Remember Ødegaard? Martin Ødegaard, the 16-year-old Norwegian wonderkid Real Madrid signed back in January 2015. He was all anyone in the soccer world could talk about for a brief moment. Everyone kept talking about how he was going to be the new Messi. Both lefties. Both on the right wing. Both showcasing a similar playing style of cutting in with their left.
A blockbuster Champions League encounter between Italian champions Juventus and Valencia — fourth place finishers in LaLiga — descended into farce when Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off 29 minutes into his UCL debut with the Old Lady.
Ronaldo had been active and involved throughout the early proceedings, and Juventus really should’ve taken the lead through either Mario Mandzukic or Sami Khedira, but both put close range shots over the bar in the game’s opening period.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League debut with Juventus lasted all of 29 minutes at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium. With Juventus in possession of the ball out wide in Valencia’s third, Ronaldo made a run into the box before play was stopped with both Valencia and Juventus players remonstrating and gesticulating wildly.
After a short break, German referee Felix Brych consulted the official behind the goal, and he looked adamant that Ronaldo deserved to be sent off for his actions. Brych duly obliged while Ronaldo went hysterical.
In the end, Shakhtar Donetsk’s trusted strategy of supplementing its Ukrainian core of players with a bunch of Brazilians proved, once again, a masterstroke — this time in spoiling the appearance of the youngest manager the Champions League has ever seen, Hoffenheim’s 31-year-old whizkid Julian Nagelsmann.
In arguably the greatest American Champions League matchday since DaMarcus Beasley roofed one for PSV against Monaco in the 2005 Round of 16, our pubescent USMNT squad registered a game-winning goal and a point-obtaining assist on Tuesday. The goal was somewhat unknowingly golazo'd by Christian Pulisic (celebrating his 20th birthday), and the assist was recorded by Weston McKennie (who actually celebrated his 20th birthday a few weeks ago).
Tottenham is tired. How much of it is the World Cup? How much of it the complete lack of rejuvenation by way of transfers? How much of it is the media incessantly telling us that Tottenham’s tired (although Son Heung-min told us as much too)? How much of it is the dopey-looking faces of Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen? I just don’t know.
Juan Roman Riquelme, the legendary Argentinian midfielder, replied once on TV when asked about Leo Messi: “I’m not completely sure Messi is human. I have never seen a person that runs faster with the ball at his feet than without it. Messi does. How can you do that? Think about it, it doesn’t make sense.”
How many times have we heard things like this?
The Champions League returns tomorrow as the group stage kicks off with two marquee games that’ll garner attention across the globe: at 12:55 p.m. ET, Inter Milan and Tottenham do battle at the San Siro, and that’s followed by a 3:00 p.m. ET classic between Liverpool and PSG at Anfield. That’s one helluva first day.
31-year-old Frenchman Dimitri Payet scored the goal of the weekend during Marseille’s 4-0 beatdown of Guingamp in Ligue 1 action Sunday. The mercurial attacker has built a reputation for the spectacular over the last few years — including a sensational but ultimately ill-fated stint with West Ham — but his volley from nearly 25 yards out over the weekend was the sort of audacious finishing that the division hasn’t seen since Zlatan Ibrahimovic was representing PSG.