Remember before Gyasi Zardes received his 38th international cap, before the shocking incompetencies revealed by the Jonathan Gonzalez switch and before the catastrophe in Couva, when the only real question facing U.S.
Philippe Coutinho was given his first start for Barcelona vs Alaves on Sunday. It wasn’t until he was subbed off that the Blaugrana really got going, rallying late for a 2-1 victory thanks to some Messi magic at Camp Nou.
Lionel Messi scored on a gorgeous free kick in the 84th minute to secure all three points for Barcelona, which trailed for most of the match after an early Alavés goal. It was another moment of joy from the Argentine maestro, who had a first-half free kick touched onto the post but came through with the match on the line.
Edinson Cavani hit a major milestone Saturday against Montpellier in Ligue 1 when he scored his 157th goal for PSG, passing Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the club's all-time leading scorer. It wasn't exactly a screaming goal, but we're sure El Matador will take it.
Judging by the celebration, Cavani seems pretty excited about his accomplishment.
Some players just have an aura about them, a mystique that lifts the play of everyone around them, whether or not they’re on the pitch. The second-most expensive footballer of all time has to fit that bill, probably. How else do you explain Barcelona defeating Espanyol 2-0 to advance 2-1 on aggregate in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey on Thursday at the Camp Nou?
You could tell it by the way his teammates just kind of stood around and watched — Hugo Nunes was about to score and no one was going to stop him. During a match at the Al Kass U17 International Cup earlier this week in Qatar, there was no way the Benfica youngster was going to be denied against Guangzhou Evergrande.
Hugo Nunes, a striker for the Benfica youth team, pulled off three spectacular moves in succession to score one of the most thrilling goals of the year at any level. That he’s 16 just makes it all the more enjoyable to watch.
The South American Under-20 Women’s Football Championship (which serves as CONMEBOL’s qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup) is underway in Ecuador with Brazil looking to secure their eighth-straight championship in the tournament’s eighth edition.
The junior Seleção are exceedingly dominant in this competition, and the 2018 staging of the contest has been carried out in much the same vein. Brazil topped Group B play with four wins from four matches, scoring 13 goals while conceding zero.
24-year-old Englishman Ravel Morrison appears to be finding his feet in Mexico after arriving at Club Atlas on loan from Italian side Lazio last August. The former Manchester United prodigy had a stop-start beginning to life in Liga MX, but he’s now scored three goals in his last three appearances for Atlas.
On Sunday, January 14, Morrison opened his Clausura account with a stunning free kick against Pumas.
Is the magic gone at Real Madrid? That’s an impossible thing to say about the back-to-back world champions, but a shocking Copa del Rey quarterfinal elimination at the hands of Leganes (a club from the outskirts of Madrid that plays its home matches in front of 11,000) is the lowest it’s gotten for Zinedine Zidane when coupled with the 19-point gap in La Liga.
The French manager went with an understrength side after defeating Leganes 1-0 away in the first leg, although understrength still means starts for Sergio Ramos, Isco, Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio.