Morning friends,

Max here. Welcome to our new readers that joined this week especially Alicia, Jonathan, Stephanie, and Jeremy. Big week of League’s Cup and Olympic action. You know the deal… let’s get to it.

• 🏆️ League’s Cup Action

• 🇺🇸 USMNT Olympic Update

• 🇺🇸 USWNT Olympic Update

• 🇨🇦 Canadian Spy Games

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Tweet of the Week

League’s Cup Action

Yes, this tournament feels hollow at times. Maybe that will change. It’s only the second year. Stopping the season amidst one of the best Shield races ever doesn’t sit well but hey… we don’t make the rules 🤷 

So for now, we’ll keep you updated on it. Some highlights so far:

Attendance

Supporter’s groups from 15 different clubs are protesting the League’s Cup. They’re expressing their displeasure with how MLS has handled the withdrawal from the US Open Cup to focus more on League’s Cup. Many of the fans are boycotting the games. Atlanta United’s fans didn’t have their usual turnout. Orlando City’s matchup was also quite empty.

But it wasn’t all empty seats. The Timbers packed Providence Park with 21,668 for their matchup against Club Leon. 50,675 watched San Jose pull off the upset over Chivas Guadalajara with a 1-1 win on penalties at Levi’s Stadium making it a League’s Cup record.

Compared to 2023 opening weekend, this League’s Cup had a 24% increase in attendance. And that’s without Messi playing. This tournament isn’t going anywhere. We might as well learn to enjoy it.

MLS Dominant

MLS is 10-2 against Liga MX teams so far. Two of those wins have come through penalties. It’s a good sign that the league is improving over its continental rival. Even bottom tier MLS squads like San Jose and Austin beat Liga MX giants Chivas and Monterrey.

Of course, all these games are played in the US so MLS has home field advantage. But so many of these games are packed with fans of Liga MX teams that it doesn’t always feel like a home game.

USMNT Olympic Update

The USMNT under-23 squad played all three of their group-stage games this past week.

France 3 - 0 USA

Led by Thierry Henry, the French team showed why they are favorites to win the tournament. The US held its own for the first 60 minutes with a compact and aggressive style before the individual class of France took over. It’s easy to understand the results when you see respective value of the two starting XI from this game.

USA 4 - 1 New Zealand

With the same starting lineup, the US looked much more comfortable in attack compared to their timid approach at times vs France. An early penalty from Mihailovic got our first Olympic goal since 2008. Two more goals from Walker Zimmerman and Gianluca Busio followed in the first half and the route was on. The US was firmly in control the entire match in what was a must win.

USA 3 - 0 Guinea

Kevin Paredes introduced himself to US fans yesterday with a complete performance. His brace put this one to bed in the 76th minute. Djordje Mihailovic opened up the scoring with a gorgeous free kick. This was an easy one over a far inferior opponent.

For the second time in history and the first time in 24 years the US advance to the quarterfinal. The’ll try to become the first men’s team to win an Olympic Medal in the modern era. Next up is Morocco on Friday.

USWNT Olympic Update

What a week for the ladies! After a tough World Cup in 2023 that saw our coach fired, the USWNT came out firing in their first two games in Paris. With a top new coach under the helm in Emma Hayes, the US seems to have no issue scoring goals again.

USA 3 - 0 Zambia

Easy-peasy. Trinity Rodman opened the scoring with an insane goal, and Mallory Swanson followed up with a 70-second brace that left the Zambian defense reeling. Captain Lindsey Horan was instrumental, providing two assists. Despite some missed opportunities, the U.S. outshot Zambia 27-8 and won comfortably against the 64th-ranked team in the world.

USA 4 - 1 Germany

Germany was expected to be a tough matchup for us, having won the 2016 Olympic Gold medal and been semi-finalist in the last World Cup. We started with the same lineup as we did against Zambia. The American front three took over once again with Mallory Swanson slotting one and Sophia Smith putting two in the back of the net in the first half. Trinity Rodman completes the front three and had some of the nastiest 1v1s we’ve seen in the tournament. A late goal from substitute Lynn Williams closed out an amazing showing from the women.

The Emma Hayes USA era has started, and it doesn’t look good for the rest of the world. We take on Australia for our final group stage match on Wednesday night, but we’re already through to the next round.

Canadian Spy Games

An MLS league spokesperson had to inform teams this week that recording opposing teams’ training sessions is against MLS rules…sounds obvious, right? The Canadian Soccer Federation didn’t think so.

Canada Soccer’s coaching staff and contractors have been caught in a years-long scheme to spy on their opponents' closed-door training sessions. This includes incidents during the women's gold-medal winning run in the 2021 Olympics and an attempt before a 2022 qualifier against Panama.

This surfaced last Monday when assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi were sent home after Lombardi was caught using a drone to film New Zealand's training at the Paris Olympics. French police (yeah, the police got involved😂) nabbed Lombardi and found incriminating footage and texts implicating Mander. As a result, head coach Bev Priestman was removed from her position for the rest of the Olympics after new evidence emerged about prior drone use.

Current Toronto FC coach and former Canada national team coach John Herdman has been snatched up into this. Multiple close sources have said he knew and was aware of the drone spying while coaching the men’s team. The Canadian Men’s team was reportedly shown footage of a Honduran closed practice a day before they played in 2021.

Simply wild stuff.

Goal of the Week

Yup, that’ll work.

Tweet of the Week

Twitter never fails 🤣 

Quick Hits

• Cavan Sullivan gets his 3rd goal contribution in his last 5 professional starts (Link)

• Andres Gomez is attracting interest from European giants (Link)

• Inter Miami agree to sell Diego Gomez to Brighton for €10M (Link)

• Columbus Crew acquire Dejuan Jones from the Revolution for Will Sands and allocation money (Link)

Alright, y’all. Enough from us. Have a great week!