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USA Today
an hour ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Major League Soccer adds six players to All-Star roster: Who made the list?
Major League Soccer Golden Boot co-leader Sam Surridge, and former league MVPs Hany Mukhtar and Carles Gil are among six players added to the 2025 MLS All-Star roster, the league announced Tuesday, July 15. Surridge has been a frontrunner in the MLS Golden Boot race this season with 16 goals – a mark recently tied by Inter Miami All-Star Lionel Messi in the last month – but was a notable snub when the All-Star roster was first announced on June 25. Surridge will make his first All-Star appearance. The 2025 MLS All-Star Game will be played on Wednesday, July 23 at 9 p.m. ET (MLS Season Pass on Apple TV), with the MLS All-Stars facing off against standouts from Mexico's LIGA MX at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas. The additions were made by MLS All-Star head coach Nico Estévez of Austin FC. Surridge and Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS MVP making his fourth consecutive All-Star appearance, have been instrumental in helping Nashville SC to second place in the Eastern Conference behind the Philadelphia Union. Mukhtar is one of four players in MLS with 10 goals and eight assists this season. He joins the other three already named 2025 All-Stars in Cincinnati's Evander (13 goals, eight assists) and San Diego's Anders Dreyer (11 goals, 15 assists) and Orlando City's Martín Ojeda (10 goals, nine assists). Mukhtar leads all players with 76 goals and 132 goal contributions since joining MLS in 2020. Gil, a midfielder for the New England Revolution and the MLS MVP in 2021, earns his third All-Star nod leading the club with 15 goal contributions (eight goals, seven assists) in 21 matches this season. San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Cristian Espinoza earns his second MLS All-Star Game appearance. He has 11 assists and four goals in 20 matches, and has recorded at least 11 assists in each of the last four seasons. Orlando City SC forwardMarco Pašalić, an All-Star for the first time, has 10 goals and four assists in 22 matches during his first season with the club. Seattle Sounders FC midfielder Obed Vargas, who became the third-youngest player in MLS history to appear in a match at 16 in 2022, is also a first-time All-Star. The 19-year-old midfielder has a goal and three assists in 18 starts during the regular season, and is considered one of the league's most promising young players. Messi, 38, is the oldest player on the 2025 MLS All-Star roster followed by his Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba, 36. It's unclear whether the Argentine World Cup champion and 2024 MLS MVP will participate in the showcase. He did not last year. Seven players from the U.S. men's national team were among MLS All-Stars initially announced: Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte), Max Arfsten (Columbus), Alex Freeman (Orlando), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake), Miles Robinson (Cincinnati), Sebastian Berhalter and Brian White (Vancouver). Austin FC forward Brandon Vazquez won't participate after he suffered a season-ending ACL tear in his right knee during the US Open Cup quarterfinal match against San Jose Earthquakes on July 8. 2025 MLS All-Star roster by position and selection mechanism
New York Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Think Red Sox fans would cheer Aaron Judge the way Revs fans cheer Messi? Didn't think so
BOSTON — A friend texted the other day to say he took his son to Gillette Stadium Wednesday night to watch the New England Revolution host Inter Miami and its galactic superstar footballer from Argentina, Lionel Messi. 'And the stadium was 75% for Messi,' my friend wrote. 'Many thousands (including my kid) wearing his shirt.' Advertisement Considering the attendance was 43,293 for the Revolution's 2-1 loss, that's a lot of Inter Miami shirts. I reached out to some other friends who also happen to be sturdy, longtime Revolution fans. 'Yeah, I was there,' one of them shot right back. 'I'd say less than 75 percent but definitely a lot.' Another old pal, also in the house that night, wrote this: '75% is accurate. There were loads of Messi/Inter Miami jerseys.' For most of you, perhaps all of you, this is not news. When Messi-led Inter Miami played the Revolution at Gillette in 2024, a franchise record 65,612 fans turned out. And anyway, it's a long-standing tradition in the United States for fans to bestow Beatles-like devotion on visiting soccer superstars. Whether the match is a league competition or a friendly, fans love the legends — and Messi, who scored both Inter Miami goals, didn't disappoint. 