Hey folks,

The summer of footy is here. 63 Club World Cup and 31 Gold Cup matches, all in the span of a month or so. Plus, some regular-season MLS play. It’s heaven. Enjoy.

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• 1️⃣ 9️⃣ MLS Match Day 19 Recap

• 🇺🇸 USMNT Kicks off Gold Cup with a Win

• 🏆️ Club World Cup Update

• 🇩🇪 German Giants 10-0 Win

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Tweet of the Week

MLS Match Day 19 Recap

The Columbus Crew ended their 6 game winless skid with a 2-1 win over the then Shield-leading Vancouver Whitecaps. It’s amazingly the Whitecaps’ first road loss of the season. Neither team had a full squad, however, with multiple players on international duty.

San Diego keeps rolling with a 4-2 road win over Western Conference foe Minnesota United. Milan Iloski scored a brace, and Anders Dreyer continued his incredible first season in MLS with one of his own. His 17 goal contributions now lead the league. His first goal was a midfield bomb, one of the season’s best goals (scroll down). He’s a legitimate MVP candidate.

If you had told me before the season the Philadelphia Union would be Supporter’s Shield leaders through match day 19, I would have said you were insane. But here we are. Their 2-1 win over Charlotte propelled them two points clear of Vancouver, albeit with one more game played. And they’re getting contributions from everywhere. 21-year-old Markus Anderson scored the winner, his first MLS goal, in the last minute of stoppage time to keep the Union unbeaten in their last 10.

FC Dallas beat Sporting KC 4-2 to end their 6-game winless streak. Dallas went down early after this gorgeous strike from Magomed Suleymanov, but fought back to win after a red card from Khiry Shelton. Lucho Acosta had a brace for what was easily his best game for Dallas. Neither of these teams are very good, but if Dallas gets more of this type of play from Lucho, they can sneak into the playoffs.

USMNT Gold Cup Update

The Christian Pulisic Gold Cup saga continued into the weekend. Pulisic shared in a CBS Sports interview that he asked to be part of the two friendlies prior to the Gold Cup but asked not to participate in the tournament.

Pochettino has since responded saying, “When I signed my contract in the federation, I am the head coach. I am not a mannequin. Players need to listen and stick with our plan. They cannot dictate the plan… The USMNT is bigger than any name.” Poch is putting his foot down and not letting any star players get special treatment. I get it.

Now that this is (hopefully) behind us, USMNT fans can heave a sigh of relief. They proceeded to kick off the tournament with an easy 5-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago. Malik Tillman scored a first-half brace, outrunning the entire Trinidad back line for his second goal. Tillman was impressive defensively too, with 2 interceptions, 1 clearance, and 2 tackles won. Diego Luna (who has the best mustache in sports) had 2 assists and was a dominant playmaker throughout the game. Overall, it’s a much-needed performance to take some pressure off the team and get them warmed up for more difficult opponents later in the tournament.

Next up is Saudi Arabia on Thursday at 9:15 pm ET at Q2 Stadium in Austin.

Club World Cup Update

The three MLS squads started the tournament with two losses, a draw, and a combined one goal scored. But it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

Inter Miami kicked off the tournament with a 0-0 tie against Egyptian side Al Ahly. Miami’s 38-year-old goalkeeper Oscar Ustari was the star in this one. His 8 saves included this penalty save in the first half to keep the Herons in the game. Messi nearly won the game in the last minute with this curler from outside the box. Miami really needed three points in this, as FC Porto and Palmeiras are up next.

The Seattle Sounders showed that they could hang with one of South America’s best, even though they lost 2-1 to Brazil’s Botafogo. The Sounders outshot them 23-12, had 2.2 expected goals compared to just .9 from Botafogo, and had 60% of possession. Botafogo’s manager even admitted, “We could not handle Seattle in the second half.” But ultimately, Seattle made two mistakes in the first half and couldn’t find the equalizer late. Matthew Doyle made a good point on Bluesky, “Botafoga spent $25M on new players last week, Seattle has spent $40M on players in their entire history.”

Next up is Atletico Madrid and then PSG. Boy, that’s a tough group.

LAFC held their own against Chelsea, but ultimately lost 2-0. This was basically a $1B roster vs a $50M roster, so the fact that LAFC didn’t let this get out of hand and had promising chances of their own is a great sign. Here’s a cool view of Pedro Neto’s goal from the ref cam. Every MLS ref needs to have one of these. They favored in their next match against ES Tunis of Tunisia and then will face Brazilian giant Flamengo in the final group stage game.

The German Giants Win 10-0

The story of the weekend was Bayern Munich’s 10-0 clobbering of Auckland City FC. Full highlights here if you’re into watching gory stuff.

Auckland City’s squad was comprised of mostly semi-professional players who all held day jobs just like us. A sales rep for Coca-Cola, a site engineer, a real estate analyst, and a student are just a few of their professions. Goalkeeper Connor Tracey, who works in a warehouse for a pharmaceutical company, had to take a combination of vacation days and leave without pay to play in the tournament. He played against his idol Manuel Neuer, and said it’s “100% worth it.” Because, of course, it is!

Part of me is always so curious to see how players of Auckland City’s caliber stack up against the world’s best. Like, this was never going to be remotely close to a competitive match, but it’s still mind-boggling to see the different levels of players in this tournament.

With the World Cup being expanded to 48 teams next summer, I expect we’ll see more outcomes like this on the biggest international stage as well.

Goal of the Week

This one from 53.52 yards out 😲 

Tweet of the Week

🤣 

Quick Hits

• Michael Bradley named New York Red Bulls II head coach (Link)

• First looks at Chicago Fire’s new stadium (Link)

• Atlanta United nearing deal to sign Albanian center back Enea Mihaj (Link)

• Tampa Bay Sun FC of the Women’s Super League unveils plans for new stadium (Link)

• Referee accidentally pulls out a religious card along with a red card 😂 (Link)

• Orlando City striker Duncan McGuire will be out 3-4 months with a shoulder injury (Link)

That’s a wrap. Give us some love below, and thanks for reading!

Max & Mason