Liverpool loanee Harvey Elliott scored his fifth goal of the season for Blackburn in the first half of Wednesday's game against Watford. The strike brought Tony Mowbray's Rovers within one as the game went into halftime before Watford won 3-2.
| What a finish by Harvey Elliot!pic.twitter.com/lRbb59fghz
— The Anfield Buzz (@TheAnfieldBuzz) February 24, 2021
It’s been 20 years to the day since Cristiano Ronaldo made his debut at the youth level for Portugal. He was only a 16-year-old at the time, but he was also just one year away from a meteoric rise through Sporting’s system that would see him become the first to play for the club’s U-16, U-17, U-18, B team and first team all within the same season.
Thursday’s Europa League Round of 32 first leg between Lille and Ajax featured a heavy dose of CONCACAF as the USMNT’s Timothy Weah and Canada’s Jonathan David started for the French side while Mexico’s Edson Álvarez went the full 90 for the Dutch team in their dramatic 2-1 win at Stade Pierre Mauroy.
Not long ago, the American soccer landscape was a barren wasteland devoid of talent. Americans either played for boring MLS teams or obscure European clubs, always moving laterally and rarely improving.
Kids these days have Christian Pulisic at Chelsea and Sergiño Dest at Barcelona. We had a promising central defender at Birmingham City that now works at a financial company. Man, they have it easy.
With 18 goals in his first 13 Champions League appearances, Erling Haaland is on pace to overtake Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time scoring record sometime next month. The 20-year-old Norwegian scored two and assisted one — all in the first half — of Borussia Dortmund’s electric 3-2 victory over Sevilla in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Galaxy announced the signing Wednesday of 15-year-old Alex Alcala to his first pro contract.
Alcala joined the LA Galaxy Academy last year. He is scheduled to report to Galaxy II of the USL Championship for the upcoming 2021 season.
MUNICH, Germany - Hosts Bayern Munich had to battle back from two goals down to rescue a 3-3 draw against strugglers Arminia Bielefeld on Monday and had their lead at the top of the Bundesliga cut to five points.
Four days after lifting the Club World Cup for a sixth title in less than nine months, Bayern crashed back to Bundesliga reality with Bielefeld racing to a 2-0 lead in the first half.
It’s been 10 years since Lille OSC captured its last Ligue 1 title, but one look at the table sees the club from northern France setting the pace ahead of last season’s Champions League semifinalist Lyon and, of course, three-time defending champion Paris Saint-Germain.
If it’s a position that Lille didn’t anticipate being in with just 14 matches remaining, 20-year-old American forward Timothy Weah isn’t letting on to any sense of disbelief.
With soccer tactics constantly changing, certain types of players are not always accommodated.
Roles like the libero, trequartista, striker partnerships and burly center backs have become, or are quickly becoming, outdated in modern football. Other roles like ball-playing goalkeepers, false nines and wingers that cut inside onto their stronger foot have become very trendy.
This often leaves current players wishing they had played in a previous decade and former players wishing their career had started a little later. Ah, what could have been.
As an American soccer website, we at The18 feel obligated to cover every little thing about our beloved Americans abroad. Exactly one year and a day ago, we wrote about Gio Reyna’s first Borussia Dortmund goal, an absolute worldie against Werder Bremen. We covered him before the goal and we continue to cover him today.