World Soccer Roundup 11/22/16
For those new to the game, this is a roundup of the soccer action around Europe, mostly leaving out the Premier League, since anyone who is clicking on this article is going to know plenty about our friends across the pond already. We look at our compatriots overseas, glance at the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 tables, and finish up with what’s going on with the fun, young players around Europe. Let’s get started.
U.S. Players Abroad
Premier League
With Geoff Cameron out to a knee injury once again, it was all quiet on the Premier League front for players from the U S of A. Lynden Gooch didn’t make an appearance for Sunderland either, meaning there were a grand total of zero minutes played by U.S. players in the Premier League over the weekend.
Bundesliga
There was a bit more action in Germany, as two U.S. compatriots played the full 90 and two made it onto the pitch as substitutes.
The two to play the full 90 were John Brooks and Timothy Chandler, both of whom played on the backline, after Frankfurt had messed around with Chandler a little higher up the pitch in their last Bundesliga game.
Brooks had a strong game for Hertha Berlin in their 0–0 draw with Augsburg, completing 73 of his 82 passes, including 14 of 16 long balls. Brooks had five clearances, and had another all-around solid performance. Chandler was a bit more aggressive than Brooks, playing out of the right fullback position, and completing 31 of his 42 passes. Chandler had one key pass and three crosses in Frankfurt’s 2–1 victory over Werder Bremen.
The two men to come on as subs were Fabian Johnson and Christian Pulisic. Johnson came on in the 75th minute of Borussia Monchengladbach’s 2–1 loss to FC Koln, while Pulisic came on in the 89th minute of Borussia Dortmund’s 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich. Johnson managed three shots (one on target) in his limited time on the pitch, and completed all seven of his passes, but he was also on the pitch for Koln’s late winner in the first minute of added time. Pulisic did not play much of a role in Dortmund’s win, as he only played the final few minutes.
Strange Results/Table Glancing
Bundesliga
If you’re not following the Bundesliga by this point, you might be the police. The race took another wild turn over the weekend, with the end result being that RB Leipzig now sit atop the Bundesliga table with Bayern Munich sliding to second. As Ben Littleton pointed out in his excellent weekly article for Sports Illustrated, Bayern had been atop the Bundesliga for the last 425 days!
The main match of the weekend was Bayern Munich traveling to Dortmund to face BVB. (Either definitely called Der Klassiker or definitely not called Der Klassiker depending on whom you ask.) The game wasn’t quite the firecracker that matchups of late have been, but it was still an entertaining affair, with Dortmund going ahead 1–0 in the 11th minute thanks to who else but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, assisted by Mario Gotze. Bayern dominated possession all game, to the tune of 67 percent, but they only had three shots on target, as Dortmund defenders threw themselves in front of the ball over and over again, with seven blocked shots on the game. The end result was no goals for Bayern and an incredibly important result, 1–0 to Dortmund, for both teams.
The other big showdown of Matchday 11 was RasenBallsport Leipzig traveling to Leverkusen for the lone Friday match in the Bundesliga. The match was everything you would hope for from a pair of young talented teams, with Leverkusen taking a 2–1 lead into the break before a pair of Leipzig goals, one in the 67th minute and the winner in the 81st minute, brought three points to our new Red Bull overlords.
Just a bit further down the table, Cologne won late over M’gladbach, thanks to a thunderstrike from Marcel Risse to keep the team in a five-way tie for third in the table. Five-way tie! Seriously folks, it’s time to start tuning into the Bundesliga on a regular basis.
La Liga
A Madrid derby was the main match heading into the weekend, and everything came up gold for the Meringues, as not only did Real Madrid top Atletico Madrid 3–0 — thanks to a hat trick from Cristiano Ronaldo — but Barcelona also dropped points against Malaga the day before, meaning Real Madrid now sit atop La Liga with a four-point cushion.
The 3–0 defeat to Madrid leave Atletico in sixth place, three points out of a Champions League spot, and with some questions for Diego Simeone, who has tinkered with his system throughout the year.
In other important matches, Sevilla tallied a goal in the 87th minute and then another in the second minute of added time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in a Saturday match with Deportivo La Coruna, leaving Sevilla in third place in La Liga for the time being. Real Sociedad also got three goal in a win, topping Sporting Gijon 3–1, and although Villarreal lost 1–0 to Bilbao, those two now sit in a tie for fourth, just one point ahead of Atletico.
Serie A
The top Italian league has moved into a league that has an incredibly entertaining race for Champions League spots, while simultaneously having an incredibly boring title race. Juventus has already opened up a seven-point cushion on the rest of the league, thanks to a rote 3–0 victory over Pescara, but behind Juve are five teams within two points of each other for the coveted second place spot.
Roma had been alone in second, but dropped points in a 2–1 defeat by Atalanta, who got a added time penalty conversion from their young stud, Franck Yannick Kessie, to pull into fifth place themselves in one of the most entertaining matches of the weekend.
AC Milan were somewhat dismissive of their rival’s celebrations after Inter Milan stole a point late in the 2–2 Milan derby on Sunday, but those two points dropped by Milan may end up quite costly, as the Red and Blacks could have taken hold of second place all to themselves if not for Ivan Perisic’s game-tying goal in the 92nd minute for Inter.
Ligue 1
A 63rd minute goal for Valentin Eysseric was enough for Nice to win 1–0 over Saint-Etienne on Sunday and hold on to their spot atop the top French league for another weekend. Paris Saint Germain and Monaco will have to be content playing the role of Jack Frost for another week, as they both collected three points to stay nipping at the heels of the surprise Nice team.
Monaco got goals from Radamel Falcao, Thomas Lemar and Gabriel Boschilia in their 3–0 victory over Lorient on Friday to stay three points back of Nice. For their part, PSG got an early goal for Angel Di Maria and a late goal from Jese Rodriguez to hold off Nantes, and move within three points of Nice themselves.
Lyon got a third minute goal from Maxwell Cornet and held on the rest of the way for a 1–0 result over Lille. Lyon has now won three Ligue 1 matches on the trot, and are up to fourth in the table. The are still seven points out of the top three and ten points out of first, but they are showing signs of progress.
Fun Young Players
Let’s start in the Bundesliga, where it seems like every week produces three or four new young players to keep an eye on.
Julian Brandt: Leverkusen may have fallen 3–2 to RB Leipzig on Sunday, but the 20-year-old winger did everything in his power to avoid that loss, with a goal and an assist to go along with the Man of the Match honors (despite the loss) from FotMob.
Emil Forsberg: Across the pitch, RB Leipzig’s 25-year-old Swedish winger had a goal and assist of his own, giving him five goals and five assists in this amazing campaign for Leipzig so far.
Marcel Risse: Arguably the goal of the week, the long-distance stunner from Cologne’s 26-year-old midfielder delivered an all-important three points, and will be on the highlight reels for years to come.
Yunus Malli: Our final Bundesliga entry, the 24-year-old Turk had a goal and two assists in Mainz’s 4–2 victory over Freiburg. Malli has been the club’s top performer all season, and now has six goals and four assists through Matchday 11.
Franck Yannick Kessie: Moving over to Serie A, Kessie helped make it eight matches in a row without a loss for Atalanta, with seven of those matches being wins, the latest a nice scalp to have, as this young team took down Roma 2–1. Kessie converted his penalty in added time for a thrilling victory at home.
Suso/Ivan Perisic: The Milan derby was a wild one, with Suso and Perisic providing a lot of said entertainment. Suso had both goals for Milan, bringing him to four on the season to go along with his four assists, while Perisic had the late equalizer, netting Inter an important point in the 92nd minute.
Thomas Lemar: It was relatively quiet for the young stars of Ligue 1, but Monaco’s 21-year-old winger did tally one of the club’s three goals, bringing him to five goals on the Ligue 1 campaign so far.
Gerard Moreno/Duje Cop: We’ll end with a pair of La Liga names that may be a bit under the radar, as they both ply their trade outside of the big three of Barca and the two Madrids. Cop is the slightly bigger name, and tallied his fifth goal, albeit in a 3–1 loss to Real Sociedad. Moreno’s goal, also his fifth, came with more importance, as the 24-year-old scored off a corner that came as the result of his penalty shot being saved. Talk about not getting down on yourself for a missed opportunity. Moreno’s goal gave Espanyol the 1–0 victory over Alaves.
Your Weekend Ahead
We’re adding this (brief) feature to the column this week, and will be adding to the roster moving forward. Just a quick look at some of the most important games around Europe in the upcoming weekend:
Bundesliga
Frankfurt v Dortmund 11/26/16 9:30 am: A pair of teams sitting in a five-way tie for third.
Bayern v Leverkusen 11/26/16 12:30 pm: A showdown whenever these teams meet, Leverkusen has shown flashes this season, but sit in ninth.
La Liga
Real Sociedad v Barcelona 11/27/16 2:45 pm: Barca now sit four points off Madrid, so they will need to grab three points in matches like this. Sociedad has been impressive this season, sitting in fifth.
Serie A
Focus your attention elsewhere this week.
Ligue 1
Monaco v Marseille 11/26/16 11:10 am: Two classic clubs, one of whom is playing electric this year, and one of whom is starting to play a bit better.
Lyon v Paris Saint Germain 11/27/16 2:45 pm: The game of the weekend (outside of Chelsea v Tottenham in England), these two clubs have combined to win 11 of the last 15 Ligue 1 titles. Should be a blast.
