Modern football is dominated by attacking players.
There are the creators. Mo Salah, Timo Werner, Richarlison. Guys who can generate something from nothing but are average finishers that need a lot of the ball to score.
Then there are the finishers. Romelu Lukaku, Aleksandar Mitrović, Chris Wood. They aren't productive 40 yards from goal but give them one chance inside the 18 and they'll take it.
When Kevin Davies took the field for Bolton Wanderers, the action on the pitch often resembled a barroom brawl rather than a soccer match.
Under manager Sam Allardyce, Davies consistently led the league in both fouls committed and fouls received, setting multiple records along the way.
The FA Cup dream continues for Marine FC as the Northern Premier League Division One North West side qualified for the FA Cup third round for the second time in club history. The eighth-tier club defeated League Two side Colchester United on penalties in the first round, then dispatched sixth-tier Havant & Waterloo by a scoreline of 1-0 in the second round.
The Mariners reward: a third round tie at The Marine Travel Arena against current Premier League leaders Tottenham Hotspur.
Barcelona responded to last weekend’s defeat to Atlético Madrid by comfortably beating Osasuna 4-0 at the Camp Nou on Sunday. Martin Braithwaite opened the scoring, Antoine Griezmann hit an incredible volley before setting up Philippe Coutinho for Barça’s third and Lionel Messi got the fourth with a sweet sweep of his left foot.
Before the match, the life of Diego Maradona — who spent two seasons with Barcelona between 1982 and 1984 — was honored with his No. 10 shirt placed in the middle of the pitch.
It is fair to say that money controls the Premier League. Money is the reason Manchester City and Liverpool are title contenders, while Brighton and West Brom languish near the bottom of the table.
Soccernomics co-authors Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski calculated that 90 percent of variation in league position in the Premier League is determined by a club's wage bill.
The 2020 Liga MX Apertura regular season (renamed Guardianes to honor healthcare workers) came to a close on Sunday to finalize positions for the reformatted liguilla.
The number of teams that qualify for the playoffs has been raised from eight to 12 due to the shortened season, although the top four teams still qualify directly to the quarterfinals whereas seeds five through 12 must now navigate a single-leg play-in round to make up the last eight.
There’s nothing quite like sitting down for a Champions League match: the pregame pomp and pageantry, the 90 minutes of blistering, end-to-end action, the postgame trading of shirts and collective catching of breath. But that all is coming to an end, at least for the average viewer wondering how to watch Champions League in US for 2020-2021. Some fans may love it, many will hate it — all will have to deal with it (or just watch it in Spanish yet again).
Mexico has gone into the empty belly of the beast and defeated the Netherlands 1-0 at Johan Cruijff ArenA. The game’s only goal — a penalty converted by Raúl Jiménez — was fortunate in that Jiménez was offside before the foul that led to the spot kick, but Mexico’s play in defense, midfield and attack was superior to the Dutch’s over the course of 90 minutes in Amsterdam.
Here are my five key takeaways after watching Wednesday’s match on ESPN2.
#1. Tecatito is fun as hell.
As major clubs watch their fan bases increase exponentially around the world, lower league clubs are often forgotten. Everybody is a Chelsea fan, a Manchester United devotee or a Real Madrid supporter. They would probably associate Fleetwood with the famous band and not the League One side.
But supporting a small European club from the other side of the pond has to be the most testing of fandoms. The matches are rarely televised (even in the age of ESPN+), highlights are difficult to find and most of the people in your life probably haven't even heard of the team.