Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros give us their MLS midseason awards including team of the season, MVP, Newcomer of the Year and more! Does Messi deserve MLS MVP so far? Christian and Alexis finish up their MLS midseason awards. Who is their Young Player of the Year? Have the LA Galaxy or Atlanta United been the bigger disappointment so far? Later, Christian and Alexis react to the latest USMNT roster change that sees Sergiño Dest join a group of USMNT stars that will be missing this Gold Cup.
The year of Napoli and Scott McTominay: the Serie A season review
The Scottish influence inspired title winners in Naples, Inter blew up and Claudio Ranieri enjoyed his Roman return
The season has barely ended and already it is clear Serie A will look very different next term. Five of the league’s top 10 sides have parted ways with their managers and a sixth, Claudio Ranieri, is moving upstairs at Roma. More changes may soon follow, with Igor Tudor’s future at Juventus uncertain and Como’s Cesc Fàbregas drawing attention from richer clubs – including the runners-up, Inter, who need a replacement for Simone Inzaghi.
Could we equal the turnover of last summer, when 14 out of 20 teams got a new coach? It’s not impossible, especially with several lower-half teams and their tacticians still exploring the options available.
Continue reading...Michael Carrick sacked by Middlesbrough after failing to reach Premier League
Head coach had been in charge since October 2022
Decision taken on Teesside after post-season review
Michael Carrick has been sacked by Middlesbrough after two and a half years in charge. Although the former England and Manchester United midfielder was liked and admired by Boro’s owner, Steve Gibson, his failure to lead the team out of the Championship ensured his first managerial posting ended in disappointment.
Carrick led Boro into the playoff semi-finals in 2023 but they missed out on top-six finishes in the past two seasons. The 43-year-old has become the 17th Championship manager to have lost his job since last August.
Continue reading...Sounders owner angrily confronts players over ‘Club World Ca$h Grab’ warm-up shirts, per reports
Sounders players are protesting a policy that prevents them from making more than $1 million, to split, from the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup.
‘I will never forget you’: Simone Inzaghi leaves his post as Inter head coach
Inzaghi departs after heavy Champions League final loss
Led Inter to Serie A title during four-year spell at club
Simone Inzaghi has left his position as manager of Inter, the Serie A club confirmed on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old is departing three days after a humiliating 5-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final and with Inter having missed out on the domestic title, to Napoli, by one point. The Nerazzurri also lost 4-1 to city rivals Milan in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia.
Continue reading...Norwich appoint Liam Manning from Bristol City as new head coach
Manning arrives after leading Robins to the playoffs
Sheffield Wednesday charged over late payment of wages
Norwich have appointed Liam Manning as their new head coach after the club triggered the release clause in his contract at Bristol City.
Manning impressed after leading the Robins to the Championship playoffs for the first time in 17 years and Norwich quickly identified him as their No 1 target to succeed Johannes Hoff Thorup, who was sacked after a disappointing end to the season. Norwich, who were relegated from the Premier League in 2022, finished 13th last season
Continue reading...Chicago Fire announce plans to build 22,000-seat stadium near downtown
The $650m project will anchor an incoming development
Stadium would be the 22nd soccer-specific venue in MLS
This Chicago Fire on Tuesday announced plans to build a $650m, soccer-specific stadium in the South Loop of Chicago – a venue that will be part of a large development project called “The 78.”
The club aims to open the stadium in the spring of 2028, with the building of the venue itself requiring no public money, according to an announcement by the team’s owner, Joe Mansueto. It is planned to hold 22,000 spectators.
Continue reading...PSG’s Champions League win was thrilling. It was still sportswashing | Jonathan Wilson
After years as a directionless collection of celebrity footballers, PSG are a true team now. But they still represent one of the sport’s darkest trends
Paris Saint-Germain’s success in the Champions League final on Saturday was a victory for youth and adventure. It was a victory for a team built with a coherent vision, and a rebuke to those who believe the game is just about collecting the biggest names. It was a victory for Luis Enrique, a very fine coach who has suffered dreadful personal tragedy. It was a victory for forward-thinking, progressive, fluent football.
But it was also a victory for sportswashing.
Continue reading...Our Champions League team of the season: a teen sensation to a marauding Gunner
PSG left little doubt as to who the best team in this season’s Champions League was, but there was individual brilliance on plenty of other squads
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain)
Continue reading...Seattle Sounders players, MLSPA call for ‘fair share’ of FIFA Club World Cup prize money
Sounders players wore 'Club World Cash Grab' on t-shirts on Sunday amid demands for their share of the nearly $10 million promised per MLS team.
‘La débâcle’: Italian press turn on Inzaghi after Inter’s night of misery | Nicky Bandini
Writers bemoaned Inter’s ‘climax of suffering’ in Munich but saved their harshest words for Simone Inzaghi
On the front pages of Italy’s newspapers, the Champions League final was told as a “nightmare”, a “humiliation”, and a “rout”. Tuttosport at least found room for humour with a “DisIntergrated” pun. La Stampa, in deference to the victors Paris Saint-Germain, went instead with a French phrase: “La débâcle”.
Any team can lose a Champions League final but Internazionale were the first to do so by a five-goal margin. The final indignity of a season in which they aspired to repeat the treble they won under José Mourinho, only to come unstuck at the last: losing the Coppa Italia semi-final to neighbours Milan and then missing out on the Serie A title by one point.
Continue reading...Champions League final: PSG thrash Inter to win their first title – in pictures
The best pictures from Munich where PSG thrashed Inter 5-0 in the most one-sided Champions League final in history
Continue reading...LAFC stun Club América in extra time to qualify for Club World Cup
A 115th-minute winner from Denis Bouanga sealed it
LAFC opens the Club World Cup v Chelsea on 16 June
Denis Bouanga scored an extra-time winner to lift Los Angeles FC to a 2-1 victory over Club América in a Club World Cup qualifying playoff match at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday.
The winger, who had orchestrated much of LAFC’s attacking output in the match, scored the winner in the 115th minute after unleashing a shot that took a wicked deflection on its way into the net.
Continue reading...LAFC stuns Club América to reach Club World Cup, becomes a perfect MLS representative
LAFC is headed to the Club World Cup. And Club América is going home.
Paris Saint-Germain 5-0 Internazionale: Champions League final – as it happened
PSG finally became champions of Europe after routing Inter as they recorded the biggest margin of victory in any European Cup or Champions League final
Pennant watch. Here’s what PSG captain Marquinhos will be handing over during the pre-match niceties. A typically classy piece in the retro-poster style, here it’s the centrepiece of an enigmatic pop-art collage also featuring a fruit platter, several hundred toothpicks, some power bars, three toilet rolls, a carry case of assorted hardware, and what may or may not be a box of Terry’s Chocolate Orange in the top-right corner. If this was an LP cover you’d stay up half the night trying to decode it.
Inter are playing in their third-choice yellow strip this evening. So that means their pennant will clash with captain Lautaro Martínez’s shirt, but what a gorgeous thing it is anyway (the current Volkswagen-adjacent monstrosity of a crest, not half as good as the old interlapping FCIM logo, notwithstanding).
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