Up-and-coming Players

The Serie A title rice between Derby della Madonnina rivals Internazionale and AC Milan reached a crescendo this weekend when Inter, trailing 2-0 early, scored four straight against Empoli to win 4-2 and establish a one-point lead over Milan ahead of the Rossoneri's difficult away trip to Hellas Verona on Sunday.

Like Inter, Milan played with fire early and went behind in the 38th minute to an excellently worked Verona goal.  

Heading into Tuesday's Champions League semifinal return leg at La Cerámica, both Villarreal and Liverpool knew it'd be a far cry from the Reds' 90 minutes of controlled dominance at Anfield.

"The match next week will be very different from tonight's," Villarreal boss Unai Emery said after the first leg. "I think they are going to suffer more next week in our home."

On Monday, Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp delivered a similar take by saying his side had "to be ready to suffer and sit back in moments, but not as a general approach."

Keaton Parks and Gabriel Pereira scored four minutes apart in the second half to lift New York City FC to a 3-0 victory over the visiting San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday afternoon.

Parks and Pereira became the fourth and fifth players to score multiple goals this season for NYCFC (4-3-1, 13 points), who remained perfect three matches into a five-match homestand.

After six weeks out with a knee injury that forced him to miss the USMNT's last window of World Cup qualifying, Brenden Aaronson returned to the pitch with RB Salzburg on Sunday and converted a penalty while his club secured a ninth straight Austrian Bundesliga title with four matches remaining.

Aaronson hadn't played since going the distance in Salzburg's Austrian Cup semifinal win over Wolfsberger on March 16, but he returned to the starting lineup against Austria Wien and lasted 64 minutes.

We're under two months away from the all-important Concacaf U-20 Championship in Honduras, which serves as qualifying for both the 2023 U-20 World Cup in Indonesia and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. 

It's going to be a wild tournament with 20 teams competing — the U.S. is in Group E alongside Canada, Cuba and Saint Kitts and Nevis — but only the semifinalists qualify for the World Cup while the Olympic spots are reserved for the two finalists.