Matty Knips

🇨🇦🇮🇹 En Canadá hay una población italiana de 1,5 millones de personas. Tras el fracaso de Italia en el próximo Mundial, la selección canadiense lanzó una acción donde podías cambiar tu camiseta de Italia por la de Canadá. Y la respuesta fue masiva 😂

ESPNFC host Dan Thomas doesn’t understand why the USMNT are playing friendlies against big teams. He says if he’s playing tennis against someone who is just scoring aces past him, what is he learning? Former USMNT midfielder Jermaine Jones disagrees with that statement. “As a player, you always want to play against the best,” Jones replied to Thomas. “I think you're in the wrong sport if you say, I want to play against smaller teams just to win games.” “You go into a World Cup, you have to face anybody there. Even now, when I look at the group stage, it's Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey. You're not just walking through that group.” “So now you're finishing up [friendlies] with Senegal and Germany. I'm living here right now [in Germany] and I'm looking at it like, ‘Guys, don't be, you know, silly. Germany will not be just a walkthrough. They have a really, really strong team.’” “Also, Senegal just came back from winning the Africa Cup, and they have a good team too.” “But I strongly believe that we have a good team, and we have to find the way to put the best players on the field, put the players in the best positions they can play, and not just try stuff out.” “Because we all know as closer you get to the World Cup, you have to find a balance in the group. You have to figure out who's working with each other.” “Now it's about bringing in players that have excitement to go to a World Cup. Players are getting trust with each other. They get hope, they believe.” “And that was a slogan for us. We’ve always had belief, right? Like we say always in the U.S., believe and believe.” “Go back to what [Mauricio] Pochettino says about how Portugal have bigger players and everything. But hey, we have players that play for Milan. We have players that play for Juve. We have players in England, we have players in Germany.” “I believe if you make a clear picture of who’s going to the World Cup, then as a collective and as a team, you will actually player better because you’re starting to fit the pieces and get a better look at the whole team.”

This angle of Folarin Balogun's goal for Monaco 🤫 What a finish. What a player 🇺🇸🔥

After switching from USMNT, Obed Vargas is feeling at home in Mexico. He started vs Portugal last night. A few days ago, Obed was asked about his decision to switch. “It sounds bad to say it. But I always knew since I was a child that Mexico is where I want to play,” he said in a TV Azteca interview. “So when the opportunity presented itself, I said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ And I didn’t think twice.” “There are many cases where it would be hard to make a decision between two countries, and I understand that too. But for me, it was a quick decision. I took it when I was 18.” The midfielder played for the U.S. in the 2023 U-20 World Cup, but filed a one-time switch to Mexico in 2024. After coming up through Seattle Sounders, Obed left for Atlético Madrid this year. So he was asked if he also had dreams to play in Mexico before the move. “My dream has always been to go to Europe,” the 20-year-old answered. Obed will want to finish this season strong and get minutes in the World Cup.