The long MLS playoff grind continued with another marathon day Sunday, as the Eastern Conference was narrowed down from four teams to two. It was a big day for the Canadian sides, and one that the city of New York will want to quickly forget. A look at the results from both second leg matches, TV schedule information for the conference finals, and an updated prediction.
Quarterfinals: Leg 2 Results
A recent video on Yahoo! Sports asked the question: should international soccer be scrapped? The problems they laid out included the fact that international soccer requires teams to take two breaks during the fall so they can compete in international play to qualify for events like the Olympics or the World Cup.
The beautiful game is grabbing hold of America. The World Cup comes around every two years, and the general US public look up to see how America performs on the biggest stage. MLS grows in teams, player status, and TV ratings each year, as the focus of the success or failure of US soccer.
However, deep below those two shiny properties lies the future of soccer in America: the United Soccer League.
Two-time World Cup winner Daniel Passarella, a center back on Argentina’s triumphant 1978 and 1986 squads, recently called out Lionel Messi for what he perceives to be a weakness in the captain’s leadership qualities: “The leader of the group is something different to the way you play and the talent of each player. I admire Messi, but I think his personality, his way of being, is withdrawn and timid.”
Honestly, where do people get this s***.
If you're a Bastian Schweinsteiger fan, please don't get your hopes up.
The German is back in Manchester United training, ending his strange exile from the first team. This doesn't mean he's going to play in a game any time soon, in fact some have speculated that Jose Mourinho is just letting Schweinsteiger train with the first team so he's fit when United try to sell him in January, which is sort of like the "fattening him up to eat him" of the footballing world.
Pep Guardiola went six matches without a victory for the first time in his career. It started to become a concern for Manchester City, as their form dipped after starting the season with ten straight wins.
Saturday, Manchester City beat West Brom 4-0, so it appears the worst of it is over.
Written a few days ago, this article would've been very different. In the cold light of Monday morning, many people were welcoming the revived glories of AC Milan. A young, exciting squad packed with home grown Italian talent, led by one of Serie A’s most promising and intriguing managers, had taken on the champions of the last five years and won. 'Milan beat Juventus — they’re back!' came the shouts. A new era was upon us.
A quick refresher: USWNT star Megan Rapinoe chose to join other athletes in kneeling during "The Star-Spangled Banner". We first saw Rapinoe participate in the silent protest on September 15, 2016, and that was not the last of it. Various athletes are refusing to stand during the anthem to draw attention to racial injustice in this country.
Landon Donovan, the all-time leader in scoring, assists and second most capped player in USMNT history, to go along with MLS’ all-time top scorer, assists leader and playoff goals leader has added another distinction to his legacy: he’s now MLS’ all-time leader in playoff assists with 15.
The Galaxy mercilessly ended a careening Real Salt Lake season, the Claret and Cobalt having limped into the playoffs after collecting only three points from their final seven regular season games.
There was a strange moment in the EFL Cup fourth round match between Manchester United and Manchester City during the half-time break. The first half had passed largely without incident save for a Kelechi Iheanacho header that the young Nigerian got completely wrong. Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a wretched opening 45 minutes, but the half-time punditry, as it so often does this season, gradually shifted to Paul Pogba.
During the commercial intermission, we were treated to this beautiful Adidas commercial concerning the world’s most expensive player: