• This week marks the 25th anniversary of the only Minnesota girls' soccer team to win a national championship. The Burnsville Giants, led by future Burnsville High, Notre Dame and United States national team star Holly Manthei, took home the 1992 under-16 national title, an almost unheard of feat for any Upper Midwest youth team. The 1990 St. Paul Blackhawks boys under-19 team, led by brothers Manny and Gerard Lagos and coached by Buzz Lagos, their father, is the only other Minnesota youth team to have won a national title.
• Reportedly, team owners in Liga MX prevailed upon the Mexican national team to refrain from calling in reinforcements for the Gold Cup knockout rounds. This does give Mexico the advantage of low expectations for the tournament; if it were to win the Gold Cup, using its JV team, it would be a major embarrassment for the rest of the region.
• MLS will start using video assistant referees on Aug. 5. The video referee will be allowed to review goals, penalty decisions, red cards and cases in which the wrong player is called for a foul. Results from video referees around the world so far have been uneven, as they have slowed the game down terribly while not being much more accurate.
