Latest news with #MLSSupporter'sShield
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Charlotte FC trades for Inter Miami's Drake Callender
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Charlotte FC acquired goalkeeper Drake Callender from Inter Miami, the clubs announced on Tuesday. Inter Miami received $400,000 in general allocation money for 2025, and another $350,000 for 2026. Miami could also receive $75,000 in conditional general allocation money, and will retain a sell-on percentage in the event of a future permanent trade or transfer of the goalkeeper. Callender, 27, has barely played this season after suffering an injury while playing with the United States national team in January. He had sports hernia surgery in May before losing his starting role to 39-year-old Oscar Ustari. Callender joined Inter Miami in 2019 ahead of the club's inaugural season and spent two seasons in the club's development pathway with Inter Miami CF II before making his first start for the first team in 2022. 'Drake joins our squad with three-plus years of MLS experience and is entering a great stage for goalkeeper development,' Charlotte general manager Zoran Krneta said in a statement. 'His MLS experience and recent national team call-ups make him a key piece to help strengthen our goalkeeping core as we continue to build the strongest squad possible for the run-in, but also an eye towards the future.' Callender was the starting goalkeeper during Inter Miami's record-breaking run to the 2024 MLS Supporter's Shield and also helped Miami clinch the Leagues Cup title in 2023. He won the tournament's Best Goalkeeper award that year. The player from Sacramento, California, has made a club-record 118 appearances across all competitions, including 96 in MLS play. He gave up 140 goals and had 14 shutouts for Inter Miami. ___
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
Charlotte FC trades for Inter Miami's Drake Callender
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Charlotte FC acquired goalkeeper Drake Callender from Inter Miami, the clubs announced on Tuesday. Inter Miami received $400,000 in general allocation money for 2025, and another $350,000 for 2026. Miami could also receive $75,000 in conditional general allocation money, and will retain a sell-on percentage in the event of a future permanent trade or transfer of the goalkeeper. Callender, 27, has barely played this season after suffering an injury while playing with the United States national team in January. He had sports hernia surgery in May before losing his starting role to 39-year-old Oscar Ustari. Callender joined Inter Miami in 2019 ahead of the club's inaugural season and spent two seasons in the club's development pathway with Inter Miami CF II before making his first start for the first team in 2022. 'Drake joins our squad with three-plus years of MLS experience and is entering a great stage for goalkeeper development,' Charlotte general manager Zoran Krneta said in a statement. 'His MLS experience and recent national team call-ups make him a key piece to help strengthen our goalkeeping core as we continue to build the strongest squad possible for the run-in, but also an eye towards the future.' Callender was the starting goalkeeper during Inter Miami's record-breaking run to the 2024 MLS Supporter's Shield and also helped Miami clinch the Leagues Cup title in 2023. He won the tournament's Best Goalkeeper award that year. The player from Sacramento, California, has made a club-record 118 appearances across all competitions, including 96 in MLS play. He gave up 140 goals and had 14 shutouts for Inter Miami. ___ AP soccer:
The Herald Scotland
07-06-2025
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
FIFA's expanded Club World Cup an exercise in self indulgence
It went like this: "Truly, and for the first time, club football will unite the world – and Qatar Airways will be a key partner to the FIFA Club World Cup in making this happen." It's just an incredible collection of words, isn't it? Although it does seem somewhat at odds with the current global news cycle, one dominated by death and suffering. Self-awareness, it seems, doesn't matter when there's tickets to Botafogo vs Seattle Sounders on a Monday afternoon needing punted. The man behind this masterpiece in corporate-sponsored waffle was, of course, FIFA president Gianni Infantino. This expanded Club World Cup is his brainchild, a project the head of world football's governing body has pursued so relentlessly that it must surely be in response to a voracious appetite within the game for it to happen. Again, though, that jars with players' union FIFPRO last year filing a complaint to the European Commission over FIFA's 'imposition of the international match calendar', citing this summer's Club World Cup, and the 2026 World Cup. As well as raising concerns around player welfare, the complaint read: "FIFA's behaviour also threatens the economic and social sustainability and stability of important national competitions which have been enjoyed for generations by fans in Europe and around the world." Just this week, Manchester City's Manuel Akanji diplomatically suggested he and his team-mates were 'not overjoyed' about participating following a season in which they already competed in four competitions. "FIFA can forget about it," said Carlo Ancelotti in May, then still Real Madrid manager, albeit he then went on to say that his misgivings were around his club's participation being financially undervalued. Real did eventually accept the invite. Still, though, all of this is hardly a ringing endorsement of an event FIFA have heralded as the 'pinnacle of club football'. The pinnacle for who? The fans? Ticket prices for the opening game - Inter Miami vs Ah-Ahly, in Miami - have been cut amid reports that 'tens of thousands' of seats remain unsold. Most supporters would surely rather their team were afforded a bit of recovery time before the games that really matter swing round again before long. Pinnacle for the players, then? I think unions filing complaints to the European Commission suggests there's a bit of dissent among them. The whole thing just feels incredibly forced. Inter Miami qualified via winning the MLS Supporter's Shield - having the most points at the end of the 'regular' season - and not whoever prevails in the ensuing play-offs and claims the MLS Cup, regarded as the top prize in US domestic football. Would those qualifying criteria have applied if one Lionel Messi were not