Christian Pulisic. Weston McKennie. Tyler Adams. The big Europe-based names are there. Well, except for a couple forwards. So why didn’t Gregg Berhalter call up other young stars like Tim Weah and Josh Sargent to the USMNT roster for the March 2019 friendlies?
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending a second division match in the United States, you've seen some real grassroots support. The USL Championship (formerly just the USL) has been around for quite some time, and has expanded to an eye-popping 36 teams this year. Austin Bold FC is one of the newest clubs making the rounds in the USL Championship, and the new boys travelled to Las Vegas for the start of the season.
Trend meets trend: Another U.S. national team or youth prospect makes the jump to Major League Soccer as Sporting Kansas City signs a talented, young player off the radar of most clubs. That's what we got today when Sporting officially announced that Gedion Zelalem had signed from Arsenal. The 22-year-old joins Kansas City for the 2019 season, with club options for two additional years.
There’s always going to be an emphasis on how Designated Players perform in MLS, that comes with the territory of earning 20 times more than your teammates. And there’s always going to be an extra emphasis on Mexico’s internationals in the league, especially when they’re just 29 and stepping away from three years in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt.
USL League One begins its inaugural season on March 29 with 10 clubs vying for the championship in America’s third division. One of those clubs will be Forward Madison FC, based out of Madison, Wisconsin.
The club was founded in 2018, and the 2019 season will mark its debut as a professional team. The club will play its home matches at 5,000-seat Breese Stevens Field, and back in December, Forward Madison announced a one-year affiliation agreement with Minnesota United FC.
Last Sunday, an indoor soccer match between Rockford, Illinois-based San Jose FC and FC Wisconsin U-19 descended into madness in Brookfield, Wisconsin, when a skirmish ultimately resulted in a referee getting punched in the face.
The referee, 50-year-old Terry From, approached a boy who’d thrown a water bottle in his direction, identified as the 12-year-old son of San Jose FC’s coach, before being punched by a 17-year-old San Jose FC player, identified as the older brother of the 12-year-old.
Given the form of Jadon Sancho, Christian Pulisic had become something of a forgotten man at Borussia Dortmund while relegated to the role of impact sub over the last few months.
Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, adidas announced that any sponsored players on the Women’s World Cup-winning team would receive the same bonus pay given to their male counterparts.
Equal pay for equal play.#WWC #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/F9UD7zvp6s
Weston McKennie can kind of do it all. He’s lined up at just about every position for Schalke, from center back to forward, but he’s best deployed as a box-to-box midfielder given his mobility and awareness.
He’s also a really good header of the ball.
While most players use their leaping and heading abilities to score (Cristiano Ronaldo) or defend (Virgil van Dijk), McKennie takes another approach. He’s becoming adept at earning assists with his noggin.
On International Women’s Day, during Women’s History Month, the U.S. women’s national team is suing U.S. Soccer.
A lawsuit filed on Friday accuses the United States Soccer Federation of “institutionalized gender discrimination.” The suit seeks back pay, damages and other relief, which could total millions of dollars.