The preliminary draw for Concacaf 2022 World Cup Qualifying first round was revealed along with the schedules for teams in the Final Round on Wednesday. The usual Hex format has been scrapped with the new Octagonal.
Eight nations will compete in the final Octagonal with five (USMNT, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras and Jamaica) automatically qualified. The three nations joining these five will come from this pot of nations.
Tyler Adams was given 27 minutes to rescue RB Leipzig. Brought on by Julian Nagelsmann in the 63rd minute, his side already trailing by three goals, the New Yorker was hoping to make an immediate impact.
His initial contribution, however, was to play horsey-ride with PSG megastar Neymar.
Missing a Borussia Dortmund match in 2020-21 is going to be a form of sacrilege. We already knew, heading into last season, that Jadon Sancho was a pièce de résistance sort of footballer capable of uplifting your weekend. By January, Erling Haaland had proclaimed himself as Paul Bunyan’s only begotten son, increasing the joy of having BVB on your television set.
Tyler Adams has not had the best of seasons with RB Leipzig. In and out of the lineup with injuries, fitness concerns and just not being picked, the 21-year-old American had appeared in just one Champions League match prior to Thursday. Looking healthy and eager, he made it count.
Adams scored an 88th-minute winner — his first career Champions League goal — to lift RB Leipzig to a dramatic 2-1 win over Atlético Madrid on Thursday. The strike sent the German side to the semifinals of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time.
Borussia Dortmund’s band of youngsters raked in the goals during a 6-0 friendly victory against Austrian club Altach on Wednesday. The friendly was Dortmund’s first match of the new campaign and American teenager Gio Reyna claimed the first goal of many to come.
Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic, widely considered the United States' top soccer export, is expected to miss six weeks with a right hamstring injury that could extend until the start of the next Premier League season.
The Hershey, Penn., native, who will turn 22 next month, came away with his injury during Chelsea's 2-1 FA Cup final loss to Arsenal. Pulisic scored his team's lone goal in the first half.
A slightly out-of-touch fan of the USMNT recently asked me who plays for the team these days. After all, U.S. soccer fans that only watch the team during the World Cup haven’t seen them play in six years. Besides knowing about Christian Pulisic, casual fans might be under the impression that Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Jermaine Jones and DaMarcus Beasley are all still on the squad. I pray that no one thinks Landon Donovan is still playing.
American forward Andrija Novakovich and Serie B side Frosinone have it all to play for on Friday.
While Frosinone has spent much of the season comfortably within the playoff positions, it now finds itself in need of a positive result on the final match day to secure a playoff spot, unless results elsewhere go in its favor. Alessandro Nesta's side sat as high as second place at one point, but since the resumption of play post-lockdown, results have seen Frosinone drop down to eighth.
After 115 appearances for Newcastle United, it looks likely that DeAndre Yedlin's time on Tyneside has come to an end.
Yedlin, capped 62 times by the USMNT, arrived at Newcastle in 2016 after completing a season-long loan spell from Tottenham at the Magpies' archrival Sunderland. Yedlin excelled under noted defensive specialist Rafa Benitez, helping the Toon achieve promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt after the club was relegated in 2015-16.
Nike has released the third part of its "You Can’t Stop Us" campaign and it’s pretty amazing. The campaign itself is geared towards showing the resilience of people around the world. No matter the odds stacked against you, you must always rise above.
The first film in the series was narrated by LeBron James and called "Never Too Far Down." In it, James talked about coming back from defeat. Coming back and fighting with every ounce of strength marks an athlete, and people around the world can learn from that.