Mattlichtenstadter

Under Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs have improved dramatically in so many ways, though there is still one area of performance that still feels like the old Spurs — performances away from home against the teams around them in the table. The performance at Anfield brought back nasty reminders of the flaws Tottenham still has, and how […]

Last season, Tottenham Hotspur had pretty much the best injury luck they could have hoped for. They lost very few players for extended periods with injury, the most long-term being Jan Vertonghen’s absence in early 2016 and he was replaced by an incredibly able Kevin Wimmer. Most of the concern for Spurs swirled around what […]

On paper, a trip for the US National Team to St. Vincent doesn’t look to be all that difficult. But the last time the US was in this position, on the road at a Caribbean minnow, they needed a stoppage time winner in Antigua to save their World Cup Qualifying campaign. Today, life was much […]

Some will call Moussa Sissoko’s last second deadline day transfer to Spurs a Daniel Levy special. Some will question whether it makes sense to spend that kind of money on a temperamental midfielder who always seemed to have his best games against Tottenham. Some will question whether Sissoko fits into Mauricio Pochettino’s younger and very […]

One of the common narratives for the new Premier League season has been how wide-open the new campaign might be. There are plenty of strong teams, plenty of new managers; an influx of even more cash, meaning what usually is a fairly crazy league might be even more unpredictable. But after Leicester City won the […]

Even when it seems all is sunshine and roses with Tottenham Hotspur, there is always a fly in the ointment. Paul Mitchell, who was recruited to join Spurs from Southampton along with his former and now current colleague Mauricio Pochettino, is leaving the club at some point in the near future, as is the player […]

Dark memories of that brutal night in Lisbon 12 years ago have haunted Portuguese soccer ever since. The dying embers of their golden generation sparked one last charge in 2006, but since then Ronaldo’s Portugal hasn’t been able to find the guile and the drive outside of their run four years ago. In these Euros, it […]

Tactics and systems matter. This really isn’t shocking or that groundbreaking in terms of soccer analysis, but if there’s any trend that has emerged from this summer in both the United States and France, it’s that talent can only take a team so far. While this hasn’t been elaborated on all that much with regards […]

Despite losses in the last two summers in major tournament Finals for Argentina and Lionel Messi, he somehow managed to keep his expression in check, as well as his disappointment. But by the third time last night at MetLife Stadium, the weight of the world, the internal turmoil at the Argentinian FA and the pressure […]

Losing 4-0 to anyone will always look terrible, no matter the opponent, even if it’s against one of the world’s best teams. Argentina might not have moved out of second gear Tuesday night, but even in cruise control they still looked nearly untouchable. Though the US played badly, and may not have set themselves up to […]

Maybe the story of this wonderful summer of soccer can be how even though teams can defend marvelously for nearly an entire game, fate isn’t often as kind to them. Though teams like Northern Ireland and Italy have proven you can win on the strength of solid shape and heroic defending, sometimes fate doesn’t smile […]

Under Marcelo Bielsa and Jorge Sampaoli, Chile went from one of the afterthoughts of South American soccer to one of the most entertaining national teams on the planet. The transformation was sometimes slow and rough, and Claudio Borghi’s tenure was not a pleasant one in between the teacher and student. After Sampaoli resigned earlier this […]

Before this Copa America, Jurgen Klinsmann said that his goal was to make the semifinals of the tournament. Some scoffed and some wondered whether that goal was attainable. Now, as the US prepares to head to Houston for the semifinal on Tuesday against Argentina or Venezuela, Klinsmann and his team deserve the credit for not […]

Even before John Brooks became a US Men’s National Team star, he was always regarded as one of the brightest prospects for the future. His brief and few appearances for US youth teams offered guarded optimism about the future of a position that had become quite unsettled after Carlos Bocanegra’s retirement and Oguchi Onyewu’s injury […]

When American college basketball player, coach, and broadcaster Jim Valvano coined the term “survive and advance,” he certainly wasn't referring to a must-not-lose final game in the group stage of a major tournament. After the US survived going down to 10 men for the majority of the second half against Paraguay, the term feels apt. […]