US Tues- tonight vs Oman 8:30 pm on TNT
So the USMNT won but it wasn’t very convincing as they needed extra time to add insurance goals 2&3 on the afternoon. The US dominated possession scoring in the first couple of minutes on this fantastic goal from McKinney to Weah. Then it took this series of great saves – from Turner who was named Man of the Match – he’ll be headed home to see the birth of his second child. It took some late subs and Uzebecstan going down to 10 men late to score our 2nd and 3rd goals as Pulisic converted a penalty, then Pepi scored his 5th in 5 games. Full highlights I am excited to see some of the new guys in the mix for this next game – Horvath will be in goal, and I am hoping Mark Mckensie in at CB for Tim Ream. Luca de la Torre broke his nose, so I would assume Malik Tlllman will get some time at the Dmid spot and hopefully at least some sub time for the Miami man Cremaschi, Johnny Cardoso, Cade Cowell, and Lund.
Stats Summary: USA / UZB
Shots: 13 / 15
Shots on Goal: 6 / 3
Saves: 3 / 3
Corner Kicks: 5 / 3
Fouls: 10 / 11
Offside: 2 / 2
Shane’s Starters vs Oman
Pulisic. Pepi, Weah
Musah, McKennie
Tillman
Robinson, McKensie, Chris Richards, Dest
Horvath
US Roster (new players bolded)
GOALKEEPERS (3): Drake Callender (Inter Miami), Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest),
DEFENDERS (9): Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo), Mark McKenzie (Genk), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg), Tim Ream (Fulham FC), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham FC), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United),
MIDFIELDERS (6): Johnny Cardoso (Internacional), Ben Cremaschi (Inter Miami), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven)
FORWARDS (6): Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin), Folarin Balogun (Arsenal FC), Cade Cowell (San Jose Earthquakes), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Tim Weah (Juventus)
Indy 11 Unbeaten Streak Extends to 6 games @ New Mexico United 9 pm ESPN+
Indy Eleven defeated The Miami FC, 1-0, on Saturday night at home to extend their unbeaten streak to six games. The Indy win moves the team to 11W-9L-8D, and moves them clearly into playoff contention. Next, Indy Eleven will travel to New Mexico United for a 9:00 p.m. ET kickoff on Friday, September 15 on ESPN+ for the first game of their two-game road trip. The next home game for Indy Eleven is Sunday, September 24 against Rio Grande Valley Toros FC.
Huge congrats to the 2013 Boys White team Pike Fest Semi-Finalist – Coach William Graff.
GAMES ON TV
Tues, Sept 12 –
12 noon FS2 Spain vs Cyprus
2:45 pm FS2 Scotland vs England
2:45 pm ?? Italy vs Ukraine
4 Tele, UNIVERSO TUDN Argentina vs Bolivar
7:30 pm TUDN, Univision Mexico vs Uzbekistan
8:30 pm TNT, Tele USMNT vs Oman
10 pm Peru vs Brazil
Fri, Sept 15
2:30 pm ESPN+ Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen
3 pm ESPN+ Champ Southampton vs Leicester city
7:30 pm Para+ Racing Louisville vs Houston Dash NWSL
9 pm ESPN+ New Mexico vs Indy 11
Sat, Sept 16
7:30 am USA Wolverhampton vs Liverpool
9 am CBSSN Juve (Weah, McKinney) vs Lazio
9:30 am ESPN+ Wolfsburg vs Union Berlin (Pfuk, Aaronson)
10 am USA West Ham United vs Man City
10 am Peacock Fullham (Ream, Jedi) vs Luton Town
12 noon Para+ Inter Milan vs AC Milan (Pulisic, Musah)
12:30 pm NBC New Castle vs Brentford
7:30 pm Apple MLS Philly Union vs Cincy
10 pm Apple free LAFC vs LA Galaxy (el Trafico)
Sun, Sept 17
9 am USA Bournemouth vs Chelsea
11:30 am NBC Everton vs Arsenal
245 pm Para+ Roma vs Empoli
8:30 pm FS1 Austin vs Portland
Mon, Sept 18
2:45 USA Nottingham Forest (Turner) vs Burnley
Tues Sept 19 – Champions League
12:45 pm Para+ AC Milan (Pulisic, Musah) vs New Castle United
3 pm Para+ PSG vs Dortmund
3 pm Para+ Man City vs Crvena Zvezda
3 pm para+ Lazio vs Atletico Madrid
Weds Sept 20 – Champions League
12:45 pm Para+ Real Madrid vs Union Berlin (Pfuk, Aaronson)
3 pm Para+ Bayern Munic vs Man United
3 pm Para+ real Sociadad vs Inter Milan
3 pm para+ Arsenal vs PSV
7”30 pm Apple MLS Miami (Messi) vs Toronto
7:30 pm Apple Montreal vs Cincy
Thur, Sept 21
12:45 pm para+ Lask Linz vs Liverpool
12:45 pm Lergia vs Aston villa
3 pm Para+ West Ham United vs Backa Topolo
3:30 pm Para+ Brighton vs AEL Athens
7:30 pm TNT, Uni, Cock USWNT vs South Africa Cincy Ertz Last Game
Sun, Sept 24
5:30 pm TNT, Uni, Cock USWNT vs South Africa Chicago Rapinoe last game
US Men Play Tonight vs Ohman 7 pm
USA MEN
How does U.S. Soccer keep winning over dual nationals? Noah Davis
USMNT coach Berhalter: ‘There’s tough and there’s Minnesota tough’
USMNT’s win over Uzbekistan can’t disguise attacking shortcomings Jeff Carlisle
USMNT player ratings: Turner shines with 8/10, Pulisic struggles Jeff Carlisle
Turner Says Stick to the Process in Win
WORLD
Germany sack coach Flick after Japan thrashing
Scotland v England: Gareth Southgate ‘not too harsh’ on players after draw with Ukraine
Scotland v England preview: Steve Clarke says match will help test progress of side
Portugal 9-0 Luxembourg: Roberto Martinez’s side move closer to qualifying for Euro 2024
Latvia 0-2 Wales – Ramsey and Brooks strike in Euro 2024 qualifier to ease pressure on Page
Darge calls for renewed focus after South Africa defeat
Juventus midfielder Pogba provisionally suspended for doping
REFFING
Check out this Spread from Nate BARBQ Sinders from last weekend’s Puma Cup. Best Brisket around.
Ethan Horvath to start for USMNT vs. Oman; Berhalter talks Tillman, Cremaschi
By Jeff RueterSep 11, 2023
Ethan Horvath will start in goal for the United States men’s national team on Tuesday against Oman, head coach Gregg Berhalter said at a press conference at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minn. After naming ten of his eleven starters ahead of last week’s friendly against Uzbekistan, Berhalter stopped short of naming his lineup aside from Horvath.“Ethan’s gonna play in goal tomorrow,” Berhalter said. “That’s pretty clear. We’re gonna mix up some players, but it will be a very similar lineup to what we saw last time.”The United States played to a 3-0 win over Uzbekistan in a friendly on Saturday, a scoreline that flattered the hosts as they struggled to consistently break lines and create chances in front of goal in the first game of Berhalter’s second cycle at the helm. There has been some minor adjustment to the roster since that match in St. Louis, as goalkeeper Matt Turner and defender Joe Scally departed, both for family reasons. They were replaced on the roster by Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender and New England Revolution left back DeJuan Jones, who was already in Minnesota thanks to the Revolution’s 1-1 draw against Minnesota United at Allianz Field on Saturday. Jones played all 90 minutes of that match.
Tillman, Cremaschi in the picture
Although he stopped short of naming a lineup, Berhalter did single out midfielder Malik Tillman for praise when asked how the new PSV signing fits into his plans.“I think he’s a fantastic player, I really do,” Berhalter said. “That’s why we were so keen to have him commit to the United States a couple years ago. He’s a dynamic player, sees the game ahead of time. He can speed up the game, make final actions. He’s calm in the penalty box. He’s got a lot of strong attributes. For us, it’s, okay: how does he take all those qualities to the next level when he gets opportunities? I think the other day, he did a good job. He’ll get an opportunity tomorrow, so we’ll see how he can do, but the coaches are high on him.”Berhalter added separately that he hopes to give Miami midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi a senior national team debut off the bench on Tuesday, depending on game state and what substitutions prove necessary throughout the match. Cremaschi is eligible for both the United States and Argentina, and has seen his stock soar in the wake of Lionel Messi joining the 18-year-old’s boyhood Inter Miami this summer. “He fits in really well, Benja,” Berhalter said. “He’s a great kid. He learns really quickly, adapting well to the speed of the game. It’s been great having him in camp. He’s not going to start the game. We’d love to get him a debut; we just have to see how the substitutions work. You have six subs in the game, so it becomes challenging to get everybody on the field even though you’d like to.”
