Let’s be honest here. Panama was bad on Sunday. Really bad. Los Canaleros embarrassed Concacaf and every Concacaf nation that didn’t qualify, although no specific nations immediately come to mind. The 6-1 loss for Panama vs England was the worst performance of any team thus far at the World Cup.
England’s putting on a finishing clinic versus Panama to begin Sunday’s World Cup group play. John Stones sent a precise downward header beyond Jaime Penedo to open the scoring, Harry Kane added England’s second with an emphatic penalty and Jesse Lingard added the third with one of the best goals of the tournament so far. A second from Stones and another Kane penalty has England up 5-0 at the half.
Here’s the opener from Stones.
The United States is not in the 2018 World Cup and Costa Rica just showed the world why. No matter how skilled a team is (or isn’t), it is extremely difficult to beat a Concacaf side like Costa Rica, Panama or Honduras. But a stoppage-time Philippe Coutinho goal vs Costa Rica was just enough to get Brazil a vital three points with a 2-0 win and knock Los Ticos out of the tournament on Friday in Russia.
You don’t stand in the way of an Aleksander Kolarov rocket. That’s a well-known fact, and if you’re the least bit ignorant about that, you’re dead. Just look at what happened to this ref back in the day.
England traveled to Leeds for its World Cup send-off match against Costa Rica Thursday, and 20-year-old Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford wasted no time in delighting a capacity crowd at Elland Road.
Rashford was just a 16-year-old when Costa Rica and England played to a 0-0 draw in Belo Horizonte back in 2014 (England were already eliminated at that point following defeats to Italy and Uruguay), but the Mancunian played like a man possessed to open the proceedings today.
Toronto FC just finished the best Concacaf Champions League run in MLS history. They didn't win, but they came as close to winning the thing as possible. A lot of blame will fall at the feet of Michael Bradley, both because his miss was so bad aesthetically and because of the USMNT's recent failings.
The Chivas vs Toronto CONCACAF Champions League final has divided soccer aficionados in Mexico. Of course every Guadalajara fan is all in for their team, and even some other Mexican soccer enthusiasts have expressed their solidarity with them.
However, not everyone in Mexico is longing for a Chivas victory.
That did not go as planned for Toronto FC. Having just knocked mighty Club America out of the Concacaf Champions League, the reigning MLS champions surely figured to have an easier time of it against Chivas Guadalajara in the final. Chivas are having a terrible season domestically, but for some reason have been kryptonite for MLS clubs in the CCL.
They were again, handing Sebastian Giovinco and friends a 2-1 defeat in Toronto and taking a solid lead back to Mexico for the second leg.
Rodolfo Pizarro opened the scoring just a few minutes in the game.
An extremely strong contingent of Guadalajara supporters inside Red Bull Arena watched their side hang on for the narrowest of victories on Tuesday night, Chivas doing just enough to retain their 1-0 first leg advantage over New York in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals despite being outshot 20-1 in the second.
You can take the USMNT out of the World Cup, but you can’t take the World Cup out of the USMNT ... or something. We might not be creating any new memories in Russia, but at least we’ve got some historical moments that're always worth revisiting. I’m talking about the 2002 World Cup team.
The team’s run to the quarterfinals of that competition was no fluke — they didn’t Portugal Euro 2016 themselves into the history books.