It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. In the opening line of "A Tale of Two Cities," Charles Dickens is referring to the French Revolution, but he could have easlity been talking about this game between Stevenage FC and Wycombe Wanderers in the English fourth division. Heck, maybe that is what he was talking about, and he had powers of prophecy that we didnt know about.
Things I can do in seven seconds: pour a cup of coffee, spread cream cheese on a bagel, type a sentence, tie my shoe, walk from one end of my apartment to the other and forget what I was thinking about seven seconds ago. Things Mike Grella can do in seven seconds: score a goal against the Philadelphia Union.
You know what happened by now, even if you didn't see the game. Paul Aguilar scored in the 119th minute to lift Mexico over the United States for the right to go to the Confederations Cup, the warm-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Considering the circumstances leading up to the game, the hype, the stakes, the atmosphere, this coule very well be the most important goal scored in USA vs. Mexico history.
It seems that hat tricks are already a piece of cake in modern soccer. Now the fashion is to score five goals within a few minutes of a match, as Sergio Aguero did for Manchester City this weekend.
On September 22, Robert Lewandowski did it in nine minutes in the Bundesliga, and now Aguero has emulated Bayern Munich’s forward in a 6-1 win over Newcastle in the Premier League.
Going into week 6 of the 2015 NCAA Men’s Division 1 soccer season there was one thing clearer than all the rest: parity, even among the best teams in the nation, is at an all time high.
Everyone, please take a moment to bask in the reflective glory of what Alessandro Florenzi has just done, because he has just done something incredible.
On a field inhabited by both Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, Florenzi is the star of the day. Bow to him, and tramble at his might.
You just knew Zlatan was going to do something special when it was announced he would play against his first professional club, Malmo FF, in the Champions League group stage. It was never going to be otherwise.
Sure enough, with PSG up 1-0 thanks to a magic di Maria goal in the fourth minute, Zlatan delivered, with a tricky flick on to a cross that eventually found its way to Edinson Cavani's head, from where it found its way to the back of the net.
Before today, Cristiano Ronaldo had 77 goals in the Champions League. Lionel Messi had 77 goals in the Champions League.
Now, Cristiano Ronaldo has 80 goals in the Champions League after converting a second-half hat trick that saw the Portuguese winger bury two penalties against Shakhtar Donetsk, and finish the whole thing off with a header off a rebound.
Messi still has 77 goals, but he doesn't play until tomorrow. Until then we will be giddy with anticipation, because Messi is no stranger to hat tricks himself.
What a day it was to be a Seattle reign substitute.
After a scoreless first half that saw Seattle putting all kinds of pressure on the Washington Spirit, Seattle kept pressing. When Beverly Yanez entered the game as a sub, that pressing paid off. Yanez's first touch on the end of a Megan Rapinoe cross broke the deadlock and it was all Seattle from there.
A few minutes after Yanez's goal, Rapinoe got behind the defense and scored a goal of her own.
The Chicago Red Stars just didn't have an anwer for Kansas City's Amy Rodriguez Sunday.
Kansas City scored three goals in the first 25 minutes of Sunday's NWSL semifinal and coasted 3-0 into the final.
Two of those three were via Rodriguez, the first coming in the 12th minute, Rodriguez capitalizing on a goalkeeper blunder, and the second coming in the 12th minute after Rodriguez used a nifty move to spring herself for a breakaway.
Kansas City's other goalscorer was Erika Tymrak, who knew just what to do with an excellent Heather O'Reilly ball in the 21st minute.