USA

It has been almost a year since chaos broke out around the world. As everything shut down and everyone was instructed to remain inside their homes for months, the world was finally beginning to return to normalcy. However, it was only a matter of time until an increase of Covid-19 cases made its return. The sweet taste of a little bit of freedom is slowly being retracted as more and more restrictions are put back into place. As we enjoy the return of professional sports, especially football, we are headed into a direction of losing our weekly entertainment.

Racing Louisville FC grabbed two U.S. Women's World Cup champions in the National Women's Soccer League expansion draft Thursday, selecting midfielder Tobin Heath and forward Christen Press with their final two picks.

The Louisville squad is set to become the NWSL's 10th team when it kicks off play in 2021.

The rights to Heath were selected from the Portland Thorns, and the rights to Press were obtained from the Utah Royals. However, it is unclear when or if either of the stars might play for Racing Louisville.

A new era of the USMNT dawned on Thursday with Giovanni Reyna and Konrad de la Fuente playing in a front three that’ll soon be able to call upon Christian Pulisic and Josh Sargent for assistance. Watching the U.S. isn’t just fun again, it’s blissful.

The USMNT returned from a 285-day hiatus on Thursday. A global pandemic and the U.S. federal government’s bungled response meant the Americans hadn’t taken the pitch since a friendly on Feb. 1. Since then, young Americans abroad have staked their claims as vital figures at some of Europe’s biggest clubs, from Borussia Dortmund to Juventus to Barcelona. 

The USMNT played its first match since Feb. 1 on Thursday, a friendly against Wales in Swansea. It was the first time the team had taken the field since Covid-19 shut the world down, since the world watched as George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by the police, since people around the globe began protesting systemic racism in police departments and society as a whole. And it was the first time the U.S. players had the opportunity to make their own statement as a team, and they did so with USMNT jackets featuring social justice messages.

A hamstring injury will prevent star forward Christian Pulisic from participating in the U.S. men's national team's friendlies against Wales and Panama.

Coach Gregg Berhalter told reporters on a video call Wednesday that the 22-year-old Pulisic was leaving the team's European camp to return to Chelsea, his professional club in the Premier League.

The rise of Sergiño Dest has been meteoric. After all, it’s only been 459 days since he made his league debut with Ajax and 380 since he committed his international future to the USMNT. 

But this is a 20-year-old who forced his way into the starting 11 of a title-winning Ajax side before convincing Barcelona to part with $25 million. And early returns in Catalonia have been good — Dest was arguably Barça’s best player in El Clásico.