FC Dallas played an ineligible player in a 0-0 draw with Orlando City on Saturday. MLS said on Friday the FC Dallas punishment would be a mere slap on the wrist, allowing the team to keep the point it earned. The league fined FC Dallas $75,000 in General Allocation Money and an additional $25,000 for the roster violation.
Because Christian Pulisic is too old and will never accomplish anything, we present to you the next American Messi: 9-year-old Alessandro Cupini (no relation to Cuphead). The Kansas City native will be moving to Italy next year to train with AS Roma according to a press release, an impressive step for a young American.
Much of the soccer world will be focused on the final World Cup qualifiers this weekend, with teams like the Netherlands, Argentina, Italy and the United States all in precarious positions with two matches to play. But hey, don’t forget about the NWSL playoffs, which begin this weekend.
A thrill in sports not typically associated with soccer, the MLS playoff race is a unique feature when compared to European leagues like the English Premier League or Spain’s La Liga. But it sure does make the final weeks of the season exciting.
This year in the Western Conference, eight teams are competing for five remaining playoff spots with less than three weeks left in the regular season. With two three-way ties among the top eight teams, the race for the six playoff berths will go down to the wire, so let’s take a look.
The United States has qualified for every World Cup since 1990. Only once in that span did the Americans need a result on the final day of qualifying. That came in 1989 when the U.S. traveled to Trinidad and Tobago needing nothing less than a win to procure a trip to the 1990 World Cup. The USMNT again travels to Trinidad and Tobago on Oct. 10 needing a result to extend its streak to eight straight World Cup appearances.
TMZ Sports reported Tuesday that USWNT and Orlando Pride striker Alex Morgan was part of a group asked to leave Disney World after an incident at a bar in the Epcot Center. According to TMZ, witnesses said there was a confrontation between members of Morgan's party and another party at a pub in the U.K. section of Epcot. Police were called, and several members of Morgan's group were reportedly asked to leave.
FC Dallas has been in a free fall in recent months. The club has won just once since a 2-1 win over Montreal on July 22 saw FC Dallas briefly move to the top of the Western Conference, a span of 12 matches that included more than bad losses. It could get even worse after an apparent illegal substitution late in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Orlando City.
October 6 and 10 could very well define our 2018 without having even celebrated the turning of the new year. Matches against Panama in Orlando and Trinidad & Tobago in Couva will decide the USMNT’s fate with regards to the world’s biggest sporting event. For those that like to measure the time between their birth and death with the probabilities of how many more World Cups they’ll be able to enjoy, failure to take anything less than four points could prove catastrophic.
Major League Soccer released a statement Tuesday on players’ right to free speech in light of the recent trend for NFL players to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem before games. MLS made it clear they would prefer players to stand during the Star-Spangled Banner, but would respect and support a player’s right to express his personal beliefs.
The statement in full:
For as long as I can remember, people with absolutely zero expertise in the world of player development and zero knowledge about the overwhelming complexities of our incredibly fragmented youth system have been banging on about simply unearthing the next Lionel Messi in the face of what Top Drawer Soccer's Will Parchman elegantly described as issues of money, space and time.