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Lamine Yamal shines, Miami fades against Vancouver: Morning Espresso, 5.1
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.
The Vancouver Whitecaps continued one of the best starts to a MLS season in history by eliminating Inter Miami in the semifinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup last night in Ft. Lauderdale. Jordi Alba cut the aggregate lead to 2-1 early in the first half, but Vancouver broke the match open early in the second half with goals from Brian White and Pedro Vite. Sebastian Berhalter scored the last one to win the night 3-1 and the series 5-1. While lots of focus will be on the failure by Miami to get the job done, everyone needs to be praising this Vancouver team and giving them credit.
Berhalter will miss the final due to yellow card accumulation in a rule that Concacaf absolutely must change. It's outdated to have players miss finals due to yellow card accumulation and most competitions have changed when the cards reset to avoid this. Players shouldn't miss finals due to accumulation and it has to change going forward for Concacaf.
Inter, who hadn't scored in 3 straight matches while getting knocked out of the Coppa Italia and losing the top spot in Serie A, led twice at Barcelona yesterday in an absolute classic of a semifinal first leg. A goal in 30 seconds was followed up by an acrobatic flying volley by Denzel Dumfries. Barcelona showed all of their quality to come back to level the match before Inter regained the lead at 3-2. Barca came back one more time and it finished 3-3, setting up a must-watch second leg next week in Milan.
Lamine Yamal, who isn't even 18 years old yet, showed why he has to be in contention for the Balon d'Or right now with his outrageous goal and overall impact on the match. Simone Inzaghi, Inter's manager, described him as a player who comes along every 50 years. On a day when both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's sides were eliminated in Champions League competitions, Yamal showed that he might be the next entrant in the GOAT sweepstakes with a legend-making sort of performance.
Europa League semifinals start today with tiny Bodo/Glimt traveling to London to face Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United going to Bilbao to face Athletic Club. If the entire town that Bodo/Glimt calls home traveled to the match in London, they couldn't fill Spurs' stadium. But they've become one of the big stories over the past few years as they're dominant in Norway and have beaten Ange Postecolglu before when he was at Celtic. As for Manchester United, the pressure is on to win the Europa League in order to play in next year's Champions League and perhaps have the financial wherewithal to revitalize their roster and the club's future.
The Carlo Ancelotti telenovela carries on with most everyone now saying that when the La Liga title is out of reach, then we'll get a resolution. The Clasico date on May 11 with Barcelona is like the next big circle on the calendar. Some outlets say that Brazil will wait on Ancelotti. Anything is possible at this point, with some even saying that Ancelotti might end up in Saudi Arabia at Al Hilal if their manager Jorge Jesus ends up becoming the Brazilian manager instead of him. Who knows?
More Espresso on Friday on the SDH Network, presented by Oglethorpe University.
Published on 2 months ago