The USMNT's World Cup qualification margin for error just got that much smaller, with the news that center back John Brooks would be out for the remainder of qualification. Brooks sustained a thigh injury during a friendly while playing for Wolfsburg in Germany.
We’ve come to understand that VAR is going to get weird. There are going to be suspensions of play that feel strange, there are going to be offenses that are bizarrely non-reviewable, there are going to be goals disallowed for offenses in the buildup that’ll feel mysteriously idiosyncratic. It all comes with the power of time travel.
But the one surreal use of VAR we never expected would be the one ending with the brandishing of a straight red card to the wholesome Kaka, which happened on Saturday. This wasn’t your classic sending off — it was weird as s**t.
The United Bid Committee, the organizers of the joint 2026 World Cup bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico, announced the 49 stadiums and 44 cities across the three countries that are currently being considered for the event. With 20-25 venues anticipated in the final decision, there’s certainly a lot for the committee to consider before submitting their final bid by March 16, 2018.
In a World Cup year, it’s only natural that national team regulars are put under the microscope every week. With only 23 spots available on the final World Cup roster, each and every week during the club season is a personal battle and test of merit. In that sense, no USMNT player has been failing as spectacularly as Los Angeles Galaxy forward Gyasi Zardes.
Eighteen-year-old American midfielder Weston McKennie continued his meteoric rise through the ranks at Schalke 04 by making his first competitive start in the 2017-18 DFB-Pokal on Monday. The USMNT U-20 prospect joined the German club in August of 2016, and he made a substitute appearance last May in the Bundesliga as a reward for his performances with the academy team.
McKennie has since gone on to impress over the course of the preseason, and injuries to first team regulars resulted in his first-ever competitive start for the club against BFC Dynamo in the DFB-Pokal.
Carlos Vela will soon move to Los Angeles to play for LAFC, where he will play derbies against Mexico teammates Giovani and Jonathan dos Santos, who play for the LA Galaxy. Vela appears to have a healthy competitive attitude regarding the whole thing, which is to say he will stop at nothing to destroy his friends in the name of three points.
Carlos Vela and the Dos Santos Bros = Mexico teammates, LA foes.
FC Dallas' social media team has apparently forgotten the number one rule of Twitter: never tweet.
If they had followed this rule, the world would not have been exposed to this monstrosity:
Photo: @JeffVeillette | Twitter
It’s a fun little quiz that takes less than a minute. Find out if you would be allowed to immigrate to the United States under the Republican-proposed, president-backed, merit-based point system created to slash legal immigration.
Carlos Vela, he of 28 years of age and over a half-century of caps for Mexico, has revealed his ambition to jettison from La Liga’s Real Sociedad in favor of 2018’s Los Angeles Football Club, i.e. a branding person’s wet dream.
Carlos Vela is rumored to become LAFC's first designated player when the team begins MLS play next season, and the Mexican attacker took the first step toward that goal Tuesday. Real Sociedad announced Vela would be leaving the club for MLS in January.
@RealSociedad pic.twitter.com/tdKu24MiRk
— carlos vela (@11carlosV) August 8, 2017