Other Men

LONDON — Crystal Palace sacked manager Patrick Vieira after 20 months in charge on Friday following the 1-0 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion that left the south London club three points above the Premier League relegation zone.

Palace are the only side in the league without a win in 2023, having drawn five and lost six of their games. Their last league victory came on Dec. 31, 2-0 at Bournemouth, and they are 12th on 27 points with 11 games to play.

NAPLES — Goals by winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and defender Amir Rrahmani steered runaway leaders Napoli to a 2-0 home win over sixth-placed Atalanta in Serie A on Saturday, extending the visitors' winless streak to four games.

Napoli, who suffered only their second league defeat last week at home to Lazio, extended their lead at the top of the table to 18 points after second-placed Inter, on 50 points, fell to a shock 2-1 defeat to lowly Spezia on Friday.

USMNT and Antalyaspor striker Haji Wright scored twice and got an assist during Saturday’s Turkish Süper Lig game vs. Kayserispor where his side won 4-0.

Wright missed all of February and most of January with a thigh injury and made his return to the field on March 6. He rediscovered his goal scoring form Saturday netting his fourth brace of the season.

Leeds United sit in the relegation zone after drawing Brighton 2-2 at Elland Road on Saturday. Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson started for Leeds while Weston McKennie came on as a second half substitute.

We’ll get to showing the highlights here in a bit, but first we need to discuss yet another lackluster performance from Aaronson. The American forward transferred to Leeds from Red Bull Salzburg before the 2022-23 season and he’s arguably been a bust.

Leeds reportedly paid $30 million for him and in return he has produced one goal and two assists in 29 appearances.

PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain right back Achraf Hakimi is facing a criminal investigation in France after an allegation of rape was made against him, an official from the Nanterre prosecution office said on Friday.

Hakimi, a Morocco international, firmly denied the allegation, according to his lawyer. PSG did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

The Nanterre prosecution office said Hakimi has been placed under police monitoring and was banned from contact with the alleged victim.

Nashville SC kicked off the 2023 Major League Soccer season on Saturday in front of a packed GEODIS Park in Nashville, Tennessee, with a 2-0 victory vs. NYCFC. One of the biggest topics of discussion was the kits Nashville wore.

For the first time ever, Nashville wore black at home as the team showed off their stunning “The Man in Black Kit” which is a tribute to the great Johnny Cash. The thousands inside the stadium blacked out the stadium.

Part of the nod to Johnny Cash included having his son, John Carter Cash, open the season with some guitar. Epic.

West Brom may have only finished Saturday’s EFL Championship game with 30% possession, but that’s all they needed after two early Daryl Dike goals vs Middlesbrough was enough for a 2-0 victory.

Dike’s pair of goals came just two minutes apart as he bested fellow American goalkeeper Zack Steffen in the 8th and 10th minute.

Daryl Dike goals vs Middlesbrough

The first goal for Dike came at the end of a great sequence of passes from West Brom. His darting run into the middle gave him enough space to slip the ball past Steffen.

Ángel Di María scored all three of Juventus’ goals in the Italian side’s 3-0 victory vs. Nantes to advance to the Europa League Round of 16. The Argentine was unstoppable and set the tone five minutes in.

In the fifth minute an insane Di María goal put Juventus ahead 2-1 on aggregate. Look at the curve on this shot.

Di María goal vs. Nantes

ÁNGEL DI MARÍA STOP THAT. pic.twitter.com/NgYfrwUJLf