USA

Bundesliga Club Becomes Clear Front-Runner In Race To Sign USMNT Striker Ricardo Pepi

After being linked with Inter Milan, Sampdoria, Ajax and Wolves, it looks like one club has distinguished itself as the clear front-runner for signing Ricardo Pepi this January.

As reported by the only guy that now reports this sort of thing, Fabrizio Romano, the 18-year-old USMNT phenom is on the verge of moving to the Bundesliga from FC Dallas with Wolfsburg currently leading the race.

Wolfsburg is 13th in the table because of an attack that's generated only 17 goals in 17 matches. Lukas Nmecha and Wout Weghorst both have six goals and no other player has more than two.

FIFA Gurus Decide USMNT Win Vs. Bosnia Means The U.S. Is Better Than Germany In Rankings

The FIFA rankings are nonsensical 75% of the time and only truly matter for seeding of group stages at the World Cup. Three out of every four years these rankings mean squat, but in 2022 they matter a whole lot. The top seven teams and host get the most favorable seeds during the World Cup draw. FIFA has released the December rankings and the USMNT sits at its highest ranking to end a calendar year since 2005.

The U.S. is ranked No. 11. One spot above Germany.

N.C. Courage Attempt Apology For Signing Homophobic Player; Fans Aren’t Buying It

If you would like to learn how to alienate a club’s fanbase, perhaps irrevocably, you would struggle to find a better case study than the NWSL’s N.C. Courage this week. On Sunday, the club announced the signing of a player, Jaelene Daniels, antithetical to the vast majority of the team’s and league’s fans. After two full days of silence, the club put out a shockingly meek “apology” late Wednesday night, only further upsetting the once devoted fanbase. 

Do You Know What Position Christian Pulisic Plays? No One Knows Anymore Including Thomas Tuchel

Christian Pulisic is in a bit of a form slump heading into the holidays with only one goal in his last 11 appearances. An inconsistent number of starts can be attributed to the poor form with only four of those 11 appearances being starts. Another issue comes in the form of a question. What position does Pulisic play?

The USWNT Will Raise Your GIF Game This Holiday Season With An Armada Of Fresh USWNT GIFS

Are you the kind of person who prefers to respond to emails and texts with GIFs instead of having to type something out? Do you also love the USWNT? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, then you or a loved one may be entitled to a plethora of new USWNT GIFs.

As a sendoff for 2021, the USWNT social team decided to do its version of Spotify Wrapped in GIF form. You might want to put a few of these in your back pocket for a rainy day.

The USWNT released 18 total GIFs for your viewing pleasure. The18 (see what I did there?) USWNT GIFs are as follows.

U.S. Soccer Gives Inaugural Social Impact Award To Black Women’s Player Collective Co-Founder

In October of 2020, after a devastating summer for a country unwilling to reverse centuries of systemic white supremacy, Imani Dorsey and dozens of other Black women playing in the NWSL creating the Black Women’s Player Collective, aimed at advancing opportunities for Black girls in sports and beyond. On Wednesday, the U.S. Soccer Federation honored Dorsey, one of the BWPC’s founding board members, with the inaugural Social Impact Award.

An American Education In The World's Game: European Stars Who Played College Soccer

In Europe there's a pretty established pathway to becoming a professional footballer: get signed to the academy of a professional club at an early age and hope that one day you're good enough to make the first team.

For an American with European dreams, the route is similar: either have a rich family that can send you abroad or hope that a European club somehow spots you.

El Paso Locomotive FC Won Copa Tejas As Best Team In Texas. Its Prize? A Chips & Dip Platter

El Paso Locomotive FC beat out eight teams across three leagues to be crowned the best professional soccer club in Texas, winning the inaugural Copa Tejas Shield. Admittedly, that wasn’t too hard given how bad the MLS and NWSL clubs in Texas were in 2021, but we’re not here to discuss merits; we’re here to discuss ... chips and dip? No, that can’t be right.

Complete Calendar For All The Biggest Soccer Events In 2022

Soccer fans have a different circadian rhythm than others. They're up early to see what's going on in Europe, they're in bed late to follow along with Liga MX, they reach an emotional peak on Wednesday afternoons and frequently block off entire month-long periods in the summer for international festivals of footie. It's a delicate balance, but the 2022 soccer tournaments calendar is a disruptive year with the Qatar World Cup falling between Nov. 21 and Dec. 18. 

Here's all the major action between January and December of 2022.  

Champions League Round Of 16 TV Schedule Features A Massive, Pleasant Surprise

Soccer fans across the U.S. have often complained about big TV networks buying up the rights to major competitions only to hide them behind the additional pay walls of streaming services. All four major networks in the country have, at some point, been guilty of this in the last few years. So let’s give credit where credit’s due as CBS announced the 2022 Champions League Round of 16 TV schedule on Monday, including matches on CBS on six of eight match days.

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