SHORT TAKES
• Minnesota United FC announced the loan signing of Brazilian midfielder Yago this week. The 21-year-old attacker, who played against United earlier this year for Brazilian club Vasco da Gama, arrived in town Tuesday and played 15 minutes in Minnesota's 4-0 victory over Jacksonville on Wednesday. He replaces the departed Miguel Ibarra and, against the Armada, showed flashes of being a like-for-like swap. He appears to be Minnesota's fastest player, as well as being confident on the ball. His arrival should give coach Manny Lagos the speedy attacking option that the team sorely needs.
• The U.S. men's national team hasn't looked great at the Gold Cup, but that doesn't mean they haven't been the best team at the tournament. Neither Mexico nor Costa Rica, the other two contenders, even managed to win their group. Canada, the other host besides the USA, departed after scoring zero goals in three games. Four teams even finished behind Cuba, which has had four players defect to the United States during the tournament. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has spent the tournament tinkering — and given the collection of teams the USA has played, he might as well, for all it has mattered.
• Next summer, North and South America are planning to come together for a dual-continent Copa America, with all 10 teams from South America and six qualifiers from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. For CONCACAF fans, it would be a big step up in quality — replace Canada and El Salvador with Argentina and Brazil, and things improve rapidly. Here's hoping the tournament is an enormous success, and it becomes a quadrennial event to rival the European Championships.
• The post-Women's World Cup bump for the NWSL is in full force. Houston set an all-time attendance record last week, and Seattle and Sky Blue FC set season highs. Washington and Chicago have already announced sellouts for this weekend. EqualizerSoccer.com also reported that more than 12 groups have had discussions with the NWSL about starting franchises. That's all good news for women's pro soccer.