🚨 Watch: Lionel Messi gets a standing ovation from the crowd after yet another magical performance. 🐐🤩👏@M10GOAT — Inter Miami News Hub (@Intermiamicfhub) July 10, 2025 This isn't some newfangled, cool-kids, TikTokian thing. As far back as July 8, 1968, a crowd of 18,431 turned out at Fenway Park to watch — and cheer — as Brazilian soccer legend Pelé led Santos FC to a 7-1 victory over the 'home team,' the one-season-and-done Boston Beacons of the North American Soccer League. It was instantly proclaimed the largest crowd ever to watch a soccer game in New England. Why do soccer fans go ga-ga over out-of-town players in a way you'd never see in baseball, football, hockey or basketball? The answers are easy. Too easy, in fact. Yes, a big part of it is national pride. Pelé is from Brazil, Messi from Argentina. As New England has the second-largest Brazilian community of any state in the country, that's a built-in fan base to watch not just Pelé but other South American stars as well. Including Messi, of course. Advertisement Part of it, I guess, is a bucket list thing. Surely, there are people who filed into Fenway Park on that July evening in 1968 so they could say they saw Pelé play. But it goes way beyond that. Fans turn out at ballparks throughout MLB to watch Shohei Ohtani, but they don't wear Dodger shirts unless they're Dodgers fans. It was doubtless the same during the Tom Brady era, with fans clamoring to watch the greatest quarterback of all time without deigning to climb into a New England Patriots or Tampa Bay Buccaneers shirt. It's different in soccer — that is, in the USA. Yes, there are plenty of expats who turn out at Gillette Stadium to watch Messi. Maybe even some ex-Pats. (Memo to self: Ring up old buddy Steve DeOssie, a former New England Patriot, and ask if he owns a Messi jersey.) Bottom line: Soccer fans in this country have a respect for the game that extends beyond team colors. However, we need not bother with a statistical or sociological study to explain why this is so. Let's accept it for what it is. Besides, I have a larger point I want to make, and it begins with a question: Have there been times in the history of the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics and Patriots when fans devoted an entire game to cheering a player on another team? (This is not a rhetorical question. You're invited to make your own submissions in the comments section.) Leo makes it two! 🐐 For the fourth straight MLS game, Messi has a brace. — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 10, 2025 We can all cite examples of former Boston sports heroes who returned to town and were wildly cheered — to a degree. Brady's return with the Bucs comes quickly to mind. Carlton Fisk with the Chicago White Sox as well. And, oh, Paul Pierce with the Brooklyn Nets. Among so many others. They were cheered, and then fans resumed rooting for the Pats, Red Sox and Celtics. I'm certain Bruins legend Bobby Orr would have been cheered beginning to end had he ever played at the old Boston Garden as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, just as Celtics legend Bob Cousy would have received similar treatment had he played at the Garden during his cameo with the Cincinnati Royals. Those guys were in a different class and from a different time. Alas, Orr's lone game against the Bruins was at Chicago Stadium, and Cousy's seven games with the 1969-70 Royals included no showdowns against the Celtics, so we'll never know. We've seen many instances in which Boston fans cheered a soon-to-retire opposing star who's in town for the last time. Yankees stars Catfish Hunter in 1979 and Derek Jeter in 2014 quickly come to mind. Richard Johnson, longtime curator of The Sports Museum, notes that Red Sox fans were in a particularly nostalgic mood on the night Hunter bade Fenway adieu, as they were waiting anxiously for Carl Yastrzemski to log his 3,000th career hit. Hunter came out of the game in the fifth inning. Yaz collected hit No. 3,000 in the eighth inning, a ground-ball single to right off Jim Beattie. Advertisement Johnson also cited that time when Boston fans cheered an entire opposing team. We speak, of course, of the closing minutes of Game 7 of the 1982 Eastern Conference finals, with the Philadelphia 76ers wrapping up what would be a 120-106 victory over the Celtics. That's when the Garden masses began chanting, 'Beat LA! Beat LA! Beat LA!' — the