Darwin Quintero, Minnesota United’s first-ever Designated Player signing, repaid in full his $1.65 million salary by scoring the club’s maiden hat-trick in Major League Soccer. What’s more, it was the greatest hat-trick in the history of the league. I can say that because I was there — look! Here’s a picture of Michael Bradley suffering in the Fourth of July heat whilst “shielding” his backline (he was awful).
HAO is coming home. This past week, the North Carolina Courage announced that they had made the move for Heather O'Reilly, who has been in England with Arsenal for the past year and a half.
The World Cup has less than two weeks left, and I’m just about ready to curl up in a ball and cry in the corner for the next four years until Qatar 2022 rolls around. But alas, noone can stay away from the sport for that long. After the World Cup ends (sad, I know), the attention then becomes on the club scene again, particularly the International Champions Cup schedule.
European teams travel all over the globe for some preseason training camps and friendlies. The biggest set of friendlies, however, often happens in the United States.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has shown his support for Sweden throughout the World Cup, but after being left off the 23-man squad despite his status as the nation’s all-time top goalscorer, you can bet that the Blue-Yellow’s march to the Round of 16 has been somewhat bittersweet for the 36-year-old.
Collin Martin, a 23-year-old Minnesota United midfielder, announced via Twitter that he is gay on Friday morning.
The announcement makes Martin the only active openly gay male athlete in major U.S. professional sports. LA Galaxy winger Robbie Rogers had previously held that mantle, but he retired in November.
It’s official. Panama will be the 2018 World Cup last place team, finishing 32nd out of 32 teams in Russia. Los Canaleros were in the World Cup for the first time, but other than a goal against England, it was a tournament to forget.
In a tournament with surprising parity throughout, Panama was the lone outlier, piling up poor results and not exactly bringing pride to the Concacaf region.
The presidents of the United States and Portugal sat down for a bilateral meeting on Wednesday. Beforehand, Donald Trump and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa held a joint press briefing, with comments that ventured into the realm of soccer, the World Cup and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Trump Ronaldo comments were just about the most bizarre thing the U.S. president has said while in office, which is saying something.
Wayne Rooney is currently embarking on his journey to Major League Soccer — DC United to be exact. The Manchester United and England legend has been a rumored transfer target of the MLS club for a couple months now, but there was always a chance that the 32-year-old would elect to stay with Everton in the Premier League.
Tobin Heath is like a lot of Americans this summer — watching a World Cup without the U.S. Men’s National Team for the first time in her life.
In the midst of her sixth season with the NWSL’s Portland Thorns, Heath is keeping a close eye on the men’s World Cup in Russia. The USWNT winger said it’s terrible the U.S. failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but she hopes it can turn into a positive opportunity for U.S. Soccer.