To say Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius has had a rough go of things in the past few months would be a grand understatement. His errors in the Champions final that expedited Madrid’s trip to the trophy made him an international laughing stock. Things got so bad that Liverpool police were forced to investigate death threats made against the shot-stopper in the days after the performance.
Liverpool eviscerated Napoli on Saturday in the final preseason tune-up for Jurgen Klopp’s side. The match finished 5-0 and, perhaps most importantly, the Mo Salah goal vs Napoli showed the Egyptian is already in midseason form.
The Reds took a lead inside five minutes through James Milner and led 2-0 before the 10th minute with a header from Georgino Wijnaldum. But the first goal of the second half was by far the prettiest.
For better and for worse, Vinícius Júnior is already looking an awful lot like Cristiano Ronaldo, the man he’s ostensibly at Real Madrid to replace. From impressive Vinícius Júnior skill to enraging flops against Manchester United on Tuesday night, the 18-year-old Brazilian appears to have everything it takes to fill the giant void on Los Blancos’ left wing.
Had the head of Lindsey Horan not come to the rescue in the dying seconds of the match against Australia last night, the USWNT would have been handed its first loss in over a year. Though they salvaged a draw, fans of the game have seen this before and the message is loud and clear: the rest of the world is catching up.
Xherdan Shaqiri made his Liverpool debut on Saturday, coming on as a 66th minute sub. He immediately assisted on the match winner, but we don’t really care about that. What we care about was the absurd Shaqiri goal vs Manchester United in the 82nd minute.
It was a preseason friendly, but we don’t care. It was offside, but that doesn’t matter. The Juan Mata touch vs Liverpool on Saturday in Michigan was absolutely sublime.
England’s two most successful clubs faced off in front of more than 105,000 fans at the Big House on Saturday. While Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp fielded a starting 11 close to his first choice, Jose Mourinho opted for a few more reserves. Where exactly Mata falls on that spectrum is debatable, but his ability is not.
Benfica vs. Juventus wasn’t exactly one of the more glamorous matchups brought to us by the International Champions Cup. But it brought us the two best goals of the preseason tournament, namely the Luca Clemenza goal vs Benfica on Saturday at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey.
The match was scoreless after an hour. The deadlock was broken in the 65th minute by Benfica’s 22-year-old Spaniard Alejandro Grimaldo, who smashed a free kick that dipped perfectly into the back of the net.
Arsenal beat Paris Saint-Germain 5-1. That was the least interesting thing about the Arsenal vs PSG match.
The Gunners are in the midst of their first preseason without Arsene Wenger since before the 1996 season. With Unai Emery coaching the club now, it’s anyone’s guess as to how Arsenal fares in the upcoming Premier League season. Do they plummet precipitously as Manchester United did when David Moyes took over for Alex Ferguson? Do they stay in place as the sixth-best team in England? Do they return to the top like Chelsea whenever Roman Abramovich hires a new manager?
The USWNT defeated Japan 4-2 to begin Tournament of Nations play (essentially the warmup for October’s World Cup qualifying event) with Alex Morgan registering a hat-trick inside 56 minutes and The Best FIFA Women’s Player finalist Megan Rapinoe adding the fourth in the 66th.
Last night, some kid named Christian Pulisic decided what better time to light things up than back at home in the U.S. of A. against the Champions League runners-up/the team that has a growing interest in him.