Weston McKennie is no longer the only 20-year-old American playing for Schalke.
Haji Wright, a Los Angeles native and a few months older than McKennie, made his Schalke debut on Saturday, coming on as an 88th-minute substitute as Die Knappen routed 10-man Nurnberg 5-2.
Tuesday night’s friendly match between Argentina and Mexico was a fittingly strange closing to a strange year for both nations: Mauro Icardi scored his first international goal at the eighth time of asking, and Paulo Dybala also opened his account in his 18th appearance.
Following the United States' 1-0 loss to Italy on Tuesday, U.S. Soccer released its shortlist of men’s and women’s players in the running for the federation’s annual U.S. Soccer Player Of The Year award.
During a friendly against Italy on Tuesday, Christian Pulisic recorded a pretty special achievement, although it’s also something of a non-event: At the age of 20 years and 63 days, he became the youngest captain in the history of the USMNT. Pulisic eclipsed the previous mark set by Landon Donovan, who led out the side at the age of 22 years and 220 days.
Ethan Horvath hadn’t played for the U.S. in about a year. On Tuesday, he made a statement that he deserves more playing time with the USMNT.
Lost in the goalkeeping shuffle with guys like Brad Guzan, Zack Steffen, Bill Hamid, William Yarbrough, Horvath put himself right back into contention to be a starter for the U.S. with seven saves against Italy on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old was the biggest reason the U.S. was in the match throughout before succumbing to a well-worked goal in the 94th minute to lose 1-0 to the four-time world champions.
The U.S. will be at the U-20 Men’s World Cup. Alex Mendez and Uly Llanez made sure of that on Friday night.
The USMNT is currently playing in the Concacaf U-20 Championship in Bradenton, Florida. After crushing it in the first group stage — five wins with 39 goals for and two against — the U.S. needed just one more win in the second group stage to ensure one of four Concacaf spots at the 2019 U-20 World Cup.
They got that win in style, beating Costa Rica 4-0 thanks to a couple impressive goals from Mendez and Llanez.
Guillermo Ochoa was awarded the Silver Glove at the 2018 World Cup, but it seems never really has gotten his due as one of the world's best goalies. A serially underrated goalkeeper (he probably should’ve won the Gold Glove), Ochoa is still making incredible saves more than 13 years after this Mexico national team debut.
In the rom-com/drama “500 Days Of Summer,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character is convinced he’s found The One in Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel. They date for nearly a year before she breaks up with him, sending him into a spiral of depression. It’s not until 500 days after they started dating that JGL’s character really gets over Summer when he meets a new gal, Autumn.
The U.S. men’s national team sure could use a Spring.