USMNT

The USMNT’s first competitive match after more than 600 days will be played in Minnesota on June 18. The 2019 Gold Cup schedule, venues and dates were announced Tuesday and the U.S. is going to be setting up in the Midwest for the 15th edition of Concacaf’s championship tournament.

Since losing to Trinidad and Tobago to be knocked out of the 2018 World Cup one year ago Wednesday, the USMNT has played some meaningless friendlies with a bunch of young kids and an interim coach.

For the first time ever, the gala for the Ballon d’Or will also include a presentation for the inaugural awarding of the Kopa Trophy — a prize given to the world's best under 21 player, so really just another Golden Boy because we really need more individual prizes in this sport, don’t we? 

Regardless, the 10 finalists for the prize include:

Weston McKennie went more than 30 appearances without scoring a goal for Schalke. Now the 20-year-old American midfielder has two goals in as many games.

McKennie scored a dramatic late match winner against Lokomotiv Moscow in the Champions League on Wednesday in Russia. It wasn’t quite the impact he was hoping to make in Russia in 2018, but it was a great moment for the Texan to score his first goal for the club he joined in 2016. 

Writing is a craft that must be honed over years of practice.

But sometimes a GIF just perfectly sums up everything you want to put on a page.

Handed the unenviable task of leading the USMNT forward following its worst result in program history, interim boss Dave Sarachan has named the 24-player pool for a pair of October friendlies that could mark the end of his stint as caretaker manager. The U.S. will host Colombia in Tampa, Florida, and Peru in East Hartford, Connecticut, and then it's rumored that USMNT General Manager Earnie Stewart could make his final selection by the time a pair of November friendlies against England and Italy roll around.  

Borussia Dortmund climbed to second in the Bundesliga table — just two points behind leader Bayern Munich following its surprising draw with Augsburg on Tuesday — after thumping Nurnberg 7-0 at the Westfalenstadion on Wednesday.

Since returning from a muscular injury, Christian Pulisic has been at his best for BVB, scoring in back-to-back matches before assisting on Dortmund’s first goal on Wednesday.

The American winger went on an impressive run before carving open Nurnberg’s backline with a sensational pass for Jacob Bruun Larsen’s opener. 

Twenty-year-old American midfielder Luca de la Torre — a native of San Diego, California — scored his first competitive goal for Fulham on Tuesday in the Cottagers' 3-1 win over Millwall in the League Cup. Not only did De La Torre bag Fulham’s second of the day, he also assisted Joe Bryan on the first and Cyrus Christie (#COYBIG) on the third.

Here’s his first for the club. 

Earnie Stewart’s search for the next USMNT manager hit the news wires this week after the U.S. General Manager was spotted at MAPFRE Stadium to watch Gregg Berhalter’s Columbus Crew defeat Colorado 2-1, and the flames of the fire were further fanned with the rumor that Stewart had held talks with FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja — a rumor that was later quashed by Yahoo! Sports.