Tag: SoccerBlast

Roy Keane can barely find the words for Manchester United’s performance vs. Arsenal

“That United team there…so bad!”

Manchester United left club legend Roy Keane struggling for words after a 1-0 home loss to Arsenal.

The Red Devils fell behind on a 20th minute goal from Leandro Trossard, and though Erik ten Hag’s side threw numbers forward in pursuit of a result late on, the Gunners held on with relative ease.

Keane, working as a pundit, has often been seen as one of the more critical voices in English soccer. Still, even he was left searching for the words to describe what has become of Man United.

“That United team there…so bad,” said Keane on Sky Sports’ post-game show. “Arsenal, coming over to Old Trafford over the years, have found it difficult, but against that team today?”

Man United managed just two shots on goal despite trailing for 70 minutes, turning a match against an old rival played in a downpour into more of a grind than anything that might inspire hope going into the final days of this Premier League campaign.

“I bet you Arsenal couldn’t believe how bad United were,” continued Keane, who seemed in disbelief discussing his old club. “Whatever bits of possession they had, the end product, the lack of quality…

“Over the years the great teams that’ve been here for United, the great players they’ve had, and you’re looking at that last half an hour. Decision-making, nobody digging anybody out [of trouble], people making mistakes, falling over, and everyone’s just walking away, not putting demands on each other.”

The defeat marks Man United’s 14th in the league this season, a high for the club in the Premier League era. You’d have to go back to the 1989-90 season to find last time a Red Devils side lost more league matches.

That was also the last time Man United finished a league campaign with a negative goal difference, and the club will have to work very hard to avoid that fate. Man United currently holds a minus-four goal difference heading into its final two matches of the campaign.

Arsenal’s goal was the 82nd conceded by the Red Devils this season, something the club hasn’t managed in 54 years. Sunday’s victory was just the second time in 17 years that the Gunners have claimed three points at Old Trafford.

Watch Keane lay into Man United’s performance

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Messi finds camera, tells whole world he loathes new MLS rule

Messi made sure everyone watching knew how he felt about one new MLS regulation

MLS has some new rules, and Lionel Messi thinks at least one of them should go.

During Inter Miami’s 3-2 win at CF Montréal, Messi quite literally looked into a broadcast camera to announce his take on MLS’s new guidelines for players who need to leave the field for treatment.

Under the new regulations, a player who stays down injured for longer than 15 seconds must leave the field for a minimum of two minutes, and is not allowed back until the referee waves them on.

Messi got to give the new rule a spin after an ugly 40th minute challenge from Montréal defender George Campbell on Saturday.

Messi understandably stayed down for well over a minute after the heavy contact with his shin and foot. Since referee Drew Fischer didn’t book Campbell, Messi was required to trudge off the field with Miami’s training staff.

The icon got to the touchline at Stade Saputo in the 43rd minute, watching on as play resumed for only a few seconds. The next stoppage? Another Montréal foul, this time with Samuel Piette clipping Luis Suárez in prime territory for Messi to fire a direct free kick on goal.

However, Fischer enforced the new regulations, meaning Messi had to stand on and watch. That’s when Messi offered up his take on the rule, which was the product of some experimentation in MLS Next Pro dating back to the 2022 season.

Finding a midfield camera and looking directly into it, Messi shook his head and said in Spanish “With this type of rule, we are doing badly.”

With 10 men on the pitch and Messi essentially rolling his eyes, the Herons got a remedy to their complaints.

Matías Rojas stepped in for Messi on the dead ball, delivering a sensational, curling free kick from nearly 30 yards out.

Messi would have to continue standing on the touchline until the 45th minute, when fourth official Michael Venne allowed the No. 10 to make his way back into the match.

If that weren’t enough, Miami ran afoul of another new MLS rule in the game’s final moments. Protecting a narrow lead as stoppage time loomed, Suárez was replaced by Leo Campana. However, the Uruguayan took longer than the maximum of 10 seconds MLS has mandated for players to leave the field.

The league has issued a new rule where, in that situation, the substitute entering play must wait a full minute before coming on. Venne enforced the rule, setting off vociferous protests from Suárez, Campana, and Miami manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino (who at least recovered his composure to drag Suárez away before the situation got worse).