What Miami’s Ben Cremaschi brings to the USMNT
The matchup vs. Oman
Berhalter also addressed the USMNT’s struggles to create against Uzbekistan, citing the opposition’s low defensive block as preventing clear passing lanes into the area. While Oman is ranked just above Uzbekistan in the current FIFA ratings (73 and 74, respectively), Berhalter projected a different kind of challenge ahead of Tuesday’s match.“Oman is completely different than Uzbekistan,” Berhalter said. “Uzbekistan was a 5-3-1, at times a 5-2-3, but a very difficult block to break down. Defending with four players on the wing, very compact. Oman has played a 4-4-2 diamond and they have a very, very dynamic counterattack. Part of the emphasis in this camp was finishing attacks against the low block of Uzbekistan, and now preventing transitions against Oman.”Berhalter specifically praised Oman for a tough match it gave Germany last fall ahead of the 2022 World Cup. In the final days before the tournament, Germany struggled to pull off a 1-0 win with an 80th minute goal despite largely playing a first-choice lineup. Oman managed to take seven shots — although none were on-target — despite seeing just 28% of possession, with the majority of chances coming through Salaah Al-Yahyaei at the top of midfield.Oman has played seven games in 2023, reaching the final of the Gulf Cup with a campaign that included a 2-1 win over a Saudi Arabia side that won its World Cup opener against eventual champion Argentina. Oman notched a 2-1 win over Palestine on Wednesday in a match played at their national stadium in the capital city, Muscat. “It’s going to be a great test for us,” Berhalter said. “We watched the game against Germany where Germany won 1-0, but (Oman) absolutely battered Germany with their transition moments. They were all over (Germany) in that game, so it’s gonna be important for us.”
In Gregg Berhalter’s first game back, USMNT starts another new era with higher expectations
By Paul Tenorio Sep 10, 2023
Throughout his first cycle as manager of the U.S. men’s national team, Gregg Berhalter opened camps by showing a timeline of what the team had in front of them to get to the World Cup.With each camp, the timeline got shorter and shorter. It hammered home the idea of how close the team was to its ultimate goal, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but it was also a reminder of what the team had already accomplished together.th delay, during which U.S. Soccer investigated Berhalter and the U.S. men played under two interim managers, the team is moving forward under Berhalter, who was re-hired as manager in June. The new three-year timeline has fewer roadblocks — as co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup the destination is already secured — but the expectations around this team going into that tournament have them racing toward a new finish line.“For us, it’s continuing to build on the foundation of what we’ve had in the last four years,” Berhalter said on Friday. “Keep improving, and really target 2026 as an opportunity to change soccer in America forever.”The foundation was, for the most part, on the field on Saturday against Uzbekistan in Berhalter’s first game back on the sideline. The starting lineup included eight starters from last November’s World Cup. The U.S. played in a familiar 4-3-3 formation, but there were also signs of how this group is changing.
Folarin Balogun, who recently committed to the program, started up top. Chris Richards, who was out injured ahead of Qatar, started in the backline. Ricardo Pepi, one of the final cuts from the 2022 World Cup team, scored to give the U.S. the cushion it needed to see out the game. The U.S. needed just four minutes to score its first goal and, despite a sleepy pace to the game, pulled away from a 3-0 win.
It was an imperfect performance, for sure, and one that emphasized how this U.S. team still has plenty of room to grow. Players said after the game that they were working out new ways to build out. Defender Tim Ream described it as players using different movements and changing positions to alter the team’s shape and trying to pull the opponent out of position.“It’s a learning process for sure, but one that we’re working on every day,” Ream said, “and going to try to perfect and get it to where we want it to be.”The game on Saturday was a chance to tinker. It was also a sign that the process of evolving is already underway.“I think we use this game as a learning tool,” Berhalter said postgame.The team’s overall dissatisfaction with the performance, however, is also a sign of the increasing expectations around this group. The aim Berhalter laid out at the start of camp was to advance in the World Cup to a round the U.S. men have never played in before — at least in the modern history of the game. That means surpassing the quarterfinal appearance in 2002 and playing in a semifinal or World Cup final. It’s a lofty objective, but one befitting of a group many have labeled a “golden generation” for this national team. If they are to live up to that moniker, they have to set new standards.
The team that went to Qatar was the second-youngest in the tournament. That won’t be the case in three years. The key leaders of this team must mature into star players. During training last week, Berhalter said the team broke into three teams of seven — old, medium and young. Christian Pulisic, 24, and Weston McKennie, 25, were on the old team. There is still plenty of youth in the group, but a core of players — led by Pulisic, McKennie, Tim Weah, 23, and Tyler Adams, 24 — will be in its prime when the World Cup kicks off in 2026.Their individual growth, along with that of the team, is paramount.“For us, it’s really the work we can do the next three years to build a group that when we go to the World Cup, we’re confident that we can beat the elite of international soccer because that’s what it’s going to take to do what we’re talking about doing,” Berhalter said. “If we want to go to rounds that we’ve never been to before, we have to beat those teams. And we’ll use the next three years to build the team up, to gain experiences (so) that we’re confident that we can actually do that.”
(Photo by John Dorton/Getty Images for USSF)
The efforts to improve will come on several different levels within the program. First, Berhalter must find a way to build a working relationship with Gio Reyna. That is a complicated task after the events of the last year, which included Reyna nearly being sent home from Qatar, Berhalter’s comments about those events at a leadership conference being published, and Reyna’s parents, Claudio and Danielle, eventually reporting a three-decade-old incident involving Berhalter and his then-girlfriend, now wife, Rosalind, to U.S. Soccer leadership. Berhalter has not yet spoken to Gio Reyna, and the Dortmund attacker is not in this camp as he regains fitness following a leg injury he suffered in the CONCACAF Nations League final, but that task will be a vital one in maximizing a talented young prospect.
As far as the team is concerned, Berhalter said he met with sporting director Matt Crocker over three days to evaluate every part of the program to see what worked well and what didn’t and to make changes accordingly. They put every aspect of the program into “buckets,” Berhalter said and evaluated how they could be successful in those areas. He also evaluated every phase of the game with the team to search for improvements, from set pieces to mid-block defending to efficiency in the final third.“It’s literally everything,” Berhalter said. “Every aspect. … We want to be in the state of evolving because we know it’s going to lead to improvement.”Saturday night’s result showed some hints at that evolution. When it worked, the subs who came on late in the second half played with the right level of aggression and broke Uzbekistan down, it was effective. When it didn’t, the game felt too slow. But evolution isn’t about a singular performance, and Saturday was only the very first step in the process.Change is coming. The last cycle taught us as much when losses to Mexico early in Berhalter’s tenure helped shape the identity of a team that now hasn’t lost to Mexico in its last six games. This U.S. team must show consistency and that it can be aggressive and assertive in the right moments.“We like what’s been built, but we want to keep getting better,” Berhalter said. “Then it was, ‘OK, we have three years to keep improving. What phases do we need to improve and what wrinkles do we need to put in that are going to help us get there? How do we need to sort of support the players in a way that they can keep improving with their clubs?’ But overall, for us, it’s just how do we keep moving forward and not being happy with where we were.”
USMNT Player Ratings: Weah, McKennie & Robinson impress vs. Uzbekistan
Ben Wright
Saturday, Sep 9, 2023, 08:25 PM
The US men’s national team weren’t nearly as sharp as they would have liked to be, but still managed a 3-0 win over Uzbekistan on Saturday night at St. Louis CITY SC‘s CITYPARK.
Against an opponent who put up a much tougher fight than their 74th FIFA world ranking would suggest, the USMNT lacked sharpness in Gregg Berhalter’s first game back in charge, looking wobbly until two goals in second-half stoppage time put the game to bed.
The Yanks close out the September window against Oman Tuesday at Allianz Field, home of Minnesota United FC.
7.5
Goalkeeper · USA
Turner made more saves than he probably expected coming into the match. The Nottingham Forest shot-stopper had a pair of saves to bail out his teammates after really sloppy first-half turnovers and made another key one in the second half to keep Uzbekistan off the board.
7.0
Defender · USA
Robinson dealt well with the brunt of Uzbekistan’s attack, as well as providing plenty of output at the other end of the pitch. It was the type of showing we’ve become accustomed to from the Fulham man despite getting cut short in the 80th minute with a knock.
6.5
Defender · USA
Ream was typically solid in his return to St. Louis. He was strong defensively and generally composed in possession, although he did have an uncharacteristically sloppy giveaway towards the end of the first half that nearly gave Uzbekistan a goal.
6.0
Defender · USA
Richards was fine overall. He picked off a few dangerous passes and was positionally solid. He was composed, albeit unambitious, in possession, but showed moments of rust after going as an unused substitute for Crystal Palace’s first four matches of the English Premier League season.
7.0
Defender · USA
Dest improved significantly as the match went on, growing in influence in the final third. The PSV man was involved in the buildup play for the US’s second goal and nearly had one of his own, freezing his defender with a stepover before his shot was blocked at the last second.
6.5
Midfielder · USA
Musah was generally composed in possession and carried the ball through pressure well, but he wasn’t consistently able to find the breakthrough pass the US needed. At just 20 years old, though, he’s already such an integral part of how this team plays.
7.0
Midfielder · USA
The Celta de Vigo midfielder was energetic from the start, playing at the base of midfield in the Tyler Adams role. He completed 39 of his 40 attempted passes, and mixed things up with a couple of marauding runs through the White Wolves‘ defense. He was unfortunate to come off with a broken nose after half an hour, cutting a standout performance cruelly short. His withdrawal coincided with a noticeable drop in form from the home side.
7.0
Midfielder · USA
McKennie was sharp in midfield throughout the afternoon, especially on Weah’s opening goal. He took down a cross from Pulisic with a world-class touch before laying it off to Weah, and he continued to find cracks in Uzbekistan’s armor throughout the night.
