The United States matched their biggest-ever triumph on the U-20 World Cup stage, and Mexico scored a game-winner in the 89th minute as North America sent two representatives into the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup quarterfinals — just as many as South America and one less than Europe.
Every footballer will tell you that nutmegging an opponent is an amazing feeling. This kid seems to have mastered that talent at a very young age. Every person that passes by is a victim to his trickery. Holding an ice cream cone doesn't seem to stop him either — he casually puts one through the legs of a passerby between bites of his cone. That's cold.
Like a boss pic.twitter.com/s4VIx9DMWD
Lionel Messi turned in a Midas-like performance in Saturday’s Copa del Rey final — everything he touched turned into gold. He opened the scoring for Barca in the 30th minute with an unstoppable effort from 18 yards out, he was heavily involved with a “hockey assist” in Neymar’s goal and then he settled the match before halftime with a sublime feed for Paco Alcacer and Barcelona’s third.
Outside of these pivotal moments, Messi was unplayable. He registered 101 touches in the game, including four key passes, four shots and a staggering nine successful dribbles.
Juventus and Bologna wrapped up their Serie A campaigns with a meaningless match featuring the champions-elect and the side in 15th. For a match with absolutely nothing riding on it, this game still had its moments.
The first was provided by Bologna midfielder Saphir Taider. The Algerian international opened the scoring in the 52nd minute with this sensational effort from distance.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: these cats are young. They’re like kittens in that sense — feral, attack-minded, alley kittens. It’s easy to get hyped on talent at the FIFA U-20 World Cup because the game, at this age, so heavily favors attackers. The goals are beautiful, but they’re generally scored in acres of space and triggered by a breakdown in midfield or defense.
A pair of United States youth internationals are being given the opportunity to make their Bundesliga debuts for Schalke 04 this weekend. Haji Wright, 19, and Weston McKennie, 18, have received promotions to Schalke's first team squad for their final match of the Bundesliga season on Saturday against Ingolstadt.
48' > WESTON MCKINNIE!! FCD takes a 3-0 lead as the midfielder's volley dribbles over the line! pic.twitter.com/OASVUlv9Hg
Mikey Johnston is only 18 years of age, but he has undoubtedly just had the best weekend of his life.
Whirlwind debut day for Mikey Johnston! #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/S5tOsL1EbO
— Celtic Football Club (@celticfc) May 8, 2017
18-year-old Kylian Mbappe and AS Monaco’s youth revolution has garnered the headlines throughout the club’s thrilling run to the Champions League semifinals, but there’s a similar movement taking place in Europe’s less prestigious club competition, the Europa League, at AFC Ajax.
Ajax dismantled Lyon 4-1 in their Europa League semifinal first leg at the Amsterdam ArenA, and, after landing 16 shots on target, they’ll be disappointed that they didn’t add more to their total before the return leg.