It was fitting that Jamie Vardy was given an audience at the Violin Museum in Cremona, because at least they had access to a very small one to play for the striker about having to finish his career in picturesque Lombardy rather than the East Midlands. He is also a classical showman but, aged 38, some suspect that the former England international is a spent force. Vardy has been doubted from Stocksbridge Park Steels to the Champions League, though, and has always delivered. “It is up to me to disprove the predictions,” he chirped. “Age is just a number. I always listen to my legs. At the moment I still feel great. During my whole career I have been underestimated and I worked to prove everyone wrong, and I have succeeded in doing that.”
Continue reading...EFL in talks over expanding Championship playoffs to six teams
EFL wants to add National League-style eliminator
Plan could be expanded to Leagues One and Two
The English Football League is in talks over adding an eliminator round to the Championship playoffs and increasing the number of participants from four to six.
The proposal is a similar format to the one used by the National League. In the Championship the team that finish fifth would play the eighth-placed team and sixth would meet seventh in one-off ties at the higher-ranked team’s home stadium.
Continue reading...MLS suspends Luis Suárez three games for spitting incident in Leagues Cup
Sergio Busquets escapes punishment despite punch
Post-final brawl involved Miami and Seattle players
Major League Soccer has suspended striker Luis Suárez three league games for his role in the mass brawl between his Inter Miami side and the Seattle Sounders after the Leagues Cup final. Suárez was at the center of the confrontation, first putting Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas in a headlock before being dragged away. Later, TV cameras caught Suárez yelling at, and spitting on, Sounders security director Gene Ramirez.
Sounders team psychologist Steven Lenhart, himself a former MLS player who was known for confrontations and physical play, has also had his credential revoked for the remainder of the 2025 season. Lenhart was among a large group of Sounders players and staff who joined the melee along with Inter Miami players and staff.
Continue reading...Luis Suárez suspended by MLS for 3 Inter Miami matches for sparking Leagues Cup fight, spitting on Sounders staffer
Western United to sit out 2025-26 A-League season with club put into ‘hibernation’
Uncertainty over viability of the club leads to one-year pause
Current playing group allowed to seek alternative employment
Troubled A-Leagues club Western United has been temporarily barred from the competition and will sit out the upcoming 2025-26 season after being placed in “conditional hibernation” by administrator the Australian Professional Leagues.
Uncertainty over the ongoing viability of the club has cast a shadow over the new season, with the league, other clubs and players unable to prepare with “necessary clarity”, according to the APL.
Continue reading...Leagues Cup suspends Inter Miami’s Luis Suárez 6 games, hands down additional punishments for post-final brawl
Inter Miami’s Luis Suárez apologizes after inciting Leagues Cup fight, spitting on Sounders staff member
Tottenham leave £30m signing Mathys Tel out of Champions League squad
Kulusevski, Dragusin and Bissouma also omitted
Uefa requires squads to have eight ‘homegrown’ players
Thomas Frank has left Mathys Tel out of his Tottenham squad for the league phase of the Champions League while he has been unable to find room in it for Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin – even though they could return from long-term injuries while there are still ties to play.
Frank has been in an impossible position because of how the profile of his players has jarred with Uefa’s regulations. Put simply, the head coach has too few homegrown squad members and too many who have come from elsewhere. He was always going to have to exclude six players from his 25-man “A” list.
Continue reading...The Bundesliga’s deal with Mark Goldbridge is odd, and exactly what MLS is missing with Apple
An unusual streaming deal sees the German league going where its fans are, instead of asking the fans to come to them
In a change to his regularly scheduled programming, Mark Goldbridge took a break from blowing steam out his ears at another Andre Onana howler and venting his shouty exasperation at Manchester United’s latest calamity to talk – and watch – all things Gegenpressing and Ballbesitzfußball with his audience of over one million YouTube subscribers.
This was after the Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL) struck an agreement with Goldbridge to broadcast 20 live Bundesliga matches on his That’s Football YouTube channel this season. Bayern Munich’s opening weekend win over RB Leipzig raised the curtain on the new deal, with nearly 500,000 viewers watching along with Goldbridge.
Continue reading...Disallowing Fulham goal at Chelsea was wrong, admits referees’ chief Howard Webb
Guidance not followed after Josh King scored, Webb says
Goal chalked off after Muniz stepped on Chalobah’s foot
Howard Webb, England’s chief refereeing officer, has described the decision to disallow Josh King’s goal against Chelsea as a “misjudgment” by the match officials.
