Goals

The North Carolina Courage kept pace with the league-leading Portland Thorns on Saturday after recording an impressive 2-1 road victory over the Utah Royals at Rio Tinto Stadium. 

An announced crowd of 10,545 was on its feet in the 13th minute following a sensational opener from World Cup-winner Christen Press. The 30-year-old attacker now has two goals in two games since returning from France, including a strike last week that was voted the NWSL’s Goal of the Week.

After making his Chelsea debut as a 65th-minute substitute against Kawasaki Frontale on Friday, Christian Pulisic was handed his first-ever Chelsea start Tuesday as the Blues defeated Barcelona 2-1 in Saitama, Japan. 

Last night in Bridgeview, Illinois, a crowd of 17,388 turned up at SeatGeek Stadium to watch the Chicago Red Stars defeat the North Carolina Courage 2-1 in NWSL play. For a bit of perspective, the Chicago Fire has averaged a gate of 11,209 throughout the 2019 MLS season. According to ESPN’s Sarah Spain, it was the first-ever sellout for a Chicago women’s professional soccer team.

On Saturday night, the Houston Dash faced off against the Washington Spirit in Boyds, Maryland, where both teams had their fair share of opportunities on goal.

After an hour delay at halftime due to lightning, the Spirit came out strong and found the back of the net first. Midfielder Jordan DiBiasi received a deflected ball off a long throw-in from Sam Staab, and DiBiasi got her head on it to give the Spirit the lead in the 52nd minute.

Well, what do we do now? Instead of, as the old saying goes, saving some for the real games, Harry Kane went and used up all the insane, last-second, match-winning goals from the halfway line allotted to us for the 2019-20 season during an International Champions Cup match in Singapore today.

Tottenham defeated Juventus 3-2 at the National Stadium thanks to Kane’s hammer drop in the 93rd minute, leaving Wojciech Szczesny buried in the net and giving Matthijs de Ligt an excellent memory on his debut for the Old Lady.

In another fiery edition of “El Trafico,” Zlatan Ibrahimović played spoiler again by netting a perfect hat trick in a 3-2 win against Los Angeles FC, which has yet to beat its crosstown rival in four meetings now.

Ibrahimović told ESPN on Thursday that he was a superior player to LAFC’s Carlos Vela despite the latter’s impressive start to the season. He backed it up with Friday’s performance.