Underdogs

St. Louis City became the first Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion team to win the opening four games of their inaugural season, beating San Jose Earthquakes 3-0 on Saturday, but their record start was not a surprise for coach Bradley Carnell.

After comeback wins against Austin FC, Charlotte FC and Portland Timbers, goals from from Nicholas Gioacchini, João Klauss and Tomáš Ostrák helped St. Louis ease to victory in their second home game since joining the league.

Damion Lowe scored just before halftime and the Philadelphia Union added three second-half goals to secure a 4-0 victory over El Salvador's Alianza FC on Tuesday in Chester, Pa., and a 4-0 win on aggregate in a CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 match.

Lowe headed home a corner kick from Kai Wagner at the start of first-half stoppage time for the first goal in the two-leg, total-goal series. The teams played a scoreless draw at San Salvador, El Salvador, last week.

On Tuesday night we get the job done, and by "we" I mean Violette AC and all the CONCACAF Champions League sickos that fell head over heels for the club last Tuesday when they hammered Austin FC 3-0 in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie.

BOURNEMOUTH — Liverpool's Mohamed Salah missed a second-half penalty as his side fell to a 1-0 defeat away at Bournemouth, with Philip Billing's goal lifting the south-coast side off the bottom of the Premier League table and out of the relegation zone.

The win in the first league game of the weekend sees the Cherries rise from last spot to 16th in the table on 24 points, while Liverpool languish in fifth on 42 points after wasting a chance to close the three-point gap to fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur.

This summer, Minnesota is bringing together six different clubs from four different leagues to determine which shines brightest in the North Star State. Although in its inaugural infancy, this is a great concept that'll only get better with time — other states should follow suit. 

There are and have been different variations of Minnesota's Super Cup, but this competition promises head-to-head action with a tournament structure similar to the World Cup. 

We haven't covered Gonçalo Ramos much since the 21-year-old took Cristiano Ronaldo's spot at the World Cup and promptly fired Portugal into the quarterfinals with a hat-trick, but we've got to speak about his outrageous talents again because he's just put Benfica into the quarterfinals of the Champions League with two goals and an assist on Tuesday.

You know it's heady times in the Premier League when Brentford versus Fulham makes for can't-miss TV, and that was the case in a Monday Night Football clash at Gtech Community Stadium that outlined why both clubs are safe from relegation and eyeing a place in Europe. The London derby was a five-goal barn burner.

Brentford flew out of the traps and earned a deserved lead in the sixth-minute. A barrage of early balls into Fulham's area had been met by Tim Ream, but the American defender could only watch in horror as his attempted block deflected beyond Bernd Leno. 

March 4 (Reuters) - New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell has thrown his support behind coach Jitka Klimková to turn around the fortunes of her underperforming team with less than five months before the Women's World Cup begins.

New Zealand, who will co-host the World Cup with neighbors Australia from July 20 to Aug. 20, lost all their friendlies last month, suffering a 5-0 hammering by Portugal before falling 2-0 and 1-0 to Argentina.

Newly appointed China head coach Aleksandar Janković is aiming to guide the Asian country to qualification for the 2026 World Cup, the Serbian said, adding that the team has room for improvement.

Despite major government ambitions for the team, China have qualified for the World Cup only once in 2002 when they lost all three of their group matches and failed to score a goal.