6.5
Forward · USA
It was by no means a vintage showing for Pulisic, who couldn’t translate his sparking club form with AC Milan to the international level. He struggled to connect effectively in the final third and his delivery from set pieces was subpar. However, he did have a hand in the opening goal and scored from the penalty spot deep in second-half stoppage time to make it three.
6.5
Forward · USA
The newly-signed Monaco forward had a few flashes, showing good close control around the box and hitting the post with a header that could have put the US 2-0 up. He still doesn’t look quite on the same page with the rest of the attack, though, and struggled to make a consistent impact. He was taken off at the half in a pre-planned sub.
8.0
Forward · USA
Weah was the biggest bright spot of the afternoon for the Americans. He was direct and dynamic every time he got on the ball, combined well with Dest and McKennie in particular, and had a couple dangerous looks at goal. The Juventus man also scored what proved to be the winner after just four minutes, absolutely thumping the ball into the far corner.
5.0
Gregg Berhalter
Head Coach
It wasn’t the statement win Berhalter would have liked in his first game back in charge of the USMNT since their World Cup Round-of-16 loss to the Netherlands 280 days ago. Uzbekistan were surprisingly stout defensively and threatened the home side on the break on multiple occasions. Berhalter tweaked a few things in possession, including shifting from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 in the second half, but, as a whole, his side looked rusty and ponderous. No reason to panic after one game, but the team could use a bounce-back performance on Tuesday against Oman.
Substitutes
5.5
Midfielder · USA
It was a mixed bag for Tessmann, who came on in the 35th minute to replace de la Torre. He had good ideas in the final third and probed Uzbekistan’s defense, but had a pair of really poor giveaways in his own half that nearly resulted in goals for the visitors.
6.5
Forward · USA
Pepi was overall less involved in the match than Balogun, who he replaced at halftime. However, the FC Dallas product capped off his 45-minute shift with a well-taken goal, coolly finishing to the near post to give the Yanks a bit of breathing room.
6.0
Defender · USA
McKenzie replaced Richards for the final 30 minutes and looked a tad sharper, stepping to the ball with strength and completing all 18 of his passes.
6.0
Forward · USA
The Union Berlin attacker brought a spark of energy off the bench, picking up good spots to receive the ball and asking questions of Uzbekistan’s backline. He notched the assist for Pepi’s goal with a tidy little pass on the edge of the box.
N/A
Forward · USA
Came on too late to receive a rating, but got immediately involved in the final third and drew a penalty in second-half stoppage time to make it three for the US.
N/A
Kristoffer Lund
Defender
The Palermo left back didn’t really have time to make an impact on proceedings, but earned his first minutes for the US after filing a one-time switch from Denmark.
Ben Wright –
Berhalter admits USMNT has much to improve after friendly win
Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondentSep 9, 2023, 10:00 PM ET
ST. LOUIS — Gregg Berhalter praised the mindset of his U.S. men’s national team in the last 10 minutes of the 3-0 win over Uzbekistan, but admitted that there was plenty of room for improvement after his first game back as head coach.The U.S. jumped on top in the fourth minute thanks to Tim Weah‘s goal, but then labored for much of the match, as Uzbekistan’s five-man backline proved difficult to break down.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
– Carlisle: Player ratings from USMNT’s win over Uzbekistan
It took a goal in the first minute of second-half stoppage time from substitute Ricardo Pepi to make the game safe, before Christian Pulisic scored from the penalty spot four minutes later to complete the scoring. Both of the late goals came with Uzbekistan reduced to 10 men after Khojiakbar Alidzhanov was forced to leave the match with an injury, and with the visitors out of substitutes.
“I think we use this game as a learning tool,” Berhalter said. “We can improve and we need to improve and we will.”
“I really, really liked the mindset in the last 10 minutes of the game,” he added. “You could see the guys still wanted to push. It wasn’t about holding onto the 1-0. It was about getting aggressive. As they moved to a back four, we had more space and I liked that the guys wanted to attack it.
“I think that it’s a good baseline for us to start and say this is what international competition from other regions looks like and so that we use as we go.”
The U.S. was made to work hard for its victory. Both Alijonov and Eldor Shomurodov had some clear chances to pull Uzbekistan level, but both were undone by the combination of wayward finishing as well as some stellar goalkeeping from Matt Turner.
Berhalter explained that he instituted a tactical wrinkle to try and draw Uzbekistan out of its low block, but that his team didn’t play quickly enough once the first line of pressure was broken.
“We gave the ball away in some tough spots. That was the first thing,” he said. “The second thing is when we were building, we were methodical about our buildup trying to attract the opponent. I thought then we lacked the speeding up the attack once we broke through that front five and that could have been better.
“A back five is always difficult to break down. You saw that they just dropped and we wanted to get behind ’em. We didn’t do that often enough.
“And then the other thing I’d note is that our press after [losing possession], defensive transition, needs to get better. I think we gave them too many opportunities to get behind us when we could have been positioned better to win the ball immediately after we lost it.”
Berhalter added that he didn’t mind his side playing with a slower rhythm as long as it’s accompanied by a change of pace.
“If we had to take our time to draw out their defense, and then find someone once we break their top five, then we need to speed up the attack,” he said. “We need to have numbers getting forward, we need numbers entering the penalty box, we need runs behind the backline and I thought that’s what we lacked at times.”
Saturday’s match was the first for Berhalter since last December’s World Cup in Qatar. Shortly after the tournament, a public feud with the family of midfielder Gio Reyna resulted in the revealing of a domestic violence incident from 1992 that involved Berhalter and his now wife Rosalind. An investigation by an outside law firm largely cleared Berhalter, allowing him to still be a candidate to manage the USMNT. He re-signed with U.S. Soccer in June.
Berhalter said that he only allowed himself a brief moment to reflect on all that transpired over the last nine months.
“At the anthem you reflect on it a little bit that you’re back, he said. “And then it’s back to work, and you’re on the sidelines and you’re coaching, trying to help the team win a game.”
Ben Cremaschi’s rise: Starring with Messi, a USMNT call-up and Argentina interest
By Felipe Cardenas ep 8, 2023
Benjamín Cremaschi is living a dream. The 18-year-old Miami native has earned valuable minutes at club level with Inter Miami of MLS, playing alongside Messi since the superstar’s arrival in July. In doing so, the promising youngster has become an integral part of Inter Miami head coach Tata Martino’s tactics.Last week, things got even better: Cremaschi earned a call-up to the senior U.S. men’s national team for U.S. manager Gregg Berhalter’s first camp back in charge. The U.S. plays a friendly against Uzbekistan this Saturday in St. Louis, then plays Oman in Minnesota on Tuesday.hough he’s been seen for some time as a promising youth prospect, Cremaschi’s call-up was still something of a surprise. He’s still a teenager who has only played in 20 official MLS matches, though he has proven capable of playing at the MLS level. Cremaschi has developed important chemistry with Messi in the final third, evidenced by his assist during Inter Miami’s 2-0 win over Red Bull New York. Messi created the chance on his own, but Cremaschi’s quick decision-making in a tight space was impressive.
The question is whether Cremaschi has shown enough to be called into a senior national team camp, or whether that’s even necessary. Youth and inexperience are often overlooked in international football, especially for dual-national players. Spain, for example, included 16-year-old Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal in its squad for two European Championship qualifiers versus Georgia and Cyprus. Yamal could become Spain’s youngest-ever international, but he is also eligible to represent MoroccoFor Cremaschi, the other nation in the picture is Argentina – a fact that has made his name well-known far beyond Fort Lauderdale. He has done several interviews with Argentina’s biggest news outlets, saying plenty about Messi and the whirlwind experience that he’s currently living. “This has all been crazy for me,” Cremaschi told ESPN Argentina on August 13.In that interview, Cremaschi revealed that he has had conversations with both the U.S. and Argentine federations.“Obviously, I’m going to have to make a decision later,” he said. “Having Messi can influence a bit. But there’s time.”
Indeed, even if Cremaschi appears for the U.S. in this upcoming window, he could still choose to represent Argentina if they call him – appearances in friendlies like the ones upcoming for the U.S. do not cap-tie a player to a certain nation.For now, if only from a media perspective, having Cremaschi in camp is a good play by Berhalter and U.S. Soccer. It’s an opportunity to hear Cremaschi talk about representing the U.S. across all of the program’s social media channels while wearing USMNT gear.“All we try to do is put our best foot forward,” Berhalter said in regards to recruiting Cremaschi as a dual-national. “We try to let the environment speak for itself. We try to let the staffing and the player pool speak for itself and what we can offer the player. We talked to Ben about being able to come into the group and fit into what we’re doing to represent the United States of America, which is a wonderful honor.”
The reality on pitch is quite clear. Cremaschi has plenty of work to do in order to be seriously considered by any of Argentina’s men’s teams. He was part of an Argentina U-20 training camp in 2022 as a 17-year-old, but he didn’t make the final roster for the South American U-20 Championships or the U-20 World Cup. He reportedly turned down a chance to join the U.S. U-20 World Cup team in that same time, according to Apple TV’s Taylor Twellman.Cremaschi was also not in the squad selected by Argentina U-23 coach Javier Mascherano for an upcoming friendly against Bolivia on Sept. 9. He faced stiff competition. The players on Mascherano’s U-23 list who also train under World Cup-winning manager Lionel Scaloni during the upcoming FIFA window include Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho, FC Dallas’ Alan Velasco, Thiago Almada of Atlanta United, Facundo Buonaotte of Brighton, newly signed Fiorentina striker Lucas Beltrán and Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez, who became a starter under Scaloni since the World Cup group stage in Qatar.All that said, Cremaschi’s place in the Argentina pecking order could change if he performs well under Berhalter. His most sensible pathway should include meaningful games at the U-23 level, since he is age-eligible for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where men’s soccer is run as a U-23 tournament. Perhaps that will be the competition that forces him to make his first serious decision about his national team loyalties.Regardless of where he ends up, Cremaschi will have truly arrived when coverage in Argentina and elsewhere becomes more about his ability and less about his international future, or his relationship with Messi.
