While Jozy Altidore’s goalscoring record for Sunderland will always torment him like a black spot, a piece of low-hanging fruit for doubters who refuse to recognize his enormous talent, those who’ve followed his career of late will know that it’s his troublesome hamstrings which remain his personal Kryptonite.
Hector Moreno's PSV season is off to a good start. The Mexico international defender scored the winner in the 52nd minute against AZ Alkmaar Sunday in the Eredivisie.
Hector Moreno hace gol del triunfo en la victoria del PSV de 1-0 sobre el AZ Alkmaar. #psvaz pic.twitter.com/DLeL4vqlI7
Carlo Ancelotti has already accomplished something that Pep Guardiola was never able to do at Bayern Munich: win the German Super Cup. Guardiola was unsuccessful in three attempts, but Ancelotti has landed an early trophy in his Bayern reign by defeating their Der Klassiker rival Borussia Dortmund 2-0.
Second half goals from Arturo Vidal and Thomas Muller put an emphatic touch on a scoreline that was hardly representative of the game’s competitive nature.
Football is back and, apparently, better than ever. Liverpool and Arsenal played out a seven goal thriller in London, the Merseyside club racing to a 4-1 lead before surrendering two late goals and giving Arsene Wenger’s men a brief moment of joy.
Brazil’s Olympic footballing dream received a massive lift on Saturday. Following the women’s dramatic shootout victory over Australia on Friday, Brazil’s men followed the example of Marta and company to reach the semi-finals of their own competition.
Having struggled through group play with draws against Iraq and South Africa, Neymar and his teammates sprung to life with devastating efficiency against continental rivals Colombia.
In two seasons with Sunderland, Jermain Defoe has managed to save Sunderland from relegation twice. Goals are key to survival, and Defoe consistently provides them from the forward position. He’s been doing so for almost sixteen years — since his Premier League debut with West Ham United during the 2000-01 season.
Defoe’s greatest EPL return was 18 goals during the 2009-10 season. You’d expect, at 33 years of age, that his goalscoring ability would’ve plummeted since then. You’d be wrong.
Will Grigg shot to global prominence last year on the back of a fan chant turned dance remix that entered the top 10 of the UK Charts. He also scored 25 goals in 40 matches for English League One side Wigan Athletic — firing them to promotion into the Championship.
Leicester City opened their title defense in the worst possible fashion on Saturday, losing to a newly promoted Hull City side whose own preseason has bordered on the shambolic.
Leicester became the first ever reigning Premier League champions to lose their opening game, and they’ve been defeated by the early favorites for relegation, Hull City.
Leicester’s far-reaching preseason, including matches against Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, doesn’t appear to have sufficiently readied the East Midlands club.
The United States women’s national team clawed their way back into their quarter-final match against Sweden, but were unable to find a winner in 120 minutes of action. The lottery of penalties ultimately doomed the four-time gold medalists.
It was the first penalty shootout in the history of women’s soccer at the Olympics, and the USWNT were unable to conquer their nerves as Sweden emerged victorious, 4-3.
For Aston Villa, keeping the ball out of their own net has become akin to keeping an ice cube frozen in Hell. They were relegated from the Premier League after giving up an astonishing 76 goals last year, and they’ve now somehow managed to ship three goals to League Two side Luton.
The pick of the bunch was certainly Luton’s third — a calamitous own goal scored by Villa's Jores Okore. Under absolutely no pressure whatsoever, the Denmark center back somehow managed to cooly tuck away an opponent’s cross into his own net.