The rumors were confirmed Wednesday that 17-year-old Canadian phenom Alphonso Davies would be joining Bayern Munich come January on a transfer that could rise to as high as $22 million, but for now, the Vancouver Whitecaps winger is free to continue his breakout season in MLS — Saturday night was perhaps his best performance as a professional.
Xherdan Shaqiri made his Liverpool debut on Saturday, coming on as a 66th minute sub. He immediately assisted on the match winner, but we don’t really care about that. What we care about was the absurd Shaqiri goal vs Manchester United in the 82nd minute.
It was a preseason friendly, but we don’t care. It was offside, but that doesn’t matter. The Juan Mata touch vs Liverpool on Saturday in Michigan was absolutely sublime.
England’s two most successful clubs faced off in front of more than 105,000 fans at the Big House on Saturday. While Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp fielded a starting 11 close to his first choice, Jose Mourinho opted for a few more reserves. Where exactly Mata falls on that spectrum is debatable, but his ability is not.
Benfica vs. Juventus wasn’t exactly one of the more glamorous matchups brought to us by the International Champions Cup. But it brought us the two best goals of the preseason tournament, namely the Luca Clemenza goal vs Benfica on Saturday at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey.
The match was scoreless after an hour. The deadlock was broken in the 65th minute by Benfica’s 22-year-old Spaniard Alejandro Grimaldo, who smashed a free kick that dipped perfectly into the back of the net.
The USWNT defeated Japan 4-2 to begin Tournament of Nations play (essentially the warmup for October’s World Cup qualifying event) with Alex Morgan registering a hat-trick inside 56 minutes and The Best FIFA Women’s Player finalist Megan Rapinoe adding the fourth in the 66th.
Last night, Bradley Wright-Phillips became the fastest player to reach 100 MLS goals after he scored what would prove to be the game-winner in just the second minute against DC United. It looks as if BWP had a feeling tonight just might be the night for his historic accomplishment. Take a look at what has to be the most brazen goal celebration in MLS history.
It looks like the Englishman took a page out of Zlatan’s book for this one. When you’ve been tearing up defenses in the way he has for five years, you deserve to pat yourself on the back like this.
First things first, I’m not 100 percent certain we’ve agreed on a term for this particular skill. Is it a piece of back heel control? A rabona touch? An inverse rabona? A Nasty Neymar? From henceforth, it should be known as the Ballad of Ahmadzadeh Farshad.
After lifting the 2018 World Cup with one of the youngest squads at the tournament (average age of just 26), there’s been a growing fear that France could turn a bit tyrannical at the international level. That fear was further confirmed today when England’s U-19s were on the receiving end of a 5-0 beatdown from their French peers.
Something’s happening in Los Angeles. After losing to FC Dallas on May 30, the LA Galaxy are now unbeaten in their last seven MLS matches, including yesterday’s 3-1 win over Philadelphia at Talen Energy Stadium. A lot of that play is down to the goodness of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who now has nine goals and an assist in his last six league starts.
Wil Trapp doesn’t score often. In fact, what you’re about to see from the 25-year-old USMNT and Columbus Crew defensive midfielder is his first goal of the season and only the second of his six-year professional career. When you factor in the circumstances, it’s one of the best goals of 2018.