High School

Lionel Messi did it again Saturday night with a spectacular goal vs. Nashville SC in the Leagues Cup final as Inter Miami won 10-9 on penalty kicks after drawing 1-1 after 90 minutes.

United States men’s national team fans could only watch on in horror as our beautiful defensive prince Walker Zimmerman was torn to shreds along with the rest of the Nashville defense in the 23rd minute.

Up until that point Nashville had nullified the Messi effect. The Argentine had touched the ball only a handful of times and had no impact on the game yet.

There are plenty of interesting teams to watch at The Soccer Tournament, but one of the most star-studded is certainly Team Dempsey (although USMNT legend Clint Dempsey only serves as the head coach in flip-flops).

On Thursday, they began play at the 7-on-7 tournament with a starting lineup that had Luis Robles in goal (three USMNT caps), Jermaine Jones in midfield (69 USMNT caps), Eddie Johnson out wide (63 USMNT caps) and Chris Wondolowski up top (35 USMNT caps). Jaime Lozano (34 Mexico caps) was on the bench.

LOS ANGELES — Angel City FC on Thursday selected 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson with the first pick of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) draft, making the Los Angeles native the first player in league history drafted directly out of high school.

"Alyssa Thompson, for us, is a phenom and generational player," said Angel City general manager Angela Hucles Mangano.

"She's a player who can make an immediate impact, but she's also young and can develop and look to be a player that we're building a future off of, too."

After another memorable performance in Qatar for Mr. World Cup (stonewalling Robert Lewandowski from the penalty spot), Guillermo Ochoa made his Serie A debut with Salernitana on Wednesday against defending champions AC Milan.

Salernitana hosted at Stadio Arechi, but the gap between the two sides was evident with Milan putting 11 shots on target to just one for the hosts.

The United States men’s national team triumphed against Iran with a nervy 1-0 victory on Tuesday to clinch a Round of 16 game against the Netherlands. The USA gave American fans several heart attacks along the way, but this is a massive accomplishment for the team.

The USA grinded out a tough one but ultimately came out on top. The magic moment came from none other than Christian Pulisic who put his body on the line to score the game-winner.

Maccabi Haifa's 30-year-old American goalkeeper Josh Cohen was the toast of Europe on Oct. 11 when making five saves en route to a clean sheet during his side's incredible upset of Juventus in the Champions League.

His mission Tuesday? Do it again, but this time against Lionel Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé and PSG at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

This time Cohen faced five shots in the first-half alone and could only watch in agony as four of them found the back of the net.

Cohen couldn't do anything about Messi's opener in the 19th minute.