So, the U.S. got its clock cleaned against Brazil last night, while Mexico, its opponent in the Confederations Cup playoff in Pasadena on Oct 10, was unlucky not to beat World No. 1 Argentina. Where are the silver linings?View image | gettyimages.com

Manchester United's player transfer team, led by executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, will be cringing at the site of the International Centre for Sports Studies' new report which finds that the club overpaid for Anthony Martial by a whopping $31 million-more than any other player during the recently closed transfer window. According to the report, United's transfer day deadline signing from AS Monaco cost $56 million, not including bonuses, while his estimated value according to the CIES formula was just $25 million. Kevin de Bruyne was second on the overpaid list, costing Manchester City $29.8 million more than his estimated …

Speaking to the Washington Post ahead of the USA's friendly against Peru in D.C. on Friday night, U.S. men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann, in a wide-ranging two-part interview with Steve Goff, talks about his team's disappointment at the Gold Cup this summer, as the USA, which went into the tournament as the favorite, lost 2-1 to Jamaica in the semifinal.View image | gettyimages.com

The Netherlands, one of international soccer's traditional powers, is in real danger of failing to qualify for Euro 2016 following a 1-0 loss to tiny Iceland, the surprise leader in Group A, on Wednesday night in Amsterdam. In fact, had it not been for Valerijs Sabala's last-gasp equalizer for Latvia against fourth-place Turkey, the Dutch would have found themselves outside of the qualification slot for the final playoff round with just three qualifiers remaining.

Now that the European transfer window has closed and the smoke is starting to clear, our eyes are just now settling on what will make up the squad(s) of our favorite club(s) for the current season-at least, until the next transfer window opens in January. Understanding is usually followed by questions. For example: did English Premier League clubs really spend $1.3 billion on player transfers this summer? How did they afford that? Perhaps a better question is: did the Manchester clubs and Liverpool really combine for more than 40 percent of that total? How on earth did they afford that? …

In the end, transfer deadline day in the UK was not packed with as many last-minute deals as we've seen from past windows. In fact, many long-muted deals did not happen at all: David De Gea is still a Manchester United player, Juve's Paul Pogba decided not to join Chelsea, Zlatan Ibrahimovic will see out his final year in Paris, and Saido Berahino remains a Baggie, albeit begrudgingly so. That being said, the 2015 summer transfer window still set a record in England, as EPL clubs spent a whopping 870 million-pounds ($1.33 billion) on players.