The Montreal Impact signed Algeria international midfielder Saphir Taider as a designated player from sister club Bologna on Monday.Taider, 25, arrives as a replacement for Blerim Dzemaili, who returned to Bologna in Serie A this month after spending last year on loan in Montreal. Both clubs are owned by Joey Saputo.The Impact said Taider signed 'a three-year deal, including a two-year loan' from Bologna, with Montreal also holding a club option for 2021 if he becomes a permanent player.'We're very happy to welcome
Veteran Major League Soccer midfielder Chris Pontius has signed with the LA Galaxy.The club announced its acquisition of the free agent on Monday on the opening day of preseason training.Pontius is a nine-year MLS veteran with D.C. United and Philadelphia, posting 45 goals and 29 assists. He also made five appearances for the U.S. national team in 2017.Pontius is from Yorba Linda, California, and he played at UC Santa Barbara.He is the latest addition to the roster of the five-time MLS champion Galaxy,
Arsenal return to the Europa League next month, and must submit their squad by Feb. 1. They have held talks with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as they look to add to their squad after Alexis Sanchez swapped clubs with Manchester United's Henrikh Mkhitaryan.The Gunners currently sit sixth in the Premier League, five points behind Liverpool in the fourth and final Champions League berth. It's looking likely that they will have to emulate Man United and win the Europa League to earn a return to European
Beat the best and lose to the worst -- typical Liverpool. The vibrancy, desire and skill the Reds showed a week earlier was nowhere to be seen as they laboured against Swansea's 11-man defence and rarely looked like scoring -- and they didn't, in a 1-0 defeat. Conceding a goal to the opposition's only attempt of any note is also something Liverpool seem to be the masters of.PositivesNone whatsoever. An utterly abject performance and a missed opportunity to increase their lead over fifth-placed
For large parts of the first hour of Sunday's game at Real Betis, La Liga leaders Barcelona struggled to impose themselves. The home side -- renowned for their high-press, high-risk style under Quique Setien -- roared out of the blocks at a noisy Benito Villamarin. They matched Barca man-for-man all over the pitch, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen forced to play the ball long almost every time he received it.That doesn't happen very often, but everything changed in the second half. More specifically, in
'Surely we have all made that mistake,' Real Betis coach Quique Setien said on Friday, bringing his answer to an end.Real Madrid humiliated Deportivo La Coruna two days later. Nacho, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale all scored twice in a 7-1 victory on Sunday. Dani Ceballos was not in the squad due to an ankle injury. Even if he was fit, he would probably not have played. Ceballos -- who joined from Real Betis in the summer -- has not even made the
The last time Arsenal agreed to a high-profile player swap, it would be hard to argue that they saw the best side of it.Ashley Cole went to Chelsea in 2006 and won four FA Cups, the League Cup, a Premier League, the Champions League and the Europa League. William Gallas came to Arsenal and won absolutely nothing, becoming infamous for a petulant sit-down protest against Birmingham and then losing the captaincy after publicly slagging off his teammates.In truth, it's hard to see how
It was only Deportivo La Coruna, a team in the relegation zone that had collected one point in the past four matches. But it still mattered. Real Madrid's 7-1 victory Sunday doesn't make all their problems disappear but it stops the situation getting worse after two consecutive home defeats. And it offers some clues about what Zinedine Zidane's fixes might be.The obvious change from the previous week's defeat against Villarreal was the return to a 4-3-3 formation. Playing Isco behind Gareth Bale and
The way in which Manchester United announce signings has changed dramatically. It's a show in itself, from Juan Mata landing by helicopter to specific hashtags trending on social media when Paul Pogba arrived and Monday's confirmation of Alexis Sanchez.#Pogback had 635,000 interactions on Instagram. By comparison, Luis Suarez signing for Barcelona had 219,000, Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus got 145,000 and Gareth Bale to Real Madrid garnered 112,000.The key decisions were made in United's London Mayfair office, not Manchester, as creatives worked up slogans
