concacaf Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
It’s fun to watch MLS get smacked down
We get pretty used to sports leagues doing whatever they want, and whatever they want is usually not in any interest of the fans. It’s almost always about control and profit, which runs in direct opposition to fans’ desire to see competition, accessibility and the game we remember that got us all he...
MLS is playing pretty fast and loose with Lionel Messi’s injury
The problem with hinging an entire league’s reputation and financial fortune on one man is what do you do when that man isn’t around? If you’re MLS, you kind of shut your eyes, put your fingers in your ears, and pretend it’s not a problem. ...
It was hard not to get a little giddy about the USMNT
Being a USMNT fan usually involves seeing things that aren’t there, or at least things that could be there but aren’t yet. It’s usually what the team could develop into, or dreaming about flashes being carried over into a full 90 minutes one day, or when an injured player or two returns or makes his...
The United States men’s national team’s Gold Cup squad lacks stars, serves better long-term purpose
It’s clear by interim United States men’s national team head coach B.J. Callaghan’s 23-man roster for this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup that winning the tournament isn’t the only priority. How else do you explain giving players like Christian Pulisic a pass? It’s not a break as he barely played at Che...
Zlatan Ibrahimović retired from soccer, and the world is a bit duller today
To say we’ll be Zlatan-less is probably wide of the mark. Whatever Zlatan Ibrahimović goes on to do, you can be sure it’ll be loud and full of bravado. But he won’t be on the field, which is a loss for the sport, if only because there simply can’t be anyone like him again. First off, no one’s going...
Remember former USMNT striker Chris Wondolowski? He just led a team to victory as a goalkeeper
The Soccer Tournament, or TST for short, started its inaugural 32-team, 7-on-7 showcase earlier today and it’s a clusterfuck. And like all televised abnormalities of society, at least we get to watch. The nature of the tournament gives way for more unique scenarios to happen, like a goalkeeper scori...
The Gang Enters The Soccer Tournament
This is a fever dream for soccer, or a fever nightmare depending on what team you root for. The Soccer Tournament, or TST for short, was announced this week as a 32-team showcase taking place in early June in North Carolina. Based on The Basketball Tournament, it’s a winner-take-all, 7-on-7, $1 mill...
MLS doesn’t know what fans want
It tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Major League Soccer that A) the season starts in five days and you likely didn’t know that, and B) with only five days to go is when the league actually finalized what the playoff system for this season will be. That’s right, teams didn’t kn...
Qualifying for Copa America 2024 should only help the USMNT
Here’s a compliment sandwich. The 2024 Copa America, South America’s premier international soccer tournament, will again be played in the United States after America hosted the showcase for the first time in 2016. Despite being the host nation, the USMNT hasn’t directly qualified to play in the even...
USMNT’s Christian Pulisic finally gets his chance
The embarrassment of the United States men’s national team missing the 2018 World Cup had several layers. One of the most understated at the time, and one that luckily has been forgotten about over time for fans of the Stars and Stripes, is how the adorned future of American soccer would always be a...
The rumored MLS Playoff changes are almost there
Apparently, taking a good hard look at the fairness of your playoff format is contagious these days. ...
USMNT Under-20 men’s team brawls with Costa Rican team
The United States men’s national under-20 soccer team’s initial celebration for qualifying to the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup lasted all of five seconds. They got into a fight with Costa Rica. The American’s CONCACAF U-20 Championship quater-final was heated throughout, with plenty of those mass confro...
It’s Hollywood FC now
The idea of MLS as a retirement home has been a misnomer for a while. While the league might not pull in the biggest players in the world in their prime, it certainly isn’t waiting around until they can’t move anymore, for the most part (those watching Douglas Costa for the Galaxy might disagree). T...
The U.S. Men’s National Team are focused on the big prize
To stay physically and mentally fit with zero setbacks for a grueling, 10-month soccer season is impossible. Truly putting on the blinders from the outside world for a month, maintaining your peak condition both on the field and away from training was the treacherous, yet not impossible goal. Curtai...
Landon Donovan: Fall World Cup could hurt USMNT
Part of the charm of every FIFA World Cup is how it takes up a large chunk of summer. It either coincides with the tail end of the NBA and NHL playoffs, or misses it all together and only has to share sports airwaves with baseball’s slow ass. And it’s much more palatable to sit through a pair of 45-...
That was MLS’s biggest night
Perhaps there have been too many markers as “MLS’s biggest night” that the words have lost all meaning. So many stadium openings (which is good! Except for those that might have been opened on the public dime), or MLS Cup finals, or TV deals, or expansion teams joining the fray (and definitely not a...
Changing the World Cup to every two years could (but won’t) help soccer’s have-nots
Changing the World Cup to a biennial event is an awful idea. That’s not the most groundbreaking statement, but I wanted to put it bluntly because that’s the point I want you to remember from the rest of this. And if FIFA president Gianni Infantino is to be believed, and the move has a majority backi...
Maybe it’s Mexico that needs to look in the mirror
The big story out of the US’s demolition (at least in the 2nd half) of Mexico was the US stuffing Memo Ochoa’s words back from whence they came. Ochoa had claimed before the match that Mexico “was the mirror that the US wants to see themselves,” which led to Pulisic writing “Man In The Mirror” on hi...
Let’s fix the MLS Playoffs, shall we?
I know, I know. There’s nothing MLS fans hate more than someone who doesn’t watch as regularly as they do telling them what’s wrong with their league. Even with my expanded efforts to watch, understand, and develop an attachment to our domestic league, I’m still a long way off from being a tried and...
A wild end to the MLS regular season
MLS had its “Decision Day” yesterday, the last day of the regular season when all of its playoff spots get shaken out. The permutation for the top, middle, and bottom of the playoff picture were David Lynch-level convoluted, so sometimes it’s best to express the happenings in one highlight:...