Last week, the UFL officially said farewell to Michigan, Memphis, and San Antonio.
UFL Unveils 3 Franchises, Moves to Soccer Stadiums for Third Season
The United Football League (UFL), a pro spring league, has unveiled three new franchises located in Columbus, Ohio; Louisville, Ky.; and Orlando, Fla. The three teams, which will debut next season, represent the latest audible by the fledgling league. The Columbus Aviators, Louisville Kings and Orlando Storm will replace the Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers and …
Air raids are the new trend as Premier League goes back to the future
Set pieces, long throws and generally getting it launched are back with a vengeance amid a notable tactical shift
To see a world in a grain of Wayne Rooney, an eternity in a robot‑voiced YouTube tactics clip. To find yourself submerged in a vast rolling wave of information in the course of only seven rounds of Premier League games.
As English football enters its latest international break it is a little startling to think we have had only 70 Premier League matches to this point, with 310 more still to go through the slog of autumn into spring. Seven rounds of games? Really? Is that all?
Continue reading...Cancellieri shows glimpses of genius in silver lining for haywire Lazio | Nicky Bandini
A ‘more mature’ player after two seasons on loan, the winger is glad to be back and may be ready to live up to his potential
The Stadio Olimpico was not a happy place just after 3pm on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were losing at home to Torino, who had been outscored by their previous five league opponents by a combined 10 goals to two. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up the latest protest in their never-ending feud with the club’s owner, Claudio Lotito.
Was Lazio’s season coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread holding it together in the first place? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, only for him to later acknowledge that the club had not mentioned the transfer ban they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Rumours that he might quit were unfounded, but he did say Lotito had “swindled” him.
Continue reading...Uefa gives ‘reluctant’ approval for domestic games to be played abroad this season
Governing body says go-ahead shouldn’t set precedent
Barcelona poised to play in US and Milan in Australia
Uefa has given its “reluctant” approval to Serie A and La Liga each playing a domestic game abroad this season. The decision clears a path for Barcelona and Villarreal to meet in Miami in December and for Milan and Como to play in Perth, Australia, in February.
Uefa said in a statement that it had “reiterated its clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country” but that because “the relevant Fifa regulatory framework – currently under review – is not clear and detailed enough, the Uefa Executive Committee has reluctantly taken the decision to approve, on an exceptional basis, the two requests referred to it”.
The move comes after the Italian and Spanish football federations applied for those matches to be played abroad. Uefa said its national associations had agreed to engage with it before submitting any future requests.
Continue reading...Liverpool’s struggles show that Trent Alexander-Arnold is not easily replaced
Three straight defeats laid bare the issues with Arne Slot’s offseason makeover, with one departure looming particularly large
It’s not a crisis, not yet, but Liverpool’s run of three defeats in a row is reason to take stock. It’s true that the two league games in that run were both lost via last-minute winners, and that in isolation these three games could be explained away relatively easily. But context matters, and the truth is that while Liverpool won their first five league games of the season, they did not play well in them.
New players are struggling to settle and Arne Slot’s rejig of the formation has not really worked, while a number of regulars look out of sorts. Last season Liverpool won the league playing extremely controlled soccer, making 2-0 almost a trademark scoreline, establishing their lead and then running the clock down. This season there has been none of that, no sense of playing within themselves. They’ve been extremely open through midfield and most of their wins have come through late goals. There’s been an unexpected wildness to them, almost as though Slot is going through his transition a season late.
This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.
Continue reading...Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Mason Mount shows his worth, Oliver Glasner makes no excuses and Chelsea find a new defensive duo
Elliot Anderson spent much of Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 defeat on Tyneside reminding Eddie Howe how much he lost when Premier League spending rules demanded that the midfielder be sold to fend off the threat of a points deduction. That was back in the summer of 2024 and Anderson, now an England international, has rarely looked back since joining Forest. For much of the first half he eclipsed even Sandro Tonali and, overall, was comfortably Ange Postecoglou’s best player. Yet Anderson is human and when his loose pass offered Bruno Guimarães an opening, his subsequent attempt at a recovery tackle was mistimed and sent Guimarães crashing in the area. The Brazilian had already shot Newcastle ahead from 25 yards and from the spot Nick Woltemade scored his fourth goal in five starts. Tellingly, at the final whistle both Postecoglou and Howe made concerted efforts to console Anderson. If Forest’s manager is to survive and then thrive at Forest he will inevitably be heavily dependent on Anderson’s talent. Howe, meanwhile, would love to buy the Newcastle academy graduate back. Should Forest, with or without Postecoglou, continue to founder Newcastle may yet be in with a chance. Louise Taylor
Continue reading...Newcastle 2-0 Nottingham Forest, Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace and more: Premier League clockwatch – as it happened
Jack Grealish’s injury-time goal ended Palace’s unbeaten run while Nottm Forest were beaten at St James’ Park
Newcastle v Nottm Forest
“Just quietly, mate, I don’t think Forest have been bad under Ange,” writes Chris Paraskevas. “The results are a little misleading: having watched a few of their games, they’ve either been genuinely unlucky, finished poorly or had every outfield player (including their goalkeeper), along with substitutes, all the backroom staff, the team bus driver, the mascot and the tea lady all pushed up for a (short) corner in the dying embers of a match.
