Football (Soccer) News
The trophy is Nashville’s first as a club
Sam Surridge buried the winning penalty kick
Sam Surridge converted a penalty in the 60th minute and Nashville SC won the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup with a 2-1 victory over Austin FC on Wednesday night.
Hany Mukhtar also scored for Nashville, who secured a spot in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup with the victory. It was the first major trophy for the club, which joined Major League Soccer in 2020.
Continue reading...Wright inspires 4-0 win for Frank Lampard’s side
Josh Maja goal gives West Brom 1-0 win at Norwich
Haji Wright added two more goals to his early-season collection as Coventry dismantled Millwall 4-0 at the Den to move second in the Championship table. The USA international Wright is the top scorer in the Championship with seven goals after his double against a Lions side who became the latest to feel the power of the Sky Blues’ rampant attack this season.
Frank Lampard’s side remain unbeaten in the league and closed to within two points of pacesetters Middlesbrough after taking their goal tally to 22 goals in eight matches.
Continue reading...Goals from Gabriel Martinelli and late on from Bukayo Saka landed a second group-stage win for the Gunners
Charles Antaki gets in touch: “Yes, no rush. Arsenal fans remember starlets who looked terrific and got the pulses going, only for the sparkle to fade (Charlie Patino) or injuries to rub it out (Krystian Bielik), or just regression to the mean to take over (many, many others). Nwaneri and Dowman’s prospects will be all the firmer for being eased into it.”
Bielik was a decent player for Birmingham and is now at West Brom. Patino is at Deportivo La Coruna, though sadly not a Diego Tristan, Djalminha and not the superb Juan Carlos Valeron quality of team. They’re in the Segunda.
Continue reading...Newcastle got off the mark in this year’s league stage with an easy but nevertheless impressive win in Belgium
6 min: USG launch it long down the right. Botman attempts to hook back upfield, but only succeeds in kicking the ball into his own face and out for a corner. The set piece comes in from the right. Leysen, in the centre heads it back to the near post, from where Rodriguez eyebrows over the bar. That was a decent chance, and Newacstle were fortunate the USG striker didn’t get that on target. Had he done so, Pope was most likely picking the ball out of the net.
4 min: Tonali and Elanga combine well down the inside-right channel. The latter works himself a little space to shoot … but not enough so his eventual effort doesn’t get blocked the moment it leaves his boot.
Continue reading...Plus: teams on epic draw streaks, early season pitch invasions and long-throw world records
Mail us with your questions and answers
“Manchester City had 32.8% possession in their 1-1 draw at Arsenal last month, the lowest of Pep Guardiola’s career,” begins Graham Murphy. “Do any managers have a higher lowest-possession figure in the English top flight?”
That figure of 32.8% was the lowest for Guardiola in a league game, as mentioned in last week’s column. We can’t compare him to every Premier League manager, mainly because possession stats were only recorded from the 2003-04 season onwards. Instead, we asked our friends at Opta to deliver the statistical goods on selected managers, past and present.
Continue reading...Harry Kane and Bayern Munich punish Pafos 5-1
Atalanta fight back to defeat Club Brugge 2-1
Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid eased to a 5-0 away win against the Champions League debutants Kairat Almaty on Tuesday.
Xabi Alonso’s side bounced back in style from their humbling 5-2 La Liga defeat by Atlético Madrid on Saturday, with Mbappé taking his Champions League tally to five goals in two European games this season.
Continue reading...Chris Wilder sent off for kicking a ball into the crowd
Middlesbrough stay top after goalless draw with Stoke
Ross Stewart’s second-half double sealed for Southampton a 2-1 comeback win at Bramall Lane and consigned Sheffield United to a seventh league defeat of the season.
Stewart cancelled out Tyrese Campbell’s first-half opener for the Blades early in the second period and arrowed a stunning winner into the top corner seven minutes later as the Saints clinched their first league win on the road this campaign.
Continue reading...Victor Osimhen’s first-half penalty and a late VAR intervention condemned disjointed Liverpool to defeat
1 min: Liverpool have stationed Szoboszlai at right back, with Frimpong up in Salah’s usual position … and the latter wins a corner after 49 seconds. The former to take.
Liverpool huddle, the Gala fans whistle their displeasure, and then the visitors get the ball rolling. Roar! Growl! Bedlam!
Continue reading...Major League Soccer is promoting Charles Altchek, considered by many to be a potential future commissioner, to oversee the group that aids clubs in their business efforts. Altchek will be the new executive vice president for club performance and league growth, filling a role vacated earlier this year by Chris McGowan. In that capacity, he …
Mourinho back at Stamford Bridge with Benfica
‘I will always be a blue. I am part of their history’
José Mourinho called himself “the biggest one” as he reflected on his record-breaking Chelsea history before his latest Stamford Bridge return. The self-styled “special one” is back with Benfica for Tuesday night’s Champions League tie and he repeated another famous old line of his to set the scene.
