Game Recaps

Barcelona maintained their four-point lead atop La Liga following a 2-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao at the San Mames. Lionel Messi scored the first for Barcelona, his 12th of the 10-game La Liga season, in the 36th minute. Paulinho added the second in the 92nd to ensure the three points for Barca.

Remarkably, that’s Paulinho’s third goal of the season for the club, moving him level with Luis Suarez in league play as Barca’s second highest scorer. With Messi in the kind of form he’s currently in, the club hasn’t had any real need for additional marksmen.

Juventus defeated AC Milan 2-0 in this weekend’s marquee Serie A matchup with Gonzalo Higuain scoring a phenomenal brace to silence the San Siro.

The significance of the occasion was clearly not lost on Milan supporters as the 80,018-capacity San Siro was absolutely electric, a cauldron of noise as the October sun set on a balmy day in Lombardy. There was a sense that all could be forgiven regarding Milan’s slow start to league play should the Rossoneri put one over on a Juventus side stranded in unfounded territory following 10 matches — third. 

In the end, a top of the table clash between Manchester United and Tottenham at Old Trafford was decided in the most route one way imaginable. In the 81st minute, David de Gea launched one upfield at Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian striker's towering flick unlocked the Spurs defense, Anthony Martial, on as a 70th minute substitute, got on the end of it and dispatched his shot beyond Hugo Lloris in goal. In between, the narrative stayed pretty true to form.

Thursday night’s MLS playoff action provided us with the perfect examples of an exhilarating 0-0 stalemate (Atlanta vs. Columbus earlier in the day) and an entirely forgettable one. The opening 90 minutes between the Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City was highlighted by a relatively subdued BBVA Compass Stadium (the Astros might just be the talk of the town at the moment) booing Graham Zusi’s every touch. 

Zack Steffen had himself a game on Thursday night. The young Columbus Crew goalkeeper saved everything kicked, headed and scuffed his way against this season’s darlings Atlanta United in an MLS Knockout Round playoff. 

Look, I don't want to talk about how short Cristian Techera is for a long time, because it really doesn't matter. If you must know, he's 5'2".

The important thing about Techera, though, is how freakishly good he is at kicking a soccer ball. The Vancouver Whitecaps, Techera's team, demolished the San Jose Earthquakes, who admittedly aren't very good, 5-0. The moment of the match belonged to Techera and Techera only.

Y'all, the Chicago Fire's back line is just awful. That was the main takeaway as the New York Red Bulls unceremoniously dumped the Fire out of the MLS playoffs, 4-0.

In (near) Chicago, no less.

New York's omnipresent Brit opened the scoring seven minutes in.

Make it back-to-back hat-tricks for 17-year-old Liverpool talent Rhian Brewster at the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India. After hitting the United States for three in England’s 4-1 victory in the quarterfinals, the London-born striker again found the back of the net thrice, this time in the Three Lions’ 3-1 victory over Brazil in the semifinals.

Brewster, who scored on his Liverpool U-23 debut back in January, now leads the tournament’s Golden Boot race with seven goals. He also bravely struck the first penalty in England’s Round of 16 shootout triumph over Japan. 

In UEFA Women’s World Cup qualifying there are a lot of routs. Half of the 10 matches played Tuesday involved scorelines of 3-0 or worse (most were worse, much worse), including Germany’s 11-0 thrashing of Faroe Islands. Scotland’s match against Albania was no different but for one feature: none of those other lopsided affairs had a goal this pretty.