It’s been just over eight years since Giovani dos Santos scored one of the greatest goals in Gold Cup history, putting the finishing touches on a 4-2 Mexico victory over the USMNT during the 2011 final. Fast forward to the present day and it’s his younger brother, Jonathan, who’s cemented El Tri’s continental dominance.
In a month that’s seen the national discourse largely dictated by USWNT attacker Megan Rapinoe, it’s only fitting that the 34-year-old has finished her 2019 Women’s World Cup odyssey with the final’s game-winning goal, as well as the tournament’s two most prestigious individual awards: The Golden Boot (given to the leading scorer) and Golden Ball (given to the best player).
It was Alex Morgan who drew the foul in the area in the 60th minute, but Rapinoe stepped up to convert her third penalty of the tournament.
The USWNT made history today by becoming repeat champions of the Women's World Cup following a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands. For all the talk of a closing divide between the Americans and their European counterparts, this one wasn’t even close. It took an hour for the U.S. to find its opener, but the final score could’ve easily been five or six to zero.
Brazil secured passage to the 2019 Copa América Final in Rio de Janeiro with a 2-0 victory over Argentina on Tuesday, marking another low point in the calamitous international career of Lionel Messi.
To be fair to Messi and his compatriots, Brazil was the massive favorite in this one, and the squad features a defense that’s now gone 450 minutes without conceding a goal. In attack, the likes of Roberto Firmino, Gabriel Jesus and the ageless Dani Alves put on a show, mastering a La Albiceleste side that played its best game of the tournament.
In between showing that replay of Chile not scoring on a free kick and talking about Hope Solo, we forgot to give Alyssa Naeher her proper due. She stayed calm and alert despite Becky Sauerbrunn's error against Spain, recorded four saves and withstood France’s second-half flurry last Friday, but still we didn’t take any time to address the U.S. goalkeeper. Now nobody's gonna talk about anything besides Alyssa Naeher.
Just hours before NBA free agency opened on Sunday, June 30, Antoine Griezmann dropped his new highlight tape, but not in the sport we’d expect. The French star was seen balling with the Miami Heat, living his best life in the offseason.
At the same time, Atletico Madrid and just about everyone else has announced the Frenchman’s exit from the Spanish club. Griezmann has had fans glued to their phones waiting for news to break about the star’s next team.
It was to no one's surprise that the Seattle Sounders were short-handed during this international break. What has made it worse is that injuries have started to pile up as well. All of this played into Saturday's match against the Vancouver Whitecaps, where only five of their usual starting XI featured. This meant that the Sounders had to rely heavily on their youth.
Up stepped 16-year-old Danny Leyva.
The USMNT advanced to the semifinals of the 2019 Gold Cup with a 1-0 victory over Curaçao, and it really was that close. A wonderful combination between Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie in the 25th minute proved to be the match-winner, and the U.S. had to rely on five saves from Zack Steffen to weather the storm from the tiny Dutch Caribbean island.
The opening 25 minutes of play had very little to due with what transpired over the final 65 — that opening period was really the only time the U.S. seemed to be in control.
In a rematch of the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final, Spain got revenge on Germany to capture its fifth title, moving the nation level with Italy as the most successful in the history of the Euro U-21 competition.
Spain last achieved U-21 glory when winning back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2013. That extremely skilled cohort included the likes of Juan Mata, David de Gea, Cesar Azpilicueta, Javi Martinez, Isco, Koke and Dani Carvajal, and the 2019 group is sure to achieve just as much international success, if not more than that highly skilled generation.