C.F. Monterrey are cruising at the top of the Liga MX table with the playoffs looming, and they have the league’s stingiest defense to thank for that. Los Rayados have conceded only nine goals in 14 matches, and 18-year-old defensive midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez has played a large role in accomplishing that mean feat.
Bobby Wood spent an anonymous 56 minutes on the pitch last weekend in Hamburg’s 2-1 defeat to Hertha Berlin, consigning the club to 16th in the 18-team Bundesliga and opening Wood to fierce criticism from manager Markus Gisdol. Wood has started nine league matches for Hamburg this term, but he’s only managed a single goal. That was back in August.
Monday night’s playoff encounter between the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC saw the continuation of a narrative that’ll likely follow TFC for years to come: wherever the club goes, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore are not going to be given a warm reception. It began on October 22 with Toronto’s visit to Atlanta, TFC’s first road match since that unspeakable encounter between the United States and Trinidad & Tobago. It continued on Monday night at Red Bull Arena.
Now that all the hysteria surrounding the USMNT's final World Cup qualifiers has dissipated somewhat, it's time to look toward the future. I am referring, of course, to Christian Pulisic's tattoo game. Pulisic was photographed on the bench during the second half of the USMNT's 4-0 demolishing of Panama with a rather large eagle/American flag tattoo. It's an extremely patriotic piece of ink, the type of thing I've only regularly seen at country music festivals.
The man who will start the rebuilding process for U.S. Soccer is Dave Sarachan, who was named interim USMNT coach for the team’s final match of 2017, a November friendly against Portugal. That the press release from U.S. Soccer mentioned Sarachan exactly once in six paragraphs tells you all you need to know about the new coach.
You could forgive Bill Hamid for electing to stay with DC United for the rest of his playing career — he’s got a pretty good thing going in the nation’s capital. Having risen through the ranks of the club’s youth system, Hamid established himself as the team’s No. 1 over the course of eight stellar seasons, including a 2014 campaign that saw him named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.
And so the MLS vs Liga MX debate sparks up again. Just about everything concerning soccer in the USA is being questioned since the USMNT got eliminated from the 2018 World Cup. The critiques involve everything from the USMNT team to more administrative issues like who should manage the national side after last week’s catastrophe and why. As would be expected, also the MLS is now being targeted for criticism.
So the USMNT won’t be in the World Cup next year. Your summer plans probably got completely thrown out of whack without the Red, White & Blue to watch in Russia. But fear not. We here at The18 have a list of 10 things to do next summer that don’t involve the U.S. at the World Cup.
These 10 things should keep you busy for most of the summer, or at least keep you distracted enough from the fact the U.S. won’t be in the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
We're all bummed the USMNT didn’t make it to the World Cup. Many Americans are still recovering from the emotional blow suffered last week. There are those who just want to forget about everything soccer until 2022. Others are looking for new national teams to root for next summer.
Here’s a thought. American fans should support Mexico. Am I serious? Yes! Here’s why: