It’s with great sadness that our summer of soccer 2019 draws to a close. The USWNT lifted the World Cup, Brazil triumphed on home soil at the Copa América, Mexico reclaimed the Gold Cup and we’re into the final week of the Africa Cup of Nations. Unless you’re eagerly anticipating the ICC, our glorious summer is at an end.
Tottenham Hotspur is already trying to put it’s Champions League failure in the past. It’s been over a full calendar year since Tottenham has signed a player, and the fact that Mauricio Pochettino was able to take his squad this far without any help from new players is commendable. Though, the only thing Spurs have to show for it is a Champions League berth via a third-place finish in the Premier League and a loss in the previous season’s Champions League final.
Just two years ago, PSG shook the soccer realm by acquiring Neymar by way of a $263 million transfer.
Now with plenty of talent to go around in Paris and Barcelona missing its favorite Brazilian forward, Barça has to look into sending the same money back to France.
PSG hopefully kept the receipt for Neymar, but Barça may have some return policies.
Chelsea has made its first, and probably only, move while serving a two-window transfer ban (this summer and next January) by permanently signing the previously on-loan Mateo Kovačić from Real Madrid for a fee that could approach nearly $57 million.
The 25-year-old just completed his first season with the Blues, and with plenty of unforeseen circumstances ahead, Kovačić had to be brought back.
It’s hard to believe, but the UEFA Champions League returns in one week! So it’s only the preliminary round, featuring the likes of Lincoln Red Imps and Tre Penne, but a new season means a new opening title sequence for television.
As always, it features the glorious Champions League anthem, a lot of the logo and last year’s winner (Liverpool) lifting the trophy. Things begin with Douglas Costa’s brutal elastico nutmeg on Ajax’s Joël Veltman and they really heat up with Porto’s Moussa Marega pulling a Zidane Turn on Fabinho and Jordan Henderson.
While the majority of the population was focused on the Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham, one eye-catching player stood out for not just his play, but for his pearly white teeth. Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino has the whitest teeth that any dentist could offer.
Just two days after celebrating Liverpool’s Champions League triumph in riotous fashion with roughly 750,000 Liverpudlian’s lining the city’s streets, international compatriots Virgil van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum have shown up for international duty ahead of the Netherlands’ UEFA Nations League semifinal match against England on June 6.
Liverpool FC returned home on Sunday to present its sixth European Cup on an open-top bus parade through the city’s streets. It’s the club’s first major title since the 2006 FA Cup (no, we don’t count the 2012 League Cup), and a massive crowd turned out to greet the players and staff as they made their way around the city before finishing near Strand Street, where the River Mersey empties into Liverpool Bay.
Apart from the match itself, last night’s most anticipated action in Madrid was I̶m̶a̶g̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶i̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶d̶r̶u̶m̶s̶ taking place inside the beIN Sports studio at the Wanda Metropolitano, where longtime Premier League rivals José Mourinho and Arsène Wenger sat side-by-side for pregame, halftime and post-game analysis of the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final.