Greece was utterly abysmal in their qualifying campaign for Euro 2016, winning only a single match and finishing behind both Finland and the Faroe Islands. For supporters of Greece, Ioannis “Giannis” Maniatis may have just provided their most spectacular moment in years with this belter of a goal from 65 yards out.
A lot was said in the buildup to Tuesday night’s United States versus Costa Rica Copa America group match. For the USA, the stakes were simple enough: win or go stay home. The USA triumphantly answered any questions about their ability to make an impact in this tournament, thrashing the world’s 23rd ranked side 4-0.
The group stage clash between the finalists at the 2015 Copa America, Chila and Argentina, ended in favor of Argentina this time, and without the best player in the world. La Albiceleste prevailed 2-1 over the side that defeated them in penalties last year even though reigning Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi remained on the bench with a hamstring injury.
Even though they didn't have Messi, Argentina did have Angel di Maria, which was enough. He first put Argentina ahead by beating Claudio Bravo to the near post on the counter.
Mexico and Uruguay were tied 1-1 in a hard-fought Copa America group stage game Wednesday when 37-year-old Mexico captain Rafa Marquez put his stamp on the match and removed all doubt as to the merits of putting an old creaky person in the starting lineup of a major international match.
Marquez, who once partnered Carles Puyol on Barcelona's back line, was upfield for a Mexico corner when he received a pass near the corner of the six-yard box and hammered the winning goal into the net. This is not the sort of behavior we expected from Marquez.
Brazil vs Ecuador finished as a nil-nil draw after an intense and controversial 90 minutes which saw an Ecuador goal incorrectly disallowed. The result sees Peru stay atop Group B as leaders.
The United States were punished 2-0 by Colombia on Friday night to open the 2016 Copa America Centenario. A heavily pro-Colombian crowd in Santa Clara, California, watched as Geoff Cameron carelessly allowed Cristian Zapata to put his side ahead early before James Rodriguez capitalized from the spot on a sophomoric handball from DeAndre Yedlin.
The USMNT face Colombia in the first match of the Copa America Centenario tonight, and they will have to put on a strong showing in order to get anything from the match. They have a potentially tough group that includes World Cup quarter-finalists Costa Rica and last year's fourth place Copa finishers, Paraguay. It is important for the U.S. to start strong in the hopes of grabbing what could be three vital points.
Reports have been flying around that Real Madrid have seen a €50 million offer for fullback David Alaba rebuffed by Bayern Munich. Apparently, that monumental figure was enough to throw the Austrian off his game because he just did this in a friendly for Austria against Malta.
Pachuca are the 2016 Clausura champs, having defeated Monterrey 2-1 on aggregate over the final's two legs. Los Tuzos won the home leg, 1-0, but they needed a little magic at the end of the second leg to claim the trophy.
Sunday's second leg in Monterrey got really interesting when Dorlan Pabon scored a golazo in the 39th minute to give Monterrey a 1-0 lead in the match and even the score on aggregate.
The build up surrounding Poland’s Euro 2016 Championship campaign has been relatively quiet, and the Poles and their captain Robert Lewandowski certainly won’t be bothered by that. After capturing third place at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, this is a country that has had very little success on the biggest of international stages.