Sergiño Dest

As the calendar approaches Halloween, Sergiño Dest is having a truly horrifying streak of missed chances in LaLiga. Barcelona fell 1-0 to Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday in league action and a brutal Sergiño Dest miss could have been the difference.

With Barcelona trailing in the 36th minute, Memphis Depay made a brilliant move to fire in a dangerous cross toward the back post. Dest timed his run to perfection, and with the speed of a bullet he got on to the end of Depay’s cross. The only issue was Dest fired the ball into the stratosphere.

Real Madrid piled the pressure on Barcelona with a 2-1 LaLiga victory at Camp Nou on Sunday that was highlighted by David Alaba’s masterclass in turning defense into attack in the 32nd minute. 

Historically speaking, it’s a really damning loss for Barcelona. That’s four straight wins for Real in this fixture, a run of fortune that Los Blancos haven’t experienced since 1965. It’s also only the second time ever that Real has won back-to-back games at Camp Nou. 

BARCELONA - Ansu Fati marked his first start in almost a year by scoring one goal and creating another as Barcelona came from behind to beat Valencia 3-1 in LaLiga at Camp Nou on Sunday.

Despite being allowed a full capacity crowd for the first time since March 2020, Barça's ground was only half full — and those in attendance were silenced after five minutes as José Gayà's long-range strike swerved into the far corner.

JOSÉ GAYÁ GOLAZO

The USMNT got its World Cup qualifying campaign back on the right track, baby, yeah, by defeating Costa Rica 2-1 in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday night. Block every voice that tells you this isn’t something worth celebrating because after going down 1-0 to a strange goal early, the U.S. produced the sort of performance that makes this grind of qualifying more than worth your time. 

BARCELONA - Goals from Memphis Depay, Luuk de Jong and the returning Ansu Fati helped Barcelona claim a much-needed 3-0 home victory over Levante in LaLiga on Sunday.

The victory, Barça's first in their last four games in all competitions, moved the Catalans up to fifth in the table with 12 points from six games, five behind league leaders Real Madrid, who have played one more.

The 18-year-old Fati, who came on as an 81st-minute substitute before scoring Barça's third goal, was making his first appearance since suffering a serious knee injury last November.

The USMNT injury updates include a mixed batch of good and bad news.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel gave a Christian Pulisic injury update after the American forward suffered a knock to the ankle during the USMNT’s 4-1 victory against Honduras. Good news U.S. and Chelsea fans, Pulisic will only be out for 10 days.

“For Christian, unfortunately he came yesterday on crutches and he has an ankle injury with about 10 days," Tuchel said.

For the first time in history, Americans will play in all three of UEFA’s European tournaments. This season is also the first time there have been three tournaments, but minor details. There are tons of Americans playing in Europe, but only 22 have made it to the group stages across the three competitions.

Here are the numbers for Americans playing in European tournaments.

• Champions League: 11 Americans
• Europa League: 9 Americans
• Europa Conference League: 2 Americans

First, let’s look at the 11 in the Champions League.

After all the tearful farewells to Lionel Messi in the morning, Barcelona still had a match to play on Sunday evening. And in the 10th minute, the limited fans in attendance gave a preview of how they’ll honor the club legend throughout the upcoming campaign.

It was only a friendly between the USMNT and Switzerland at Kybunpark in St. Gallen on Sunday evening, but the immediate implications were huge for both nations.