Every so often you see a story or a headline about how soccer is taking over the U.S. — it’s been America’s sport of the future for at least four decades. The latest stories revolve around a recent Gallup poll, which asked Americans what their favorite sport is to watch. Soccer popularity in America is ranked fourth, easily passing by hockey and inching closer to edging baseball out of the top three.
U.S. Soccer’s annual January Camp takes on a completely different look this World Cup year with 26 of the 30 players called into camp harboring five caps or less, including 15 uncapped players. Experience will be provided by Gyasi Zardes (37 caps), Juan Agudelo (27), Jordan Morris (24) and Paul Arriola (15).
As first reported by Univision and subsequently confirmed by ESPN FC and the Washington Post’s Steven Goff, 18-year-old Monterrey midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez, having represented the United States at the U-17, U-18 and U-20 levels, will request a one-time switch of allegiance from FI
In the end, it’s all shock and horror for Arsene Wenger and Arsenal FC. Their 4-2 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup on Sunday means it’s the first time since Wenger became Arsenal’s manager that they’ve failed to progress past the third round — a record of 21 straight seasons that’s now over. Forest are also the first team from a lower division to score four or more goals against Arsenal in the FA Cup since 1908.
Liverpool has finally sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona. Initial numbers suggest Coutinho will net the Reds in the neighborhood of $192.7 million, a decent chunk of change for Jurgen Klopp to spend on a replacement or six. So let’s go ahead and start the totally unfounded Christian Pulisic to Liverpool speculation.
The 2017 MLS Cup Final will be rightly remembered as the crowning achievement on a historic, record-setting season for Toronto FC, but for the second year running, Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei came agonizingly close to writing the script himself — almost literally single-handedly.
Christian Pulisic shared a video of him doing basketball. He does the basketball better than most footballers, we'd say.
Look, we all knew it was coming. He was getting on in years, had lost a step (or eight) of pace and really hasn’t been the same player he was 10 years ago for about 10 years. Nonetheless, Bobby Boswell’s international retirement announcement is the most heartbreaking retirement of 2018.
The man who scored the winner in a 1-0 victory for the MLS All-Stars against Chelsea in 2006 made the stunning proclamation on Twitter on Tuesday:
As we near the end of 2017, few American soccer fans will look back on the year with any sort of fondness after the USMNT failed to qualify for the World Cup. Same for Dutch, Italian and Chilean fans, plus anyone who as ever rooted for Sunderland. So instead of focusing on 2017, let’s turn our attention to how much 2018 will suck. Here are 18 horrible 2018 soccer predictions.
Two weeks after being named the 2017 U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year, 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund attacker Christian Pulisic added another first to his individual trophy cabinet: the accolade for December’s Bundesliga Goal of the Month.
It was the eighth Bundesliga goal of Pulisic’s career, but the first to be named Goal of the Month. The composed finish against Hoffenheim from December 16 gave Dortmund all three points in the 89th minute.