idea being that, as much as they hated the 76ers, they hated the Los Angeles Lakers more. (The Lakers took out Philly in six games in the NBA Finals.) My contribution here would be Opening Day at Fenway Park on April 8, 1975. The Fenway opener is always magical, but this one was in a class all its own. For the Red Sox, hometown hero Tony Conigliaro, who grew up on Boston's North Shore, was making his second comeback following the 1967 beaning that cruelly derailed his brilliant career. For the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, baseball's newly-crowned home run king, Henry Aaron, was about to play his first game in the American League. Aaron had originally signed with the Boston Braves, made it to the big leagues with the Milwaukee Braves, and broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record with the Atlanta Braves. Now he was closing out his brilliant career with Milwaukee's American League club, and the baseball gods sent the Brewers to Boston to open the season. I was there that day. We cheered wildly when Aaron was introduced during the pregame ceremony. We cheered wildly each time he came to bat. I believe I speak for the 34,055 fans in attendance when I state that everyone was rooting for Aaron to hit a home run. He did not. Instead, he went 0-for-3 and Luis Tiant pitched the Sox to a complete-game 5-2 victory. We'd all have been happier had it been a 5-3 victory, with a home run by Hammerin' Hank supplying the extra run. But even so, rooting for Aaron that day wasn't the same as Boston fans rooting for, say, Pelé. Look at it this way: Whether or not Aaron was playing for the Brewers, Fenway Park was going to be sold out on Opening Day in 1975. Not so whenever Pelé was in town. In an article for New England Soccer Journal in 2022, following Pelé's death at age 82, writer Frank Dell'Apa notes that the Brazilian soccer legend made four playing appearances over the years in the Boston area. The first was the 1968 match at Fenway Park. The Boston Globe apparently didn't think it was a big deal, given that it sent an intern to cover the game. Then again, the intern was rising University of North Carolina senior Peter Gammons, who would later gain fame as one of the greatest baseball writers of all time. As Gammons noted in his game story, 'Pelé received cheer after cheer from the curious crowd that had heard and read about his mystique, and although he only scored once and assisted on one goal he proved to be one of the most exciting athletes anyone has ever seen in this area.' It probably won't surprise you that Gammons, now 80, remembers the game as though it was played last night. Advertisement 'People wanted to appreciate him,' Gammons told me. 'Soccer, football, whatever you want to call it, really wasn't very big at the time in Boston. I don't think it was entirely a Brazilian crowd, with everyone from New Bedford coming up. It was a large, appreciative crowd.' Nobody appreciated it more than Gammons. 'I was still in college, and my fraternity was St. Anthony Hall, which had a lot of soccer and lacrosse players,' Gammons said. 'I remember (sports editor) Fran Rosa from the Globe saying to me, 'I think you'll have some fun with this assignment. It's something different.' And it was. I was covering one of the most celebrated soccer players in soccer history playing in one of the most celebrated baseball parks in history.' Pelé's next visit to Boston was on June 30, 1972, with Santos FC taking on the Boston Astros of the American Soccer League. The result was pretty much the same — Santos 6, Astros 1 — but not the interest. Depending on which account you read, only 1,000 to 2,500 fans showed up. All kinds of reasons were given, from heavy fog and high ticket prices to 'a false radio report that the game was cancelled,' according to the Globe. Things were quite different on June 20, 1975, when Pelé, now playing for the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League, arrived at Nickerson Field to play Boston's latest pro soccer outfit, the Minutemen, and their big star player, Eusébio. Pelé was 34 and past his prime, but no matter. A huge crowd turned out for the occasion, with estimates ranging from 18,000 to 20,000 to 22,000 to even 30,000. But no need to squabble. The old ballpark was packed and then some. And it only had seating for some 12,500. The Minutemen won 2-1 in overtime. Eusébio scored a goal on a direct kick. Pelé put the ball in the net soon thereafter, but his effort was stricken from the books because of a pushing-off violation. Advertisement But ball control was not the