USMNT

If you haven’t heard of him before, this is 15-year-old Angeleno Efrain Alvarez. He was given a professional contract by the Los Angeles Galaxy back in March, becoming the seventh youngest signing in league history.

He was sent to LA Galaxy II in the USL to begin the season, and he’s tearing up the league at an astonishing rate. Today, he scored two absolute golazos against Portland Timbers 2.  

Jurgen Klinsmann, the man who invented football in 2006 and created Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger using nothing more than some bits of string and an abandoned Doritos bag, is targeting a top-four finish at the 2018 World Cup after finishing fifth in the Hex.

Bruce Arena and Jurgen Klinsmann are two very different people both hung with the blame for failing to get the U.S. to the 2018 World Cup (because it’s easier to blame coaches than the players fans worship). 

For all of Toronto FC’s financial ambition, signing players like Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Gregory van der Wiel, Ager Aketxe and Victor Vázquez in recent years, the club hasn’t focused on one vital position: center back. And thus, with recent injuries to regular defenders, an intriguing new Michael Bradley center back experiment has unfolded at BMO Field in recent weeks. And it’s something the next USMNT coach might want to consider. 

Tim Howard has been playing professional soccer for more than two decades. During that time he’s teamed up with some of the world’s best — players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs with Manchester United, Mikel Arteta and Joseph Yobo at Everton and Christian Pulisic and Chris Wondolowski Clint Dempsey on the USMNT. 

Longtime Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger announced he will step down as manager at the end of the season on Friday. In the short term, it means an end to the Wenger In/Out meme. In the long term it means figuring out what’s next for Arsenal and Arsene. We have one suggestion for Wenger's next job: USMNT coach. 

The USSF has launched its bio-banding initiative. The search for the American Messi is buoyed by widespread support for an increased scouting budget. And despite the U.S. team's absence this summer, World Cup fever will clear sporting goods stores of adidas Predators as surely as Brood X cicadas will reemerge in 2021. 

In a certain light, Shaq Moore could be looked upon as a blueprint for young Americans looking to develop careers in professional soccer. The 21-year-old fullback spent time in the IMG Academy and the FC Dallas Academy before moving to Spain, where he rose through the reserve divisions and currently plays for Levante in the Primera Division. He has even appeared against Barcelona.

However, to hear him tell it, there is no blueprint.

Bruce Arena (with the help of Jurgen Klinsmann and some uninspired performances from the players) failed to qualify the U.S. for the 2018 World Cup. Now he wants to monetize that failure with a new autobiography. The Bruce Arena book is titled “What's Wrong with US?: A Coach’s Blunt Take on the State of American Soccer After a Lifetime on the Touchline,” a clear and obvious money grab revolving around a fiasco of his own creation.