Europe

There was a strange moment in the EFL Cup fourth round match between Manchester United and Manchester City during the half-time break. The first half had passed largely without incident save for a Kelechi Iheanacho header that the young Nigerian got completely wrong. Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a wretched opening 45 minutes, but the half-time punditry, as it so often does this season, gradually shifted to Paul Pogba. 

During the commercial intermission, we were treated to this beautiful Adidas commercial concerning the world’s most expensive player: 

It's easy to forget Julian Green is only 21 years old. He's earned a spot in Bayern Munich's first team, been dropped from Bayern's first team, rejected moves away from Bayern, scored in a World Cup knockout game and started in the Champions League. This season Green is trying to carve out a spot in Bayern's rotation, and his play in his first start for the senior side since 2015 will certainly help his case.

Green scored his first competitive goal for the first team against Augsburg Wednesday with a wonderful header.

Cameron Carter-Vickers, an 18-year-old American center back, made his second appearance for Tottenham Tuesday. It did not go well. His debut came in the EFL Cup against Gillingham and he played well in a win. Tuesday, though, the likes of Gillingham were nowhere to be seen. Tottenham played Liverpool.

Mauricio Pochettino continued the time-honored tradition of playing his second-string in the EFL Cup because who cares it's the EFL Cup, so Carter-Vickers got the nod. 

Liverpool also trotted out a fairly inexperienced side except for, um, the strikers.

Bobby Wood scored a brace for Hamburg SV and Fabian Johnson scored the goal of the day for Borussia Monchengladbach as the USMNT members helped their respective sides to the round of 16 in the DFB-Pokal.

Johnson’s Gladbach took on German second division side VfB Stuttgart, and the American winger got the home side off to a dream start in front of 40,452 at Borussia-Park. Collecting the ball off an exquisite back heel pass from Andre Hahn, Johnson scored his second goal in all competitions for the club.

Marouane Fellaini needs to be dropped. For a player whose job is to link defense and attack, he is one of the most unreliable middlemen in the game. The only consistency you get from the afroed Belgian is a world class chest trap and an imposing-yet-bumbling aerial presence. 

Loaning players is a practice as common in soccer today as Jose Mourinho blaming the refs for losing a game. 

Powerhouses all over the world make use of this practice to give their young players a chance to play regular soccer somewhere else if they currently don’t have space on the first team. Sometimes, even established players are sent out on loan for various reasons. 

Regardless of why they are away, here are a few players who have been making the most of their opportunities to play regular soccer. 

Joe Hart | Torino

In order to talk smack, don’t you have to back it up? Goalkeeper Diego Alves failed to do so on Saturday in Valencia’s last-second loss to Barcelona:

When it comes to penalties, Diego Lopez is one of the best. Of the last 35 penalties he's faced, Alves has saved a staggering 17 of them; so he has good reason to be a little cocky. Two years ago, he even smack talked Cristiano Ronaldo before saving his penalty to end their title run.

Two years ago, the Netherlands were coming off a summer that saw them reach the World Cup semifinals but lose to Argentina in penalty kicks. The main cog in their success was 30-year-old Arjen Robben, who was arguably the player of the tournament — that’s an important admission coming from an Argentine like myself.

Robben was untouchable all tournament with defenders grasping at air as he waltzed by them constantly. He racked up three goals and an assist and nearly got the Dutch to their second straight World Cup final on his back.

Dubbed the "Teenage Terminator", 19-year-old Renato Sanches is a savage. The youngest player to ever win the European Championships and the Euro 2016 Young Player of the Tournament, Sanches’ 2015-16 began with the Benfica B squad but ended with a transfer to Bayern Munich that could end up costing the Bavarian side as much as €80 million.

Sanches added another accolade to his growing trophy cabinet on Monday, winning the 2016 Golden Boy award ahead of Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and Munich teammate Kingsley Coman.

France Football announced the 30 finalists for the 2016 Ballon d’Or award with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi the favorites to take home the award they’ve entirely dominated since Kaka won in 2007. Real Madrid have six nominees on the list, Barcelona have four and Leicester City’s dream season has resulted in nominations for Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy.