The Fulham striker scored twice in a 2-0 winMexico v Panama in the final; Canada v USA for third The Sunday showdown everyone wanted will happen, just not the way most expected. A desperate Canadian search for a men’s international trophy will stretch on to the summer after Raul Jiménez clinically guided Mexico to a 2-0 win and a spot in the Concacaf Nations League Final against unlikely opponent Panama, who dispatched the US earlier on Thursday night. Continue reading...

Auston Trusty and Johnny Cardoso are also outJack McGlynn, Max Arfsten, Brian Gutiérrez called in Defenders Antonee Robinson and Auston Trusty and midfielder Johnny Cardoso will miss the United States’ Concacaf Nations League matches this week. They were replaced on the roster Tuesday by an all-MLS trio: midfielders Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo), Maximilian Arfsten (Columbus Crew) and Brian Gutiérrez (Chicago Fire). The US Soccer Federation did not detail any injuries, but USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said in a press conference that the absences were for unspecified “medical reasons”. Continue reading...

The Argentinian was at his destructive best as Inter Miami faced Atlanta again, while there are positive signs for a young USMNT star It was a nightmare for Inter Miami. Bartosz Slisz had just fired Atlanta United ahead in the decisive match of their first-round playoff series last season. Try as Lionel Messi and Inter Miami might, they couldn’t equalize and were forced to watch as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes. Their record-breaking regular season had quickly turned into a different sort of record-breaking postseason: the 34-point gap between Miami and Atlanta at the end of the 34-game schedule made it the largest upset in MLS playoff history. Continue reading...

Normal service has been resumed in Germany. It has in the Champions League, too, given Bayern Munich are in the quarter-finals for a sixth consecutive year. If they treat Inter with the same disdain they showed Bayer Leverkusen, whose brief spell as domestic kryptonite appears to be comprehensively over, then they may move closer to winning the trophy on home soil in May. They never looked like losing even a fraction of the three-goal lead amassed in the first leg and could count once again on Harry Kane, whose simple opener and subsequent assist for Alphonso Davies floored a weakened Leverkusen. The home side could point to the absence of Florian Wirtz, whose next action in this competition will come in Bayern’s colours if his suitors have their way. The playmaker’s weekend injury meant that, to all intents and purposes, dreams of a comeback were over as soon as they had begun. Not even Xabi Alonso’s magic touch could compensate and a team that had outplayed Bayern here in the Bundesliga last month looked bereft of confidence here. Continue reading...

Games will act as warm-ups for regional championshipUS facing Turkey for the first time since 2014 The United States men’s national team will play friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland ahead of the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer. The US will face Turkey on 7 June in East Hartford, Connecticut, and Switzerland three days later in Nashville, Tennessee, the US Soccer Federation announced on Monday. The games will presumably feature the full squad set to compete in the Gold Cup, which will feature many but perhaps not all first-choice stars for the US. Clubs that are participating in the Club World Cup are expected to retain players for the tournament, which takes place at the same time as the Gold Cup. That means that Juventus’ duo of Weston McKennie and Tim Weah, Dortmund’s Gio Reyna, and Seattle Sounders’ Jordan Morris, Cristian Roldan and Jesús Ferreira will all likely be out of contention. Continue reading...

The right back came on as a 67th-minute subDest in contention for USMNT Nations League squad US men’s national team defender Sergiño Dest has returned from knee surgery after more than 10 months out of action. The 24-year-old entered in the 67th minute for PSV Eindhoven against Heerenveen in the Eredivisie on Saturday, coming on in place of fellow American Richy Ledesma. Continue reading...

Things were always going to be tight in this battle of two of the Premier League’s more upwardly mobile sides and so it proved until the fifth minute of added time. At that stage, it looked as though Jan Paul van Hecke’s header that cancelled out Raúl Jiménez’s excellent strike would give Brighton and Fulham a share of the points. But a contentious late penalty from João Pedro, after he was fouled by the substitute Harrison Reed, gave Fabian Hürzeler’s side a sixth straight victory in all competitions to lift them up to sixth place and leave Marco Silva fuming at the injustice of it all. The Fulham manager stood motionless at the final whistle after the referee, Sam Barrott, pointed at the spot, barely able to believe his side had been beaten. The sun may have been shining on the south coast but the tempo of this game throughout reflected the fact there was no chance of either side being on the beach just yet. Both booked their places in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup last weekend and – even if they are now separated by four points – continue to harbour realistic ambitions of qualifying for Europe next season via the Premier League. Continue reading...

