It’s happened again, although the result is less disastrous this time around. Last year, despite the brilliance of Zlatan Ibrahimović and his record of 22 goals in 27 games, the LA Galaxy missed out on the playoffs after a catastrophic choke-job against an already eliminated Houston Dynamo on Decision Day.
The Longstaff boys might’ve just signed Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s death warrant. Paired together at the heart of Newcastle’s midfield, Sean — the older brother at the age of 21 — and Matty — making his Premier League debut at the age of 19 — bossed Manchester United’s midfield duo of Scott McTominay and Fred to lead Newcastle to a 1-0 victory at St James' Park on Sunday.
Club Brugge came within five minutes of recording a historic upset of 13-time European champion Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday, but the Belgian side ultimately had to settle for a 2-2 draw after a late equalizer from Casemiro.
Regardless, the story of the game will be the first-half brace scored by Club Brugge’s Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis.
It has to be the greatest third round fixture in the history of Carabao Cup. Wednesday’s meeting between Burton Albion and Bournemouth at Pirelli Stadium featured three floodlight failures, a minimum of 28 minutes of added time and a giant killing.
West Ham painted an unflattering picture of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s Manchester United on Sunday afternoon with a commanding 2-0 victory over the visitors at London Stadium.
Without the injured trio of Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial and Luke Shaw, Man United’s attack floundered and West Ham’s midfield trio of Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Felipe Anderson did a solid number on United’s ponderous pairing of Nemanja Matić, Scott McTominay and Juan Mata.
Liverpool’s defense of its Champions League crown is off to a shaky start following a 2-0 defeat to Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo in Italy on Tuesday. Liverpool supporters will disagree with the game-changing penalty that Felix Brych awarded Napoli in the 82nd minute, but it certainly wasn’t a vintage performance from the Reds.
It’s been an eventful week for building from the back. It began with Mexico’s beatdown of Gregg Berhalter’s longterm vision for the USMNT in East Rutherford, a result which led to a cry for abandoning the philosophy.
Things reached a crescendo yesterday with Arsenal — the masterful architects of their own downfall in recent times. Sokratis Papastathopoulos showed exactly why 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in football by passing the ball straight to Gerard Deulofeu in his own area.
The long, grueling road of Asian qualifying for the 2022 World Cup began back in June with the first round and continued today with the start of the second round of proceedings. A massive fixture went down this morning in Central Jakarta, pitting fierce rivals Indonesia against neighbors Malaysia.
Borussia Dortmund suffered a shock defeat to Bundesliga newcomers Union Berlin on Saturday. Dortmund lined up with Julian Brandt, Marco Reus, Jadon Sancho and Paco Alcacer leading the attack; on paper, this match should be won by Dortmund every time.
But a win for Dortmund was not in the cards. Union struck first via Marius Bulter’s low strike. Alcacer equalized for Dortmund three minutes later to breathe some life back into the match.
Manchester United was held to a 1-1 draw by 10-man Southampton at St. Mary's on Saturday. It was a match that was crucial for United to get back in the race for a top four spot. The Red Devils failed to capitalize or even trouble the Saints after Kevin Danso received his second yellow card of the afternoon in the 73rd minute. It seemed to be that same old story for United — what little preseason optimism left is now gone. What’s worse is that Manchester United has only won three Premier League games in its past 16.