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• United States mentality issues to blame for Canada loss

  The United States must tackle some concerning mentality issues, which are to blame for their defeat to Canada.

  That is the view of interim coach Mikey Varas, who has few answers for solving the problem.

  USA were beaten 2-1 by Canada in Kansas City on Saturday, in their first game of the post-Gregg Berhalter era.

  It marked Canada's first victory on US soil in 67 years.

  And while Mauricio Pochettino reportedly waits in the wings to take over the Stars and Stripes, Varas hit out at the team's mentality.

  "The mentality is on the players. They know it," he told reporters.

  "We speak the truth to each other. I love those guys. But they know that mentality to fight, to run and to sacrifice, I can't do that for them. That's on them.

  "I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know. I felt that the training [sessions] were intense. They were aggressive.

  "But when the game comes, you gotta get going. And the players are the ones that bring that. Coaches can only get you so far from a mentality perspective."

  Varas did shoulder some of the blame, too, suggesting he may have tried to introduce too many new ideas, too soon.

  "I think on the ball, that's on me," he said.

  "I want to present some ideas to them and you just never know how it's going to translate from training to the game after three training sessions. And I asked a lot of them, you know, and if there's a goal, I mean, that's on me.

  "When you don't have a lot of time to work and you want to play a certain way it creates confusion.

  "Players are going to take responsibility for quality of action. The translation of the ideas wasn't clear enough because you shouldn't be static and you shouldn't pass the ball just to pass the ball. You're trying to be trying to accelerate play as quickly as you can."

• Nagelsmann backs Musiala and Wirtz for Ballon d'Or

  Germany have two potential Ballon d'Or winners on their hands in Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz, so says Julian Nagelsmann.

  Musiala scored once and laid on three assists as Germany hammered Hungary 5-0 in the Nations League on Saturday.

  One of Musiala's assists teed up Wirtz to make it 3-0, after the Bayer Leverkusen star had teed up Germany's number 10 for the hosts' second goal in Dusseldorf. 

  Musiala created seven chances throughout, while Wirtz played two key passes as Germany mustered 3.7 xG to Hungary's 1.1.

  “When both are in the mood and really put their foot down, it's difficult for the opposition, they're exceptionally good," Nagelsmann told ZDF.

  "These are two footballers – when they link up with each other, it's very, very good to watch.

  "Jamal has already undergone a great transformation in the past year in terms of his presence in the box. During [Euro 2024] it was very good, today it was phenomenal."

  Speaking to Sky Sport, Nagelsmann said: "Both [Musiala and Wirtz] have the potential to win the Ballon d'Or."

  At the age of 21 years and 194 days, Musiala became the youngest player to record four direct goal involvements in a single Nations League match.

  Niclas Fullkrug opened the scoring just before the half-hour, and the West Ham forward said: "It is fun to watch that today. 

  "Jamal was in really good form. It is great to have him in the squad.

  "We made a lot of deep runs and made it really hard for the opponents. Even when we did not have possession we controlled the game."

• Columbus Crew 0-4 Seattle Sounders: Rusnak hat-trick stuns MLS Cup champions

  Albert Rusnak's hat-trick propelled the Seattle Sounders to a shock 4-0 win over the 10-man Columbus Crew.

  The short-handed Crew were dealt a huge blow when, in the second minute of first-half stoppage time, goalkeeper Abraham Romero saw red for a foul on Jordan Morris.

  With regular goalkeepers Patrick Schulte and Nicholas Hagen on international duty, Crew coach Wilfried Nancy had to turn to centre-back Sean Zawadzki.

  But it took Seattle just four minutes to get the better of the stand-in, with Rusnak converting the resulting free-kick following Romero's foul.

  Morris doubled Seattle's tally on the hour mark, with Rusnak then completing his hat-trick with a quickfire double.

  Columbus are third in the Eastern Conference, while Seattle are fifth in the West.

  Data Debrief: Rusnak turns from provider to scorer

  Rusnak had never scored a hat-trick before, but this one will be memorable for several reasons. It also came on the back of the midfielder creating six chances in last week's loss to the Portland Timbers, which was the most by any Sounders player in a single regular-season game in over three years.

  The defeat was just Columbus' second at home in the space of 39 matches, though Seattle have now won six of their nine regular-season visits to Columbus, the highest winning percentage of any MLS team to have played the Crew eight or more times on the road.