Youth Soccer

The emergence of 17-year-old Pablo Páez Gavi for both Barcelona and Spain during the 2021-22 season has been criminally under-appreciated in the English-speaking world. It's a serious offense because just putting the La Masia product through the 90-minute eye test is enough to reveal a footballer of supreme talent, which is exceptionally rare when considering all the nuance and subtlety that comes with the midfield position. 

To Argentina’s reserve league we go for a Thursday morning match between Racing and Huracán, the site of two very good goals for the Avellaneda-based club.

The first was scored by 18-year-old Nicolás Meaurio. It’s a scorpion kick that takes on the form of a BMX Superman trick. It might lose a style point since the goalkeeper got his hand to it, but you can tell that the total unreasonableness of the effort caught him completely by surprise.    

For the second time in the men’s program’s history, the University of New Hampshire Wildcats have reached the NCAA Tournament Round of 16. The feat was accomplished Sunday after a 4-1 victory over North Carolina with every goal being scored in the first half.

New Hampshire defender Bridger Hansen opened the floodgates in the 23rd minute with one of my favorite bicycle kicks of all time. I’ve seen hundreds over the last few years — each one exhilarating in its own right — but I’ve never seen one that begins with the high-stepping of a prone defender. Style points achieved. 

Soccer moms tend to get the rough end of the stick when it comes to being the villain of youth soccer. While the mothers of the world are easy targets, some of the worst people at youth soccer games are the dads. A dad in California wins Asshole of the Day for tackling a referee during a U16 game over a call he didn’t like.