story of this game. It was crowd control. As a result of too many people being crammed into too small an area and not enough security to keep everyone in line, fans rushed the field to a degree that Pelé wound up being carried off the field on a stretcher. It's not clear if that was a precautionary measure, perhaps even an attempt to quell the crowd, but Pelé did come out of it with a bruised right knee and ankle. As Charles Scoggins of the Lowell (Mass.) Sun put it in his account of the game, 'When you read from time to time in the sports pages about those wild soccer riots in South America, you were always able to content yourself by thinking, thank goodness it can't happen here! Well, it can. And it almost did last night at Boston University's Nickerson Field.' Ouch. All across the country, newspapers carried wire-service accounts that focused more on the crowd control than the actual game. Readers of the Biddeford-Saco Journal in Maine woke up to 'Pelé Mobbed by Frenzied Fans.' The Honolulu Star-Bulletin went with 'Mob Shakes Up Pelé.' In The Berkeley (Calif.) Gazette it was, 'Pandemonium reigns at Boston for Pelé.' There was no such mayhem Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium. The Revolution tend to draw a family crowd, and Gillette is a big, modern place with security people who know what they're doing. But just as at Fenway in '68 and Nickerson Field in '75, people came to see a legend. And that's not a bad thing. It's Messi! ⚡ Miami takes the 1-0 lead in New England. — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 10, 2025 'If you're born in Boston and you're a baseball fan, you're very likely growing up supporting the Red Sox,' said Adam Klionsky, director of communications for the Revolution. 'If it's basketball, it's the Celtics. In soccer, there's an appreciation for that level of greatness and the spectacle of one of the most iconic players in the world coming to town.' Perhaps the day will come when enlightened Red Sox fans stand up and cheer the Yankees' Aaron Judge, he being one of the most iconic baseball players in the world. Then again, perhaps not.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Cole Palmer's ‘ice-cold' reaction to Trump after POTUS' awkward Messi comment
Several social media users pointed out that Cole Palmer was 'reluctant' to shake hands with President Donald Trump as the latter handed him the Golden Boy trophy after Chelsea's 3-0 win against PSG in the Club World Cup final on Sunday. Some X users said the English attacking midfielder was visibly 'uncomfortable'. President Donald Trump presents Cole Palmer the Golden Ball trophy at the FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium (Getty Images via AFP) Earlier in the day, Trump appeared to confuse Palmer with Inter Miami star Lionel Messi. Viewers spotted the 79-year-old asking FIFA President Gianni Infantino if the Chelsea star was Messi. Infantino instantly corrected him. During the awards ceremony, Cole Palmer was named the player of the tournament. Trump handed the 23-year-old the golden ball. However, Chelsea fans noticed that the Chelsea star's reaction was 'ice-cold'. 'Cole Palmer doesn't rate Trump,' one fan wrote on X, platform formerly known as Twitter. Read More: Why Trump was booed at Club World Cup final between PSG and Chelsea. Exact moment caught on camera 'Can't lie Palmer looked uncomfortable as **** at the prospect of shaking hands with Trump there,' another one added. 'You can tell Palmer can't believe his life,' a third fan tweeted. "Did Cole Palmer even realise he just met president Trump?" another one joked. Trump then got involved in Chelsea's trophy lift, standing in the middle of the squad on the podium. The moment was described by fans as plain 'awkward'. At half-time, the president credited Messi for the popularity of soccer in the US. The Argentine joined Inter Miami after an ugly PSG exit. He now has scored a brace in five consecutive games. Cole Palmer feeling confident "It's a great feeling. Even better because everyone doubted us before the game, we knew that. To put a fight on like we did, it's good," Palmer told DAZN after Chelsea's win on Sunday. "I like finals. It's happened again. The gaffer put a great gameplan out. He knew where the space was going to be. He tried to free me up as much as possible and I just had to repay him and score some goals. He is building something special, something important. Everyone has talked a lot of s*** about us all season but I feel like we are going in the right direction," he added.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Sport
