Bruce Arena’s plans for the US national team are taking shape and his plans for Christian Pulisic and other young stars were on show against El TriA familiar American phenomenon has been in full force during the rise of Christian Pulisic this past year — for every US soccer fan or writer proclaiming Pulisic as the real deal, there’s been another one fretting about Freddy Adu, and the dangers of too much hope, too soon, being placed on the shoulders of the 18-year-old. It’s a familiar US pastime. And as Pulisic broke open a tense game against Trinidad & Tobago with two goals on Thursday night, the cautionary takes were as abundant as the hyperbolic ones. Related: World Cup qualifier:...
The US, Mexico and Canada have submitted a joint bid to host the tournament. But is it a fair deal for fans across the three countries?David Rudin, Toronto based football writer: Good news – Canada’s only liable for 12.5% of this boondoggle. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, you have located the central tension of this joint bid. Insofar as Fifa hosting rights are really just an excuse to sacrifice much of a nation’s sovereignty for a month and spend ungodly sums, Canada has dodged a bullet here. The nation would have to waste a lot of money on soccer-specific stadia to host 80 matches, so this bid is definitely preferable to the alternative of Canada hosting on...
Even without the background of Donald Trump as president-elect, Friday night’s World Cup qualifier will be played between two teams in transitionWell, that escalated quickly. The preamble to last year’s USA v Mexico clash, for the right to represent Concacaf at the Confederations Cup, seems impossibly quaint at this moment. To pick out a couple of random phenomena, Fox Soccer were forced on the defensive for a video montage that seemed to make light of Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, while on the Mexican side it was possible to walk through the Rose Bowl parking lots before the game, and see Trump piñatas dotted among the portable BBQs. But it still all seemed like so much carnival posturing on both sides.The...
With the two adversaries preparing to meet, we look at half-a-dozen of the rivalry’s best moments, from the very first Dos A Cero to an upset at the AztecaThe game that kicked it all off. Back in 1934 you had to play a one-off game to qualify for the still-new World Cup, and Mexico and the United States were among the 32 nations sending teams. Mexico expected to win over a loose group of amateurs and semi-pros; the fact that they did not has never been forgotten south of the border. The result sent the USA to a meeting with Italy (they were hammered 7-1 by the eventual champs); and sent Mexico home to lick their wounds. Related: The Joy...