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Morning Espresso, 5.8: PSG vs Inter for the Champions League final, MLS 15-1 in USOC
The 3A girls semifinals take center stage on the SDH Network tonight as we'll have both matches available with radio calls starting at 6pm. Whitewater hosts back-to-back state champions Oconee County in Fayetteville while Jefferson hosts Cherokee Bluff. Go to soccerdownhere.net and click Listen, then select your match or bounce back and forth.
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.
PSG has made their second Champions League final, defeating Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate, 2-1 yesterday in Paris. Luis Enrique has been the best manager in the world this season and he has remade this team in his image and achieved incredible success. They have to go through the 3-time champions Inter to lift the trophy, and remarkably, it's the first time these teams have ever met in official competition.
The goalkeepers have been stars in the semifinals. Yann Sommer made a couple of mind-blowing saves on Lamine Yamal of Barcelona, Gianluigi Donnarumma turned into Superman as soon as he saw the English flag again and also stood on his head to lead PSG.
I disagree with Mikel Arteta when he says that Arsenal were the better team in the competition, but I do think he's getting unfairly dragged in the media. He took a team without a healthy #9 as far as he could this season. They have to get that position right to compete with the best in England and in Europe. He's one of the best managers in the world today, give him the right squad to truly give him a chance to win a major trophy, I don't think he's had that yet and has done as much as he could.
MLS won 15 of the 16 Round of 32 matches in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup over the past two days. The Pittsburgh Riverhounds needed a stoppage time goal to upset NYCFC to keep it from being a clean sweep. Philadelphia needed penalties to get past Indy Eleven, multiple games needed extra time, Austin was 2-0 down at home to El Paso but stormed back to win 3-2.
Good news on the business front for MLS as well, their sponsorship revenues are up double digits in 2025 compared to the same timeframe in 2024. 5 clubs were named in Sportico's Most Valuable Soccer Clubs in the World's Top 20, with 19 clubs making the Top 50, the most of any league in the world. While revenues aren't matching the top European clubs at the moment, security of the format along with top-notch infrastructure and ownership collaboration and cooperation have given MLS clubs a strong floor from which to grow their valuations.
Arsene Wenger made the news yesterday, saying that his proposed change to the offside rule is imminent. Based on the way these rules have been altered in the past, that's not true. The trials of the new rule (essentially going from if any part of the body is offside then it's an infraction to if any part of the body is onside then it's good, giving the attacker a body length) have not been successful and more are needed to see if this gives the attack too much of an advantage. I do believe that the rule needs to be tweaked in light of video replay being used, but more testing is needed rather than something rash.
Plenty more in the video and podcast editions of the Espresso, please check them out. More to come tomorrow morning on the SDH Network.
Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago