Football (Soccer) News
Five first-half goals give Spurs thumping win over hopeless Southampton, whose fans turned on manager Russell Martin
This has a bit of a desperate feel to it. Both managers on TNT were doing their best to mask their anxiety (at least that’s my pop psychology take). They know that the ice below their feet is getting thinner.
The players are now making their way out the tunnel. All the noise, all the pressure, all the injuries and absentees, this could be anything.
Continue reading...Two goals in the last few minutes saw Manchester United steal victory in a high-drama, low-quality derby
An email! “Looks like City’s injury crisis is really starting to bite, with just £200m of talent on the bench,” writes Tim Woods. “Still, as a Liverpool fan I find myself in that rare position of hoping for a United win. Despite their troubles, I still fear City can put together a 25-game winning run to deny us (or Chelsea) the title once again.” Obviously I’m completely impartial, but it would be nice if a different team won the league for a change. Four in a row and six out of seven is quite enough for the time being.
It’s only a few months since United’s then manager, Erik ten Hag, described the idea of Rashford being dropped as “crazy”, and that “I would almost say that, as a person, you are not OK when you bring such speculation … I’m very happy with Marcus, with everything. With his defending part, offensive, he performs very good.”
Continue reading...When Ruben Amorim oversaw his previous victory over Manchester City – with his old club Sporting in the Champions League – it was to push the reigning Premier League champions towards crisis. That was in early November and it was City’s third defeat on the spin.
As Amorim repeated the trick here, it was to pep up his new project at Manchester United and leave Pep Guardiola on his knees. There seems no way out of the misery for the City manager, this an eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions, the decline of his all-conquering team stark and extraordinary.
Continue reading...Burnley recovered from the shock of conceding a goal after just 64 seconds to reclaim third place in the Championship by beating Norwich with a 2-1 comeback victory at Carrow Road, while Watford won by the same score at home to West Brom.
The Norwich defender José Cordoba headed home his first goal in English football to give his side a dream start, but the visitors hit back in impressive fashion after the break to take home maximum points. The substitute Zian Flemming’s brilliant long-range strike levelled it for the Clarets midway through the second period and another emphatic finish from Josh Brownhill settled the issued eight minutes later.
Continue reading...Sunderland overturned a two-goal deficit to win a 3-2 thriller at Swansea and climb to third place in the Championship. Swansea established a healthy lead inside 17 minutes as Zan Vipotnik volleyed home and Liam Cullen dispatched a fabulous free-kick, but Sunderland levelled through Dan Ballard and Dan Neil – whose previous goals both came in a 2-1 victory against West Brom over 12 months ago. Jobe Bellingham then claimed the winner with his third of the season.
The win moved Sunderland to within two points of second-placed Leeds who were held to a 1-1 draw at Preston. Brad Potts put Preston ahead in the 23rd minute but an unfortunate own goal from substitute Jack Whatmough in injury time saved Leeds a point.
Continue reading...Lee Jae-sung scored either side of the break as Mainz stunned Bayern Munich 2-1 on Saturday to end the league leaders’ unbeaten start as their advantage at the top was cut to four points.
Lee struck four minutes before the break, the South Korea international pouncing on a defensive blunder by the lacklustre visitors. The 32-year-old then doubled the hosts’ lead on the hour, turning beautifully in the box to finish a superb attacking move that left the Bayern defence frozen to the spot.
Continue reading...Arne Slot’s ten men rescued a late point at Anfield, Arsenal were frustrated and Ipswich piled more pain on Gary O’Neil
Arsenal 0-0 Everton. A fast start for the hosts, with the sheer presence of Bukayo Saka causing the dithering Jordan Pickford angst. The keeper sorts himself out just in time. Then he claims a Declan Rice corner. “Greetings from Free State California,” writes Mary Waltz. “It’s pitch dark, pouring rain, the perfect surroundings for watching my Everton march into the Arsenal home ground. Not feeling especially optimistic but who knows … who am I kidding, it’s going to be ugly. Sigh.”
Liverpool 0-0 Fulham. Andy Robertson has taken an early knock on the knee, courtesy of Issa Diop, who goes into the book. Robertson’s up and about, but took a while to get back onto his feet. A concern for the hosts at Anfield.
Continue reading...Hungarian defender is, like his club, a bundle of energy with grand ambitions – and he wants to build a lake
A broad smile unravels on Milos Kerkez’s babyface as he watches a clip of himself doing what he probably does best: putting his body on the line for the cause, in this case his previous club, AZ. It was May last year, deep into a 3-0 Eredivisie win at Nijmegen, when the ball squirted free after he executed an expert slide tackle on the touchline. Having gone to ground, Kerkez was surely at a disadvantage to beat Anthony Musaba to the punch?
“My teammate Tijjani Reijnders went: ‘No, no!’ I was like: ‘I have to do something,’” says the Bournemouth defender. So Kerkez, on his backside, scrambles towards the ball, throwing his body at it, twirling mid-air like a commando, to block and retain possession. “I wanted to hit it with my head but it came off my back. I mean, it’s still a good tackle, no?”
Continue reading...The Vancouver Whitecaps are for sale. The owners of the MLS team, a group that includes majority holder Greg Kerfoot, executive chair Jeff Mallett, Steve Luczo and former NBA star Steve Nash, said Friday they have retained Goldman Sachs to assist with the process. Sportico valued the club at $470 million back in January, which …
Rasmus Højlund’s double secured Manchester United a much-needed 2-1 comeback victory in the Europa League at Viktoria Plzen as Ruben Amorim registered his first away win as head coach.
After making a promising start to life as Erik ten Hag’s successor, things were thrown off track as the shock exit of sporting director Dan Ashworth compounded back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Nottingham Forest.
Continue reading...Manchester City slipped to a seventh defeat in 10 games as Juventus ended their run of draws thanks to two second-half goals
3 mins: City have had the ball for almost all the game thus far, and they eventually work it to De Bruyne on the right. Di Gregorio catches his cross.
1 min: City have kicked off, and immediately gone route one, Ederson pumping a long ball downfield and winning a throw-in as a result.
Continue reading...Arsenal moved into third place in the table thanks to two goals from Bukayo Saka
3 min: Monaco are winning most of the early duels. Arsenal not quite up to speed yet. On the touchline, Mikel Arteta claps his hands by way of encouragement.
1 min: Ødegaard loses the ball within nanoseconds and Monaco go on the attack. Ben Seghir has a run at the Arsenal defence, but there’s no way through. A very early sign that Monaco aren’t here simply to make up the numbers.
Continue reading...Red Bull Arena has become Sports Illustrated Stadium in a 13-year partnership agreement announced Wednesday by the Major League Soccer runners-up.
The 25,000-seat soccer specific stadium had been called Red Bull Arena since it opened in 2010. It is the home of the MLS team owned since 2006 by Red Bull GmbH, which also controls RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga and Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.
Continue reading...Sports Illustrated owner Authentic has facilitated a 13-year naming rights agreement that will rebrand the New York Red Bulls’ home into Sports Illustrated Stadium, as the licensing company leverages the brand’s recognition beyond print and online publishing. The contract values the rights for the Harrison, N.J., venue in the nine figures (more than $100 million), …
Luis Enrique’s side can be quietly hopeful of Champions League progress after deathly meeting of pop-up teams
It has often been said that the point of art is to ask the essential questions. Why does this thing exist? Why is this process happening? And is there any way of making it stop? In this context Paris Saint-Germain’s 3-0 defeat of Salzburg at the Red Bull Arena on Champions League match-day six was undeniably a work of art.
At the end of a fretful but still relentlessly soporific game, 90 minutes of Diazepam-ball dotted with moments of quality, PSG had upgraded their hopes of progressing to the next phase from dicey to quietly hopeful.
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