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Pulisic back scoring for AC Milan after Cagliari brace

Pulisic’s career-best season continued as Milan crushed Cagliari 5-1

Christian Pulisic is looking to end a strong first season with AC Milan on a high note.

The U.S. men’s national team attacker struck twice for Milan in a ruthless second half as the Rossoneri thumped Cagliari 5-1 on Saturday.

The double takes Pulisic up to 12 goals in Serie A this season, and 15 in all competitions. Pulisic’s first multi-goal game with Milan also broke a goalless run over the last month, with the Pennsylvania native’s last goal coming on April 6 in a 3-0 win over Lecce.

Pulisic’s total of 15 goals and nine assists is by some distance his best output over one season. His previous best, an 11 goal/eight assist campaign with Chelsea, came in the 2019-20 season. The output also represents the most productive first season at the club for any Rossoneri player since Carlos Bacca in 2015-16.

Sporting a “Harlow” No. 11 kit as part of a Mother’s Day celebration, Pulisic got the nod despite some rotation from manager Stefano Pioli, and though Milan held a 1-0 edge at halftime, those changes seemed to contribute to a flat performance.

A triple substitution during the break seemed to be just what the doctor ordered, as the Rossoneri upped the tempo to increase their lead.

One of the changes, Rafael Leão, pushed Milan forward after a backheel from USMNT midfielder Yunus Musah caught Cagliari off guard.

The Portugal winger raced into the visitors’ half before showing patience, waiting for Pulisic — who held his run for a moment before sprinting into a seam — before sending the U.S. forward through.

From there, Pulisic made no mistake, racing into the box before firing past a helpless Simone Scuffet.

While Cagliari would offer a quick response to make it 2-1, Milan proceeded to overpower the Serie A strugglers. Tijjani Reijnders’ brilliant long-range goal in the 74th minute seemed to break the will of the club from Sardinia, and the Rossoneri showed no mercy.

Leão would essentially walk a fourth over the line, while Pulisic’s fifth needed some help from goal-line technology.

Noah Okafor’s cross from the endline found Pulisic in a good position, but the latter’s low shot was initially not given, as Yerry Mina lunged in on the line for a possible block.

However, within a moment, referee Simone Sozza gave the goal, signaling that the ball had indeed completely crossed the line.

Watch Pulisic claim a brace vs. Cagliari

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Reyna left out of pivotal Nottingham Forest clash with Chelsea

Reyna’s season to forget seems to be ending on a down note

Nottingham Forest went into a fight for its Premier League life without Gio Reyna.

The midfielder, on loan from Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund, was not in uniform as Forest fell 3-2 to Chelsea Saturday in a game that could have sealed Forest’s place in the top flight.

It is not yet known if Reyna was dropped due to injury, illness, or some other reason. Manager Nuno Espírito Santo didn’t discuss the U.S. men’s national team midfielder’s status ahead of the clash at City Ground.

With Luton Town and Burnley both losing earlier in the day, a single point would have mathematically guaranteed Forest a place in the 2024-25 Premier League.

However, Forest’s fumbling of a 2-1 lead in the second half means that Luton maintains a sliver of hope to catch up on the final day. With one match to play, Forest maintains a three-point gap, which is bolstered by a 12-goal advantage in terms of goal difference.

More bad news for Reyna

To say the least, Reyna’s deadline-day loan to the Premier League strugglers has not gone according to plan. The 21-year-old has appeared in 10 of a possible 17 competitive fixtures, starting just twice.

Despite producing an assist in his first start with the club, and a superb performance with the USMNT in the Concacaf Nations League final, Reyna’s time in the East Midlands has done little to further his career. Reyna has compiled just 231 minutes for Forest, and has seemingly fallen out of favor in the season’s final days.

Following starts against Wolves and Everton in mid-April, Reyna’s share of the minutes in the Forest midfield have fallen off. He saw 16 minutes off the bench in a 2-0 home loss to Manchester City before becoming an unused substitute for May 4’s 3-1 win at Sheffield United.

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U.S. women’s deaf national team set for historic doubleheader with USWNT

The U.S. women’s deaf national team will face Australia ahead of the USWNT’s friendly vs. South Korea

The U.S. women’s national team’s June 1 friendly against South Korea will now be part of a double bill.

U.S. Soccer announced on Friday that the U.S. women’s deaf national team will join the USWNT at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to play a friendly against Australia as part of a doubleheader.

Tickets for the USWNT’s match in Colorado will be valid for both matches, with the deaf national team’s match set for a 2 p.m. ET start. In a first for one of the federation’s extended national teams, the match will be broadcast on TruTV and Max.

That will be followed by the USWNT’s match against South Korea, which is scheduled for a 5 p.m. ET start. That game will be broadcast on TNT, TruTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

“The U.S. women’s deaf national team is honored to take part in this historic doubleheader with the U.S. women’s national team and I know all the players are excited to participate in this unique event,” said deaf WNT head coach Amy Griffin, who was part of the USWNT side that won the 1991 World Cup.

“Along with a legacy of international success, our team serves as an inspiration for deaf and hard of hearing players and is a catalyst for growth in those communities. This doubleheader and the broadcast of our game marks a huge step forward for the extended national teams program and will magnify what success looks like when more opportunities and access are provided to everyone.”

The deaf WNT has won a whopping 37 of its 38 games since getting started in 2005, claiming three DIFA World Deaf Football Championship titles and four Deaflympics gold medals in that time.

The friendly against Australia will wrap up the team’s first training camp since winning the World Deaf Football Championship in October. The camp is planned as part of the preparations for the 2024 Deaf Pan American Games, which will be held in Brazil from November 7-18.

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Leverkusen sets record with unbeaten run, advances to Europa League final

Leverkusen’s ability to score stoppage-time goals to stay unbeaten is beyond belief

Leverkusen may have qualified for a European final on Thursday, but the celebrations may well have been about something no other UEFA club has ever done.

A 2-2 second-leg draw secured a 4-2 aggregate win over Roma in the Europa League semifinals, sending the Bundesliga champions to the tournament’s final.

However, in a more remarkable achievement, Leverkusen has now gone 49 straight competitive games without defeat, which is a record for any UEFA club since the advent of European continental competition. Benfica’s 48-game run spanning games played from 1963-65 was the previous gold standard.

Leverkusen’s last defeat came nearly a full year ago, with the club concluding its previous Bundesliga campaign with a 3-0 loss at Bochum on May 27, 2023.

Since then, Xabi Alonso’s side has gotten a win or draw in every single one of its 49 competitive fixtures across the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, and the Europa League in the 2023-24 season.

Somehow, this run includes a staggering 17 goals in stoppage time, 12 of which changed losses into draws or draws into wins.

That included an equalizer against Roma. Despite seeing the Serie A side pushing to force extra time with one last goal, Leverkusen still pushed on in pursuit of history.

Seven minutes into second-half stoppage time, late substitute Josip Stanišić sprinted up the right flank. Granit Xhaka could have sent him to the corner to protect the lead, but the Swiss midfielder wanted that 49th game without a loss.

Xhaka’s pass guided Stanišić into the area, where he cut inside of the scrambling Roma defense before picking out the bottom corner, beating Mile Svilar and securing yet another dramatic late draw for Leverkusen.

In a post-match interview broadcast by CBS Sports Network, Xhaka said that Leverkusen took pride in pursuing the record rather than merely hanging on for a place in a continental final.

“Of course!” declared Xhaka when asked about pursuing a 49th game without a loss. “You see the desire from the team. Even after 2-1, in the 90 minutes, in extra time, we didn’t want to slow down the game. We wanted to score the second goal to be unbeaten [for] 49 games now, and we are proud about it.”

Leverkusen will face Atalanta on May 22 at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. That will be the club’s third-ever European final, and its first since the 2001-02 Champions League.

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Dest future unclear as PSV reportedly declines €10m purchase clause

A convoluted situation has thrown Dest’s future at PSV into question

Sergiño Dest seemed set to convert his successful first season with PSV into a longer stay, but a new development has thrown the U.S. men’s national team right back’s future into uncertainty.

Eindhovens Dagblad reported on Thursday that PSV has decided to decline a €10 million purchase clause built into the loan deal with Barcelona that sent the 23-year-old to the Eredivisie for the 2023-24 season.

Dest was superb for PSV throughout a campaign that saw the club storm to both a 25th Dutch crown and the knockout stages of the Champions League.

However, on April 20 Dest suffered what turned out to be a torn ACL in training, and will be sidelined for several months at minimum.

Despite the injury, PSV manager Peter Bosz expressed strong interest in signing Dest to a permanent contract, praising the USMNT defender as a good fit for both his system and within the locker room.

