The 2019 summer transfer window is upon us! Woe unto you, ye blind guides, who feed us horribly misinformed transfer rumor nonsense over the next three months, but also woe unto us, the fans, who masochistically love the latest juice tying our beloved club with some unknown entity from De Graafschap.
This summer, AS Roma will use its global popularity and influence to aid in the search for missing children. The club announced that it's partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and will be displaying the photos and information of missing children alongside transfer announcement videos.
Is this it — the moment we all live to regret? Yesterday, a U.S. team administrator and her boss were apprehended whilst dozily meandering around the private rooms of England’s Fourvière hotel, which the rogue Americans could potentially use as a base of operations should they secure passage to the final at the expense of the Lionesses.
In a rematch of the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final, Spain got revenge on Germany to capture its fifth title, moving the nation level with Italy as the most successful in the history of the Euro U-21 competition.
Spain last achieved U-21 glory when winning back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2013. That extremely skilled cohort included the likes of Juan Mata, David de Gea, Cesar Azpilicueta, Javi Martinez, Isco, Koke and Dani Carvajal, and the 2019 group is sure to achieve just as much international success, if not more than that highly skilled generation.
Vissel Kobe defeated Nagoya 5-3 in J1 League play on Sunday thanks to braces from Spanish legends Andrés Iniesta, age 35, and David Villa, 37. Villa opened the scoring with a fine solo goal, and then Iniesta restored Vissel Kobe’s advantage with this sensational long-range effort.
To say Germany had Sweden’s number in major international tournaments would be an insult to number-having everywhere. In nine knockout-round matches between the two all time, the Germans had won all of them.
Well, all but one after Saturday.
Sweden overcame an early goal to rally past the second-ranked team in the world 2-1, providing perhaps the biggest upset of the Women’s World Cup to advance to the semifinals.
Sweden joined the U.S., England and the Netherlands in the final four and will play the Dutch on Wednesday.
As much of a cliché as this sounds, England is very much a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.
This isn’t to say England has bad players — Fran Kirby and Lucy Bronze are among the best in the world at their respective positions. Yet it would be hard to say the Three Lionesses are the best in the world in any one particular area. There are better passing teams, better possession teams, better defending teams and quicker and stronger teams.
But when England puts it together, there might not be a better team.
Chelsea has made its first, and probably only, move while serving a two-window transfer ban (this summer and next January) by permanently signing the previously on-loan Mateo Kovačić from Real Madrid for a fee that could approach nearly $57 million.
The 25-year-old just completed his first season with the Blues, and with plenty of unforeseen circumstances ahead, Kovačić had to be brought back.
ROOOOONEY. The 33-year-old has done it again. The last time he scored from his own half was for Everton against West Ham back in 2017, but the D.C. United attacker has now accomplished the feat stateside. And from much, much deeper.
Someone more finely attuned with the dimensions of Audi Field probably has the answer, but I think this one arrived from the White House.
Manchester United looks to be wrapping up it’s second signing of the summer transfer window. After a poor season with an obvious lack of quality in an aging squad, Ole Gunnar Solskjær has identified younger targets with potential for long-term improvement. Recently signing 21-year-old Daniel James from Swansea City, United turned its attention to its defensive targets. While it seems pretty clear that Matthijs de Ligt will not be moving to Old Trafford any time soon, Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka looks primed and ready to sign a contract with the northern giants.