Mourinho anticipates no hostility from Chelsea’s supporters as he seeks to ignite his Benfica tenure, having only joined them 11 days ago after his sacking by Fenerbahce at the end of August.
Continue reading...Michael Keane put Everton ahead, but Jarrod Bowen’s equaliser, West Ham’s first goal under Nuno Espírito Santo, earned them his first point
Seeing as Michael Keane is playing, here’s one of my favourite goals of recent times.
West Ham, meanwhile, will look to play off Fullkrug, with Bowen coming off the flank in support while, down the left, Summerville keeps the width and behind, Paquetá prompts. I don’t think they’re anywhere near as bad as their league position suggests, but i do worry about the centre of their defence – which is why is makes sense to bring Magassa in for Ward-Prowse.
Continue reading...The comparison with Mourinho’s glory days will be clear as he returns with Benfica, but Stamford Bridge hierarchy is firmly behind their current man
Only league champions get their picture on the wall in the Drake Suite at Stamford Bridge. The room is named after Ted Drake, the author of Chelsea’s first title, and features images of a host of club legends: a beaming Carlo Ancelotti, one of Antonio Conte kissing the Premier League trophy and, as Enzo Maresca no doubt noted as he arrived to preview his young side’s Champions League tie with Benfica, three photographs of the manager whose latest return to west London conjures wistful memories of the days when Chelsea were the most feared team in England.
Here comes the Special One. José Mourinho, who won three league titles across two spells at Chelsea, is in town with Benfica and will surely enjoy a wonderful reception. Maresca, meanwhile, inspires less warmth. He has taken Chelsea back into the Champions League, along with winning the Conference League and the Club World Cup, but does not have his name sung by fans and was booed after losing 3-1 to Brighton on Saturday.
Continue reading...With late goals a major factor, the four major players for the trophy saw their narratives crystalize over the weekend
There’s always a danger this early in the Premier League season of reading too much into a single set of games. Titles may be lost in September but they are very rarely won. This past weekend, though, did feel like one where many of the prevailing narratives crystalised as Arsenal dug deep to win the sort of game they’ve become used to losing, Liverpool’s defensive shortcomings were exposed as they lost for the first time this campaign, Manchester City swept aside lesser opposition in the manner of old and Chelsea fell apart again.
Liverpool have looked defensively shaky all season. Having been the team of control in the last campaign, making the unremarkable 2-0 win a trademark, they have become the side of the late winner, clinching games this season in the 88th, 94th, 100th, 83rd, 95th, 92nd and 85th minutes. That was never going to be sustainable, but the question was whether general performances would improve, or whether the late strikes would dry up.
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...Despite going down to 10 men, Massimiliano Allegri’s side held on and went top of Serie A
The league billed Milan v Napoli as a showdown between two “Masters of Midfield”, Luka Modric and Kevin De Bruyne, defining talents of a world football generation who each chose Serie A this summer. Players who have won a combined 58 trophies in their careers, including Champions League, La Liga and Premier League triumphs.
Past their prime? Certainly. But over the hill? Hardly. Modric, at 40 years old, had started Milan’s first four league games, taking more touches (329) and creating more shooting opportunities (19, per fbref.com) than any teammate. De Bruyne, at 34, was the only Napoli player with more than one goal so far this season, having struck in wins over Sassuolo and Fiorentina.
Continue reading...Mikel Arteta proves he may have changed his ways while Eddie Nketiah shows off his worth for Crystal Palace
St James’ Park has done strange things to Arsenal. It had become Mikel Arteta’s bogey ground, defeats the last three visits, his team unable to score. Each time, bright beginnings had given way to becoming bogged down by refereeing controversy, Arsenal pulled into the rolling maul football that better suits Newcastle’s muscle. Sunday’s attacking team selection and Arteta throwing the kitchen sink in chasing a win when a point had already been rescued hinted at a change in mentality. Arteta’s team eventually wrested control of the physical battle to push for three. If the dimensions that Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres have added failed to pay off, the Premier League’s deepest squad found the aerial power within itself, via Arteta’s attacking substitutions. An early overturned penalty and missed chances felt all too familiar. Arsenal’s response to those reverses, overturning their St James’ mental block, suggested a fresh determination that will serve them well in the title hunt. John Brewin
Match report: Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal
Match report: Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham
Match report: Brentford 3-1 Manchester United
Match report: Crystal Palace 2-1 Liverpool
Continue reading...