It wasn’t the first time an authority at PSV said something along those lines. In December, sporting director Earnie Stewart said that the Dutch power would “probably do something” with the purchase clauses for both Dest and USMNT teammate Malik Tillman this summer.

Dest had also said he was enjoying his time with PSV, though his interest in staying further was offered in measured terms.

“I just want to go for my development and where I can play the most,” said Dest in April, just days before suffering his injury. “I have really been able to play my way up again [at PSV] and I want to continue to do so. Wherever my future lies, I just want to be able to play and develop myself.”

PSV may wait to sign Dest for free

Since then, two factors have complicated the matter. The first issue had crept into the discussion even before Dest’s injury: the combination of an eight-figure transfer fee and Dest’s desire to stay on wages in line with those in his contract with Barcelona is more than PSV was prepared to spend.

Second, the Eindhovens Dagblad report noted that Dest’s injury has removed the urgency to get a deal done quickly, as the fullback will almost certainly miss the first half of the 2024-25 season.

The theory goes that PSV could simply wait for Dest to enter the final six months of his deal with Barça on January 1, 2025. At that point, they could offer Dest a contract that would begin immediately upon the end of his time with Barcelona.

Doing so would allow PSV to bring Dest in without shelling out the €10 million fee, but that approach is not without risk. ESPN has reported that Ajax is also interested in Dest, while his performance with PSV has surely caught the eye of clubs across Europe.

Any club can offer Dest a pre-contract at the same time PSV reportedly intends to, opening the door to the USMNT man making his return elsewhere.

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Players union threatens to take FIFA to court over Club World Cup calendar concerns

FIFPro and an association of soccer leagues are both deeply unhappy with FIFA

FIFPro, the union for professional soccer players worldwide, and the 45-member World Leagues Association have served notice to FIFA, demanding alterations to what they assert is an overstuffed calendar.

In a joint letter viewed by the BBC and AP, FIFA was criticized for “unilateral decisions that benefit its own competitions and commercial interests,” which include adding and expanding competitions. The 2025 Club World Cup — an event currently set to be held in the U.S. in June and July 2025 — was specifically cited as an event needing to change.

The letter calls the current global calendar “beyond saturation,” adding that “players are being pushed beyond their limits, with significant injury risks and impacts on their welfare.”

Previously, the Club World Cup had involved only seven teams: the winning team from the top club tournament in each of the world’s six confederations, plus one entrant from the host nation of that year’s tournament. FIFPro blasted the Club World Cup expansion when it was announced, and has apparently not gotten a satisfactory response from FIFA.

The 2025 edition, however, has been massively expanded, with 32 places. Illustrating the letter’s point, a report from The Athletic said that the event would take place during the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup, also being held in the United States.

Additionally, FIFA plans to resurrect the old Intercontinental Cup this year, which will feature a structure along very similar lines as the old Club World Cup. The letter urged FIFA to reconsider, or even abandon, plans to hold that event.

Competition calendar congestion growing

The letter comes as competitions grow or expand in seemingly every direction.

All three of UEFA’s men’s club competitions will expand next season, while the Asian Football Confederation’s rebrand of its top competition (which will be called the AFC Champions League Elite from 2024-25) will feature fewer teams, but requires each participant to play more games. Going along with those plans, the AFC is also adding a Europa League-esque competition called the AFC Champions League 2.

Concacaf has expanded the Concacaf Champions Cup starting with this year’s edition, while in the U.S. there remains a simmering conflict between MLS and U.S. Soccer over whether the top-flight league’s clubs should have to play in the U.S. Open Cup.

FIFPro and the World Leagues Association also demanded a chance to reconsider the calendar for when internationals must be released from their clubs during windows for national team play.

The AP quoted the letter as explicitly including the threat of “legal action against FIFA” should the governing body ignore requests to address the issues.

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U.S. Open Cup 2024 round of 16 pairings: Defending champs Houston Dynamo out

The defending champs are already out, while Tampa Bay and Birmingham played out an epic in the round of 32

The 2024 U.S. Open Cup has narrowed down to its final 16 teams, with pairings for the round of 16 becoming clear as the tournament’s fourth round played out on Wednesday night.

U.S. Soccer conducted a draw on April 18 to sort both the round of 32 and the round of 16, with the remaining teams placed into four-team pods roughly based around geography and other factors.

