Manchester City had little trouble with Fulham on Saturday. The Citizens scored less than two minutes into each half and cruised to a 3-0 win. One enchanting piece of Bernardo Silva control summed up Manchester City’s dominance.
Leroy Sané, David Silva and Raheem Sterling all scored for Pep Guardiola’s side, but the team’s loveliest piece of play came from the diminutive Portuguese maestro.
Liverpool was pretty good last year, if you’ll recall. Jurgen Klopp’s side reached the Champions League final and only Manchester City had fewer losses in Premier League play.
This year, the Reds look even better.
The 2018-19 UEFA Women’s Champions League Round of 32 kicked off Wednesday with the likes of Lyon (the three-time defending champion), Chelsea, Wolfsburg, PSG and Linkoping all recording first leg victories.
The most resounding scoreline was Bayern Munich traveling to Serbia to take on Spartak Subotica and winning 7-0. The opening goal of the match was scored by 33-year-old American Gina Lewandowski (no relation to Robert). She previously won this competition with Frankfurt back in 2008, but she has only one USWNT cap to her name.
Excuse me, I have to type this so quietly because Croatia’s hungover as all hell at the moment, and I daren’t wake it. Today, Croatia opened its eyes in Elche before quickly closing them and muttering, “I think I’m going to die. I don’t think partying for 58 days straight was a good idea.”
That’s the amount of time that’s elapsed between the nation’s runners-up finish at the World Cup and today’s 6-0 beatdown at the hands of La Furia Roja — a nickname which certainly sounds like the sort of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky product that’d do your head in.
With Chile in Suwon for an international friendly against South Korea, 24-year-old midfielder Diego Valdes, who plays his club ball for Morelia in Liga MX, played the most abhorrent sort of tourist while posing for a photograph with a South Korean fan using the derogatory ‘slant-eyed’ gesture.
Portugal defeated Italy 1-0 Monday at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon to go top of UEFA Nations League Group 3 while Italy crashed to the bottom of the three-team group with only one point from two matches. The Azzurri’s worrisome 1-1 draw with Poland in Bologna last Friday served to foreshadow the day’s events: Italy mustered only two shots on target while creating absolutely nothing of note.
Brazil plays the second match of its post-World Cup tour on Tuesday after recording a solid 2-0 win over the USMNT in New Jersey last Friday. The Seleção will be looking to turn on the style against El Salvador — ranked 72nd in the FIFA World Rankings — at FedExField in Landover, Maryland after encountering an organized American side that was anchored by the stellar play of center back Matt Miazga.
A team of Cruz Azul legends played a friendly against Club America legends in a farewell match to Estadio Azul Saturday, which was America’s home between 1947 and 1955 and Azul’s ground between 1996 and 2018. Both clubs now occupy the Estadio Azteca while the Nuevo Estadio Azul is being built.
But this past weekend, the likes of Azul legends Carlos Hermosillo and César Delgado came up against Blanco, Luis Roberto Alves and Germán Villa to give the crumbling edifice a proper goodbye.
The NWSL regular season wrapped up this past weekend with a mixed bag of business-as-usual and surprising results. All around the league, for playoff bound teams and doormats alike (we’re looking at you, Sky Blue), the level was turned up to 11, giving fans both feel-good entertainment and high quality football to get excited about heading into the postseason.
For the first time ever in a men’s senior-level competitive match, the Canada national team started three teenagers.
Well, the match wasn’t that competitive.
Canada, with teens Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David and Liam Millar in the starting XI, throttled the U.S. Virgin Islands 8-0 in a Concacaf Nations League qualifying match on Sunday in Bradenton, Florida. The eight goals marked a record for the Canada national team.