When Lynden Gooch left the sleepy beaches of Santa Cruz for Sunderland at just 17, his aspirations were lofty.
He was joining a mid-table Premier League club. His first-team squadmates played internationally for nations like Belgium, Sweden and Ghana. And his first-team manager held previous stints at Celtic, Aston Villa and Leicester City.
Unfortunately, as Gooch began to rise, his club began to sink.
That awkward feeling of meeting people on the first day of a new job or in a new classroom still exists in professional soccer. When Christian Pulisic made the move from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea last summer, the transition wasn’t the easiest.
The USMNT star experienced some speedbumps with his new club, but he's since made tremendous progress from his first day at Chelsea.
As the Bundesliga returns and other top leagues follow suit, we’re bound to have a number of exciting storylines develop. This might be coming from a biased, even desperate, place, but I think a number of young Americans will become part of the headlines that catch many by surprise.
Here are three American players abroad who already stand out at the youth levels of their clubs and are ready to take the next step once their leagues return to action.
The average, culturally unaware American sees Cinco de Mayo as Mexico’s version of July 4th and an excuse to eat tacos and burritos. The fact that this year’s Cinco de Mayo falls on “Taco Tuesday” isn’t helping either. To those unaware, the date actually celebrates the Mexican army’s victory at the Battle of Puebla over the French in 1862.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo, let’s take a look back at the Mexican national team’s only victory against France, in the 2010 World Cup.
Of all the clubs that can feel hard done-by the suspension of football, Wolves certainly has a case to be near the top of the list. After a six-year spell outside the Premier League, Wolves firmly established itself in England’s top division last season with a seventh-place finish and qualification to this year's Europa League.
It’s been a tough 24 hours for Americans. If the arrival of murder hornets wasn’t enough to chill your spine, the USWNT was told it couldn’t go ahead with the most important aspects of its equal pay lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation on Friday night.
If you believe all of the Raul Jimenez transfer rumors, you’d be convinced the Mexican international is headed to Barcelona and then Real Madrid and for good measure back to England to play for Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal.
Of course, these are all rumors, likely entirely baseless because what else are tabloid reporters supposed to write about at a time like this?
But Jimenez did respond to a couple of the rumors to ESPN Deportes this week.
We all know the true worth of a footballer is measured by how they perform against the best of the best, when everything is on the line. In men’s soccer, there is no stronger barometer of greatness than how one fares against the U.S. men’s national team. So to resolve the Ronaldo vs Messi debate once and for all, here’s a look at how the two GOATs have performed against Michael Bradley and Co.
The resumption of training in Germany's Bundesliga proved to be bad news for United States men's national team goalkeeper Zack Steffen, who injured a knee not long after getting back on the field.
Steffen, who plays for Fortuna Dusseldorf, was training in a small group, as was permitted, when he came away with an "inner ligament injury," according to the team. The 25-year-old is expected to miss four to six weeks of action.
After months of in-depth research, it is all but confirmed somewhere along the line the U.S. lost its greatest potential youth player to the Fortnite gods. After being put into various game lobbies with players, there is no doubt that a soccer legend was hiding amidst the games.
The mighty “Slaminator10” I was paired up with for a match seemed to have to chops to be the USMNT’s new No. 10. Alas, Slaminator made the decisive act to pick up a controller rather than a soccer ball.