United States Wins Milk Cup

The United States U-20 team defeated host Northern Ireland in the Milk Cup finals.

More on the game when the official recap is released at US Soccer.

United States Women Defeat Korea, Win U-20 World Cup Group

Sydney Leroux is going for back to back golden boots

The defending champion Americans needed to not lose to assure themselves of a place in the quarterfinals, and they did better than that, snatching a 1-0 win from Korea to win their group. UCLA star Sydney Leroux scored the lone goal in the game, coming in the 21st minute just after she had missed another chance on net.

A native of Canada, Leroux had two caps with Canada’s U-20 team before switching to the United States. She had 5 goals in the last U-20 World Cup to win the golden shoe, and is well on her way to doing so again.

With the win, the United States gets an automatic berth into the final 8 as winners of their group and they will face Nigeria on Sunday.

Qatar to bid for 2022 World Cup

It is expected that England will get the 2018 cup, and that the United States will get the 2022 World Cup, but the tiny Arabian nation of Qatar is expected to put up a strong and extravagant bid for that 2022 World Cup. The Qatar 2022 bid has released their proposal for five of the stadiums and the surrounding areas, and as you would expect, it is awesome:

US Loses In Gold Cup Final

Even though it was the backup group, The United States suffered a demoralizing defeat in the Gold Cup final yesterday, losing 5-0 to Mexico. The United States controlled play for the first half, but seemed to get demoralized by Mexico’s first goal, which was the first of five scored in the second half.

The first goal was a bit controversial: Jay Heaps was called for a penalty after taking down Gio dos Santos in the box, but replays showed that dos Santos went down very easily, and hit Heaps in the face to boot.

Although the 5-0 loss is tough to take, there are some things to draw from the Gold Cup: The U.S. exceeded all realistic expectations, taking mostly B-teamers to the Gold Cup and winning with them. This tournament also saw the emergence of Stuart Holden, who in my opinion leapt ahead of Sacha Kljestan in the pecking order, and could be used in a variety of ways in South Africa 2010. Secondly, I have bought in to Bob Bradley. He has showed that in pre-match tactics, he is among the best coaches in the world. As a former Bob Bradley hater, that was an extremely tough sentence to write. He definitely has a long way to go as far as in game changes though. He needs to sub sooner and make necessary formation changes. And last but not least, goalkeeper Tony Perkins emerged and is now probably the 3rd choice keeper for the full national team.

All in all the tournament was good for some players (Holden) to emerge and this should have no bearing on the big World Cup Qualifier in Mexico in August.