Cremaschi is a confident player who has improved over this season, benefiting from the swagger that Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba have brought to Inter Miami. With his age and profile, he is trending towards an opportunity to eventually play abroad. The Athletic asked Cremaschi in July if playing with Messi trumped a move to Europe.“It’s a good question,” Cremaschi said following Inter Miami’s 2-1 win over Cruz Azul. “For now I’m focused on my day-to-day and I’m really involved with the club. If an opportunity arises to go to Europe I’ll obviously consider it. I’ll think about it, but for now I’m enjoying playing with our No. 10.”Cremaschi likens his profile to that of Argentina and Atletico Madrid midfielder Rodrigo De Paul. “He’s a player who I really admire because of the way he plays,” Cremaschi told ESPN Argentina.De Paul is one of the world’s most tenacious midfielders. He has also been dubbed as Messi’s personal chaperone on the pitch. Cremaschi told ESPN that he wants to help Inter Miami and protect Messi like De Paul. He sounded like a starstruck Messi fan when he said that, but the sentiment was genuine.Cremaschi is a selfless player with incredible stamina. He also occupies a lot of the same areas on the field as De Paul, but that’s where the comparison with De Paul should end. The 29-year-old De Paul is valued at €40 million ($42.7 million) according to a June report on Transfermarkt. While both players are box-to-box midfielders, Cremaschi excels as an advanced playmaker in a central role, where he usually plays for Miami under Martino.
In Martino’s 4-3-3, Busquets and Dixon Arroyo hold their positions, while Cremaschi, when he starts centrally, has the freedom to find the ball and attack vertically. In fact, it’s more accurate to compare Cremaschi to the type of player that Martino was at Newell’s in the 1980s and ‘90s. Martino was a midfield playmaker who was constantly around the ball. He would likely admit that he didn’t run nearly as much as Cremaschi, however, Martino’s experience in that role bodes well for his young starlet.
Cremaschi is comfortable playing between the lines and in half-spaces. He’s also confident in his passing ability close to the opponent’s goal. He has four regular season assists this season and two more in cup play. He has also scored the winning penalty in two shootouts. First against FC Dallas in Leagues Cup round of 16 and again to defeat FC Cincinnati in the U.S. Open Cup semifinal.Furthermore, Cremaschi grew up playing rugby which explains why he doesn’t shy away from physical challenges. He can press, defend in open space and play in transition. During his first MLS season, Cremaschi has proven to be highly versatile, too. He has played on both wings and as a right fullback when Inter Miami suffered a rash of injuries earlier in the year – that much is clear from his touch map from this season involving every Miami game pre-Messi as well.
On a call with reporters on Wednesday, Berhalter said that Cremaschi’s “tenacity” and “relentless” caught his attention during a pre-World Cup camp last October. Berhalter, like Martino, plays in a preferred 4-3-3 setup.
“He was playing out of position during that camp,” said Berhalter. “As a winger sometimes as a forward, but he never quit. He never gave up, he kept running. I mean, he was running himself silly. It really showed me what his mindset was like and I was really impressed with that. And now watching his progress with Inter Miami. He’s done a great job and this it’s not only post-Messi. I think it’s even pre-Messi. I think he’s a very talented player.”
No matter what his future holds, at present, Cremaschi is in dreamland. Few players of age are given opportunities like the one that he has taken full advantage of. To coexist with Messi, Busquets and Alba in a competitive environment is simply too good to be true.
“This is the best thing that could’ve happened to me,” said Cremaschi last month. “Having Tata and those three players, people with a lot of experience who have been at elite levels. To absorb everything from them is great not just for me but for every young player at the club.”
(Photo: John Dorton/ISI Photos/Getty Images for USSF)
Bruce Arena’s outspoken MLS coaching career ends, for now, with an apology
Pablo Maurer and Tom Bogert Sep 11, 2023
On Saturday night, in the moments after the New England Revolution’s 1-1 draw against Minnesota United, the club announced the resignation of Bruce Arena, its decorated, embattled and now-former head coach and sporting director.Arena, a two-time former USMNT coach, had been on administrative leave and under league investigation for over a month for alleged inappropriate remarks. The Athletic reported on Saturday that complaints lodged by his longtime assistant Richie Williams were part of the investigation. In a statement that accompanied Arena’s resignation, MLS said that “certain” allegations had been confirmed.In announcing his resignation, Arena spoke publicly for the first time about the investigation and what drove him to call time on his spell with the Revs – and perhaps in MLS as a whole (the league said the 71-year-old will need to submit a petition to the commissioner to be employed in MLS again).“I know that I have made some mistakes,” Arena said, “and moving forward, I plan to spend some time reflecting on this situation and taking corrective steps to address what has transpired. And while this has not been an easy decision, I am confident that it is in the best interest of both the New England Revolution organization and my family that we part ways at this time.”In a sense, Arena’s conciliatory tone feels familiar; a common approach in statements where a powerful person is forced to step away. But the words also feel alien coming out of Arena’s mouth. The 71-year-old may be American soccer’s bluntest and most defiant major figure, known as much for his brash, no-nonsense nature as he is for his lengthy list of honors and accomplishments. He is not a man known for apologizing, even after major failures.Arena was at the helm on the day the U.S. men’s national team failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018, probably the highest-profile fiasco in the program’s history. He had taken over during the latter stages of a tumultuous qualifying campaign, and a year after the U.S. failure he balked at the idea that his next job as head coach of the Revolution might help redeem him in the eyes of American soccer fans.“I’ve had a very good career. If somebody wants to surpass it, they’re welcome to,” he told The Athletic. “We fell short (with the U.S.). No excuses there. That’s the way it is. I don’t know if you follow sports, but at the end of the day, not everyone wins. It’s unfortunate, certainly, but I feel really good about what we did.”Arena’s accurate self-assessment (“I’ve had a very good career”) combined with an unveiled disdain for those who question him (“I don’t know if you follow sports,” said to a sports reporter) more or less sums up his place in the American soccer landscape.
More from The Athletic…
- Williams complaints were part of Arena investigation
- MLS says “certain” allegations were confirmed
- Berhalter returns to USMNT with higher expectations
Many consider Arena the greatest coach in the history of the American men’s game. His 81 wins as U.S. men’s national team coach are easily the most in program history. He won five MLS Cups, four Supporters’ Shields, a U.S. Open Cup and a CONCACAF Championship over 17 seasons as an MLS head coach. A four-time MLS coach of the year, Arena helped craft two of MLS’ most legendary sides — D.C. United and the LA Galaxy.Before joining MLS, Arena was a dominant college coach, leading the University of Virginia to five NCAA College Cups and six ACC championships in an 18-year college coaching career. During that span he helped raise some of the most influential American players of the 90s and early 00s, including Claudio Reyna, John Harkes, Jeff Agoos, Tony Meola and Ben Olsen. A former college and professional goalkeeper himself who earned a single cap with the USMNT, Arena got his first college coaching gig in a far humbler setting: The University of Puget Sound, in 1977.Hired as D.C. United’s first head coach in MLS’s inaugural season, Arena helped assemble and coach a collection of talent that dominated the league in its infancy. They played with a flair and finesse uncommon to the league’s early teams and quickly established themselves as the league’s first dynasty. They won the league’s inaugural championship in 1996 and won the U.S. Open Cup that same year, then repeated as MLS Cup champs in 1997, then made it to the final again in 1998 while becoming the first team to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup.Yet even as Arena rose in prominence, he continually unleashed the brash, arrogant side of his persona that so many within the game eventually came to recognize as standard-issue Bruce.“The way our league is operating, this is the worst coaching job in the world,” he told the Washington Post in 1997 of his position at D.C. United, one of many criticisms of MLS commissioners over the course of his career. In 1996, when coaching the U.S. at the Atlanta Olympics, he famously said the U.S. Olympic officials were “too stupid to fix a draw” after his team was matched up against Argentina. A Sports Illustrated article from around that time described him as “amazingly graceless,” and quotes Williams, then a D.C. United midfielder, as saying “Yeah, he’s arrogant.”“The perception is that he’s a bastard,” longtime Arena assistant Dave Sarachan told Sports Illustrated for that piece. “If you talk to almost anyone in our business, they will say that.”
