the-champions-league - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Soccer’s had load management for some time — now there just might be more of it
As if on cue, one of soccer’s biggest stars on one of the world’s biggest clubs went down with injury in the Africa Cup of Nations. While there’s not a diagnosis yet, Mohamed Salah limped off just before the half in Egypt’s draw against Ghana on Thursday. This comes a day after Kylian Mbappé warned ...
Gio Reyna knows he needs to justify the noise
The funny thing about Gio Reyna, and more to the point, all the noise about him – the controversy with his family and Gregg Berhalter, the anticipation of any appearance with the national team, the confidence that he’s the country’s most talented player – is that it is built on such a tiny foundatio...
This week in sports: Patrick Mahomes' WR is a moron; Rick DeSantis does Rick DeSantis; Man United do themselves in
While it’s hard to resist the temptation to point out noticing when a team that has Matt Nagy anywhere near it is melting down, because I know it oh, so well, the Kansas City Chiefs have bigger problems than that. When everyone is blaming the refs over a totally correct call, it’s pretty obvious the...
The Champions League group stage went out with a bang
The Champions League group stage spent most of its time getting maligned, some of that in bad faith from the biggest clubs who just wanted to mold the competition to their whims. But their main argument held a lot of water, which was that it lacked drama or suspense, as for the most part the top clu...
Manchester United didn't even show up
They could have at least tried. ...
Liverpool uses smoke, mirrors and its depth to get back on top of the Premier League table
Following the Premier League this year, it feels that the term “Mentality Monsters” should be emblazoned on the front of Liverpool’s shirts instead of their Standard Chartered sponsorship. Jurgen Klopp coined that term after the hallucination of the 4-0 comeback over Barcelona in 2019, Steve Kerr co...
It's tough to watch, but PSG is doing the right thing
On the one hand, the architects of this PSG team probably should be applauded for actually taking the time to step back and try to create a team instead of collecting players. Messi left, Neymar decamped for Saudi Arabia and PSG didn’t chase whatever shiny thing they could find to plug the holes, no...
If nothing else, Bernardo Silva showed again why he's Bernardo Silva
It is my duty as a Liverpool supporter to bitch about the early kickoff on Saturdays for TV. We all signed a call to action on it and it’s ironclad. In truth, there’s not much the Premier League could have done about Saturday’s clash between the biggest rivals in the league the past few seasons. Wit...
Arsenal is all grown up
While Arsenal ran Manchester City close for most of the campaign last season, when the chips were down in the spring they got mauled by the Citizens twice, as well as other boneheaded results that eventually left them up the track. It was this version of Arsenal’s first crack at a title challenge, s...
And now, a national moment of silence: The Twins' playoff-win drought is over
Our long national nightmare is over. The Minnesota Twins won a playoff game....
Our national nightmare is over, the San Diego Padres won a game in extra innings
What gets to the heart of baseball, and to the heart of a baseball season, is that 162 games is supposed to be enough for any anomaly or bit of screwiness a long enough timeline to flatten out. Anyone can get hot, but no one can get unreasonably hot for 162 games and six months. Every team is going ...
Arsenal are the Premier League’s new chaos masters and Chelsea can’t buy goals
It used to be Jürgen Klopp’s first Liverpool teams, and possibly the current one, that were considered the most raucous chaos merchants in the Premier League. They were equally capable of the most destructive football, going in both directions, equally capable of howitzer-ing their opponents or thei...