the ball with all his might, catching everyone by surprise.

Fabian sliced a wonder strike past Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the 89th minute, but few will remember this match for that goal.

Instead, what will be remembered is El Tri surrendering two goals in the first eight minutes en route to a crushing 4-1 defeat in the Confederations Cup semifinals Thursday in Russia.

Germany will play Chile in the final on Sunday while Mexico gets a Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal in the third-place game. 

A record-setting crowd of 32,287 packed into FC Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium to watch their club take on surging MLS side Chicago Fire in the Round of 16 of the U.S. Open Cup. Perhaps there’s no greater barometer for the growth of the sport in America than the fact that this wasn’t just a quirky Wednesday night excursion to the stadium to watch Bastian Schweinsteiger for FCC faithful, this was a seething cauldron of tensions and daring expectancies.