Four days before he was announced as an MLS studio analyst for the league’s new MLS Season Pass broadcasts, 37-year-old Sacha Kljestan announced his retirement via a tweet that reached 1.8 million views. A lanky, 6-foot-2 attacking midfielder (and almost always sporting a hefty black mustache), Kljestan garnered attention when he set Seton Hall University’s […]
Arlo Moore-Bloom
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Coach Ian McIntyre on the ingredients to Syracuse's championship season, the World Cup influence, and savoring the celebrations
Had you told Coach Ian McIntyre in August that his Syracuse team would win the 2022 Division 1 national championship, he would’ve laughed you off. The Orange only won two games in 2020 and finished at a flat .500 in 2021. “That probably wasn’t a reflection of the talent we had,” says McIntyre, a 51-year-old […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Watch: Yunus Musah go undercover at Valencia's megastore
The 20-year-old U.S. midfielder Yunus Musah goes undercover at the Valencia fan shop, where his language skills and salesmanship suit him well. Musah is in the middle of his fourth year at Valencia. Musah started his youth soccer in Italy. At age 9, he went to Arsenal’s academy, where he stayed until he moved to Valencia in […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Sam Laity announced as Houston Dash's new coach
Sam Laity, an assistant coach at Ol Reign since 2013, is Houston Dash’s new coach and fourth in team history. Besides a short stint as the Reign’s interim coach in 2021, it is the first head coaching job for the Plymouth, England, native. “I am excited about joining Houston Dash,” said the 46-year-old. “The values […]
Posted inSoccer America Top of the News, Story
MLS SuperDraft No. 1 pick Hamady Diop: 'I was nervous, but then I heard it was Charlotte'
Hamady Diop, Clemson’s left-footed center back, was selected No. 1 overall in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft on Wednesday by Charlotte FC, which traded $400,000 in total GAM over two years and its No. 20 pick in the 2023 SuperDraft to St. Louis City SC for the pick. “It’s a dream come true — I didn’t expect […]
Posted inSoccer America Top of the News, Story
Lionel Messi's next chapter: Playing without the weight of a country on his shoulders
What does wine, leather boots, and Lionel Messi have in common? They get better with age. With La Albiceleste at least, in Messi’s case: Between the 2018 World Cup and the 2022 World Cup final on Sunday, Argentina won 31, drew nine and lost four in all competitions when Messi played in a period that ended […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
San Francisco pub sets the bar for World Cup viewing
For American soccer fans who had to wake up early for a month to watch the World Cup, the climax — an Argentina shootout win over France after tying 2-2 in regulation and 3-3 after overtime — was an instant classic. World Cup play began on Nov. 20 and ran for 16 days straight without […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Simon Kuper rates the Qatar World Cup's soccer quality, and remembers Grant Wahl
Most of Simon Kuper‘s books are about soccer. They include the recent The Barcelona Complex, Soccernomics (with Stefan Szymanski), and Soccer Against the Enemy, which he published in 1994 after traveling to 22 countries and is the most widely hailed book on the overlap of soccer and politics. Kuper, who’s been a sports columnist for […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Steve Davis on grading the USMNT, Jesus Ferreira's future, and his non-profit project
Longtime Dallas-based soccer journalist and broadcaster, Steve Davis, told us before the 2022 World Cup kickoff that he was concerned that key U.S. players weren’t “in good places,” but that an “OK” performance would be suffice to advance the USA out of Group B. We followed up for his post-tournament views. SOCCER AMERICA: With a winter World […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Men's College Cup: Indiana and Syracuse advance to final
Thanks to a goalkeeper error and two red-hot Orange forwards, Syracuse is one win away from its first men’s national championship. Ghanaian Nathan Opoku scored the go-ahead goal and set up Canadian Levonte Johnson for an 86th-minute winner as Syracuse ran out on top 3-2 over Creighton. The duo have combined for 21 goals and […]