Ousmane Dembele made his long-awaited return from injury in Barcelona’s Copa del Rey Round of 16 first leg match versus Celta Vigo, but the headlines were written by the man he replaced in the 72nd minute, 22-year-old winger Jose Arnaiz.
It’s one of the first lessons you learn playing soccer (or most any sport): play to the whistle. That tenet is even more important in the age of VAR, when professionals know the referee can consult replay to confirm goals, at least in countries that aren’t in the Dark Ages. The Mario Mandzukic goal vs. Torino was the result of Juventus punishing its rival for not playing to the whistle in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Atletico Madrid gave themselves an unassailable four-goal advantage heading back to Madrid for the second leg of their Copa del Rey Round of 16 encounter with third division side Lleida Esportiu on Wednesday. Diego Godin and Fernando Torres opened the scoring in the first half, and then Lleida had to contend with second half substitute appearances from both Diego Costa and Antoine Griezmann, both furthering Los Colchoneros’ advantage.
In what is becoming a tradition, the New York Red Bulls traded away their captain for the second straight year, sending Sacha Kljestan and $150,000 in Targeted Allocation Money to Orlando City for a pair of young players. The Red Bulls, who traded captain Dax McCarty to Chicago last year, received 23-year-old attacker Carlos Rivas and defender Tommy Redding, 20, in one of the biggest trades of the MLS offseason so far.
The 2017 MLS Cup Final will be rightly remembered as the crowning achievement on a historic, record-setting season for Toronto FC, but for the second year running, Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei came agonizingly close to writing the script himself — almost literally single-handedly.
If you’re like most of the (of age) world, you went out and had a few too many drinks on New Year’s Eve. Maybe you’re not feeling too bubbly this morning after all the bubbly at midnight. Fortunately, we’ve got just the thing for you: magnificent Premier League goals.
When a pitcher throws a no-hitter in baseball, there is always at least one play in which the pitcher keeps his perfect game intact not through anything he does but through a brilliant play from his defense. If Manchester City is trying to throw a no-hitter by going unbeaten this season, Sunday’s match was a prime example of succeeding not because of what City did, but because of what Crystal Palace didn’t do.
Having last made a competitive appearance in 2014 for Atletico Paranaense, Inter Milan legend and former Brazilian international Adriano made a triumphant return in the world-renowned Maracana stadium for a friendly this week. The 35-year-old looked healthy and happy after years of troubling rumors concerning his alcohol abuse and falling in with Rio favela gangs.
The reception he got from the stadium and his fellow players was heartwarming to say the least.
New Year’s Eve is approaching, so it’s time to get all stressed out about having the best time ever while throwing up Smirnoff Ice in the toilet or whatever. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the holiday season, but it’s also extremely likely that you’ve suffered your share of anxiety due to travel, a damning inability to properly give justice to your own existence and personal beliefs over dinner conversation and the realization that another 365-day period has been spent slaving over inconsequential tedium in the face of death, which you’ll inevitably experience entirely alone.
Did you make a decision today? No. You did not. You think you did, but you didn't. What you thought was a decision made by you was actually made by Sergio Busquets. Busquets is the string-puller, the puppetmaster, the orchestrator. What you thought was fate was actually Sergio Busquets. What you thought was destiny was actually Busquets. There is no such thing as a coincidence. There is only Busquets.