The USSF has launched its bio-banding initiative. The search for the American Messi is buoyed by widespread support for an increased scouting budget. And despite the U.S. team's absence this summer, World Cup fever will clear sporting goods stores of adidas Predators as surely as Brood X cicadas will reemerge in 2021.
A Manuel Negrete goal vs. Bulgaria in 1986 was recently named the best goal in World Cup history.
However, Mexico has scored plenty of memorable goals in football's most important competition over the years.
Last week, U.S. Soccer announced its first youth initiative since the USMNT’s World Cup failure. Bio-banding was presented as a new way to encourage technical development in youth players big and small. It was an idea put forth by the U.S. Soccer High Performance Department. But it turns out, U.S. Soccer should have just asked Facebook, because scores of our readers responded and apparently every single one of them knows exactly how to fix U.S. soccer.
We just couldn’t help ourselves. With just over 60 days to go until the release of the most anticipated book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we had to celebrate Bruce Arena’s magnum opus, What’s Wrong with US?: A Coach’s Blunt Take on the State of American Soccer After a Lifetime on the Touchline (so blunt), by revisiting the former USMNT manager’s favorite dilemma — the MLS cohort versus their "hotshot" European counterparts.
France wearing green? Argentina in bright yellow? How about Mexico wearing blue and white stripes? In World Cup kit history, there have been five instances of club kits being worn by national teams, often due to bizarre circumstances.
In a certain light, Shaq Moore could be looked upon as a blueprint for young Americans looking to develop careers in professional soccer. The 21-year-old fullback spent time in the IMG Academy and the FC Dallas Academy before moving to Spain, where he rose through the reserve divisions and currently plays for Levante in the Primera Division. He has even appeared against Barcelona.
However, to hear him tell it, there is no blueprint.
We are going to go on record here and say that democracy is, generally, a good thing. Voting for leaders, holding them accountable with a free press and repeating the process is probably the most effective way to run a government. But when it comes to deciding the greatest World Cup goal of all time, voting might not be the best method.
Hirving Lozano's nickname Chucky invokes images of the creepy redheaded doll of horror film fame and after Saturday he’ll be haunting the nightmares of AZ Alkmaar keeper Marco Bizot.
Lozano, a Mexico international, used his speed and hustle to score the second goal in the midst of PSV Eindhoven scoring three goals in five minutes for a 3-2 win on Saturday in the Eredivisie.
Lozano’s goal was his 15th of his debut season with PSV, pulling him to within one of league-leader Fran Sol. It came in the 76th minute.
You can take the USMNT out of the World Cup, but you can’t take the World Cup out of the USMNT ... or something. We might not be creating any new memories in Russia, but at least we’ve got some historical moments that're always worth revisiting. I’m talking about the 2002 World Cup team.
The team’s run to the quarterfinals of that competition was no fluke — they didn’t Portugal Euro 2016 themselves into the history books.