Diego Maradona’s debut as manager of Ascenso MX (Mexico’s second division) side Dorados FC coincided with the club earning its first win of the 2018 Apertura season, a 4-1 home victory over last-place Cafetaleros. Vinicio Angulo scored a hat-trick for Dorados, but the star of the show was obviously the 57-year-old on the touchline.
Juan Roman Riquelme, the legendary Argentinian midfielder, replied once on TV when asked about Leo Messi: “I’m not completely sure Messi is human. I have never seen a person that runs faster with the ball at his feet than without it. Messi does. How can you do that? Think about it, it doesn’t make sense.”
How many times have we heard things like this?
Manchester City did not sweat a lot to destroy Fulham 3-0 on Saturday. It was an easy ride with the sunroof open for every fan at the Etihad stadium, as the team was leading 1-0 (Leroy Sané) by the second minute and bombing Fulham’s 18-yard box the rest of the game.
Failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup was hard to digest, very hard, so our hot soccer-blooded hearts make us feel that everything is wrong, and our soccer is the worst. That’s just the heat of the moment; truth is that U.S. soccer is pretty good, and it has gotten better and better over the last couple of decades.
Spain begins a new era today under the direction of former Barcelona manager Luis Enrique. After completing seven million passes against Russia without ever moving forward during La Furia Roja’s shock World Cup Round of 16 exit, these are exciting times for the federation with Enrique promising an attractive evolution of the nation’s playing style.
Enrique is a coup for the federation on the back of being named the FIFA World Coach of the Year in 2015 and due to the respect he commands as one of the few footballers to ever successfully bridge the El Clasico divide.
With Argentina in flux under interim manager Lionel Scaloni and this international break containing only two inconsequential friendlies being played in the United States, Lionel Messi’s absence from the squad directly following his exertions in Russia came as no surprise, despite the myriad of hot takes that are attempting to read between the lines.
When Carlos Saguier was announced as head coach of Paraguayan second division side Club Sporting 2 de Mayo back in July, he probably knew he was consigning himself to what Dick Advocaat called “the loneliest job in the world” — that of the football manager.
If you follow college football, you’ve probably heard of 37-year-old University of Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck. He rose to prominence at Western Michigan after leading the unfancied program to a 13-1 record in 2016 and a trip to the Cotton Bowl, but it was his approach to coaching (hyper energy, hyper millennial-approved, hyper “elite”) that won him both fans and detractors in equal measure.
It seems the Houston Dash’s 4-0 drubbing of the Spirit over the weekend proved to be the nail in the coffin for Washington Spirit coach and general manager Jim Gabarra. The result brought the Spirit’s winless streak to 12 (having lost 10 of those) with the side failing to notch a victory since May 23.
According to The Sunday Times, a quality British broadsheet that usually doesn’t mess around, David Moyes is now a leading candidate to become USMNT manager. This is obviously just world-class banter from our friends across the pond, right?