Like all lower division soccer clubs, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed Minneapolis City SC into dangerously uncharted waters. The club, which was founded in 2016, plays in the fourth tier NPSL. Back in late March, the season was cancelled and the team’s highly anticipated U.S. Open Cup first round match against Chicago FC United was postponed indefinitely.
Gladbach took care of business against Union Berlin on Sunday with a comfortable 4-1 victory. The biggest talking point of the match came in the 41st minute, when Alassane Pléa found Marcus Thuram for a well-placed header and the Frenchman quietly celebrated in a powerful way.
Alassane Pléa → Marcus Thuram@borussia_en's French connection strikes again pic.twitter.com/33rXCHv7nc
German-American coach David Wagner saw his Schalke side fall to a fourth consecutive defeat with a 1-0 result against Werder Bremen on Saturday.
The MLS expansion club in Charlotte will reveal its name in June, team president Tom Glick said.
Glick declined to specify an exact date in an interview published Friday by the Sports Business Journal.
"This is a very important moment in the formation of our new club for the city and for the region," Glick said. "We've been monitoring and thinking about when the right time to introduce it would be. What's clear to us right now is not only is there a hunger for the return of sport and watching sport, there's a hunger and anticipation for this moment for this new club."
After protests erupted across the U.S. this past week, Schalke’s American midfielder Weston McKennie has joined in from Germany. The 21-year-old Texas native wore a “Justice for George” armband during Saturday’s match with Werder Bremen, showing support for George Floyd, who died in police hands on Monday in Minneapolis.
KLAGENFURT, Austria — Salzburg won the Austrian Cup with a ruthless 5-0 destruction of second-tier Austria Lustenau in the final as the season resumed following the coronavirus stoppage on Friday.
With the victory, Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch, a Wisconsin native, became the first American-born coach to win a major trophy in Europe.
The year 2020 is the nightmare we can’t seem to wake up from. Outrage swept the country after a video captured four Minneapolis police officers arresting George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, on Monday. One of the officers held his knee to Floyd’s neck for nine minutes while he screamed “I can’t breathe.” Floyd died shortly after while in police custody.
On May 22, 2020, NWSL side OL Reign announced the signing of Japanese standout Yuka Momiki. The 24-year-old was born in New York City but grew up playing in Japan with Nippon TV Beleza’s youth side before reaching the senior team.
“Yuka is a young, dynamic player with tremendous potential that we believe will play an important role in our club this season and far into the future,” said OL Reign CEO Bill Predmore in a team press release.
As major American sports leagues plot their respective paths back to action, they are having to balance the requisite safety measures and local stay-at-home restrictions with the formulation of return-to-play scenarios.
While over in Europe the mantra is something like “just get it done” due to the nature of how domestic leagues work (no playoffs, relegation), American competitions like the NBA are being forced to get creative due to both time constraints and the hard truth that no one’s interested in watching the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Sounds do battle right now.
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) will return to action in late June with a 25-game tournament in Utah that will be played in empty stadiums due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NWSL, which delayed the start of its season because of the coronavirus, said it has worked with team doctors and public health officials to develop testing protocols to ensure a safe environment for its nine teams during the month-long tournament.