A Sebastian Giovinco double helped Toronto FC to a 4-0 victory over Eastern Conference rivals New York City FC on Sunday. Giovinco skipped around an attempted tackle from Andrea Pirlo like he wasn’t even there (which is close to the truth) and curled in his first goal from distance.
Saturday’s El Clasico at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami gave over 66,000 spectators the opportunity to watch the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Gareth Bale, but the lasting legacy of this match will probably be the confrontation between Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic and American referee Jair Marrufo.
Rakitic’s goal in the 7th minute gave Barca an early 2-0 lead, but his 73 minutes on the pitch weren’t entirely enjoyable.
Jonathan dos Santos is officially an LA Galaxy player. The 28-year-old joins his brother Gio in California after sealing a move from Villarreal. He will immediately become either the best midfielder in MLS or very very close.
Welcome to Hollywood, @jona2santos! pic.twitter.com/kJQf3OydJl
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 28, 2017
The United States is used to being the best at everything, from income to athletics. When it comes to the economy of sports, there are two areas where America lags far behind its overseas counterparts: soccer and eSports.
In soccer, European leagues attract the biggest stars with the biggest salaries. In eSports, South Korean and Chinese players earn more per capita than those in the U.S. and are treated like rock stars.
This begs the question: Who is better paid, players in Major League Soccer or eSports? The answer isn’t quite clear cut.
Los Angeles FC is cool. Los Angeles FC is hip. Los Angeles FC is new and here to vaccuum up social media audiences and youth attention spans. They are so ahead of the game. Their brand is just so goddamn strong, they are going to take over MLS and the internet and various apps.
Look at their announcement for new manager Bob Bradley and tell me their brand promise is not being fulfilled.
Major League Soccer revealed today that German star Bastian Schweinsteiger will wear the captain’s armband when the MLS All-Stars take on Real Madrid in Chicago on August 2. Schweinsteiger beat out Tim Howard and David Villa for the honor in a Snapchat vote.
The latest addition to the Allianz family of stadiums is Minnesota United’s new home in St. Paul, scheduled to open in time for the 2019 MLS season, Allianz Field. The 19,400-seat state of the art facility joins an impressive crop of stadia bearing the Allianz namesake — chiefly the homes of Bayern Munich, OGC Nice, Palmeiras and Juventus.
Brothers: you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. After years of what may have been some separation anxiety plying their trades thousands of miles away from each other, Jonathan and Giovani dos Santos may play on the same club team again.
America’s favorite soccer couple is splitting up — at least geographically.
Major League Soccer will begin using VAR (video assistant referee) on the arbitrary date of August 5 in the middle of the season. Little good that does FC Dallas.
In the 21st minute of Dallas’ match with Montreal on Saturday, Cristian Colman hit a shot well over the goal line before it was headed out by Impact defender Daniel Lovitz. Replays show the ball clearly went over the line but referee Robert Sibiga waved play on.