Highlights

Daryl Dike scored twice to help the U.S. men's national team to a 6-1 victory against Martinique in Kansas City, Kan., on Thursday - a win that advanced the U.S. to the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The U.S. and Canada qualified from the four-team Group B with 2-0-0 records and six points, with one match left. They will play Sunday in Kansas City with the top spot at stake.

Haiti and Martinique, each with a pair of losses, also play Sunday, in Frisco, Texas.

Mexico defeated Guatemala 3-0 Wednesday night to get its Gold Cup campaign back on track after opening the tournament with a disappointing scoreless draw to Trinidad and Tobago. Rogelio Funes Mori, who switched his international eligibility from Argentina to Mexico in June, scored a brace for El Tri. Seeing the 30-year-old excel for Mexico has some people wondering, is Funes Mori Mexican?

18-year-old PSG phenom Xavi Simons is the world’s most well-known footballer with just a single league minute to their name. The Dutch prodigy was a standout performer in Barcelona’s youth setup, where his every progression through La Masia brought increased interest.

But after failing to agree to a new contract with Barça, Simons was whisked off to Paris in 2019, where the 16-year-old signed a three-year deal that reportedly paid him over $1 million annually. 

Scottish Premiership side Hibernian hosted Arsenal for a preseason friendly on Tuesday in a match that was very much a tale of two teams heading on opposite trajectories.

One club was preparing for European football after coming off its best league finish in 15 years — a season where it reached the semifinal of one domestic cup and the final of another.

The other was Arsenal.

The Gunners were reeling from a second consecutive eighth-place finish in the EPL and will be without European football this season for just the third time in the Premier League era. 

I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy to go from watching the Euro and Copa América finals to blanky staring at Costa Rica fight off Guadeloupe 3-1 in the Gold Cup. Concacaf’s skill level might not be that of UEFA and CONMEBOL, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t entertainment.

Welcome back then Gold Cup. 

On Saturday night, the tournament began with Trinidad and Tobago taking a point off Mexico in front of over 41,000 in Arlington, Texas. On Sunday afternoon, the action continued with Martinique taking an early lead on Canada before John Herdman’s side replied with four unanswered.

All this to say: you never know what the hell is going on in Concacaf.

Surrounded by a reported 200,000 raucous fans in the Wembley area (and far more than the stated 60,000 inside the ground), Italy played spoiler in the Euro 2020 final at a level unseen since the Spartans pushed back the Persians at the Hot Gates.

The consensus among many was that Gareth Southgate had been too cautious with his starting lineup against Italy on Sunday in the Euro 2020 final. The England manager made one change from the semifinal, bringing in Kieran Trippier and adopting a back-five while winger Bukayo Saka dropped to the bench.

Steve McManaman called it a mistake on ESPN during the pregame show. It took all of one minute and 57 seconds to see that McManaman had been mistaken.