Royal Roundup: Players from Norway protest Qatar Human Rights violations

New owner watch: 77 days since the league took over the sale.

Starting next week there will be a change to the Roundup, for the rest of the off-season it will run just 2 times a week on Tuesday and Friday. When news items pick up it will return to a 3 day per week schedule.

The US U-23 team will face the 1st place team in Group B in Olympic qualifying at 4 PM MDT Sunday, if they win this game the USA will make the Olympics for the first time since 2008.

The USMNT will play a friendly match vs Northern Ireland Sunday at 10 AM MDT, broadcast on Fox.

INTERNATIONAL

• Players from Norway took a stand on Human Rights violations in Qatar before their World Cup qualification match vs Gibraltar. [Guardian] FIFA will not penalize the team for the protest. [Guardian]
• Cuba has long been a baseball stronghold, but soccer is gradually replacing it. [FIFA]
• Paramount+ has bought the rights to broadcast Italian Serie A games in the US. [CBS]
• April 1st will mark 600 days until the Qatar World Cup 2022. Confederations around the world are in a fixture crunch to fit qualifications in. [ESPN]
• Following another long investigation, former FIFA officials Sepp Blatter and Jérôme Valcke have had additional sanctions imposed barring them from any football activity for an additional 6 years - after their current bans expire. [FIFA]
• Last year’s Covid crisis in Europe has forced UEFA to go back to the drawing board on their Financial Fair Play rules. [Guardian]
• Plenty to discuss here with the 100 best crests in soccer history. [FFT]
• Brazil’s Football Association makes historic rule change limiting teams to one coaching change per season. [ESPN]

USA

• USA nets 4 goals vs Jamaica to win friendly match. [ESPN]
• Yunus Muisah explains why he picked USA. [CBS]
• US-U-23 team lost their final group stage game 1-0 vs Mexico. [SBI] 3 things we learned from the match. [MLS]
• 48 youth teams qualify for the national championships - including 7 Utah teams! [SocWire]
• The NCAA D-1 playoff tournament will be held in Cary, NC. [USAT]
• Megan Rapinoe and Margaret Purce visited the White House for Equal Pay Day. [WaPo]

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

MLS

• Who are the underdogs of the Western Conference? [USSP]
• Each MLS team’s potential breakout player for 2021. [MLS]
• Grading the MLS Eastern Conference kits. [Multiplex]
• Alphonso Davies of Vancouver Whitecaps has been named a UN Refugee Agency Ambassador. [MLS]
• Seattle Sounders have unveiled their new kit - with a Jimi Hendrix vibe. [SAH]

FLASHBACK

• [3/25/10] - Real Salt Lake 3-0 San Jose Earthquakes (recap with photos).
• [3/27/11] - RSL 4-1 LA Galaxy (recap & quotes).
• [3/27/13] - RSL’s AZ academy players travel to the Dallas Cup tournament.
• [3/26/14] - Rimando, Beckerman and Gil named to USMNT roster vs Mexico.
• [3/26/16] - RSL Draft pick Omar Holness was playing a match for the Real Monarchs on this date when he suffered a seizure on the field.
• [3/29/17] - Mike Petke named as head coach for RSL.

MEDIA

The story behind #SaveTheCrew