King appeared to have scored a first league goal for Fulham in Saturday’s derby at Stamford Bridge but his effort was ruled out after the referee, Robert Jones, was asked to go to the pitchside monitor after a check by the video assistant referee.
Continue reading...Transfer window and deadline day: Premier League club-by-club analysis
We assess how each top-flight side fared in the search for quality and value during the summer window
Andrea Berta’s first transfer window since taking over as sporting director has been busy. Headline moves for Viktor Gyökeres and Eberechi Eze have given Mikel Arteta the firepower and creativity he asked for, while Martín Zubimendi has added class to midfield. The arrival of Cristhian Mosquera, Christian Nørgaard, Noni Madueke and Kepa Arrizabalaga has also added depth to Arsenal’s squad that is already being called on after a series of early season injuries, while the late signing of the exciting Ecuador defender, Piero Hincapié, should prove to be a shrewd addition. Ed Aarons
Continue reading...Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal stuck in gear as Arne Slot’s Liverpool deftly adjust
Sunday’s match was defined by a brilliant free-kick, but the way it came about showed the difference between the clubs’ managers
There was a time, not that long ago, when almost all big games were stiflingly tense affairs – cautious, cagey, almost unwatchable but for the exquisite tension, the sense that this was too important to expect the football to be entertaining. The goal-heavy thrillers of the Pep Guardiola-Jürgen Klopp rivalry were a welcome diversion, but they always felt oddly transgressive – were we sure major clashes were supposed to be that much fun? In that sense, Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday fit into a long-established tradition; in time the tedium will fall away in the collective memory and all that will remain is the majesty of Dominik Szoboszlai’s match-winning free-kick.
Two other more recent traditions were observed amid the anxiety of Anfield: that Arne Slot will always somehow find a way, and that Arsenal will always somehow come up short. Few managers have ever had such a golden touch as Slot; he has a remarkable capacity to make decisions that don’t just change the outcome of a game, but do so in an obvious and unmissable way.
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...Jamie Vardy gears up for another underdog story at feelgood minnows Cremonese | Nicky Bandini
Fans sang for the striker to ‘take us to Europe’ as he arrived in Italy to join an unfancied team brimming with positivity
Jamie Vardy had not reached his destination, but already he was getting a taste of what may await him, a crowd of Cremonese supporters greeting him at the exit of Milan’s Linate airport – 50 miles away from their team’s home town. Never mind the fact it was almost midnight on a Sunday. He hopped out of his car to sign autographs – one over a tattoo of his own face. They sang for him to “take us to Europe”.
Even in a summer of famous names making unexpected late-career moves to Italy – from Kevin De Bruyne and Napoli to Luka Modric at Milan – Vardy joining Cremonese feels most improbable of all. A player who once finished eighth in the Ballon d’Or vote, signing for a club with a 16,000-seater stadium who have made only fleeting appearances in the top flight since they were founded in 1903.
Continue reading...Hernández: LAFC must do a better job of showcasing Korean star Son Heung-min to win new fans
Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Benjamin Sesko lacks sharpness, VAR spoils Josh King’s day and Sunderland have a man for the big moments
It was always going to be a tight match but in the end it took a moment of genius from Dominik Szoboszlai to settle it in Liverpool’s favour. The Hungarian is an attacking midfielder by trade but since Jeremie Frimpong’s injury Arne Slot has found a new role for him at right-back. Szoboszlai had clearly learned some free-kick technique from Trent Alexander-Arnold over the years but his ability in the alien position was almost more impressive. He had almost no problems with Gabriel Martinelli and he quickly adapted to Eberechi Eze, who was a greater threat than the man he replaced, but Szoboszlai remained calm and collected throughout. He was able to defend well and also produced some stunning passes, distributing long and short, changing the dynamic of the match as Alexander-Arnold used to. The victory over Arsenal will be remembered for a split second of quality but Szoboszlai should take great credit for how he has adapted to help Slot and his teammates. Will Unwin
Match report: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal
Match report: Manchester United 3-2 Burnley
Match report: Chelsea 2-0 Fulham
Match report: Brighton 2-1 Manchester City
Match report: Tottenham 0-1 Bournemouth
Match report: Leeds 0-0 Newcastle
Match report: Wolves 2-3 Everton
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