Lionel Messi was introduced as an Inter Miami player in front of a raucous sellout crowd of over 20,000 at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday night. Messi was welcomed in the driving rain with an impressive display of pyrotechnics and star-studded video messages (Tom Brady! Steph Curry! Gregg!), and he thanked the crowd for making his family feel so welcome in the city.
I'll have you know that I consider myself the MLS All-Star Skills Challenge-meister.
No one appointed me this position, I wasn't voted into it and I've only just recently thought of the title, but I think about the All-Star Skills Challenge a lot: the contests, the strategies, the techniques and the storied three-event history of the competition.
The amazing Lionel Messi goal vs Benfica from October 5 was voted as the goal of the season for the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League on Friday.
Messi’s contract with PSG also expired on Friday meaning that on his last day of being under contract for a European club he won the goal of the season award. Not a bad way to go out.
Here’s the goal that won him the award.
A Copa Sudamericana match between Peruvian side Universitario de Deportes and Argentina's Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata didn't end well. After losing the game and being kicked out of the competition, Gimnasia players went into sore-loser mode and started a gigantic fight on the pitch.
JASDKLFAJLSDF SE ARMÓ BATALLA CAMPAL EN EL UNIVERSITARIO VS GIMNASIA Y A ESTE TIPO LE HICIERON LITERALMENTE EL WOMBO COMBO pic.twitter.com/wtSr4qjzja
It's been almost a year since two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas went down with an ACL injury that cost her a place at last summer's European Championship and almost the entire 2022-23 club season with Barcelona.
Her last appearance for Spain was actually July 2, 2022, when she received her 100th cap and scored her 27th goal in a friendly against Italy.
Now, after a long and demanding road to recovery, Putellas made her long-awaited return to the national team Thursday during a friendly against fellow World Cup participants Panama.
What is it with the youth of Japan and unforgettable set piece routines? Every year we're visiting the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament to watch some team perform Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake before scoring, so it comes as no surprise that when all the finest young Samurai Blue minds come together to represent Japan at the U-17 level, magic happens.
It's probably for the best that Lionel Messi was way too busy to watch Inter Miami play on Saturday night. While the Herons were getting smacked 4-1 by Philadelphia for a seventh consecutive defeat in MLS, Messi was celebrating his 36th birthday in his hometown of Rosario and playing in a testimonial match for Newell's Old Boys legend Maxi Rodríguez.
The San Jose Earthquakes and Portland Timbers played to a 0-0 result on Saturday night at PayPal Park, and news agency Reuters went with the headline "Goalkeepers steal show as Earthquakes, Timbers play to draw" ... Reuters wasn't telling the whole truth.
Pablo Ruiz scored a remarkable goal from just inside his own half of the field and visiting Real Salt Lake continued their strong away form with a 2-1 victory against 10-man D.C. United on Saturday night.
Early in the second half, Danny Musovski added what stood as the match-winning goal for Salt Lake (6-7-5, 23 points), which completed an MLS-best-tying fourth road win of the season.
Con goles de Raúl Jiménez y Roberto de la Rosa, la Selección Mexicana venció a Guatemala en un amistoso jugado en el Estadio El Kraken de Mazatlán.
El partido, la verdad, es que no tuvo nada del otro mundo. Guatemala, dirigida por el Flaco Tena, fue un equipo ordenadito y que hizo pasar un par de sustos al Tri, pero sin TNT suficiente como para amagar a un México que hizo lo que tenía que hacer sin mayores aspavientos.
Bueno, excepto por la dosis de fútbol champagne que nos regaló el central Néstor Araujo.