An anti-gay slur’s at San Diego FC’s home debut prompted a strong response from the club. They’re not the first ones forced to address a tired trope It all started as a bit of a joke, just not a funny one. Now infamous enough to be known as ‘the chant’ or ‘the p-word’ even in English, historical accounts say the homophobic chant that has remained persistent in Mexican soccer began in Guadalajara. Atlas fans were infuriated by goalkeeper Oswaldo Sánchez’s departure from their team and his eventual return to their rivals Guadalajara. That’s when they tweaked a traditional gridiron football ritual, building up noise before belting out an anti-gay slur whenever Sánchez took a goal kick. The chant appeared again – this time with more venom – at a game between USA and Mexico in a 2004 pre-Olympic tournament in Guadalajara. Mexico fans were still smarting from El Tri’s loss to the US at the 2002 World Cup. That led to 60,000 Tapatios directing the slur at US goalkeeper DJ Countess during Mexico’s 4-0 win. The ugly trend has continued, and grown, despite campaigns from the Mexican football federation, Fifa fines, and efforts from Liga MX, who named a full season after an alternative chant in 2021. Continue reading...

League executive talks about plan during New York visitSerie A admits gap to Premier League in US popularity A senior Serie A executive has said Italian clubs playing a regular-season game in the United States could happen within one to two years but admitted the league had a long way to go to catch up with the Premier League’s popularity there. Serie A’s commercial and marketing director, Michele Ciccarese, confirmed an earlier comment by its USA managing director, Charlie Stillitano, that it wanted to be the first foreign league to stage a regular-season game in the US. Ciccarese was speaking to journalists and partners at the league’s American headquarters in New York and standing alongside Serie A’s president, Ezio Simonelli. Continue reading...

USA defender injured in Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with BrightonManchester United and Arsenal stay in touch with wins The USA centre-back Naomi Girma’s debut for Chelsea ended early as she was brought off with an injury in their 2-2 draw at Brighton. The world’s first $1m women’s footballer, who signed for Chelsea from San Diego Wave in January for a $1.1m (£874,000) fee and has had to wait patiently for her debut while recovering from a calf injury that caused her to miss the SheBelieves Cup in February, had to be withdrawn just before the hour. It was an absorbing contest in which a hard‑working Brighton side gave Chelsea more than just a scare. Continue reading...

The USA manager probably wasn’t thrilled with the Americans losing the SheBelieves Cup, but there were significantly more positives than negatives The United States women’s national team did not win the 2025 SheBelieves Cup, but this was the first time that failure to lift the trophy didn’t make for a disappointing tournament. While Emma Hayes probably wasn’t thrilled with her team’s performance in a 2-1 defeat to Japan, there were significantly more positives to take away from the competition than negatives. Central midfield was the area of the pitch where Hayes likely learned the most about her players, and came away with the most optimism for the future. That’s where 17-year-old Lily Yohannes and 19-year-old Claire Hutton both turned in excellent performances. And just as important as their individual level, they looked as if they could form a perfect partnership in the future. [Yui] Hasegawa in the middle of the park is probably the best pivot in the world at both the domestic and international level, and our pivot is 17 years of age and has played in three caps. So we have to be patient too, in our expectations. Continue reading...

A terrific performance capped a trophy-worthy display from Japan in the tournament, handing the US their first loss in a year The US women’s national team missed out on the SheBelieves Cup title for the first time since 2019 after a 2-1 loss to Japan in the final game of the round-robin tournament. Japan, who claimed the title for the first time, struck early with a second-minute goal by Yuka Momiki, then regained the advantage through Toko Koga in the 50th minute. The win is the first time the SheBelieves Cup has been won by a nation outside the US or Europe, and just the third time in the tournament’s 10 editions that it has been won by any team other than the United States. It also marks Emma Hayes’ first loss in charge of the national team since taking over in May 2024, and the team’s first loss of any type in almost exactly a year. Continue reading...

Japan beat USWNT 2-1 to capture first SheBelieves CupHayes suffers first loss after 15 wins, two draws with USMatildas extend miserable run with injury-marred loss Toko Koga scored early in the second half and Japan handed the United States their first loss under coach Emma Hayes with a 2-1 victory Wednesday night in the SheBelieves Cup title game. The Americans had not lost since last February when they fell 2-0 to Mexico in the Concacaf W Gold Cup. The loss also snapped the US team’s string of five titles in the SheBelieves Cup, now in its 10th year. Continue reading...

Maybe Newcastle were distracted by the prospect of reaching Wembley on Wednesday night or perhaps they have simply hit a bit of a mid-winter wall but, whatever the precise reason, they could not cope with Adama Traoré and his friends from Fulham. The visiting right winger excelled on the counterattack as goals from Raúl Jiménez and Rodrigo Muniz consigned Eddie Howe’s side to a second successive home defeat. Quite apart from denting their hopes of Champions League qualification it was hardly an ideal dress rehearsal for Newcastle’s midweek Carabao Cup semi-final second leg home date with Arsenal. Continue reading...