Upsets

Vini Jr. is the people’s 2024 Ballon d’Or champ. If that makes it any better.

Monday morning struck the world with some of the biggest news of the year as reports revealed that ‘clear’ Ballon d’Or favorite, Vinicius Jr., was to not travel to Paris, France, for the prestigious award’s ceremony — meaning the star Brazilian and Real Madrid forward was imminently snubbed from taking the golden ball home.

BREAKING: Vinicius Jr will NOT travel to Paris as Real Madrid know he will NOT win the Ballon d’Or.

BOURNEMOUTH — A brilliantly-worked goal by Ryan Christie and a Justin Kluivert penalty gave Bournemouth a shock 2-0 Premier League win at home to 10-man Arsenal on Saturday, with Gunners defender William Saliba shown a straight red card in the first half.

The defeat brought Arsenal's unbeaten start to the league season to a shuddering halt and leaves them third in the standings on 17 points, one behind leaders Liverpool and behind Manchester City on goal difference, with both sides in action on Sunday.

LONDON — Greece beat England for the first time as striker Vangelis Pavlidis earned the visitors a richly-deserved 2-1 victory to put them in control of Nations League Group B2 at Wembley on Thursday.

While Pavlidis's winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time sparked wild celebrations among the Greek fans, England stand-in manager Lee Carsley got a sobering reality check.

Two victories since Gareth Southgate stood down had raised Carsley's stock as a likely full-time option, but after a ragged defeat at the hands of Greece, his hopes may have dwindled.

San Marino won their first ever competitive match by beating Liechtenstein 1-0 in the Nations League on Thursday, 20 years since their only other victory, also against Liechtenstein.

The Nations League D game was hardly a clash of the titans, with San Marino bottom of FIFA's rankings at 210th and Liechtenstein 199th, but Nicko Sensoli's goal in the 53rd minute will make him a national hero.

San Marino's only other success came in their 69th game, a 1-0 win over Liechtenstein in a 2004 friendly.

PARIS — Brazil reached the Olympic women's football final as they claimed a stunning 4-2 win over world champions Spain in Marseille on Tuesday and will face the United States for the gold medal.

Playing their sixth Olympic semi, Brazil capitalized on a number of Spanish defensive mistakes to reach Saturday's final at Parc des Princes where they will seek a maiden title against four-time champions USA.

The Tim Weah red card vs Panama in the 18th minute proved too much for Gregg Berhalter’s U.S. side in a stunning 2-1 upset that throws the USMNT’s Copa América campaign in jeopardy.

This loss is 100% on Weah’s shoulders.

In the 18th minute the Juventus player idiotically swung on Panama’s Roderick Miller off the ball. A VAR review saw Weah sent to the locker room and screw over his entire team.

Tim Weah red card vs Panama

GELSENKIRCHEN — Georgia stunned Portugal to reach the knockouts at Euro 2024 - their first ever major tournament - with a 2-0 win over the former European champions on Wednesday, settled by an early Khvicha Kvaratskhelia strike and a Georges Mikautadze penalty.

The win, albeit against a largely second-string Portugal who had already made it into the next round, represented the greatest result for Georgia since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

LOS ANGELES — Brazil missed a string of chances and were left to rue a lack of quality in the final third after they were held 0-0 by Costa Rica in their Copa America Group D opener in Los Angeles on Monday.

Brazil, who came into the Copa America on the back of a run of poor results in recent months, dominated possession but lacked precision in front of goal with just three of their 19 shots on target.

Manchester United did the unthinkable and stunned their biggest rival Manchester City 2-1 in the FA Cup final on Saturday to end a tumultuous season on a high note.

Guardiola had won four Premier League titles in-a-row and was looking for a second straight FA Cup, however a feisty, scrappy and determined Red Devils side pulled off the biggest shock in the final in over a decade.

Atalanta have done what no team had accomplished all season: they defeated Bayer Leverkusen. A historic Ademola Lookman hat trick vs Leverkusen paired with terrific defending was enough to secure Atalanta’s 3-0 victory and their first European trophy.

This was Atalanta’s first major trophy since winning the Coppa Italia in 1963. The Italian underdogs lost in the Coppa Italia final to Juventus this season but bounced back with an even larger reward.