Analysis

Despite 119 international caps to his name, Goran Pandev has rarely experienced success with North Macedonia. 

The North Macedonian record-holder for both appearances and goals, Pandev made his international debut back in 2001 during a 3-3 draw against Turkey in World Cup Qualifying. It took more than three years after that day for the center forward to win his first competitive fixture with his country — a 3-0 victory over Armenia. 

The U.S. men's national team defeated Mexico in a highly contested match on Sunday to win the CONCACAF Nations League, marking the country’s first competitive victory over its rivals since September 10th, 2013.

The fruitless streak continued so long that I personally graduated middle school, high school and was just one year away from graduating college before the U.S. was victorious again. Christian Pulisic, the American captain who scored the go-ahead goal, was just 14 years old when the U.S. last claimed victory. 

If there's one takeaway from last night's CONCACAF Nations League final, it's that the USMNT vs. Mexico rivalry is alive and well.

The first competitive match between the North American rivals since the 2019 Gold Cup Final had everything: late equalizers, abundant yellow cards, penalties, missed penalties, VAR controversy, on-field scuffles and inexplicably long periods of injury.

It’s easy to forget given the pathetic showing that followed, but the U.S. men’s national team entered the 2006 World Cup as one of the top-ranked teams in the world. The USMNT reached a No. 4 FIFA ranking in April 2006, though that fell slightly to No. 5 by the time the World Cup rolled around in Germany. 

To this day, the No. 4 ranking remains the highest the USMNT has ever reached. After the 2006 World Cup, which included two defeats and a draw, the U.S. plummeted to No. 31 and has been stuck around No. 20 (plus or minus 10) in the decade-and-a-half since. 

Soccer coaches are faced with countless unenviable problems every day: How to go about training, how to set the team up for matches, how to meld personalities into a single unit. But one problem every coach would love to have is what Vlatko Andonovski is facing ahead of this summer’s Olympics: How to cut some of the best players in the world.