A meeting between two Premier League sides trending in a dangerous direction proved as insipid as all that on Sunday afternoon at St James’ Park in Newcastle. A quality finish from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang following a pathetic Newcastle United turnover was the difference in a match that felt like preseason and was largely overshadowed by a foul mood permeating from the Gallowgate End of the ground.
Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt are gone, sold to Barcelona and Juventus, respectively, for a combined $183 million.
But Ajax can still score some of the prettiest team goals in Euope.
The Dutch champions, who came within a whisker of the Champions League final last season, routed FC Emmen VV 5-0 on Saturday at Amsterdam ArenA in the Eredivisie, with four goals resulting from the home side making the extra pass.
Last night in Lima, Peru, Honduras upset Mexico after a penalty shootout to advance to the final of the 2019 Pan American Games. It’s a largely meaningless U-22 competition with understrength youth teams, so the Mexican Football Federation won’t be overly bothered by the result, but manager Jaime Lozano will be irked that his side couldn’t hold on to a 1-0 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Especially since that 1-0 lead was built on one of the finest goals of the summer.
The Premier League is almost 15 years late to the YouTube party, but the world’s most-watched domestic competition is making up for lost time by starting things off with some damn fine content over on its newly christened YouTube channel.
As Arsenal and Manchester United’s recent dominance of the FA Community Shield shows (the two clubs had combined to win the event on five of the past six occasions prior to today’s match), England’s annual curtain-raiser is a sign of very little to come in the season ahead.
A crowd of 37,040 was on hand at the Rose Bowl in Southern California to watch the USWNT kick off its Victory Tour with a 3-0 win over the Republic of Ireland on Saturday night. First half goals from Tobin Heath, Lindsey Horan and Carli Lloyd settled things by the 41st minute, and 17 different World Cup-winners made an appearance on the night, although star attractions Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe both missed the match while recovering from minor injuries.
Atlanta United thrashed the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-0 — although the Five Stripes only scored one goal of their own — in front of 72,548 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday night, the largest regular season crowd in MLS history.
Two own goals cursed the Galaxy, and without the legendary Zlatan Ibrahimovic up top, who was serving a one-game suspension, the team went cold in attack.
England’s best non-top-six club is through to the Europa League third qualifying round thanks to a standout performance from Mexico international Raúl Jiménez on Thursday. The El Tri star scored a brace in Wolves’ 4-1 demolition of Northern Ireland’s Crusaders FC, easing the Premier League side into the next round 6-1 on aggregate.