During a friendly against Italy on Tuesday, Christian Pulisic recorded a pretty special achievement, although it’s also something of a non-event: At the age of 20 years and 63 days, he became the youngest captain in the history of the USMNT. Pulisic eclipsed the previous mark set by Landon Donovan, who led out the side at the age of 22 years and 220 days.
Ethan Horvath hadn’t played for the U.S. in about a year. On Tuesday, he made a statement that he deserves more playing time with the USMNT.
Lost in the goalkeeping shuffle with guys like Brad Guzan, Zack Steffen, Bill Hamid, William Yarbrough, Horvath put himself right back into contention to be a starter for the U.S. with seven saves against Italy on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old was the biggest reason the U.S. was in the match throughout before succumbing to a well-worked goal in the 94th minute to lose 1-0 to the four-time world champions.
France’s international break was a little disappointing from a competitive standpoint. The World Cup champions lost to the Netherlands and missed out on a chance to be in the UEFA Nations league finals next summer.
But it wasn’t totally a lost cause because of these boots Antoine Griezmann laced up to play against Uruguay in a friendly on Tuesday.
Germany’s inexplicably poor calendar year came to a close today with another bad result — Die Mannschaft drew with the Netherlands 2-2 in Gelsenkirchen after holding a two-goal lead through the 84th minute.
What’s more, although Germany already knew it’d be playing in UEFA Nations League B after suffering relegation this time around, the final match of the campaign represented an opportunity to deprive the Dutch of a spot in the Nations League Finals, however, Virgil van Dijk’s 91st-minute equalizer sends the Oranje to Portugal next summer.
Iceland and 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar played to a 2-2 friendly draw on Monday in Belgium, and the match was highlighted by an exchange of exquisite free kicks between the two nations.
In the third minute, Qatar captain Hassan Al-Haydos (currently number four all-time in goals for his country), hammered a free kick from an acute angle across the face of goal and just inside the far post — a despairing, sprawling Rúnar Rúnarsson could do nothing to keep it out.