Alphonso Davies has yet to score in his burgeoning Major League Soccer career, but the 16-year-old Canadian phenom bagged his first and second goals for the national team in only his second international appearance.
After getting thrown out of the Confederations Cup third-place match against Portugal (which Portugal won), Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio has been handed a six-match ban by FIFA.
Osorio took issue with an incident between Pepe and Hector Moreno in front of the Portugal goal, in which Pepe appeared to push Moreno to knock him off balance while heading the ball. Moreno's header went wide, and Osorio appealed for a VAR replay. When he was denied, Osorio flipped out.
During the World Cup next summer, United States supporters across the nation will attend watch parties in droves, frequent bars adorned in red, white and blue and flood sporting goods stores to buy new jerseys.
There's no denying that World Cup Fever is a nationwide phenomenon every four years, but the players responsible for the frenzy do not necessarily come from all corners of the country.
In order to get a better idea of what areas of the U.S. develop the best soccer talent, we looked at where current and past members of the USMNT spent the majoirty of their childhood.
The Gold Cup doesn’t exactly excite quite like the Euros, Copa America or even the Confederations Cup. There are really only three, maybe four, quality teams and the chances of getting CONCACAF’d are higher than ever.
Even though odds are stacked in favor of Mexico or the United States winning in the end, there are reasons to watch the other 10 countries competing over the month of July.
Diego Maradona was in Russia for the Confederations Cup last week, and during his visit he continued his habit of being very complimentary toward communist politicians, most notably Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Here's what Maradona told Russia Today:
When it comes to the notoriously ill-advised FIFA World Ranking system, there’s generally a lot to laugh at. Nations are cruelly punished by virtue of not playing (the United States, unbeaten since November of 2016, drops 12 places to 35th) while others largely benefit by playing lesser sides in meaningful competition (Poland is up to sixth after waxing Romania in World Cup qualifying).