It’s with great sadness that our summer of soccer 2019 draws to a close. The USWNT lifted the World Cup, Brazil triumphed on home soil at the Copa América, Mexico reclaimed the Gold Cup and we’re into the final week of the Africa Cup of Nations. Unless you’re eagerly anticipating the ICC, our glorious summer is at an end.
Let’s face it, women have faced inequality for as long as we have written history. Women’s soccer players are no exception.
Today, the U.S. women’s soccer team — the No. 1 women’s soccer team in the world — has to deal with the reality that if both the men and women’s teams played 20 friendlies a year, the women would earn, at most, $99,000 while the men would earn an average of $263,320. That’s just ridiculous. It seems like some kind of sick joke, but I can assure you, it’s not.
Concacaf announced the redesigned qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup on Wednesday. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football has made it even simpler for the two heavyweights in the region — Mexico and the United States — to qualify for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
It’s been just over eight years since Giovani dos Santos scored one of the greatest goals in Gold Cup history, putting the finishing touches on a 4-2 Mexico victory over the USMNT during the 2011 final. Fast forward to the present day and it’s his younger brother, Jonathan, who’s cemented El Tri’s continental dominance.
Sunday will be perhaps the greatest day of international soccer viewing in the history of the sport.
At 11 a.m. ET, the United States takes on the Netherlands in the 2019 Women's World Cup final.
At 4 p.m. ET, Brazil hosts Peru in the 2019 Copa América final.
And at 9 p.m. ET, rivals Mexico and the U.S. face off in the 2019 Gold Cup final.
It’s a day full of big matches, and that’s not even counting the Africa Cup of Nations round of 16 and a couple big MLS clashes.
There may have been some doubt the last time the USMNT played competitive matches 20 months ago, but there is none now during the 2019 Gold Cup. Christian Pulisic is the USMNT’s best player, without question. He may just be the best player in all of Concacaf.
Pulisic, as he’s done all Gold Cup, played with fire, passion and purpose to help the U.S. defeat Jamaica 3-1 in the semifinals late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning in Nashville, Tennessee, after a 90-minute rain delay in the first half.
The USMNT advanced to the semifinals of the 2019 Gold Cup with a 1-0 victory over Curaçao, and it really was that close. A wonderful combination between Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie in the 25th minute proved to be the match-winner, and the U.S. had to rely on five saves from Zack Steffen to weather the storm from the tiny Dutch Caribbean island.
The opening 25 minutes of play had very little to due with what transpired over the final 65 — that opening period was really the only time the U.S. seemed to be in control.
He’s just 19, but this reported Tim Weah transfer fee shows he’s already one of the most valuable American soccer players of all time.
Everyone knows that Christian Pulisic isn’t going to immediately step into Eden Hazard’s shoes at Chelsea and act as a carbon copy of the Belgian. Hazard, of course, is eight years older than Pulisic and currently much more decisive in the final third: Hazard hit 16 Premier League goals last campaign, the American tied his career best by reaching four in the Bundesliga.