Passing

Wayne Rooney is back on the pitch in England and he’s already making an impact with new club Derby County.

The former Manchester United striker left MLS side D.C. United at the end of the 2019 season to become a player-coach for the English League Championship club. He’s been training with the team and coaching under head coach Phillip Cocu, but wasn’t eligible to play until the opening of the English January transfer window. 

Bayern Munich enters the German winter break on the backend of a chaotic start to the season, one which cost manager Niko Kovač his job at the beginning of November. However, despite starting the month of December sitting seventh in the Bundesliga, Bayern has now won three straight by an aggregate scoreline of 11-2 to climb back to third in the table, just four points behind leaders RB Leipzig.

If he continues like this, Martin Ødegaard will be playing for Real Madrid next season. It’s been nearly five years since he made his first and only LaLiga appearance for Los Blancos at the age of 16 years and 157 days, but now aged 21, Ødegaard is finally shining in Spain’s top division while on loan at high-flying Real Sociedad. 

Sadio Mané, who leads Liverpool in scoring this season, was recently called out by a teammate for not passing enough. 

“Something that Sadio and Mo (Salah) have in common is that they don’t pass us the ball much,” Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain said, possibly joking but with a sting of truth. “They like shooting a lot!” 

Ajax loves to score pretty goals. The Dutch club’s first against Lille in the Champions League on Wednesday was no different — with some American flair.

Hakim Ziyech scored about 90 seconds into the match after some wonderful team play, started by none other than recently cap-tied USMNT fullback Sergiño Dest.

Fresh off a hamstring injury that cost him six games, 37 days and a myriad of hot takes, Neymar returned to the pitch on Friday for first-place PSG’s encounter with seventh-place Lille in Ligue 1.

In the midst of it all, it’s unfortunate how much the off-the-pitch noise engulfs the 27-year-old Brazilian. He’ll certainly never be Mexico’s cup of tea, but notwithstanding tribal feuds, he remains football’s second-best attraction behind Lionel Messi (I have all the time in the world for the Cristiano Ronaldo G.O.A.T. argument, but he's really not that fun to watch anymore).

Following a 9-0 beatdown of San Marino on Thursday, Belgium became the first nation to book its place at next summer’s European Championship. Today, the Red Devils maintained their 100 percent record in Euro 2020 qualifiers with a 2-0 victory over Kazakhstan in Nur-Sultan. 

As the world’s top-ranked side, Belgium boasts an embarrassment of attacking riches. After netting goals 50 and 51 for the national team against San Marino, striker Romelu Lukaku was rested against Kazakhstan, but it was his replacement, Michy Batshuayi, who opened the scoring in the 21st minute.

After three straight matches as an unused substitute, Christian Pulisic made his first Premier League appearance since Aug. 31 when coming on in the 80th minute of Chelsea’s 4-1 victory over Southampton on Sunday. 

The bad news for Pulisic is that the players above him in the pecking order all played well: Mason Mount scored a goal; Callum Hudson-Odoi and Willian picked up assists. The good news for Pulisic is that he made the most of his 10 minutes on the pitch.