It feels good to finally say it: It’s been a good weekend for the USMNT. On Friday, three-time World Cup veteran Brian McBride was appointed General Manager of the USMNT. He’ll use his 17 years of professional playing experience — including 14 with the national team — to help develop and manage the player pool while also shifting the culture within the men’s program.
The International Olympic Committee announced guidelines limited free speech during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer. The parameters, released Thursday, codified previous rules barring athletes from making political statements during competition or medal ceremonies by specifying what actions are not allowed.
Major League Soccer is trying to become a big player in the world of eSports. The Philadelphia Union aren’t helping much right now.
The MLS SuperDraft is one of the weirdest things in sports. It probably shouldn’t exist, and if the league is smart, the MLS draft won’t exist much longer. To make matters worse, the second pick of the 2020 MLS SuperDraft on Thursday perfectly highlighted what’s so obviously wrong with soccer in the U.S.
The idea of helping youths develop and hone their skills in soccer is appealing to a large number of coaches. In the U.S. alone there are coaches teaching millions of young players how to play the sport.
Coaching, like most things in life, doesn’t come without drawbacks. Whether it’s a player forgetting to bring their shin guards or Karen the Super Soccer Mom complaining about her child not getting enough playing time, the task of coaching can be strenuous. Here is a short list of shortcomings for youth soccer coaches.
Disgraced former USMNT manager Jürgen Klinsmann has doubled down on his belief that he had the nation “in a good place” and on track for “the final four” at the 2018 World Cup despite his final game in charge — a 4-0 defeat to Costa Rica in San José — echoing through time as the second-most abject, clueless performance in the history of the program (the nadir being that night in Couva).
The Houston Dash lost their captain, all-time leading scorer and most-recognizable player on Monday. The Dash sent Kealia Ohai to the Chicago Red Stars after the forward had requested a trade.
Ohai’s fiancé, a popular professional athlete also based in Houston, was incredibly supportive of the move but became upset Tuesday when it came time to read the headlines.
The eighth episode of The Players’ Tribune series “Bad as a Mother” starring USWNT forward Sydney Leroux and her husband Dom Dwyer dropped on Dec. 31, and it was a captivating finale with the proud parents bringing home newborn daughter Roux. (This actually happened on June 28, 2019.)
U.S. Soccer has decided to abandon hosting the USMNT’s January camp in Doha, Qatar, instead moving the camp to Florida. The USMNT made the announcement Friday night, less than 48 hours before the camp was scheduled to begin.
U.S. Soccer deemed Qatar too risky for the national team given escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Megan Rapinoe’s remarkable 2019 didn’t come to a close without one more television appearance. Rapinoe made a cameo in a Dec. 22 episode of “The L Word: Generation Q” as a guest on the show “Alice,” talking about everything from locker room celebrations to her own coming out story.