After Dark! A new soccer holiday, the USMNT's Monday night in Trinidad & more

It’s After Dark time!

In this recurring series, we capture some of the same After Dark energy that permeates late-night soccer games in the United States. There’s no shortage of crazy things happening in and around this sport — and we’re bringing some of the most entertaining ones straight to you.

This week, we have some A+ banter, a new holiday, and more. Let’s get weird, shall we?

Can you? Can you?

Cast your mind back to the November international window, for a moment. During that window, the United States men’s national team travelled to Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, where they proceeded to lose 2-1 to a vastly inferior opponent (presumably to keep up the 2017 vibes, but no one knows for sure).

You remember that the USMNT lost. But, uh, does the USMNT’s Luca de la Torre remember that?

After the defeat, de la Torre posted about the game on Instagram and began his caption with this “Can you do it on a Monday night in Trinidad and Tobago?” The midfielder was trying to reference the “Can you do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke” meme that was unintentionally popularized by commentator Andy Gray about a decade ago. At the time, Gray was questioning whether Lionel Messi could perform at a high level during an away match on a wet field in central England, which seemed like such an absurd question to many that it’s been turned into a meme over the years.

De la Torre tried to make the jump, but didn’t quite land it. While it seems obvious that Messi would still thrive in difficult conditions, the USMNT... did not. In response to his teammate’s post, United States left back Antonee Robinson promptly commented “Apparently we can’t”.