The spectacle of the young phenom taking to the field against players 10 or 20 years their senior is one of football’s more fascinating subplots. As far as physicality will take you in the game, quality will always take you further, giving rise to the mantra that “there are no young and old players, only good and bad.”
By now you’ve probably heard the story. 19-year-old Santiago Muñoz, who was born in El Paso, Texas, and grew up just south of the border in Ciudad Juárez, has joined Newcastle United in a jaw-dropping parallel with the famous 2005 film Goal! The Dream Begins.
Daryl Dike's header in the 97th minute lifted Orlando City SC to a thrilling 2-1 victory over D.C. United in a battle of Eastern Conference contenders on Saturday night at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Fla.
Dike's header from the center of the box beat D.C. United keeper Bill Hamid into the top right corner on an assist from Chris Mueller following a corner kick. It was Dike's seventh goal of the campaign.
LONDON - Jadon Sancho's lack of game time at Manchester United is "hurting the soul" of the man who sanctioned his $100 million move to Old Trafford, Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
The 21-year-old England international has started only two of United's five Premier League games and was an unused substitute in the 1-0 defeat by Aston Villa on Saturday.
BARCELONA - Goals from Memphis Depay, Luuk de Jong and the returning Ansu Fati helped Barcelona claim a much-needed 3-0 home victory over Levante in LaLiga on Sunday.
The victory, Barça's first in their last four games in all competitions, moved the Catalans up to fifth in the table with 12 points from six games, five behind league leaders Real Madrid, who have played one more.
The 18-year-old Fati, who came on as an 81st-minute substitute before scoring Barça's third goal, was making his first appearance since suffering a serious knee injury last November.
Real Madrid hosted Mallorca on Wednesday night, and it was a special (and extremely rare) occasion for American fans of LaLiga as USMNT striker Matthew Hoppe earned a start at the Santiago Bernabéu.
DORTMUND, Germany - Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland scored twice, including a spectacular lob, to guide his side to a 4-2 home win over Union Berlin on Sunday which lifted them to within a point of leaders Bayern Munich and Vfl Wolfsburg.
Norwegian Haaland has now scored seven times in the league this season while taking his total tally to an impressive 68 goals in 67 games in all competitions for Dortmund.
Erling. Braut. Haaland.
That is all.
It was a tongue in cheek joke when Erling Haaland burst onto the Champions League scene during the 2019-20 season with 10 goals in eight games to extrapolate that scoring rate into the future. But when Haaland finished as the UCL’s top scorer in 2020-21 with those exact same numbers, the giggles turned to disbelief.
Well, Haaland’s third season in the Champions League began on Wednesday with Borussia Dortmund traveling to Istanbul to play Beşiktaş, and the 21-year-old scored what would eventually prove the match-winner just before halftime.
Ricardo Pepi scored his team-leading 12th goal to help host FC Dallas record a 1-1 draw against the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday in Frisco, Texas.
Pepi returned to action after missing FC Dallas' last match while participating with the United States Men's National Team for World Cup qualifying. The 18-year-old homegrown player made quite the impact after his diving header off Justin Che's cross beat a diving JT Marcinkowski to forge a 1-1 tie.
Pepi has scored four goals in his last three MLS matches.
After a 2020 season that was hugely disrupted by COVID-19, resulting in both the men’s and women’s College Cup finals being played back on May 17, the 2021 NCAA Division I soccer season marks a return to normalcy as we’re now almost two weeks into the fall campaign.
It’s early doors but we’ve already seen some spectacular play around the country, so much so that SportsCenter’s Top 10 has already featured a couple stunning goals.