MANCHESTER, England - Manchester United appointed a new manager in Dutchman Erik ten Hag on Thursday with some very familiar language used to announce his arrival from Ajax.
"During the past four years at Ajax, Erik has proved himself to be one of the most exciting and successful coaches in Europe, renowned for his team’s attractive, attacking football and commitment to youth," said United's football director John Murtough.
Two of soccer’s greatest stars are heading into what will likely be their final World Cups. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi look set to have one last dance at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. This winter’s tournament will be both of their fifth World Cups, so what are the Messi vs Ronaldo World Cup stats?
Messi: 19
Ronaldo: 17
There's nothing better than a well executed slow burn.
In September, the USWNT crushed Paraguay in back-to-back friendlies by a 17-0 aggregate score. This past week, the USWNT crushed Uzbekistan in back-to-back friendlies by an 18-1 aggregate score. While the September matches felt mostly a waste of time, the April matches felt instructive and useful, for both Vlatko Andonovski’s plans moving forward and U.S. fans trying to figure out those plans.
U.S. Soccer released the eighth (and final?) episode of the Gregg Berhalter Podcast (hosted by former FC Dallas midfielder Bobby Warshaw) on Tuesday. The USMNT manager spent a lot of time discussing the intense final window of qualification, reflecting on "The Ocho" as a whole and how all that shapes his decision making going toward the World Cup.
According to Polish outlet TVP Sport, Robert Lewandowski has informed Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn that he's uninterested in extending his stay in Germany and would instead prefer a summer transfer to Barcelona after agreeing to personal terms on a three-year contract at the Camp Nou.
The two best football teams on the planet exchanged cross-field rakers, 70-yard goalkeeper pings, marauding fullbacks, suffocating periods of pressure and jaw-dropping displays of skill on Sunday in a potential Premier League title decider that fittingly ended 2-2 between Manchester City and Liverpool at the Etihad.
Who's ready to watch them do it all again next Saturday at Wembley in the FA Cup semifinals?
MANCHESTER, England - Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp says it is simply a joy to carry out their analysis work on Manchester City ahead of Sunday's Premier League title clash at the Etihad Stadium.
The two teams, who have dominated the league over the past five seasons, are separated by just a point with leaders City hoping they can restore some breathing space with a victory.
The original purpose of this piece was to find players who began their careers in American soccer in the lower league and worked their way up to Major League Soccer — not players who went out on loan, rather athletes who signed for a USL or NPSL club, impressed at that level, and drew the attention of an MLS side.
But after a thorough examination of numerous MLS rosters, I found that this type of career path is almost nonexistent; such upward mobility is nearly impossible in American soccer.
While everyone's been wasting their time arguing over the tactical masterplans of Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone in the build-up to Manchester City and Atlético in the Champions League, a better philosophical discourse has been raging in the bottom half of the Premier League table, where Brighton manager Graham Potter is urging supporters to stop yelling "shoot" at his players while Burnley boss Sean Dyche is playing the devil's advocate by instructing his men to "kick it in the net."