an Inter Miami player? I couldn't possibly say. And then there was the downright bizarre episode at the end of last month when Infantino appeared as a guest of YouTuber ' iShowSpeed' - a guy who moves and talks as though somebody pressed a fast-forward button and it got stuck - to insinuate Cristiano Ronaldo could make an appearance at the Club World Cup via the 'special transfer window' implemented for competing clubs. You do wonder how the club who actually employs Ronaldo, Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr, felt about that. Modern football lost the plot a while ago, but the president of FIFA doing his best Fabrizio Romano act on a live stream to millions of people, most of them probably bored kids who'd never heard of him, was one of those moments that raised the thought of whether it's actually me who is out of touch, who no longer understands the audience FIFA is trying to appeal to. Never fear, though, because if you prefer your Club World Cup content a little more retro, then Panini have a released a good, old-fashioned sticker album commemorating it. And, if you're lucky enough to get hold of the right sticker pack then you could bag yourself a gold sticker of - yes, you guessed it - Gianni Infantino. I'm beginning to think that complaint from FIFPro has a point about 'imposition'. Is this really what FIFA, and the man spearheading it, should be about? Their role, as I understand it, is to promote, govern and protect the game worldwide, not impose their own vanity projects upon it. Concerns from players, apathy from fans, all of it seemingly ignored to press on with a gimmicky tournament that nobody asked for. That includes the clubs themselves, who could have taken a stand, but a share of the $1bn prize pot will obviously hold significant sway, especially on those from nations who could never dream of competing financially with the heavyweight European outfits. But that itself ties back in with FIFPro's concerns over the tournament threatening the economic stability of domestic competitions. If a select few clubs from less financially lucrative leagues can bank millions upon millions simply from being invited to the Club World Cup, how does that help grow that league as a whole? We've already seen the effect of Champions League money on the smaller European top-flights, where one-team dominance is becoming the norm in several places And so, if the money is always there, then the new and improved Club World Cup is likely here to stay. It doesn't seem to matter if fans, the lifeblood of the game, or the players themselves aren't particularly keen. The two most important groups, and yet always at the back of the room when these decisions are taken.
USA Today
23-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals: How to watch Inter Miami-Vancouver, Tigres-Cruz Azul
Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals: How to watch Inter Miami-Vancouver, Tigres-Cruz Azul Show Caption Hide Caption Messi 'never imagined' he would achieve what he has Lionel Messi says his dream was only ever to be a professional, and thanked God for all his success Stats Perform Video Lionel Messi is three matches away from hoisting another trophy. Inter Miami and the Vancouver Whitecaps – two of the best Major League Soccer teams during the early part of the 2025 season – will compete in the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals on April 24 and April 30. Vancouver leads the MLS Supporter's Shield standings with 20 points (six wins, one loss, two draws), while Inter Miami – which won the Shield last season – is third in the MLS Eastern Conference and fourth overall with 18 points (five wins, three draws). Vancouver will host the first leg of the semifinal at BC Place on April 24, before Inter Miami hosts the second leg at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. LIGA MX clubs Tigres UANL and Cruz Azul will meet in the other semifinal on April 23 and May 1. The winners of each semifinal will meet in the Concacaf Champions Cup final on June 1. Here's everything you need to know about the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals: How to watch Champions Cup semifinal matches on TV, live stream? You can watch the matches on FS1 in English, and TUDN, UniMás or ViX in Spanish. When are the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal first leg matches? April 23: Tigres UNAL vs. Cruz Azul, 10 p.m. ET April 24: Vancouver vs. Inter Miami, 10:30 p.m. ET When are the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal second leg matches? April 30: Inter Miami vs. Vancouver, 8 p.m. ET May 1: Cruz Azul vs. UANL, 10 p.m. ET Messi, Inter Miami vs. Vancouver preview Messi has been scoreless in his last two matches: A 1-0 win vs. Columbus Crew on April 19, and a scoreless draw against Chicago on April 13. But he delivered the dramatics, scoring two goals with an assist on April 9 to help Inter Miami advance past Los Angeles FC 3-2 on aggregate the quarterfinals. Inter Miami also beat Sporting Kansas City and Jamaica Cavalier during this Champions Cup run. Former USMNT striker Brian White leads Vancouver with 10 goals in 14 matches overall, while new coach Jesper Sørensen's impact has already been felt. Vancouver has ousted two LIGA MX clubs during its Champions Cup run, with Tristan Blackmon's tie-breaking goal propelling the Whitecaps against Pumas UNAM in the quarterfinals. They also beat Monterrey in the round of 16, and Costa Rica's Deportivo Saprissa in the first round. Tigres UANL vs. Cruz Azul preview Ángel Sepúlveda is the Champions Cup Golden Boot leader with six goals, while Cruz Azul boasts three former MLS standouts in Mateusz Bogusz (LAFC), Omar Campos (LAFC) and striker Giorgos Giakoumakis (Atlanta United). Cruz Azul ousted Club América in the quarterfinals, the Seattle Sounders in the Round-of-16, and Haiti's Real Hope in the first round. Tigres has eliminated Nicaragua's Real Estelí in the first round, then ousted MLS standout FC Cincinnati in the round-of-16, and the defending champion L.A. Galaxy in the quarterfinals. When is the Concacaf Champions Cup final? The Concacaf Champions Cup final will be played on June 1. It will be a single match in the final, instead of the two-match format in earlier rounds. Concacaf Champions Cup winner gets $5 million prize The winner of the Concacaf Champions Cup will earn $5 million in financial distributions and prize money. They will also receive a berth to the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.