That effectively set up hosting scenarios for the last 16, with teams drawn into the first pairing within the pod set to host the winner of the second game. The federation will hold a draw for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds at a later date, with the latter draw also determining hosting priority for the final for each of the final four teams.

The round of 32 included some absolutely wild results. The defending champion Houston Dynamo are already out, having held a 2-0 lead at home only to be knocked off by USL Championship side Detroit City on penalties after a 3-3 extra-time draw.

An all-USL Championship clash produced an absolute classic, with the Tampa Bay Rowdies leading 4-0 after 81 minutes, yet being pushed to extra time by Birmingham Legion. The Rowdies somehow recovered from that to claim a 6-4 win thanks in no small part to an unfathomable bicycle kick goal from Manuel Arteaga (who would also get sent off in the final seconds just for good measure).

Other “cupsets” included New Mexico United seeing off Real Salt Lake 4-2, while MLS Next Pro side New York City FC II managed a 1-0 win over the Colorado Springs Switchbacks of the USL Championship.

All in all, the last 16 will see six MLS teams, nine from the USL Championship, and New York City FC II surviving as the final remaining team from any league lower than the second tier. Based on the pairings, at least two lower-level teams will go through to the quarterfinals.

Below are the round of 16 pairings resulting from April’s draw. Games are set for May 21-22, with schedule and venues for all matches still to be confirmed. Host sides are listed first in each pairing.

2024 U.S. Open Cup round of 16 draw

  • Charleston Battery (USL-C) vs. Atlanta United (MLS)
  • Tampa Bay Rowdies (USL-C) vs. FC Dallas (MLS)
  • Sporting Kansas City (MLS) vs. FC Tulsa (USL-C)
  • Seattle Sounders (MLS) vs. Phoenix Rising FC (USL-C)
  • Sacramento Republic FC (USL-C) vs. San Jose Earthquakes (MLS)
  • Los Angeles FC (MLS) vs. Loudoun United FC (USL-C)
  • Indy Eleven (USL-C) vs. Detroit City FC (USL-C)
  • New York City FC II (MLS Next Pro) vs. New Mexico United (USL-C)

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Tuchel rages after late Bayern goal disallowed in Champions League: ‘It’s the wrong call’

Tuchel slated the referees over waving off De Ligt’s seeming equalizer

Bayern Munich was left flabbergasted by a late call in its Champions League semifinal defeat at the hands of Real Madrid.

Over 13 minutes into second-half stoppage time in a dramatic second leg, Matthijs de Ligt appeared to have scored a staggering equalizer.

However, referee Szymon Marciniak chalked the goal off, drawing intense disagreement from Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel.

“To raise the flag in a situation like this, where you can never, never, never be sure that this is offside, to raise — to have the balls, to have the guts, to raise the flag in a situation like this — is a huge call, and it’s the wrong call,” seethed Tuchel in a post-match press conference.

“The referee has the chance, when he sees that we win the second ball and we win the rebound and we get a shot away within five seconds, he has the chance not to whistle. He takes the decision to whistle, it’s against every rule.”

Tuchel: Call ‘would not have happened’ to Real Madrid

A long ball forward put Real under pressure, and a knockdown header from Thomas Müller set De Ligt up to fire home, seemingly equalizing the scores at 4-4 and setting up extra time.

However, in a game that had already seen a stunning comeback for los Merengues, the last turn of the tale was the wildest: assistant referee Tomasz Listkiewicz lifted his flag to signal offside rather than following the current IFAB directive to let the sequence play out, and Marciniak blew his whistle in agreement.

By rule, Marciniak’s whistle coming so early prevented any VAR check, meaning any chance for Bayern’s goal to be given — much in the same way that Real’s winning goal from Joselu was — was dashed in an instant.

Joselu’s stoppage-time winner came on a sequence that was initially called back for offside, but in that sequence Marciniak held his whistle until the ball crossed the line. As such, VAR could check the call, eventually overturning the initial decision and awarding Real what turned out to be an utterly crucial goal.

For Tuchel, the call went beyond a mistake, with the German coach intimating that Madrid got special treatment.

“I’m sorry. We accept we lost. It is what it is, but just…that [call] would not have happened on the other side.”

Nonetheless, Real will go on to June 1’s Champions League final at Wembley, with Borussia Dortmund the opponent.

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