With 50 Europa League qualifying matches played this week, we were bound to get an interesting one eventually. FK Suduva and Shakhter Soligorsk delivered with a 2-1 thriller that featured a bicycle kick goal, a red card and an extra time winner.
First, the bike:
Major League Soccer is home to some miserable road teams, with four squads failing to win a single away fixture about halfway through the season.
Two of those sides met Saturday night in Denver. Marlon Hairston scored twice and Tim Howard came up with some big saves as the Rapids beat the Dynamo 3-1, leaving Houston 0-7-2 on the road.
Houston, Minnesota and Colorado all have seven road losses without a win, though the former two have both drawn twice. New England is 0-6-3 away from home.
Mexico took care of Paraguay in their final warm-up before the CONFACAF Gold Cup, winning 2-1 behind goals from Rodolfo Pizarro and Elias Hernandez.
Pizarro opened the scoring when he pounced on a rebound and put it in the back of the net.
Dom Dwyer is an American citizen. He celebrated his American citizenship by blasting the USMNT ahead of Ghana in the 19th minute of his first cap.
Minnesota United ventured to Yankee Stadium on Thursday and, as has been the case on their travels all season, got thumped. Christian Ramirez capitalized on an error from New York City FC goalkeeper Erik Johanen to give Minnesota an early lead, but goals from Alexander Callens, Jack Harrison and a lovely individual effort from David Villa put NYCFC ahead for good with just over an hour gone.
Mexico already trailed by three when Marco Fabian lashed at the ball with all his might, catching everyone by surprise.
Fabian sliced a wonder strike past Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the 89th minute, but few will remember this match for that goal.
Instead, what will be remembered is El Tri surrendering two goals in the first eight minutes en route to a crushing 4-1 defeat in the Confederations Cup semifinals Thursday in Russia.
Germany will play Chile in the final on Sunday while Mexico gets a Cristiano Ronaldo-less Portugal in the third-place game.
A record-setting crowd of 32,287 packed into FC Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium to watch their club take on surging MLS side Chicago Fire in the Round of 16 of the U.S. Open Cup. Perhaps there’s no greater barometer for the growth of the sport in America than the fact that this wasn’t just a quirky Wednesday night excursion to the stadium to watch Bastian Schweinsteiger for FCC faithful, this was a seething cauldron of tensions and daring expectancies.
Claudio Bravo, Chile’s goalkeeping hero during penalty shootout victories over Argentina at both the 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals, came up trumps again against Portugal at the 2017 Confederations Cup semifinal stage. Bravo faced penalties from Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho and Nani, saving all three of them.
Toronto FC furthered its record as the most successful club in the history of the 10-year Canadian Championship by winning the competition for a sixth time and confirming their place in the 2018 CONCACAF Champions League. The win was achieved in dramatic fashion with the inspirational Sebastian Giovinco scoring the match-winner in the 95th minute.
An announced crowd of 26,539 was on hand for the second leg at Toronto’s BMO Field with the final finely poised after a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Montreal’s Stade Saputo.
Spain’s team competing at the UEFA U-21 Euros is ridiculously talented, as we’ve laid out before.
Saúl Ñíguez is making a case to be the best of the lot.
The Atletico Madrid midfielder notched a brilliant hat trick to send Spain past 10-man Italy 3-1 in the semifinals to set up a date with Germany in the final on Friday.
Poor Gianluigi Donnarumma didn’t have a chance.