English Clubs

It had all the earmarks of a romantic European Cup final, and what a classic match it turned out to be. Liverpool, a club founded in 1892, versus Sevilla, founded in 1890 and bearing the title of Spain’s oldest football club.

Liverpool, winners of this competition in 1973, 1976 and 2001, were looking to substantiate an exciting debut season for Jurgen Klopp with European glory and the ensurance of Champions League football at Anfield next season.

Harry Kane spent the 2011/12 season on loan at English Championship side Millwall F.C., a club known more for its associations with hooliganism and their supporter’s chant “No one likes us, we don’t care” than as the home of future England internationals. 

Under the watchful eye of England’s then U-21 manager, Stuart Pearce, an 18-year-old Kane failed to impress. 

Wayne Rooney put in a Man of the Match performance as Manchester United brushed aside Bournemouth 3-1 at Old Trafford. Rooney opened up the scoring in the 43rd minute after some lovely team play between Anthony Martial and Juan Mata on the edge of the box.

The goal was Rooney's 100th in the Premier League at Old Trafford, and the OptaJoe Twitter account was quick to highlight the relevance of that. 

Sevilla are to the Europa League as drunk college students are to leftovers in the fridge. They just destroy everything, and there isn't much you can do about it.

Sevilla have a chance to win the UEFA Europa League for the third time in a row. The last team to win it twice in a row was, um, Sevilla. They own this league, having won it more times (4) than any other team (for those interested, Liverpool could tie that record should they beat Sevilla in the final). 

On Sunday, Manchester United vs. Bournemouth had to be abandoned (it will be played Tuesday, May 17 at 1 p.m. MT) because of a suspicious device found at Old Trafford.

The suspicious device turned out to be left over from an exercise to train handlers of bomb-sniffing dogs. Apparently someone forgot to put the bomb back when they were finished.

Manchester United statement. Training company wrongly signed "bomb" device as handed back in, at the end of exercise to train dog handlers.

As the 2015-16 Premier League season draws to a close, it’s time to honor and award those whose performances have captivated us over the course of the last nine months. It’s also a great time to shame those whose performances call into question the morality behind million dollar contracts and the myth of the sporting superhuman. These are the players whose performances will stick with us for all the wrong reasons; the biggest underachievers and flops of the 2015-16 Premier League season. 

Some real Green Street Hooligan s*** happened today. The famous movie surrounding West Ham soccer hooligans pretty much came to fruition ahead of the Hammers' final match at the Boleyn Ground. Upon lovable Manchester United's arrival, Hammer fans took to the street to throw any and everything at the Red Devils bus. And when we say any and everything, we mean it. It caused a 45 minute delay to the match, and it was absolute madness. Check it out:

Liverpool couldn't have picked a better time to play their best game of the year. The Red Men completely overwhelmed Villarreal in the second leg of the Europa League semi-finals, 3-0, after losing the first leg, 1-0.

The match saw world-class performances by Emre Can, Nathaniel Clyne and Roberto Firmino in particular, but no one in the squad could be said to have played poorly.

And one man was even more world-class than the rest.

Here's a sampling of miracles Liverpool have managed during the modern (read: Steven Gerrard and newer) era:

Yaya Toure’s UEFA Champions League testimonial match went off without a hitch on Wednesday, the Manchester City midfielder ponderously strolling around the Bernabéu pitch and gently reminding his teammates not to forget his going away cake.

Like Ernest Hemingway’s aging Cuban fisherman Santiago, it almost certainly would've taken 85 days of play before Toure could've netted a goal against Real Madrid.