San Diego Wave FC will start the 2023 season on Saturday, but the team has already made history this year. On Tuesday the club signed the youngest player ever in the NWSL when 15-year-old Melanie Barcenas penned a three-year deal with San Diego.
Talking points from the weekend in European soccer leagues:
BARCELONA TAKE HUGE STEP TOWARDS LALIGA TITLE
Barcelona have tightened their grip at the top of the LaLiga standings after an electric 2-1 comeback win in an El Clásico against bitter rivals Real Madrid on Sunday.
Franck Kessié's stunner in added time gave Barça a well-earned victory that left second-placed Real trailing the leaders by 12 points with only 12 games to be played.
Week four of the MLS season was one of the best yet. The matchweek featured great games like LAFC traveling to Seattle and New England hosting Nashville. Philadelphia’s last-minute loss to Montreál sent shockwaves across the league, reminding fans that nobody is safe from the drama that is MLS. With over three goals per game on Saturday, you’d be forgiven for finding it difficult to follow every match, so let's take a look at what we learned from MLS Matchweek 4.
LONDON — Crystal Palace sacked manager Patrick Vieira after 20 months in charge on Friday following the 1-0 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion that left the south London club three points above the Premier League relegation zone.
Palace are the only side in the league without a win in 2023, having drawn five and lost six of their games. Their last league victory came on Dec. 31, 2-0 at Bournemouth, and they are 12th on 27 points with 11 games to play.
The year of Marcus Rashford continued Thursday as the Manchester United forward scored the lone goal against Real Betis at Estadio Benito Villamarín, giving the Red Devils a 5-1 aggregate victory and easy passage to the Europa League quarterfinals.
Before the World Cup, Rashford had a total of eight goals in 19 appearances across all competitions. Since the tournament in Qatar, the 25-year-old has found the back of the net 18 times in 24 games. The total of 26 from 43 is already a career best and the Red Devils are still competing on three fronts.
The USMNT's ongoing quest for a dependable, goalscoring No. 9 took a dramatic turn on Wednesday with the release of the Nations League squad: the World Cup trio of Jesús Ferreira, Josh Sargent and Haji Wright were all omitted while Daryl Dike and Ricardo Pepi got call ups.
As Erling Haaland watched the fourth official slowly put up his board and tell the world the Nowegian’s day was done, Haaland left his short conversation with Kevin De Bruyne to make way for Julián Álvarez. It was a completely fair decision by Pep Guardiola. Álvarez is a fantastic striker, and a World Cup winner lest we forget, but his one crime is not being Erling Haaland.
In America, there's a very sizable contingent of once-every-four-year fans who usually only get their soccer fix via the rare SportsCenter highlight or through that one friend who's always at the Irish pub early on Saturdays. But when the World Cup rolls around, this crowd appreciates and gets down with the month-long spectacle, making the U.S. feel as soccer-mad as any other country on the planet.
As the weeks go on and the league table begins to take shape, favorites begin to emerge and we can start to see trends more clearly. MLS has belonged to Philadelphia and LAFC for the past year, but is that the case anymore? Sure, Denis Bouanga can’t stop scoring, but other teams are finally having their say. After MLS Matchweek 3, here are five things we learned.
USMNT and Antalyaspor striker Haji Wright scored twice and got an assist during Saturday’s Turkish Süper Lig game vs. Kayserispor where his side won 4-0.
Wright missed all of February and most of January with a thigh injury and made his return to the field on March 6. He rediscovered his goal scoring form Saturday netting his fourth brace of the season.