Wayne Rooney said taking over as head coach of DC United was not a "backward step" after the Major League Soccer club confirmed the former Manchester United and England forward's appointment on Tuesday.
D.C. United is in a bad place right now. One of Major League Soccer’s flagship clubs suffered its worst-ever defeat on Friday night, a 7-0 humbling from the Philadelphia Union to fall to 13th in the Eastern Conference with the second-lowest point total in the league. So maybe these Wayne Rooney D.C. United coach rumors aren’t such a bad idea.
The coaching carousel at Paris Saint Germain spins on. Though nothing has been finalized at the moment, Mauricio Pochettino is reportedly out at PSG after just one full season at the club, having failed to bring the Parisians the Champions League glory ownership so desperately craves. Pochettino’s replacement is reportedly the man who beat him to the Ligue 1 title in 2021, though relatively little is known about him internationally. Who is Christophe Galtier? Will he fare any better than his predecessors?
Heading toward the World Cup, the USMNT needed to do something drastic to alter its approach to set pieces.
In the 14-game qualifying cycle, the U.S. managed only three goals from set pieces. They all came in a single match — the 3-0 victory over Honduras in Minnesota. It's also worth noting that Kellyn Acosta, the best dead ball specialist in the squad, provided the service on all three and is expected to start on the bench in Qatar as Tyler Adams' backup.
Some huge news out of Barcelona on Tuesday as it's been confirmed that Sergi Barjuán, one year into his two-year deal, has been relieved of his duties as manager of Barcelona Atlètic (the Barça B team). According to MARCA, he'll be replaced by former Barcelona defender and Mexico international Rafa Márquez.
There's an old meme that occasionally makes the rounds that highlights the difference between American football coaches and European fútbol coaches.
It depicts the American coaches as overweight men wearing poor-fitting clothes, while their European counterparts are all suave, fit, suit-wearing gentlemen.
LONDON - Chelsea coach Emma Hayes says her relentless drive for success comes from her fear of losing after she watched her side clinch their fourth FA Cup on Sunday, the 11th major trophy under her management.
Hayes, appointed Chelsea manager in August 2012, has overseen a glittering period in the team's history, completing another domestic double with a 3-2 extra time win over Manchester City at Wembley.
The Premier League's relegation battle took another dramatic twist Sunday with Burnley's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham and Leeds United's improbable 1-1 draw against Brighton seeing Jesse Marsch's side climb to the safety of 17th while Burnley fell to 18th.
Elsewhere, Everton came undone at Goodison Park with red cards for both Jarrad Branthwaite and Salomón Rondón to finish with nine men in a 3-2 defeat to Brentford, meaning the Toffees are still right in the thick of it.
Relegation Battle 101 always finds managers stressing two key elements for teams facing the drop: (1) Don't play with fear; fear leads to mistakes and (2) Don't play with wild abandon, because you'll be punished for it.
Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch said as much in his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday's trip to Arsenal: "It's important to eliminate the emotion and continue to focus on our ability and discipline to have concentration for what's important to us."
To say 2021 was a bad year for women’s soccer in the U.S. would be an understatement of epic proportions. In October, The Athletic detailed horrifying allegations of verbal abuse and sexual coercion by N.C. Courage coach Paul Riley, sending shockwaves through the NWSL.