You may have missed it with all the games on, but RB Salzburg manager Jesse Marsch made history on Tuesday. After an emphatic 6-2 victory over Belgian side KRC Genk, Marsch became the first coach from the United States to not only coach a Champions League match, but to win one.
When you’re young, birthdays are great. They mark new transitions into adulthood — at 16 you can drive, at 18 you can vote and at 21 you can drink.
As you get older, birthdays become less notable, more of an excuse to eat an extra dessert than a reason to celebrate. Fewer people bother to send you birthday well-wishes other than those semi-friends who post on Facebook as if they actually knew when your birthday was without being told by Mark Zuckerberg.
It’s been an eventful week for building from the back. It began with Mexico’s beatdown of Gregg Berhalter’s longterm vision for the USMNT in East Rutherford, a result which led to a cry for abandoning the philosophy.
Jimmy Conrad has transitioned nicely from a career as 2005 MLS Defender of the Year to a prominent YouTuber. Though 42, he’s got the content creation skills of a 20-year-old Twitch streamer, which is a compliment.
Josh Sargent has opened his 2019-20 Bundesliga account with Werder Bremen in absurd fashion. After missing out on the Gold Cup and being restricted to an eight-minute cameo over the course of Werder’s opening two league fixtures, the well-rested 19-year-old was given his first start of the Bundesliga season today against FC Augsburg.
The 2019 Champions League groups were drawn on Thursday in Monaco, with three USMNT players being drawn together in Group H.
Group H includes Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia and Lille, with three of those clubs including young Americans who will play a big role in trying to get the USMNT back to the World Cup. Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Sergiño Dest (Ajax) and Timothy Weah (Lille) will all go up against compatriots when the 2019 Champions League group-stage matches begin on Sept. 17.
After coming within a whisker of reaching the 2019 Champions League final, Ajax needed some brilliance on Wednesday just to reach the 2019-20 Champions League group stage.
That brilliance was supplied by 18-year-old American defender Sergiño Dest, who earlier in the day was called up for the senior USMNT for the first time.
The USMNT’s debut fixture in the Concacaf Nations League has finally been announced.
"Events DC is honored for DC to host the U.S. Soccer Men’s National Team vs. Cuba in the first-ever CONCACAF Nations League competition..." @EventsDCPrez
24-year-old USMNT goalkeeper Zack Steffen is two matches into his Fortuna Düsseldorf career, and so far he’s helped his club into the second round of the DFB-Pokal and collected Bundesliga Player of the Week honors after recording 10 saves in Düsseldorf’s league-opening victory over Werder Bremen on Saturday.
That’s one helluva start for a man who’s just beginning a year-long loan move from Manchester City, the club he officially joined from the Columbus Crew back in July for a transfer fee of $9.12 million. He’s already surpassed Landon Donovan’s achievements in Germany.
Christian Pulisic’s first Premier League start and Stamford Bridge debut wasn’t exactly the stuff of dreams. The 20-year-old American lasted 71 ineffective minutes against Leicester City before being swapped for Willian with the score level at 1-1, which is how it would end.
Pulisic spent his time on the pitch in the pocket of Leicester right back Ricardo Pereira. The Portugal international was Leicester’s Player of the Season last campaign, and with support provided by Ayoze Pérez out wide, Pulisic completed only one of five dribbles while getting dispossessed six times.