Game Recaps

Last weekend, the LA Galaxy’s 3-1 win over Minnesota United — coupled with Real Salt Lake’s 0-3 defeat to Portland — seemed to all but guarantee Zlatan’s side a place in the playoffs. The route was clear: defeat the Houston Dynamo, the West’s 10th-place side, at home, and the Galaxy would be in.

Anything less and it was all over.

27 minutes into the first half, the Galaxy took control through Ola Kamara with Romain Alessandrini providing the assist. 

Barcelona heaped the pressure on crisis-stricken Real Madrid Sunday with a 5-1 El Clásico victory at the Camp Nou. The first half was dominated by the home side and both Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez helped Barça to a 2-0 lead by the interval. But Real answered through Marcelo in the 50th minute and came extremely close to equalizing on a number of occasions before Suarez’s brilliant header in the 75th minute gave the league-leaders some breathing room.

A fascinating tactical battle between Lucien Favre’s Bundesliga-leading Dortmund and Diego Simeone’s Atletico (currently averaging 0.55 goals conceded per game in LaLiga) was bossed by the home side at the Westfalenstadion on Wednesday, BVB putting four past Europe’s misers while limiting the visitors to only two shots on frame.

Achraf Hakimi registered a hat-trick of assists while the moves were finished by Axel Witsel, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Guerreiro (x2). Marco Reus wasn’t on the scoresheet, but his deployment in the false nine role murdered Atletico’s shape. 

With El Clásico looming on Sunday, the only good news for Real Madrid at the present is the absence of Lionel Messi. Yes, Real climbed to the top of Champions League Group G on Tuesday after narrowly defeating Czech First League side Plzeň 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu, but you could easily argue that Los Blancos looked better during last weekend’s shock 2-1 defeat to Levante.

The ridiculous transformation that D.C. United’s experienced since the arrival of Wayne Rooney reached a fitting conclusion today with a 3-1 victory over New York City FC and a berth in the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs. Rooney scored twice for United and strike partner Luciano Acosta was also on the scoresheet before David Villa struck a late consolation goal on a celebratory day at Audi Field.

Sporting Kansas City took a step toward securing a top-two seed in the Western Conference playoffs last night with a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place. Sporting’s third goal was scored by 16-year-old Homegrown Player Gianluca Busio, making the versatile player the second-youngest goal scorer in MLS history at 16 years and 142 days.

The record, of course, is held by Freddy Adu and will never be broken. Adu scored for D.C. United at the preposterous age of 14 years and 320 days.

The USWNT has lifted the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Championship after defeating Canada 2-0 in the final, wrapping up an 18-day competition with a record of five wins, zero defeats, 26 goals scored and zero conceded. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France awaits.

England’s impressive 3-2 win over Spain in Seville had its fair share of landmarks. The defeat was the first of Luis Enrique’s reign as boss, and it was also Spain’s first home loss since 2003. Raheem Sterling, who had a brace, scored his first international goal in 1,102 days, and England’s first goal in Spain since 1987. Harry Kane, who was signaled out for praise before the match by Sergio Ramos, had his first-ever two-assist match for the Three Lions.

The USWNT booked passage to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup with an imperious 6-0 victory over Jamaica on Sunday night, and setup a much-anticipated CONCACAF Women’s Championship final against Canada in the process.

With automatic qualification hanging in the balance, the U.S. raced out to a 5-0 lead by the 33rd minute, and it would be ridiculous to single out an individual for praise in the face of such overall team excellence.

Panama kept Canada in check for 44 minutes Sunday, but a seven-goal, 34-minute spell ended the Central American’s hopes of an astonishing upset at the semifinal stage of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship. By advancing to the final, Canada secured automatic qualification to the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, where it’ll look to improve on a quarterfinal showing at the 2015 finals on home soil.