Football

4:00 AM ET Cristiano Ronaldo has told Ole Gunnar Solskjaer that Man United need to play quicker for him — ESPN’s Insider Notebook has the latest. PLUS: Football’s push for mixed gender matches. Jump to: Mixed gender matches in football? | Taekwondo champ signs for Barca | Salah contract saga rumbles on | Lacazette edges

4:23 PM ET Paul Riley is out as Courage coach amid allegations of abuse. Photo by Amy Kontras/ISI Photos/Getty Images North Carolina Courage has fired coach Paul Riley effective immediately following allegations spanning over a decade of sexual coercion and inappropriate comments about players’ weight and sexual orientation. The announcement comes after The Athletic published an investigation

1:33 PM ET Progression to the mean is rarely so stark. After spending most of the 2020-21 season playing like a solid mid-table Premier League team on paper, but rarely translating that quality into points, Brighton has started 2021-22 in fine form. The Seagulls finished 16th in the league last season despite an expected goal

7:30 AM ET Matchday 2 of the Champions League group stage is in the books and there is plenty to discuss, from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi starring for Manchester United and PSG respectively, to a woeful week for Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. We asked Gab Marcotti, Mark Ogden and Sam Marsden to

1:25 AM ET Raphael Wicky is out as Chicago Fire coach, ESPN television analyst Taylor Twellman has reported. The decision came after one of the Fire’s better performances of the season in beating New York City FC 2-0. But with a record of 7-15-6, Chicago’s chances of reaching the postseason have long been slim, and

6:15 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United can still do late drama. A game they should have lost ended in a 2-1 victory over Villarreal thanks to a winner deep into stoppage time from Cristiano Ronaldo. It was one of those nights when United’s No.7 seemed so much on the periphery that

9:00 AM ET Maybe there was something in the air from the beginning. Seeing Mauricio Pochettino and Leonardo, Paris Saint-Germain‘s manager and sporting director, smiling and joking together as the team arrived at the Parc des Princes before their 2-0 Champions League win over with Manchester City; witnessing how relaxed midfielder Marco Verratti was before

6:29 PM ET PARIS — In the grand scheme of things, 263 minutes is the blink of an eye, but not for Lionel Messi. His explosion of relief and joy as he ended his nearly four-hour wait for his first goal in a Paris Saint-Germain shirt — a stunner in a 2-0 Champions League win

Sep 25, 2021 Alex KirklandESPN FC Real Madrid struggled at home and fell to a shock defeat. David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images Karim Benzema’s penalty wasn’t enough to prevent Real Madrid suffering an embarrassing Champions League upset on Tuesday as minnows FC Sheriff Tiraspol won 2-1 at the Bernabeu. Madrid had the better first half chances —

5:00 AM ET The last time a player stood triumphantly towering over a clamour of Camp Nou worshippers it was, of course, Lionel Messi in 2017. Barcelona had just crushed Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 in the greatest European comeback in history, and the little Argentine genius ran to the fans behind the goal, leaping up onto

11:51 AM ET Kyle Bonagura Close ESPN Staff Writer Covers the Pac-12. Joined ESPN in 2014. Attended Washington State University. Jeff Carlisle Close U.S. soccer correspondent Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC. New England and Seattle continue their reign atop the order, but second-year side Nashville SC has slipped

12:25 PM ET The European soccer weekend offered up a ton of tasty talking points, as per usual. We had lessons galore from Manchester City‘s win over Chelsea and Arsenal‘s derby rout of Tottenham, while Barcelona welcomed back a star in Ansu Fati after a long injury layoff — oh, and he scored in a

7:30 AM ET Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is going nowhere. It just depends on your point of view on the Manchester United manager as to what that statement actually means. For the Old Trafford hierarchy — the club’s American owners, the Glazer family, and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward — it means only one thing, with United

1:24 PM ET Arsenal’s Emile Smith Rowe scored and assisted in the game. Getty Three first half goals were Tottenham Hotspur‘s downfall at the Emirates on Sunday as they lost the north London derby 3-1 to Arsenal. Goals from Emile Smith Rowe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka in a blistering 20 minutes during the first half

3:02 PM ET LONDON — The challenge facing Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur these days is the same — restoration to their former glory — but Sunday’s emphatic 3-1 Gunners win suggests only one of these old rivals know how they want to go about it. Late September is too early to definitively assess the limit

7:26 AM ET Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes vowed to come back stronger after missing his stoppage-time penalty in Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat by Aston Villa. Kortney Hause‘s 88th-minute header put Villa in the lead but the defender’s handball gifted United a chance to steal a point minutes later with a penalty, only for

11:03 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has defended his decision to let Bruno Fernandes rather than Cristiano Ronaldo take a stoppage time penalty during the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday. Fernandes missed from the spot to squander the chance to salvage a point for United, who have now lost three of

10:30 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent MANCHESTER, England — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been at Manchester United long enough to know that you are never more than one game away from a crisis and after Aston Villa‘s 1-0 win at Old Trafford on Saturday, it’s now three defeats from the last four games for the Norwegian.