Continue reading...Newcastle’s Bruno Guimarães adds to Postecoglou’s Nottingham Forest crisis
Ange Postecoglou strode towards the tunnel scratching his head and with eyes trained downwards. After seven games as Nottingham Forest’s manager and no wins, his immediate future seems as opaque as a fog on the Tyne.
Although Newcastle were far from their ferocious best, second-half goals from Bruno Guimarães and Nick Woltemade, the latter a penalty, ultimately offered them a restorative second Premier League victory of a season they are gradually growing into.
Continue reading...Van Hecke saves point for Brighton after Verbruggen’s own goal against Wolves
Jørgen Strand Larsen, denied a £55m move to Newcastle at the end of the transfer window, remonstrated angrily with Wolves’ coaching staff on the full-time whistle after he had been substituted late on, just after shooting against a post with Wolves leading through Bart Verbruggen’s own goal, as Brighton pushed for a late equaliser which finally arrived from Jan Paul van Hecke.
For the second successive week, Wolves’ attempt to get their season up and running was stymied by a late equaliser. Vítor Pereira, the Wolves manager, had been sent off just before the Premier League’s bottom side went ahead, through Marshall Munetsi’s volley rebounding off the bar and in off the Brighton goalkeeper.
Continue reading...Goals in each half from Donyell Malen give Aston Villa edge over Burnley
As Aston Villa cantered towards a fourth successive victory in all competitions, it was hard not to wonder: what was all the fuss about? Donyell Malen was the match-winner for Villa in Unai Emery’s 150th game in charge of the club, the Dutchman applying a pair of expert finishes after seizing a rare start, this just his fourth in the Premier League since signing from Borussia Dortmund in January. Out of nowhere Burnley halved the deficit through the substitute Lesley Ugochukwu, who headed in on 78 minutes, but a first away point this season proved beyond them.
Before Ugochukwu headed in Quilindschy Hartman’s cross it was apparent Villa’s biggest danger was probably themselves – and so it proved, some slack marking allowing the former Chelsea midfielder to send the ball through the legs of the returning Emiliano Martínez. Unsurprisingly, Burnley roused from there but they could not prevent a fifth defeat in six matches in all competitions and they have conceded 15 Premier League goals, one shy of the 16 they let in across the entire Championship season en route to promotion as runners-up.
Continue reading...Philadelphia Union clinch MLS Supporters Shield: ‘This has been building since Matchday 1’
Trophy awarded for best regular season record
Union failed to make MLS playoffs last year
Philadelphia Union clinched Major League Soccer’s Supporters Shield on Saturday after a 1-0 victory over New York City FC saw them clinch the best record in the regular season.
Danish striker Mikael Uhre scored the game’s only goal to spark wild celebrations in front of Philadelphia’s raucous Subaru Park home crowd.
Continue reading...Brooke Norton-Cuffy: ‘Vieira was great as a player and he’s a great manager now’
Genoa’s England Under-21s full-back on his coach in Serie A and the card game that helped make Lee Carsley’s side European champions
If there was a secret to the togetherness among the England Under-21s players as they retained their European title this summer then Brooke Norton-Cuffy may have let it slip: a card game called Werewolf. Introduced to the senior England camp during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it pits a small informed group called the wolves against the uninformed majority known as the villagers as they attempt to deceive each other to win, in a format similar to the popular TV show The Traitors.
“We were playing every night,” says Norton-Cuffy. “It really helped us bond because you get to know people. In this day and age when everyone can be on their phones, you sit down, you have a laugh, you have a joke … the group was really, really tight, everyone was together, and you saw that on the pitch when we ended up going and winning it.”
Continue reading...Philadelphia Union wins 2025 MLS Supporters’ Shield, second in club history
The Philadelphia Union marked a stunning season with the 2025 MLS Supporters' Shield award, the club's second in franchise history.
D.C. United picks up 2 straight red cards in first 30 minutes of 1-0 loss to Charlotte FC
D.C. played more than an hour of the matchup with only 9 men on the field.