Youth Soccer

Youth soccer in America is changing. Over the past few years, U.S. soccer has moved to profoundly address the exclusivity of high-level grass roots play. Talented footballers at the high school age can get offered to play for a program known as a Development Academy (DA). Both Major League Soccer and other youth clubs all over the U.S. have Development Academy teams, from the high school age all the way down to U-12. 

Be sure not to blink or you might miss the fancy feet of 11-year-old Tottenham academy standout Ramell Carter. In this Instagram video, he shows off his skills while taking multi-tasking to the next level.

A number of college soccer coaches have been indicted in the massive college admissions bribery and cheating scandal that became public Tuesday. 

An assistant referee and a player were taken to the hospital after a wooden light pole was knocked over by heavy winds, crashing onto the field during a high school soccer match on Saturday in Clarksville, Arkansas. 

The referee sustained two broken bones in his leg while the player had superficial wounds to his head and legs, according to KFSM. Neither injury was considered life-threatening. 

Last Sunday, an indoor soccer match between Rockford, Illinois-based San Jose FC and FC Wisconsin U-19 descended into madness in Brookfield, Wisconsin, when a skirmish ultimately resulted in a referee getting punched in the face.

The referee, 50-year-old Terry From, approached a boy who’d thrown a water bottle in his direction, identified as the 12-year-old son of San Jose FC’s coach, before being punched by a 17-year-old San Jose FC player, identified as the older brother of the 12-year-old. 

In American men’s soccer, the path to turning pro has never been clearer. The MLS SuperDraft, the general means for college players to enter the league, has always been somewhat irrelevant, but now it’s by and large obsolete. Talent is coming through the league's Development Academies, where players are working year-round on the quest to becoming world-class, not unlike professionals themselves.

Goalkeeper Lewis Budinauckas made a penalty and then saved one moments later to send Rangers past AS Roma at the Al Kass International Cup, a U-17 club competition growing in prestige every year, on Friday in Doha, Qatar. 

The teams were tied 1-1 through regulation, sending the match immediately to a shootout. Tied 3-3 after the first five spot kicks, both teams traded goals in the first five rounds of sudden death, including both goalkeepers converting on the 10th attempt (both teams had been reduced to 10 men through the course of the match). 

Brazil clinched qualification into the final stage of the South American U-20 Championship with a 1-0 victory over Bolivia on Friday afternoon in Chile. 

The win completed a difficult group stage for the young Seleção, who have a prodigious amount of talent at their disposal, including Real Madrid-bound Rodrygo, who scored twice in a win over Venezuela earlier in the competition.