Arena took over the U.S. in 1998. (JORGE SILVA/AFP via Getty Images)
Arena left United in 1998 to join the USMNT, which had just finished dead last at the World Cup in France. In 2002, Arena’s no-nonsense approach helped earn the USMNT its best World Cup finish since 1930, a memorable run to the quarterfinals of the tournament that included upsets over Portugal and Mexico and a near-upset of eventual finalists Germany. He coached the team again in the 2006 cycle and through a disappointing appearance at that year’s tournament. Arena also led the USMNT to three continental championships during his national team career. He joined the LA Galaxy in 2008, arriving in Los Angeles not long after English legend David Beckham in 2007 and inheriting a roster in shambles and a divided locker room. Arena eventually led that club to glory as well, winning three MLS Cups in a four-year span. Several of Arena’s Galaxy sides were among MLS’ greatest-ever teams, squads built around Beckham, USMNT legend Landon Donovan and Irish international Robbie Keane. Flying high, Arena’s continued to push MLS officials into uncomfortable water. Long before criticisms of the league’s single-entity structure became commonplace, Arena was lobbing grenades at the league office over what he perceived to be a potential overreach. In 2014, when the Galaxy tried and failed to sign USMNT midfielder Sacha Klestjan, Arena raged at the league office in an interview with the Washington Post, calling them “children.” The comments drew a fine from MLS commissioner Don Garber. “Bruce has the opportunity to be our Tom Landry,” Garber told SI.com at the time, referring to the legendary Dallas Cowboys coach. “Or our Pat Riley. And he continually puts himself in a position where he acts unprofessionally and he emotionally misstates the facts. And I think that’s a shame.” Though his gruffness had become well-known by this point, Arena had simultaneously earned a reputation as an excellent man-manager who is largely beloved by his players – many of whom spoke out on his behalf during his absence and investigation. He had a shrewd eye for role players at the Galaxy and helped foster the careers of MLS stalwarts like Omar Gonzalez, Mike Magee, A.J. DeLaGarza and many more. He was usually fiercely protective of his players’ individual and collective performances, except in those instances where they were very clearly not up to snuff. And player after player who worked under him will say that they could count on Arena for a straighforward, honest assessment.“Bruce lets you know where you stand,” said then-U.S. striker Clint Mathis in 2002. He was, and is, also the last of a dying breed. As the game has progressed and more focus has been laid on tactical details, film study and analytics, Arena has often balked at those changes — sometimes to the chagrin of certain players and, more recently, assistant coaches.“Actually, analytics in soccer, if no one here has figured it out, doesn’t mean a whole lot,” he said in a postgame press conference in 2016. “Analytics and statistics are used for people who don’t know how to analyze the game. I’ll be very honest with you; this isn’t baseball or football or basketball. We have a very important analytic, and that’s the score. That distorts all the other statistics.”Occasionally, Arena’s barbs betrayed a kind of old-school conservatism that was mostly out of line with prevailing sentiment among American soccer fans. Perhaps nothing revealed that more than his controversial comments about the direction of the U.S. men’s national team under German head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.“I believe an American should be coaching the national team,” Arena said in 2014. “I think the majority of the national team should come out of Major League Soccer. The people that run our governing body think we need to copy what everyone else does, when in reality, our solutions will ultimately come from our culture.”He espoused a similar philosophy on foreign-born players for the national team, during the very time that many were being recruited to play for the U.S.“Players on the national team should be — and this is my own feeling — they should be Americans,” Arena said in 2013. “If they’re all born in other countries, I don’t think we can say we are making progress.”Arena walked back these comments when he took the reins of the U.S. again in 2016 and was suddenly faced with the prospect of having to coach some of those players. But notably, he didn’t apologize.“If I made those comments, I certainly don’t believe that that’s my attitude,” Arena said in 2016.
Arena and Beckham at MLS Cup 2009 (Harry How/Getty Images)
Even after the U.S.’s disastrous qualifying campaign in 2018, Arena continued to throw elbows. In 2018, Arena hit out at U.S. Soccer and a host of others in “What’s Wrong With Us?,” a book he co-authored with commentator and author Steve Kettmann.“Basically, the same people have remained in control of the sport over the past twenty years,” wrote Arena. “This should not happen. The landscape of the sport has changed drastically, and there is a need for new leaders with technical experience who can bring fresh ideas to the table. There need to be some new blood and new ways of doing things.”Arena seemed to contradict his own words by taking the Revolution job a year later, but by the same token, the list of current and former MLS coaches who played for or coached under Arena is long and distinguished. Among them: former LAFC, Chicago Fire, Toronto FC and U.S. head coach Bob Bradley was one of Arena’s original assistants at D.C. United. Current USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter played for and coached with Arena in LA. Houston Dynamo head coach Ben Olsen was a player for Arena at Virginia and again in D.C..Arena took over New England during the 2019 season and guided the team to the playoffs after inheriting a poor start. The club then set a new single-season points record en route to winning the Supporters’ Shield in 2021. Arena was named 2021’s MLS Coach of the Year.The combativeness remained. Arena served a three-game suspension during the “MLS is Back” tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic for using abusive language against a match official. He initially received a red card and a standard one-game suspension but Garber extended that penalty by an additional two games.Earlier this season, he was issued a fine for criticizing VAR and calling the fourth official in a match “pretty useless for the entire game, and for some reason, she then voiced her opinion 98-and-a-half minutes into the game.”Amid it all, Arena continued to win. This year, New England is among the best teams in the Eastern Conference. They will be among the favorites to make it to MLS Cup. Behind the scenes, though, the tension Arena brought to outsiders had found its way into his circle. On Saturday, that tension led to Arena, so often the victor in the world of American soccer, issuing an unusual apology as he made an abrupt exit.(Top photo: Ira L. Black – Corbis/Getty Images)
Howard Webb: ‘Decision to let Manchester City goal against Fulham stand was an error’
By Philip Buckingham Sep 5, 2023 123
Howard Webb has accepted the decision to let Nathan Ake’s goal stand in Manchester City’s 5-1 win over Fulham was an “error” from referee Michael Oliver and his VAR team.Ake’s header in first-half stoppage time became a point of controversy on Saturday after Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji, stood in an offside position, jumped over the ball in the eyeline of Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
Marco Silva said afterwards it had been a “huge mistake” to let Ake’s goal stand and he now has sympathy of Webb, who admits it should have been disallowed.Webb, the chief refereeing officer for PGMOL, admitted the lapse from his team this weekend during an appearance on “Match Officials: Mic’d Up”, the first in a regular series of programmes this season that will dissect VAR calls and replay the audio of discussions between the officials.Ake’s goal was reviewed by the video assistant referee Tony Harrington, who concluded that Akanji had not impeded Leno. Oliver, as a result, was not sent to the pitchside monitor to review the decision.“From the outset I want to say I think this should have been disallowed, this goal,” Webb told Mic’d Up, a half-hour show hosted by Michael Owen.“It certainly appears that Akanji has an impact on Bernd Leno who seems to hesitate.“The officials on the field gave the goal. They didn’t see an obvious action that impacted Leno’s ability to play the ball. They see Akanji moving slightly away from the ball to let it past him. There’s a flick out of the foot but that’s after the ball has passed.“They didn’t feel that that was clearly impactful on Leno’s ability to play the ball. But you can see that hesitation by the goalkeeper, who is waiting to see if the ball makes contact with Akanji, which would have deflected the ball.“So we think it’s a clear situation of offside. Unfortunately, it wasn’t identified on the day, and, of course, the learning from this one will also be shared amongst all of our group because we’re always looking to do better each and every week, and this was an error.”
Webb also revisited the foul by Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana after he jumped into Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Craig Dawson late in the opening weekend game at Old Trafford.
That ought to have given Wolves the opportunity to equalise from the penalty spot and Webb accepted it was a “clear error” missed. Again it was a decision not recommended for a VAR review and brought an apology to Wolves from Webb.
Six incidents from the opening four weekends of the Premier League season were reviewed in all during the new programme designed to increase transparency among the PGMOL, with Webb highlighting that VAR had helped reach the correct decisions elsewhere, including an overturned penalty in Arsenal’s 3-1 over Manchester United on Sunday when Kai Havertz fell in the box.
“It was a good use of VAR,” said Webb, who saw onfield referee Anthony Taylor overturn his original decision upon advice from the VAR. “The referee believed that Wan-Bissaka had tripped Havertz, but the video shows something quite different that there’s no actual contact initially.
“Another step by Havertz, his leg goes into Wan-Bissaka. The VAR, really calm and concise, recognises all of that, thinks it’s a clear and obvious error. I agree. Recommends a review. We get to the right decision.”
Webb also took a thinly-veiled swipe at Manchester United Erik Ten Hag following his post-match comments that questioned the offside decision to rule out Alejandro Garnacho’s late strike that briefly appeared set to give United a victory.
Lines drawn on to the pitch showed Garnacho to be narrowly offside yet Ten Hag had claimed the “wrong angle” had been used.
“I was surprised by some of the comments,” added Webb. “It was a clear offside decision. The technology was used quite rightly. The calibrated cameras showed Garnacho to be ahead of Gabriel and it was quite rightly disallowed after initially being awarded incorrectly.”
Champions League group stage draw analysed: Best games, breakout stars and tough groups
By The Athletic Staff
Aug 31, 2023
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Europe’s elite sides now know who they will face at the first hurdle as they look to capture the continent’s most prestigious prize this season.
The draw for the group stage of the competition took place on Thursday, allowing fans to start getting excited for the start of the competition. And clubs can now make plans as they look to take the trophy away from Manchester City.
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The Athletic asked our European experts James Horncastle, Raphael Honigstein, Mario Cortegana, Pol Ballus and Peter Rutzler to analyse the draw and give us their key takeaways.
Which group gets you most excited?
James Horncastle: Group F should be fun. Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gigio Donnarumma will face AC Milan, the club he supported as a boy and ditched for the lucre of Ligue 1. It’s a reunion tour as Sandro Tonali, who claimed he wanted to captain and finish his career at Milan, faces his old team too. Then the Dortmund game pits Pulisic against USMNT teammate Gio Reyna with the backdrop of the Yellow Wall paling in comparison with everything that went down at the World Cup in Qatar. As geopolitics goes, the Saudi v Qatar angle to Newcastle against PSG is hotter than a summer’s day in Riyadh or Doha.
Raphael Honigstein: It has to be Group F, of course. But don’t sleep on Group E, with one of the best up-and-coming coaches in Feyenoord’s Arne Slot, Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio, a more attacking-minded(?) Diego Simeone at Atletico and Brendan Rodgers back in the saddle at Celtic. Not the biggest quality line-up but it should be lots of fun.
Pol Ballus: Group F, by a mile. There is an outstanding ’90s football vibe in this group, apart from it being clearly the only one in which you can see all four teams being real options to go through.
Mario Cortegana: I’m not going to be original: F is the group I’m going to pay most attention to, after C, Real Madrid’s group. It would be a surprise for them to go out because they are building a more balanced and hungry team, but I am very curious about what would happen if PSG were knocked out in the group stage of the Champions League. This would follow two editions in which they were eliminated in the round of 16. They have been unlucky this year at the first stage of reaching their eternal goal, winning the Champions League. Dortmund always offer spectacle, Milan are a giant awakening in recent years and Newcastle are a nouveau riche club that is doing things very well: they have not just got money, but also intelligence.
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Peter Rutzler: Group F obviously catches the eye. Historic stadiums, famous clubs, and it really does feel like an open group. PSG are still a little bit of an unknown entity following so much change during the summer. It may feel despairing for Newcastle fans on the face of it but opportunities may knock…
Which big teams might struggle?
Horncastle: Arsenal are back in the competition after what feels like ages. The group feels like a trap. Lens 1-0 at the Emirates, the ghosts of ’98 suddenly apparate.
Honigstein: All of the teams in Group F will have a hard time qualifying, for obvious reasons. Beyond that, it’s a relatively benign draw for the big guns, who should all qualify with a degree of ease.
Ballus: I’d say PSG. The group is tough and Luis Enrique’s project is still at an early stage of development. Plus, there’s always in pressure in Paris when it comes to the Champions League… this is going to be fun to watch.
Cortegana: Following on from my previous answer, the biggest club that I sense may struggle the most is PSG. Although there are always surprises, the rest should have it under control.
Rutzler: This will not be a walk in the park for PSG, nor anyone else in Group F. The rest of the ‘elite’ sides seem to have safe draws, though. Arsenal might find a few potholes in the way of progress with Lens and PSV eager to bloody some noses. But they should come through that relatively unscathed.
If you could have a ticket to one match, which would it be?
Horncastle: Napoli against Real Madrid. I believe this fixture is why the European Cup became the Champions League. A group stage was introduced precisely because Madrid knocked out Maradona’s Napoli so early. Another reason to buy a ticket is the narrative around Ancelotti. Rarely for him, a player mutiny at Napoli led to his dismissal and appointment by Everton. He was supposed to be finished. He then won the Champions League with Madrid. Legend
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Honigstein: Napoli vs Real Madrid at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona would be a dream to go to. All of Newcastle United’s home matches should be sensational as well.
Ballus: Manchester United vs Bayern Munich. A big European night at Old Trafford, the Harry Kane narrative and Thomas Tuchel expected to go to the next level in Europe after investment in the summer. It’s a similar thing for Erik ten Hag too. There’s loads of pressure on that game.
Cortegana: Real Sociedad against Inter Milan.
Rutzler: Lens’ first home game at the Stade Bollaert-Denis. The Ligue 1 side had a fantastic record at home last year, winning 18 of their 19 matches. But the atmosphere will be electric. Franck Haise has his team channeling the spirit of this old mining town, with a high-tempo style of play, and after 21 years without Champions League football, the blood will be pumping on opening night. A very tough away day for anyone.
(Enrico Locci/Getty Images)
Which group doesn’t seem glamorous but will be good to watch?
Horncastle: Group C feels novel. The Champions League group stages serve up the same old same old (City-Leipzig! Again!) So the idea of Madrid going to Braga and playing in the quarry is great. I also can’t wait to see Leonardo Bonucci’s Union Berlin take on Napoli at the Olympia Stadion. Bonucci has trash-talked Napoli in the past. He must now face Osimhen. Get the popcorn out.
Honigstein: There’s a slight lack of glamour — it’s all been hoovered up by Group F — but both Groups D and E promise plenty of entertaining football between evenly-matched opponents. Roger Schmidt’s Benfica taking on his former club Red Bull Salzburg will deliver fireworks.
Ballus: I’d go for Group D. Last year’s finalists Inter Milan will face three teams full of young exciting talent. I think Real Sociedad have a chance to go through. Keep an eye on Japanese winger Takefusa Kubo, who is some footballer.
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Cortegana: It would be Group D. Benfica always play to win and try to be the protagonist in the Champions League; Inter showed what they can do in last season’s final; Salzburg are one of those teams that try to entertain and, although perhaps in Europe they are not so well known; in Spain we know how beautifully Real Sociedad play.
Rutzler: Group E should be interesting. A cool mix of styles, with Slot’s Feyenoord and Simeone’s Atletico and Sarri’s Lazio all on show. Not enough groups look competitive enough on paper — hopefully a few shock results avoid too many soulless processions.
What makes you feel happy when you look at this draw?
Horncastle: Manchester United being welcomed back to hell by Galatasaray, like in 1993. What a time to be alive that was.
Honigstein: Seeing Union Berlin take on Real Madrid and Napoli in the Champions League will never not be a wonderful thing. The east Berlin club have made it to Europe’s elite competition from the fourth division without a sugar daddy or state ownership, and they serve as an important reminder that for all the talk about football becoming a close shop, the system is still permeable enough to allow minnows to become heroes.
Ballus: Barcelona being the absolute favorites of their group — and at the same time having no excuses for failing to qualify for the knock-out stages. It’s the moment for them to start leaving past traumas behind.
Cortegana: In addition to Real Madrid’s manageable group, the competitiveness of the aforementioned Group D. We are going to see matches involving perhaps lesser names but very entertaining ones.
Rutzler: An English coach in the Champions League is a rare thing. So it’s pleasing to see Eddie Howe deservedly on the European stage. His work at Bournemouth was outstanding and didn’t always receive the plaudits it deserved. From Boscombe to Milan. Not bad.
(THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)
Which player could break through and become a star of the group stage?
Horncastle: Milan have finally balanced out their attack. It is no longer so left-sided and dependent on Rafael Leao. The impact of Pulisic has been instant but I can’t wait to see Samuel Chukwueze skate past players on the right. Tijjani Reinjders, the silky midfielder signed from AZ, is another player to follow closely.
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Honigstein: It almost feels too easy to pick a Red Bull Salzburg or RB Leipzig player considering their great success in developing stars such as Erling Haaland, Sadio Mane, Christopher Nkunku and countless others. But I’ll pick one anyway. Belgian forward Lois Openda, Leipzig’s €38.5m signing from Lens, has already made a big impression in the early weeks of the Bundesliga. Watching him take on Europe’s best defences will be hugely exciting.
Ballus: Lamine Yamal. A 16-year-old winger who is not just capable of earning a spot in Barcelona’s starting line-up, but to be named MVP of La Liga games. Yamal has this kind of personality that makes him thrive in big stages, so welcome to the Champions League.
Cortegana: Harry Kane. He had several suitors this summer, but the team who really bet on him was Bayern and he will prove from the group stage that the Germans were not wrong. There is also the added bonus of him playing against Manchester United, who are long-time admirers of the striker.
Rutzler: This feels like the breakthrough season for PSG’s Warren Zaire-Emery. The 17-year-old looks to be a key part of Luis Enrique’s plans this year, regularly starting games since pre-season. He is a complete midfielder who can do a bit of everything and will impress on a European stage. Forward Elye Wahi, 20, was also excellent for Montpellier last season and should stand out for Lens, too.
Name the last 16 qualifiers
Horncastle: Man City, Real Madrid, Bayern, Lens, Arsenal, PSG, Lazio, Man United, Napoli, Inter, Benfica, Milan, Leipzig, Barcelona, Porto, Atletico.
Honigstein: Bayern, Man Utd, Sevilla, Arsenal, Napoli, Real Madrid, Benfica, Inter, Lazio, Atletico, PSG, Newcastle, Man City, Leipzig, Barcelona, Porto.
Ballus: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Arsenal, PSV, Real Madrid, Napoli, Inter, Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid, Lazio, PSG, Milan, Manchester City, Leipzig, Barcelona and Porto.
Cortegana: Bayern, United, Arsenal, Lens, Real Madrid, Napoli, Inter, Benfica, Atletico, Lazio, PSG, Dortmund, City, Leipzig, Barcelona, Porto.
Rutzler: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Arsenal, Lens, Napoli, Real Madrid, Benfica, Inter, Atletico, Feyenoord, PSG, Newcastle, Man City, Leipzig, Barcelona, Porto.
Mark Carey’s data takeaways
Which are the hardest and easiest groups based on team strength?
Using Opta’s Power Rankings, Group E looks to be the easiest group among the four teams, with Lazio, Atletico Madrid, Feyenoord and Celtic all vying for a place in the knockout stages.
Elsewhere, Group F looks to take the title of the annual “group of death” as PSG and Borussia Dortmund had a tough draw from Pots three and four — drawing AC Milan and Newcastle United.
Interestingly, according to Opta’s Power Rankings, it is Newcastle who come out with the highest team strength despite being the least experienced on the European stage in recent years.
Do not take your eyes off Group F.
Which team are the biggest stylistic outliers in this season’s Champions League?
Union Berlin enter into the Champions League group stages for the first time in their history, and their style of play might be a surprise to some teams.
Their low-block, counter-attacking style focuses on width from their wing-backs — with 115 open-play crosses into the penalty area more than any other Bundesliga side last season.
Elsewhere, Haise’s Lens will be an interesting watch, setting up in a 3-4-3 (or 3-5-2) with a strong defensive foundation last season. Their focus on deep circulation with good off-ball running and strength in wide areas will be interesting to see, although they have lost their most valuable attacker in the summer as Openda made the move to RB Leipzig.
Who’s an up-and-coming player to keep an eye on this season?
RB Leipzig have invested their money wisely with an influx of young talent including Openda, Benjamin Sesko, Castello Lukeba, and Christoph Baumgartner — with a shrewd loan move for PSG’s Xavi Simons also catching the eye.
Simons arrived in Germany off the back of a stellar campaign for PSV Eindhoven in 2022-23, with 27 goal contributions (19 goals and eight assists) only bettered by Ajax’s Dusan Tadic.
The 20-year-old has already hit the ground running this season, netting a goal and providing two assists as Leipzig thrashed Stuttgart 5-1 in their second game of the Bundesliga campaign. The early signs suggest that he, and Openda, can fill the attacking void vacated by Dominik Szoboszlai and Christopher Nkunku.
Milan, Mbappe, Dortmund: Newcastle’s Champions League famous rivals are flawed
By Jacob Whitehead Sep 1, 2023
Newcastle United are in a Champions League group with 422 years of history, 39 league titles, and 31 appearances in the competition’s knockout stages in this century.When they were drawn alongside Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, and AC Milan in Group F, Newcastle completed arguably the toughest group in recent memory.Last season, PSG won Ligue 1, Dortmund should have won the Bundesliga (finishing second after failing to win on the final day), and Milan reached the Champions League semi-finals, having won Serie A one year before.There are narratives everywhere. Newcastle prised shiny new midfielder Sandro Tonali away from Milan, his boyhood club, for £55million. They already beat the Italian giants to the signing of Sven Botman the previous summer. Starting striker Alexander Isak failed to make the grade at Dortmund, but is now flying in black and white. And in Qatar-owned PSG, this is a geopolitical clash writ large given Newcastle’s majority owners are Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
As Newcastle’s group was revealed, some supporters experienced a sickening lurch. One day after being drawn against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, they thought that Newcastle were now looking destined to exit two cups early. After waiting 20 years to return to the Champions League, this draw looked more like a kicking than a competition, with Newcastle the betting favourites for an early exit.
But let’s be frank. During last season’s run-in, it was the prospect of fixtures like these that meant players battled through injuries, staff pulled all-nighters, and fans rescheduled surgeries. When Joelinton screamed the Champions League anthem, it was not Serbian champions Crvena Zvezda who inhabited his waking dreams; when CEO Darren Eales repeated the chant, “Have you ever seen a Mackem in Milan”, it is not solely for alliterative reasons that the lyrics are not, “Have you ever seen a Mackem in Antwerp”.
Since the takeover, the long-term vision has always been to see Newcastle dining with European royalty. This draw is just another example of how rapid that rise has been. That comes with challenges, but also with it huge opportunities. Commercially, the prestige of this group is extremely good news for Newcastle’s need to comply with financial fair play regulations.
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But that is not to write off their chances on the pitch. The club has a record of making it through tough groups — back in their last campaign in 2002-03, under Sir Bobby Robson, they emerged from their pool with three consecutive wins after losing their first three games.
This Newcastle side have to believe they could do it again. Just as they have been guilty of dropping their levels against weaker opposition — such as cup exits to Cambridge United and Sheffield Wednesday under Eddie Howe — they have also raised it against the ‘Big Six’. Think of last season’s 3-3 draw over Manchester City, the win over Manchester United at St James’ Park, the demolition of Tottenham Hotspur with the top four at stake.
And while these are three excellent teams, Newcastle have the capability to hurt them.
Milan are possibly the greatest enigma, making eight additions to a much-changed squad from last season — headlined by Tonali’s shock departure. With Newcastle having beaten Milan to Botman’s signing, as well as signing the Italian giants’ captain, this is a sign of the Premier League’s power, and the new footballing order. They were overrun in midfield at times last season, even with Tonali, and much depends on how new additions Yunus Musah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Tijjani Reijnders settle — this part of the pitch is Newcastle’s great strength.
Dortmund’s mental state after choking in last season’s Bundesliga race remains to be seen. They were insipid against Bochum at the weekend, outplayed by a team expected to be relegated and fortunate to draw 1-1. They will improve, but the sale of Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid means their squad got weaker over the summer. In the last 10 years, their squads have contained world-leading young talents — Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Ousmane Dembele and Jadon Sancho — but this side has no player of that ilk. There are worries over whether head coach Edin Terzic can create an attacking structure rather than rely on counter-attacking football.
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PSG appear the strongest side in Group F, and given the resources they have thrown at this competition, it is almost remarkable that the competition has eluded them. But they laboured to last season’s French title, pushed by a surprise challenge from Lens, and have lost Lionel Messi and Neymar this summer, two of this generation’s outstanding players. Having drawn their first two league matches, head coach Luis Enrique is trying to impose structure on an individualistic culture — the starkest contrast to Howe and Newcastle.
Make no mistake, this is not saying Newcastle should be expected to progress — it is still an exceptionally strong group. When the takeover happened, the lines about Kylian Mbappe walking out at St James’ Park were only partially made in jest — instead, the world’s best player will now be Newcastle’s opponent. Dortmund are filled with top-level European experience. If Milan’s squad gels, they have a higher ceiling than last season’s semi-finalists.
But it is pointing out that, just like Newcastle, these teams do have flaws and are beatable.
The main disadvantage that Howe’s side face is their lack of European experience. This is not in terms of quality of opposition — Newcastle have shown they can compete with the top Premier League sides — but in terms of scheduling, how to balance league matches with continental commitments while remaining both focused and competitive in both.
But aside from that, the strength of Newcastle’s group should not be used as an opportunity to make excuses. With the possible exception of PSG, at least for now, Newcastle are their financial equals. Their tactical system is arguably more deeply embedded by their opponents, and recruitment over the summer has provided squad-wide depth. This is a team who named a stronger bench than Manchester City when they played last month.
Newcastle earned their place in the Champions League in Europe’s toughest league, and do not need to rely on an underdog narrative. Any semblance of an inferiority complex should be swept away on the breaths of St James’ Park.
There is an oft-quoted line, originally written by Marianne Williamson, that appears in the 2005 basketball film Coach Carter as student Timo Cruz stands behind his convictions. It risks saccharine sweetness, maybe, but it also encapsulates Newcastle’s new reality.
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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,” he says. “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
Newcastle need to take the same attitude into the Champions League. This is a side who wanted an opportunity, who wanted to be tested. These are the brightest and most exposing of lights. They cannot be afraid.
(Top photo: Marcio Machado/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Hansi Flick sacked as Germany national team coach
By Omar Garrick and Seb Stafford-Bloor
Sep 10, 2023
145
Hansi Flick has been dismissed from his position as coach of Germany men’s national team.
It comes following Germany losing 4-1 to Japan in an international friendly at the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday.
Supporters jeered the hosts at the full-time whistle, and Flick’s fate was sealed just one day later.
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A statement from German FA (DFB) president Bernd Neuendorf read: “The committees agreed that the senior men’s national team needs a new impulse after the recent disappointing results. We need a spirit of optimism and confidence with a view to the European Championship in our own country.
“For me personally, it is one of the most difficult decisions in my tenure so far because I value Hansi Flick and his co-coaches as football experts and people. However, sporting success has top priority for the DFB. Therefore, the decision was inevitable.”
Germany were heavily defeated in Wolfsburg on Saturday (Photo: Getty Images)
Flick’s assistants, coaches Marcus Sorg and Danny Rohl, have also been relieved of their duties with immediate affect.
Rudi Voller, Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will take charge of Germany’s match against France in Dortmund on Tuesday. They are aiming to find a replacement for Flick as soon as possible.
Flick underwent training with the national team on Sunday morning.
He was appointed Germany coach in August 2021 after replacing Joachim Low following the 2021 European Championships, where they were knocked out by England. He had previously enjoyed a hugely successful spell at Bayern Munich, where he won the treble in 2019-20.
The 58-year-old’s position, however, had come under scrutiny following a desperate run that stretches back to before the World Cup last year.
Germany have won just four of their last 16 matches, a run which included a group stage exit in Qatar, the second consecutive World Cup in which they had been eliminated at that period. They have also conceded 11 goals in their last five matches to leave them in crisis less than a year before they host the European Championships.
What comes next for Germany?
Analysis by Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
The first objective is to get through the game against France without suffering any more damage to the collective ego; Germany are fragile and were completely humiliated by Japan in Wolfsburg. They have the players to attain respectability and Rudi Voller remains popular with the public, so – short term – that should be achievable.
Beyond that, Germany need to settle on a new direction. One of the great flaws of Hansi Flick’s time was their inability to adopt any sort of identity. Nearly every game featured an experiment of sorts and nearly all of those failed to produce any sort of dividend. Playing Nico Schlotterbeck as a left-sided full-back was the latest and last on Saturday night.
Maybe what Germany need more than anything else is conviction. They must settle on a way of playing and find a reliable means of creating chances and preventing goals being scored against them. Flick never knew how to cure either of those issues and, eventually, that seems to have had impacted the players and corroded their self-belief.
A good change now – a start at least – would be the appointment of someone who stands for something. Nobody can immediately solve some of the technical shortcomings within this generation – no No 9, the dearth of outstanding centre-backs or full-backs – but meaningful philosophical change would help restore an identity and recapture the hearts of a country disillusioned with its football team.
Ukraine 1 England 1: Tedious tempo, quarterback Kane, Henderson fails to spark
By Tim Spiers and Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Sep 9, 2023
246
England may already have one foot in next summer’s European Championship but the scrappy draw against Ukraine still counted as a frustrating night for Gareth Southgate.
The game — which was staged in Wroclaw, Poland due to the ongoing war in Ukraine — felt like a missed opportunity as Southgate tries to regenerate momentum after England’s fine finish to last season.
Our experts debate the big talking points from the 1-1 draw.
England’s pedestrian pace
England are moving in quite a troubling direction. Ever so slightly, they are regaining the characteristics that made previous eras such a slog.
The pitch in Poland was not a good one. It is only fair to acknowledge that. But this was still a stale performance that depended on individual quality to retain its modesty and lacked support from a cohesive system. The European Championship is still almost a year away, but disjointed England away games that follow a week of grumbling about selection patterns feels very familiar and not in a welcome way.
There is plenty of merit to Southgate’s stance regarding the players he picks. Tactical familiarity matters in international football and not everything within it should be dictated by who has and who has not had a good six weeks in the Premier League. At the same time, those ends have to justify the means; there has to be evidence that players afforded special status within this squad are worth their hall pass.
(Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
On this evidence, the critics have it right. England’s terrifying lack of confidence in defence mirrored the struggles of its centrepiece, Harry Maguire, and their physical difficulties in midfield were suggestive of the fact that one of its key components, Jordan Henderson, is an ageing player intent on seeing out his career in a second, or third-tier league.
Yes, there was more to this than that; clearly so. But in the abstract, what made people buy-in to this team was the meritocratic basis of its construction. That seems to be ebbing away.
The window to achieve something is closing all the time. At the moment, England’s biggest impediment to crossing that threshold appears to be their inability to recognise their own flaws.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Kane the Quarterback is back
Once more, England reaped the benefit of Harry Kane’s vision and his long-range passing.
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Kane attracts so much defensive attention and causes such defensive displacement, that it seems almost unfair that he should also have that kind of ball in his armoury.
The pass from which Kyle Walker equalised was the most vivid example of just how much value there is to that part of Kane’s game. It was not just a looping ball pass over the top, nor one knocked into an obvious space. Instead, it was well-timed enough to survive VAR inspection, but also disguised in a way that gave Vitalli Mykolenko little hope of covering Walker’s run.
This is how it broke down:
Walker signals where he wants the ball played…
Kane spots him and times the pass to perfection as Walker stays (just) onside…
Mykolenko knows he is in trouble as he realises Walker is behind him…
Too late, he is stranded as Walker curves his run to collect the ball and now just needs a good first touch…
… and that is exactly what he gets, allowing him to finish with ease.
Condensed and turned into a YouTube compilation, you could make the case that Kane is a world-class player without even featuring one of his goals; his quarterback-style playmaking is really that good.
This evening it was also timely. England looked a little lost at 1-0 down and their equaliser owed everything to attacking diversity and an element of surprise. Particularly so on a bad pitch, and against a team who were proving a physical and technical match for them, and who were enlivened by an emotional crowd.
Nevertheless, whenever Kane drops deep, complaints follow. Even now. Even when it is obvious that the trait is a response to the state of a game and his willingness to adapt to become relevant within it.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Henderson’s ho-hum night
All eyes were on Jordan Henderson after his controversial move to Saudi Arabia and the, in many people’s eyes, inflammatory interview he gave The Athletic earlier this week.
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It was a distraction Gareth Southgate, who was asked more questions on Henderson in the build-up than any other subject, could have done without, but a man as intelligent as him will have surely have anticipated a reaction when he called Henderson up.
There was no booing of Henderson from the away end and no obvious protests either, but Jill Scott reflected the feelings of many when she said on Channel 4 before the match: “In terms of the morals and values, I’m a really big Jordan Henderson fan, he’s a Sunderland lad and really hard-working. But for me, the fact that I couldn’t go and watch him represent his team, that’s what doesn’t sit well for me. Football for me is for everyone and the fact that I don’t feel like I would be welcome (to watch him play), that’s a very sad situation.”
(Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
After all the talk, what of the football? How did Henderson play? Well, he was typically busy and aggressive, he made a couple of important clearances in his own box and he popped up sporadically in the Ukraine third without doing anything of real note, with one shot comfortably clearing the bar. His fitness levels — which will come under scrutiny in the coming months depending on the pace of the Saudi Arabian league — were fine, and he was still darting around in the closing stages.
Like the team, it was all a bit meh, very safe, nothing to really write home about.
Basically, leaving the Saudi argument aside, whatever you thought of Henderson before the match (i.e. a good team player doing the dirty work for others to thrive, or a bit of a jack-of-all trades, master of none), you won’t have changed your mind after this.
Tim Spiers
Bellingham-Maddison axis didn’t work – but was worth a go
As is being shown by Real Madrid’s early season displays, the key to extracting the most from Jude Bellingham is to allow him freedom. He has to able to roam and interpret within a game and Carlo Ancelotti’s privilege is to have midfielders who allow that to happen — and without the team’s structure suffering.
For England the quality is not the same, but the selection of James Maddison did help to create a similar dynamic. By playing Maddison on the left of midfield and Bellingham ahead of him in the attacking line — and then allowing them to switch throughout the game — England always possessed quality of distribution in that area.
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Bellingham is a superior player with broader ability, but Maddison has more similarities with him then, say, a wide midfielder or a more vertical, driving midfielder like Phil Foden.
Jude Bellingham (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
Within the first 15 minutes, Bellingham had been spotted in central midfield, wide on the left, in the No 10 corridor behind Harry Kane and at the base of England’s midfield. Maddison rotated in much the same way and yet England always retained that precious ability on the ball in deep positions.
It was a good idea, it just did not work that well. Bellingham probably tried too hard to bend the game to his will. At times, Maddison seemed to have too many options around him and too often made the worst decision available. Both had trouble with their touch and with the pitch.
But that’s okay; nights like tonight are necessary. If England are to see the best of Bellingham, then they will have to suffer some risks of discovery.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Nervous Guehi
With John Stones injured — and with Eric Dier, Conor Coady, Tyrone Mings and Ben White all unlikely to get back in the squad before the Euros for one reason or another — England’s defence needs new faces, especially if Harry Maguire is barely going to get a minute of football at Manchester United.
Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi is the next cab off the rank (ahead of Levi Colwill, Fikayo Tomori and Lewis Dunk) and he took a while to settle here, perhaps understandably given the occasion, the stage and the atmosphere.
His passing was very safe and he didn’t drive forward in possession or show the calmness or composure he does at Palace. Guehi had a 98 per cent pass accuracy in the first half but only a couple of the 78 passes he made were forward, the rest were sideways or backwards and it was similar for Maguire, reflecting a tempo that was often far too sedate, albeit Ukraine defended deep and well.
As for the goal, this was the first shot on target England have conceded since they beat Italy 2-1 in March, let alone the first goal (2-0 v Ukraine, 4-0 at Malta and 7-0 v North Macedonia since then) and no one really escaped blame as Ukraine doubled up down the right and no one tracked Zinchenko’s burst into the box. Maguire and Guehi almost ended up colliding as they both got nowhere near cutting the ball out.
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At least they were untroubled in the second period.
Tim Spiers
At least the occasion was memorable
For a game played at a neutral venue, this was some occasion. It is estimated that around 250,000 Ukrainians have settled in Wroclaw since the war started last year and many of them helped pack out the 45,000 capacity Tarczynski Arena.
There were, as ever, a few thousand travelling England fans, most of whom had set up camp in the city’s beautiful Market Square for the previous 24 hours, all in fine voice and with no trouble reported.
The stadium, a couple of miles out of town, was a sea of yellow and blue and to all intents and purposes this was a home game.
(Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
It was played in a respectable atmosphere (the Ukraine fans applauded the England players out for their warm-up and there was absolutely no booing of either anthem) which was no surprise given the UK’s support for Ukraine during the war and the emotional occasion these teams played out in March at Wembley. Southgate also spoke politely and courteously (not that you would expect anything less) about Ukraine before the match.
The ‘home’ fans generated a terrific, vociferous noise with an incessant chant of “Oo-kry-ee-naa” throughout and they almost lifted the roof of the place for Oleksandr Zinchenko’s goal.
Tim Spiers
(Top photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
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