Bob Bradley was appointed as the new coach for Swansea City on October 3rd, becoming the first American to manage in the Premier League.
Swansea are currently struggling at the bottom of the table with one win, one draw and six losses in their first eight games. They are in 19th position and decided to let Italian manager Francesco Guidolin go after only 25 matches in charge.
M’Baye Niang’s young career has been plagued by controversies and inconsistent play, but his goal on Sunday not only proved his doubters wrong, it also showed a new maturity from the French international. Watch as he celebrates his goal with a memorable gesture to Riccardo Montolivo, Milan’s captain who is out for the season after suffering an ACL injury:
Bob Bradley thinks he’s one of the world’s best managers. So we didn’t expect him to be intimidated by his surroundings when he faced off against Arsène Wenger and Arsenal at the Emirates in his first Premier League match. In the end, Swansea were unlucky not to get a positive result against the Gunners.
Right now, the Italian national side does not have an identity. On paper, drawing a match with Spain and winning against Macedonia might seem perfectly acceptable, but those who watched the games will know that there’s trouble afoot.
Spain should have won by a comfortable margin but consistently shot themselves in the foot when it came to actually putting the ball in the net. Italy were bad and deserved to lose.
Heading into the 2016 MLS season, all signs pointed towards another successful year for the Seattle Sounders. Legendary coach Sigi Schmid was at the helm. Seattle secured the best player in the draft, home-grown talent Jordan Morris. Clint Dempsey was still in top form and there were promising attacking additions in Andreas Ivanschitz and Nelson Valdez.
Instead, the first half of 2016 was a disaster for the Sounders. The Rave Green lost 12 of their first 20 matches and sat well outside of the playoff positions at the MLS All-Star Break.
It was surprising to see Zinedine Zidane given the manager’s position at Real Madrid after the sacking of Rafa Benitez. His only previous experience was in charge of the reserve side, Real Madrid Castilla, for 18 months, and his record didn’t speak well for himself.
You are probably familiar with fantasy sports — the competitive, addicting online gaming experience that allows sport fans to interact with other fanatics. A quick synopsis: participants gather and select individual professional players; they then assemble these players to their virtual team, living out their fantasy as head coach of a team of superstars.
As September arrives, most Major League Soccer clubs have only seven regular season matches remaining. MLS remains the most balanced league in the world, parity typically reigns in both the Eastern and Western Conferences, but a few clubs look a cut above the rest with the playoffs approaching. These are the three clubs that have made themselves early favorites for MLS Cup 2016.
Fairy tales are great. Mythical stories filled with heroes and villains, they convey a message that gives us something to believe in — something to warm our hearts. Fairy tales can transport us from our normal reality to something far greater.
The 2015-16 Premier League was a fairy tale for Leicester City. Now, it’s back to reality.
When Cristiano Ronaldo dismissed Iceland as a country with a “small mentality” following their opening 1-1 draw at Euro 2016, he couldn’t have possibly predicted that Portugal would need to look up the final Group F standings to find them.