Game Recaps

The Seattle Sounders and Sporting KC played out a contentious Western Conference knockout round match in front of 36,000 at CenturyLink Field, the Sounders advancing with a controversial 1-0 victory.

The subject of all the controversy was two offsides calls, both of which went against Kansas City. Sporting started off the match with terrific intensity, Benny Feilhaber in particularly inspiring form in the midst of one of his best years as a professional.

Written a few days ago, this article would've been very different. In the cold light of Monday morning, many people were welcoming the revived glories of AC Milan. A young, exciting squad packed with home grown Italian talent, led by one of Serie A’s most promising and intriguing managers, had taken on the champions of the last five years and won. 'Milan beat Juventus — they’re back!' came the shouts. A new era was upon us. 

Landon Donovan, the all-time leader in scoring, assists and second most capped player in USMNT history, to go along with MLS’ all-time top scorer, assists leader and playoff goals leader has added another distinction to his legacy: he’s now MLS’ all-time leader in playoff assists with 15.

The Galaxy mercilessly ended a careening Real Salt Lake season, the Claret and Cobalt having limped into the playoffs after collecting only three points from their final seven regular season games.

For a long-suffering Toronto FC fan base, it was history. For Sebastian Giovinco, it was about time. Toronto FC scored its first playoff goal in franchise history and advanced past the knockout round for the first time. Toronto will now face New York City FC in the conference semifinals in a match pitting a large majority of the league’s major star power.

There was a strange moment in the EFL Cup fourth round match between Manchester United and Manchester City during the half-time break. The first half had passed largely without incident save for a Kelechi Iheanacho header that the young Nigerian got completely wrong. Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a wretched opening 45 minutes, but the half-time punditry, as it so often does this season, gradually shifted to Paul Pogba. 

During the commercial intermission, we were treated to this beautiful Adidas commercial concerning the world’s most expensive player: 

Queretaro vs. Toluca in the Copa MX semis was a classic goalkeepers' duel, which is a roundabout way of saying it was a 0-0 draw.

So hats off to Alfredo Talavera (Toluca) and Tiago Volpi (Queretaro), and no one else.

Both players earned clean sheets, saved penalties and even both scored penalties in the shootout. In the end, Volpi made one more save than Talavera, and so Queretaro advanced to the final (8-7), where they'll play the winner of tonight's Superclasico.

Bobby Wood scored a brace for Hamburg SV and Fabian Johnson scored the goal of the day for Borussia Monchengladbach as the USMNT members helped their respective sides to the round of 16 in the DFB-Pokal.

Johnson’s Gladbach took on German second division side VfB Stuttgart, and the American winger got the home side off to a dream start in front of 40,452 at Borussia-Park. Collecting the ball off an exquisite back heel pass from Andre Hahn, Johnson scored his second goal in all competitions for the club.

Porto and Mexico National Team player Miguel Layun is a fullback and occasional defensive midfielder by trade, which is weird because he can do things like this:

BOOM! @Miguel_layun scores the equalizer for Porto against Brugge, his first #UCL goal of the season. https://t.co/AbZioQF8rU

Tottenham Hotspur held Bayern Leverkusen 0-0 in Tuesday night's Champions League encounter in Germany on the back of some ridiculous heroics from Hugo Lloris in net. 

The first half saw Hotspur attempt to take the game to Leverkusen, but the German club defended resolutely. Vincent Janssen hit the post for the visitors and Christian Eriksen's follow-up attempt brought a great save out of Bernd Leno.

After over three weeks on the sidelines due to a groin injury, Lionel Messi made a triumphant return to football by scoring Barcelona’s fourth in their 4-0 victory over Deportivo La Coruna. The assist was fantastically provided by Neymar and the finish from Messi was emphatic.

It must’ve been an excruciating break from playing for Messi, watching Barcelona lose to Celta Vigo and then Argentina flounder in World Cup qualifying.