Youth Soccer

Mahia Macías is a 7-year-old girl from Montevideo, Uruguay, who just wants to play football, but where she comes from, there aren’t nearly as many teams for girls. However, since she’s still young enough to play on the boys side, she’s become the first girl to play in the youth league of Club Nacional de Football, Uruguay’s most successful team apart from Peñarol.  

How do you fix youth soccer in the U.S.? Where do you even begin?

It’s too expensive, too exclusive, too unwilling to change. The underprivileged are unable to join in, minorities too often forgotten.

When Jim Frank first started volunteering as a Withrow High School soccer coach in Cincinnati, he and head coach Tyler Barrott had to base their substitution pattern on the players’ shoe size.

The soccer program had 40 players, almost all international students and most of them refugees, but only 23 pairs of cleats. 

“The disdain or pity on our opponents’ faces as we had to take the time to remove shoes and shin guards during substitutions was the emotional ‘aha’ moment that told me that I needed to do more than just coach these players,” Frank said. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is just saying what we’re all thinking, and, often, talking, writing and complaining about. Soccer in America is broken because of one key aspect: pay to play.

Ibrahimovic has left the United States, trading Beverly Hills for Milan after one-and-a-half years with the LA Galaxy. But his time in America left a mark on the Swedish striker.

Mexico pushed Brazil to the brink in the final of Sunday's 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup, but late goals from Kaio Jorge and Lázaro sent a raucous crowd of over 15,000 into raptures in Brasília. Inspirational captain Eugenio Pizzuto had provided the assist on Bryan Gonzalez’s opener for El Tri in the 66th minute, but Brazil’s ferocious comeback began in the 84th with Kaio’s VAR-assisted penalty and ended — just before the match was headed straight to a shootout — with Lázaro’s stunning winner with only one minute remaining in stoppage time.

In the 1885-86 Scottish Cup, Arbroath defeated Bon Accord 36-0. In the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the USWNT beat Thailand 13-0. In the 2019 NCAA Women's College Cup, Stanford beat Prairie View A&M 15-0. Throughout the course of history, the trend of scoring an excessive amount of goals has continued to receive backlash from all levels.

While the U.S. was sent packing after the group stage following its worst-ever showing at a FIFA U-17 World Cup, Mexico is through to the quarterfinals following a 2-0 victory over Japan in Gama, Brazil, on Wednesday. If you were already a little disappointed with U.S. Soccer following the dismal showing, you’ll be pleased to know that Mexico’s success is even further damnation of our bumbling federation.

Yeah, telling your kids that you’ll give them $20 if they score a goal is cool, but have you ever made a bet with your child that puts more on the line than just $20?

Well, one father made a bet with his son that if he hit the crossbar three times in a row, he would buy him a brand new PS4 gaming system. In something the father doubted his son in — since he was about 20 yards away from goal — the son effortlessly nailed the first crossbar, then the second and then the third as he celebrated his way to a new PS4.

Some big news coming out of UEFA Youth League Group F on Wednesday — perhaps the biggest UEFA Youth League Group F news we’ve ever presented on the hallowed pages of The18: In the group’s early match, 18-year-old American winger Konrad de la Fuente scored two great goals as Barcelona thumped Slavia Prague 4-0. Later in the day, Inter Milan responded to Borussia Dortmund’s early goal with four unanswered, but that Dortmund opener was scored by Youssoufa Moukoko.