Felipe Melo, who’s still going strong for Palmeiras at the age of 36, has revealed what it took to stop Lionel Messi back in his days of anchoring Brazil’s midfield.
Between 2009 and 2010 — when Melo was at the height of his power with Juventus — the hard-tackling “Pitbull” represented the Seleção 22 times and came up against Messi’s Argentina during 2010 World Cup qualifying.
Much like they did during their 2019 World Cup Round of 16 match against the USWNT, Spain brought its sauce today with equal measures of intricate passing shapes and technical quality. During that 2-1 U.S. victory back in France, it was a shock to the system to see La Roja actually edge the possession statistic in the second half — today, they absolutely bossed it with 60 percent of the ball.
Becky Sauerbrunn is all-conquering. The 34-year-old is sitting on 174 caps and counting, she’s a two-time World Cup winner, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time NWSL champion. She’s been doing the damn thing for the USWNT for over a decade now, and she’s just joined forces with Christine Sinclair, Lindsey Horan and Tobin Heath on the Portland Thorns.
With the biggest clubs resting their starters until the later rounds of the competition, the League Cup is effectively England’s litmus test for who has the deepest squad of them all. It’s an opinion that’s supported by the fact that Manchester City has now won the competition five of the last seven years, including three straight.
Diego Simeone once summed up his coaching philosophy in one brief sentence: “Effort is non-negotiable.”
On Tuesday, the Atlético team on the pitch at the Wanda Metropolitano fully embodied its manager in a heroic 1-0 Champions League Round of 16 first-leg victory over defending champion Liverpool.
It’d be difficult to identify a player that’s had a worse time with injuries over the last three years than Benjamin Mendy. He showed that he could be one of the world’s best left backs during his incredible 2016-17 campaign with Monaco, but after moving to Manchester City for a princely fee of $67.7 million, his personal nightmare began after suffering a devastating knee injury on only his fifth appearance for the Citizens.
The year is 2020. A top-of-the-table Bundesliga clash between Bayern Munich and Leipzig is being dictated by a fascinating duel between a 19-year-old Canadian and a 20-year-old American. Bayern Munich doesn’t win.
How ‘bout that for a bit of science fiction?! But that’s actually what happened on Sunday during the sort of match that proves a 0-0 scoreline can still be a damn good time.
A foul in any sport is almost always detrimental to the team that committed the infraction. In soccer, a single foul can decide the outcome of a match. Mexico can tell you all about it after the infamous Arjen Robben flop at the 2014 World Cup.
A meeting between first and second in the Premier League was more one-sided than anyone could’ve predicted as Liverpool ran riot at the home of Leicester City on Thursday evening, winning 4-0 with a masterclass in both attack and defense.