South America

A few weeks ago, the Seattle Sounders hit rock bottom. They were one point from the Western Conference cellar. They were just embarrassed on national television by Sporting Kansas City and had no choice but to fire Sigi Schmid, the only coach they’d ever had in their MLS history. 

All of a sudden, one of America’s great soccer cities found itself with a club that was more pretender than championship contender. 

Enter Nicolas Lodeiro. 

Brazil’s Olympic footballing dream received a massive lift on Saturday. Following the women’s dramatic shootout victory over Australia on Friday, Brazil’s men followed the example of Marta and company to reach the semi-finals of their own competition.

Having struggled through group play with draws against Iraq and South Africa, Neymar and his teammates sprung to life with devastating efficiency against continental rivals Colombia.

Well, that was short-lived. Argentina manager Edgardo Bauza’s trip out to Barcelona has to be deemed a resounding success with the news that Lionel Messi has decided to reverse his decision to retire from international football.

Rather than keep his country in limbo, Messi now appears set to star for Argentina in their September World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela — an outcome that looked impossible at the end of June.

When Brazilian under-23 coach Rogerio Micale suggested that Neymar could one day quit the Brazilian national team due to a lack of respect, the parallels that could be drawn with Lionel Messi’s treatment and subsequent retirement from Argentina’s setup were almost too self-evident. 

Newly appointed Argentina boss Edgardo Bauza has arrived in Barcelona in an attempt to bring Lionel Messi back into the international fold. The most important task facing Bauza over the coming months is to entreat the former Argentine captain to reconsider his early retirement.

Neymar and Brazil's men have been so bad in the Olympics that Neymar has reportedly been stripped of the Brazil captainship. Fortunately, Marta and Brazil's women are here to save the day, so much so that fans have started turning Neymar jerseys into Marta jerseys.

With a squad containing the likes of Neymar, Renato Augusto, Gabriel Jesus and Rafinha, it was understandable that a huge home crowd booed their own team off the pitch following a scoreless opening Olympic match against South Africa.

Brazil played the majority of the second half with a man advantage following Mothobi Mvala’s dismissal, but they could not find a way past South Africa despite registering 20 shots with seven of those on target.

Following Tata Martino's resignation after the Copa America Centenario, the Argentina National Team has a new manager: Edgardo Bauza.

Bauza comes to La Albiceleste from Sao Paulo, the same club the Mexico National Team lured their current manager, Juan Carlos Osorio, away from. Bauza, an Argentine, collected three caps for the team he now manages.

Bauza has been a manager for almost 20 years, collecting multiple Copa Libertadores trophies in that time.

Sources from Lionel Messi’s family have told Goal.com that the former Argentina captain will not return for his country’s September World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela.