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Miami, Vancouver, PSG, Barcelona win on a wonderful day of soccer- Morning Espresso, 4.10
Welcome in for another edition of the Morning Espresso from the SDH Network, brought to you by Oglethorpe University, Atlanta's premier undergraduate learning experience and soccer powerhouse.
What a day of soccer yesterday, and it was punctuated by an incredible match as Miami came back to knock LAFC out of Concacaf and advance to the semifinals of the Champions Cup. Lionel Messi scored twice and assisted on the other one to lead Miami to a 3-2 win on aggregate, 3-1 on the night. The match had drama, near misses, hard fouls, screaming and yelling, controversial calls, everything you could hope for.
Vancouver gave their fans plenty to enjoy as well as Tristan Blackmon's stoppage time volley pushed the Whitecaps past Pumas on away goals and books their ticket for a semifinal showdown with Miami later this month.
PSG and Barcelona put on great displays in the UEFA Champions League yesterday afternoon. Luis Enrique's side came back after conceding first to defeat Aston Villa 3-1. Désiré Doué led PSG back with an incredible curling goal, he's a name you need to get to know as the 19-year old might be the best young player this side of Lamine Yamal (who was also brilliant for Barca in their demolition job of Borussia Dortmund). Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's goal for PSG to make it 2-1 was another brilliant piece of individual quality after a beautiful team build-up.
Dribbling is down in the top 5 European leagues 21% according to Opta. It's a shame when you see the top teams in the world use dribbling to great effect (the world champions Argentina, the European champions Spain, PSG, Barcelona, etc.). Pablo Aimar told TyC in Argentina that he feels it's because the young players aren't getting the free play elements in the neighborhood that his generation did, to go along with the professional coaching players received in the clubs. Embrace dribblers at a young age, encourage it, don't take it away from the kids. It can always be refined later, but it's important in players developing their own personalities on the field. Hopefully youth coaches and clubs can find ways to allows kids to develop this going forward.
Liverpool making progress in retaining Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, according to reports.
Plenty more nuggets in the podcast, please check it out and subscribe to get these four times per week!
More Espresso tomorrow on the SDH Network, presented by Oglethorpe University.
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago