The 2017 NCAA Men’s College Cup field has been whittled to eight with many of the usual suspects advancing to the quarterfinals. The marquee matchup of the quarters will be a rematch of last year’s College Cup final — Wake Forest, the top-seed, will take on back-to-back national champion Stanford. Seeds 2 through 5 remain alive as well: Indiana, North Carolina, Louisville and Akron.
Celtic has a lot to be proud of, most notably a 64-match domestic unbeaten streak that’s left the rest of Scotland with absolutely nothing to do. But in Champions League play, the Bhoys have gotten a little taste of their own medicine. While the Scottish Premiership bows down to the might of Celtic, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga must similarly contend with Hoops’ UCL group stage opponents Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.
A capacity crowd of 21,211 at MAPFRE Stadium provided an electric atmosphere for Tuesday night’s MLS Cup Eastern Conference Final between the Columbus Crew and Toronto FC, but a deserved breakthrough for the Crew — who dominated the second half and landed three shots on target as opposed to zero for the visitors — never arrived.
Napoli absolutely had to beat Shakhtar Donetsk to have any chance to advance in the Champions League and thanks to a perfect Lorenzo Insigne goal the Italian side is still alive. Insigne’s long-range hit sparked a 3-0 victory for the home side on Tuesday.
After a scoreless first half, Insigne gave Napoli hope when he cut in from the left wing and launched a curling effort from 25 yards out, finding the upper 90 in supreme fashion.
Some fine finishing from Luka Modric perfectly illustrated to APOEL how not to clear a ball when defending. The Croatian scored the first goal in the Real Madrid vs. APOEL Champions League match off a silly failed clearance on Tuesday in Cyprus. Los Blancos won the match 6-0.
When you’re in your own box, you do not mess around. Your first task is to keep the ball away from the other team and get the ball away from your goal. You clear it toward the sidelines and not in the middle of the pitch. If in doubt, kick it out.
There was one clear winner from the Madrid derby: Barcelona. The Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid match ended in a 0-0 draw, leaving both clubs 10 points behind Barcelona, which itself won 3-0 over Leganes in Madrid on Saturday.
Arsenal fans gave the mercurial Mesut Ozil a standing ovation as he was subbed off with the Gunners holding a 2-0 lead over archrival Tottenham they would not relinquish in the North London Derby on Saturday at Emirates Stadium. It was the type of adoration bestowed upon a man of the match who had given everything to defeat a hated foe.
And yet it was a performance that only made Arsenal fans grow more frustrated with Ozil and the team they love.
Borussia Dortmund has not had a great month and a half, but maybe the club can take solace in the impressive teamwork that led to a goal Friday — even if that goal was scored by Stuttgart. As the Bundesliga returned from the international break, Dortmund defender Marc Bartra and goalie Roman Burki combined to great effect to allow Chadrac Akolo to score in the fifth minute.
Australia captain, defensive midfielder and rugged bearded hero Mile Jedinak had the game of his life, scoring a hat trick to propel the Socceroos to the 2018 World Cup with a 3-1 defeat of Honduras on Wednesday in Sydney. Jedinak scored on a free kick and two penalty kicks before Honduras’ Alberth Elis scored a consolation goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time. The first leg of the intercontinental playoff was a 0-0 draw in Honduras.
For a moment, it looked like plucky Ireland were going to qualify for the World Cup. Shane Duffy's silly goal put them up 1-0 on Denmark at home. All they had to do was see the game out without conceding. But then Christian Eriksen decided he had had enough, as only a handful of players in the world can do, and tore Ireland up on the way to a hat trick, a 5-1 win and World Cup qualification for Denmark.
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