National Teams

If the USWNT’s two October friendlies were supposed to be feel-good send-offs for Carli Lloyd, no one told Yoon Young-Guel and South Korea. 

Yoon made eight saves to earn a 0-0 draw against the U.S., ending the USWNT’s 22-game home winning streak on Thursday at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas. The last time the U.S. failed to win on home soil was Oct. 6, 2019, a 1-1 draw to this same South Korea side, a match that ended the USWNT’s 17-game winning streak that included winning the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

Have you ever been involved in a big brainstorm where all the ideas were utter trash and you thought: “Well, at least this is just the idea stage, otherwise we’d be fucked.” That’s essentially what is happening over at FIFA lately as they brainstorm in public the most godawful ideas you’ve ever heard for a biennial World Cup. None of these ideas should even leave the whiteboard, and yet here we are discussing them openly, fearing they might actually come to fruition, including a newly proposed idea that is just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. 

England have been ordered to play their next two home games in UEFA competition without supporters present after disturbances during their Euro 2020 final against Italy at Wembley in July, European soccer's governing body said in a statement on Monday.

The ban on fans attending the second game has been suspended for a probationary period of two years, while the English FA has been fined 100,000 euros ($116,000), UEFA added.

Qualifying for the World Cup from Concacaf is hard, the narrative goes. Away trips are brutal experiences and every point is hard earned, we’re told. And yet, a quick glance at social media over the last month or two since the USMNT began World Cup qualifying paints a different picture, one that suggests U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter is a stinking pile of flaming diapers for failing to win every single game in qualifying. It had us thinking about USMNT World Cup qualifying history, and how past teams have fared compared to this one. 

The USMNT got its World Cup qualifying campaign back on the right track, baby, yeah, by defeating Costa Rica 2-1 in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday night. Block every voice that tells you this isn’t something worth celebrating because after going down 1-0 to a strange goal early, the U.S. produced the sort of performance that makes this grind of qualifying more than worth your time.