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USA World Cup Kit Leaked

USA World Cup Kit Leaked

& Brenden Aaronson scores the biggest goal of his career

Max Palmer & Mason Palmer
January 07, 2026

Morning folks,

It’s the middle of the offseason, but we’ve still got 1,310 words of footy content for ya. Have at it!

🤔 MLS Offseason Moves
🇺🇸 Yanks Abroad
⚽️ Soccer Gaining More Momentum in the US
👨‍🦰 MLS Coaching Carousel
⚽️ Goal of the Week
😂 Meme of the Week

MLS Offseason Moves

MLS teams begin reporting for the offseason over the next week. Teams are still scrabbling to finalize their squads. Here’s what’s gone down.

LA Galaxy fans received devastating news on Friday. Tom Bogert reported that Riqui Puig will undergo knee surgery on the same knee that he tore his ACL in November of 2024, and he’ll likely miss the entire 2026 season. With the offseason upgrades they made and Puig’s anticipated return to the pitch, we had high expectations for this team. But now Puig will miss his second straight season in his prime. A brutal blow for one of the league’s best players. If the Galaxy put him on the season-ending injury list, they’ll be able to use his DP spot for a new player.

The Philadelphia Union sold Kai Wagner to Birmingham City last week for a fee north of $2M. Wagner proceeded to make an immediate impact on the pitch for Birmingham, getting an assist in his debut on Sunday. Tom Bogert reported that when he signed his extension with the club, if an offer of this size ever came, the club would accept it. The Union originally acquired Wagner from the German 3rd tier in 2019 for $50k. Six years and two Supporters Shield titles later, they let him go to the English Championship. It’s easily one of the best signings in recent MLS history.

Austin FC has signed Owen Wolff to a new long-term contract extension. After a breakout year in 2025 with 7 goals and 8 assists in MLS play, Austin made the smart move to keep one of its homegrown stars. The extension will make Wolff a U-22 Initiative signing.

The Houston Dynamo are in talks to sign Mateusz Bogusz from Cruz Azul. They’ve made an offer for $6.5M plus add-ons. The former LAFC man would occupy a DP spot with the Dynamo. The deal is not done yet, and other MLS clubs are interested, but Houston is in the driver’s seat to land the talented attacker.

Atlanta United is close to finalizing a deal for Argentine left back Elias Baez from San Lorenzo. The 21-year-old would join under the U-22 Initiative for a fee of around $3M. Here are his percentile rankings and per-90 values from the Argentine First Division. As you’ll see, he’s a very good defender but doesn’t add a ton to the attack.

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Yanks Abroad

The USMNT World Cup kits were allegedly leaked. Here’s what they look like. And here’s an update on some fellas that will be wearing them next summer…

Weston McKennie scored the equalizer for Juventus in its 1-1 draw against Lecce. It’s his 5th goal contribution in his last 9 games for Juve. Pundits are talking about him as the USMNT’s best-ever midfielder. It is a conversation that we need to start having. It’s also been reported that he will not renew his contract with Juventus and will likely be a free agent this summer.

Antonee Robinson was great against Liverpool over the weekend. He’s come back from injury and doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat. He has delivered at least a 7/10 rating now for 6 straight games since returning, per Fotmob.

Damian Downs has secured a transfer from Southampton to Hamburger SV on loan for the rest of the season. Downs is in search of minutes before the World Cup this summer. Hopefully, he gets them.

Josh Sargent already has two goals in 2026. He scored this header on New Year’s Day and followed it up with a wonderful strike on Sunday (scroll down). It’s his 7th league goal in their 2-1 win over QPR. Sargent is on the shortlist for a move to a few Championship and EPL teams in this January transfer window. Norwich City is sitting in a relegation position, so moves are expected to be made.

Brenden Aaronson showed his strength on the breakaway before finishing this goal against Manchester United. He’s really coming into form this season, grading above the EPL average in every major category for his position. It was a massive goal for Leeds that earned them the draw against United. It’s their 7th game unbeaten in the Premier League, their longest streak since 2001. Just look at the Leeds faithful reacting to the goal. He leads the EPL in chance creation ratio, with 5 chances created for every 100 passes.

— (@)

Soccer Stepping Up

A quiet but major shift in American sports culture is happening.

A graphic from the Economist went viral on Twitter this week. They reported that 10% of Americans now say soccer is their favorite sport, narrowly pushing it ahead of baseball. However, baseball remains ahead in terms of the most followed sports.

Spending on soccer media rights has risen fourfold in the past decade and is now greater than the amount spent on baseball. This, of course, doesn’t just encompass MLS. It includes media rights paid to cover the European leagues as well. The US has now become the biggest foreign market for the 4 largest European leagues. And we accounted for 15% of total rights spending for the 2022 World Cup, the single largest.

We love to see data like this that backs up the game's growth in our country. It’s only going up from here.

Coaching Carousel

The final two head coaching dominoes fell this week. Columbus and Kansas City both have their man.

Sporting KC has hired Rapha Wicky as its 5th permanent head coach in club history. The Swiss skipper spent 2020 and 2021 leading the Chicago Fire, where he went 12W-14D-26L and missed the playoffs by one point in 2020. He’s spent the last few years managing the BSC Young Boys, where he won the Swiss Super League and Swiss Cup.

The Crew hired Henrik Rydstrom. Rydstrom was most recently with Malmö FF of the Swedish top flight, where he won two straight league titles. He has spent most of his coaching career in his native Sweden. It’s clear the Crew wanted to find a replacement who could replicate Nancy’s attractive style, and Rydstrom’s teams are known for playing an attractive brand of soccer. But one does wonder if the Crew is disappointed they made this hire too soon because…

On Monday, Wilfried Nancy was fired after just 32 days in charge of Celtic. Nancy won two of his eight games in charge. The dismissal comes after a 3-1 loss on Saturday to bitter rivals Rangers. I couldn’t help but wonder if Columbus would have re-hired him if that had happened a week earlier? We’ll never know. Nancy will find a new home somewhere soon. Whether it be with an MLS team that fires their coach early in the season, or another club abroad, he won’t be unemployed long.

Goal of the Week

From 20 yards out. Beautiful.

— (@)

Meme of the Week

From a Crew fan nonetheless LOL. We’re not worried about Nancy. He’s going to land back on his feet and will be winning trophies somewhere before you know it.