USA

18-year-old American Sergiño Dest made his Ajax senior debut on Saturday in the Johan Cruijff Shield, going the full 90 minutes and helping his side to its first piece of silverware this season following a 2-0 victory over Chucky Lozano’s PSV.

Dest impressed last season for Jong Ajax, the club’s reserve team, while making 17 appearances in the Eerste Divisie (the Dutch second tier) and tallying one goal and two assists. He also scored one goal and provided one assist in seven appearances in the prestigious UEFA Youth League.

When whoever’s in charge of the worst competition ever created sits down to look at their social media numbers, they’ll see that the most liked/shared/commented/engaged with post of the 2019 Leagues Cup was a cat. Hopefully they’ll then decide to make the 2020 edition strictly cats. 

You see, it’s a helluva fine boi.

(Editor’s Note: See update below on Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s punishment.)

Mohamed El-Munir, LAFC’s left back, needs surgery after a love tap from Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Friday. After visiting a specialist on Monday, it was revealed the 27-year-old has a zygomatic fracture on his face.

After making his Chelsea debut as a 65th-minute substitute against Kawasaki Frontale on Friday, Christian Pulisic was handed his first-ever Chelsea start Tuesday as the Blues defeated Barcelona 2-1 in Saitama, Japan. 

Last night in Bridgeview, Illinois, a crowd of 17,388 turned up at SeatGeek Stadium to watch the Chicago Red Stars defeat the North Carolina Courage 2-1 in NWSL play. For a bit of perspective, the Chicago Fire has averaged a gate of 11,209 throughout the 2019 MLS season. According to ESPN’s Sarah Spain, it was the first-ever sellout for a Chicago women’s professional soccer team.

As someone whose job is soccer all day, everyday, I like to think that I have a pretty good grip on what’s going on, why it’s going on and when it’s going on. In what I feel is a pretty damning indictment of the newfangled Leagues Cup competition, I haven't a goddamn clue on any of those fronts.

Let’s figure out what in the hell this thing is together.

Who Plays In The Leagues Cup?

It was the sort of tackle in which the final verdict would be better suited to a courtroom; a straight red card certainly doesn’t seem like enough justice for an act of violence perpetrated with the sole intention of seriously injuring another player.

During yesterday’s “friendly” between Sevilla and Liverpool at Fenway Park in Boston, Sevilla’s Joris Gnagnon was handed his marching orders in the 76th minute for this assault on 18-year-old Liverpool winger Yasser Larouci.

On Saturday night, the Houston Dash faced off against the Washington Spirit in Boyds, Maryland, where both teams had their fair share of opportunities on goal.

After an hour delay at halftime due to lightning, the Spirit came out strong and found the back of the net first. Midfielder Jordan DiBiasi received a deflected ball off a long throw-in from Sam Staab, and DiBiasi got her head on it to give the Spirit the lead in the 52nd minute.

The stars of the 2019 Women’s World Cup are returning to the NWSL and if Friday night was any evidence, they’re ready to keep people talking about women’s soccer beyond just once every four years.

All four goals in a 2-2 draw between the Utah Royals FC and Portland Thorns FC were scored by Women’s World Cup stars on Friday night in Sandy, Utah, yet the best performance of them all came from a USWNT player who didn’t even make it onto the pitch en route to the Americans’ fourth World Cup title.

In another fiery edition of “El Trafico,” Zlatan Ibrahimović played spoiler again by netting a perfect hat trick in a 3-2 win against Los Angeles FC, which has yet to beat its crosstown rival in four meetings now.

Ibrahimović told ESPN on Thursday that he was a superior player to LAFC’s Carlos Vela despite the latter’s impressive start to the season. He backed it up with Friday’s performance.