- CTV News
Lionel Messi extends MLS record-breaking streak, scoring two goals against Nashville SC
Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring his first goal on July CNN Newsource Lionel Messi scored two goals in Inter Miami's 2-1 victory over Nashville SC on Saturday, extending his record-breaking streak of scoring multiple goals in a Major League Soccer game to five. Victory marked Miami's fifth consecutive win too and snapped Nashville's 15-match unbeaten streak in the league. Messi opened the scoring in the 17th minute, threading a free kick from just outside the box through a hole in Nashville's defensive wall and into the corner of the net, past the outstretched fingertips of goalkeeper Joe Willis. That gave Miami a 1-0 lead until Nashville equalized just after halftime when Hany Mukhtar headed in Andy Nájar's perfectly-weighted cross. A little over 10 minutes later, Messi put Miami back in front, capitalizing on a mistake from Willis who simply passed the ball to the Argentinian as he tried to clear it. Although Willis tried to atone for his lapse in concentration, Messi simply dribbled the ball around him and fired in an easy winner. Not since 2012 when he played for Barcelona has Messi scored more than one goal in five consecutive league games, according to ESPN – though, admittedly, LaLiga is a very different league to the MLS. 'There aren't very many words. It's incredible what he continues to do,' Miami head coach Javier Mascherano told reporters afterward, per MLS. 'To break great records now every three days… I've said it a thousand times today; he is the flag for our team. 'He is the one. He's the leader. He shows us the way to compete.' Messi has scored 16 goals so far this season – with 10 of those, as well as five assists – coming in his last five games. Miami, meanwhile, is fifth in the Eastern Conference but with three games in hand on all the teams above them. A win in all three games – while no small feat – would put the team top of the league.
Khaleej Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
Messi at the double again to lift Miami to MLS win over Nashville
Lionel Messi continued his historic Major League Soccer scoring run on Saturday, netting two goals for the fifth game in a row to lift Inter Miami to a 2-1 victory over Nashville. Just days after he became the first player to score multiple goals in four straight MLS matches, Messi did it again as Miami continued their climb up the Eastern Conference standings after their league hiatus for the Club World Cup. Messi, the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, opened the scoring in the 17th minute with a trademark left-foot free-kick, which found the only gap in Nashville's defensive wall to go past goalkeeper Joe Willis. Miami dominated in the first half but, just four minutes after half-time, Hany Mukhtar's header pulled Nashville level. Messi grabbed the winner in the 62nd minute when he capitalised on a bad mistake from Willis, who misjudged a pass to tee up the Argentine for the strike. The two goals -- on the heels of his two in a 2-1 win over New England on Wednesday -- took Messi's total to 16 in 16 appearances this season, tied with Nashville's Sam Surridge, who was unable to add to his tally of 16 on Saturday. "There are not many words. It's incredible what he keeps doing, breaking records now every three days, not even every weekend," Miami coach Javier Mascherano said. "He is the standard-bearer of our team that shows us the way to compete. He is the leader. "It's a blessing for me to accompany this stage of his career." Miami were playing their third match since returning to MLS action in the wake of a month-long Club World Cup campaign that ended when they were eliminated in the last 16 by Paris Saint-Germain. With 38 points from 19 matches, they are in fifth place in the East, five points behind leaders Philadelphia with three games in hand. Philadelphia went top with a 2-0 victory over New York Red Bulls, Indiana Vassilev and Bruno Damiani delivering the goals. Cincinnati slipped to second in the East on 42 points after falling 4-2 to Columbus. Nashville and Columbus both have 41 points. Miami's jam-packed schedule continues Wednesday against Cincinnati, with the New York Red Bulls coming up next weekend. Mascherano knows he will have to find time to give the 38-year-old Messi some rest. "At some point we are going to have to find a space to give him some rest, we are going to talk about it day by day," he said. "He is feeling good and when we think it is time to give him some rest, we will do it."