The common consensus among most of the Premier League, when it comes to facing Manchester City, seems to have been damage limitation. Sit deep, dig in, form a defensive wall, try to stop them playing and maybe get something on the break.Teams outside the top six have generally adopted the cautious approach, despite it providing a profoundly tedious spectacle for us neutrals, because trying to attack and being proactive would be competitive suicide, surely.Not for Bristol City and manager Lee Johnson. Buoyed by
Under its proposal to FIFA, Qatar will build 9 new stadiums and renovate 3, with the 12 venues divided among 7 host cities. The 7 host cities are Al-Daayen, Al-Khor, Al-Rayyan, Al-Shamal, Al-Wakrah, Doha and Umm Slal. After the Cup it is planned to dismantle parts of the stadiums and send them to developing countries to make 22 new stadiums. Climate controlled stadiums Qatar's bid organisers say that the stadiums will be zero-carbon emitting and climate controlled (The Fifa World Cup is always held in Europe's off-season in June and
La Liga giants Real Madrid are reportedly readying a world record £200m bid for Tottenham Hotspur's goal-scoring machine Harry Kane and plan to sign him before the beginning of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Real Madrid are languishing at fourth spot in the La Liga table with their front three consisting of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema scored a combined of just 14 league goals this season. Meanwhile, Harry Kane has netted 20 league goals this season which made him the
It wasn't a particularly convincing display, but AC Milan ground out a 2-1 win at Cagliari on Sunday, with Franck Kessie's brace sealing a comeback victory. The Rossoneri fell behind early on to Nicolo Barella's strike in a hostile atmosphere, but to their credit, they managed to fight back to seal an important win.PositivesSpecifically in the second half, Milan showed plenty of grit and determination, as the game became very scrappy. The quality on the ball wasn't always there, which made life more
Mauricio Pochettino cited 'many different reasons' for Tottenham's frustrating 1-1 draw at Southampton on Sunday but Christian Eriksen's absence must have been top of the Spurs manager's list.Eriksen was one of the more badly affected by the virus that swept through the Spurs squad last week and he was too unwell to feature at St. Mary's, along with captain Hugo Lloris.A number of other players, including Son Heung-Min, were also unwell but Pochettino said all those who played on Sunday had fully recovered
Manchester United claimed a 1-0 win in the type of fixture they were drawing just weeks ago and, in doing so, stay second in the Premier League. The victory was far from stylish, with possession often sloppily conceded, but Anthony Martial rose above the mediocrity and it was fitting that he should drive home the winner.PositivesMartial was a growing threat after a slow first half, while Romelu Lukaku was purposeful in attack and built play with underrated poise. Chris Smalling and Phil Jones
Real Madrid ran out 7-1 winners against Deportivo in the Bernabeu to return to winning ways in La Liga with Nacho (twice), Gareth Bale (twice), Cristiano Ronaldo (twice) and Luka Modric on the score sheet. Adrian Lopez had put the visitors ahead after 22 minutes, but Zinedine Zidane's side recovered and racked up their biggest win of the domestic season in some style in the second half.PositivesReal had gone 228 minutes without scoring at home in La Liga before Sunday, and this was
Three quick thoughts from the Emirates as Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 4-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.1. Arsenal show they can live without SanchezThe post-Alexis Sanchez era couldn't have started much better at the Emirates. Arsenal delivered their best attacking performance of the season by tearing apart Crystal Palace on Saturday, storming out of the gates with four goals in the opening 22 minutes to send a strong message that they can cope just fine without the Chilean star.Sanchez was left out
Barcelona put on an irresistible second-half show to thrash Real Betis 5-0 on Sunday, with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez scoring twice each as they tightened their stranglehold on La Liga.The Catalans moved 11 points clear of second place Atletico Madrid with a convincing win at the Benito Villamarin, as their title rivals fade farther into the distance.PositivesThe best news for Barcelona was that their hiccup against Espanyol in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday -- which ended their unbeaten run -- remains
Three thoughts on Manchester United's 1-0 win vs. Burnley in the Premier League.1. United struggle but hang on for victoryJose Mourinho asked everyone to forget about Alexis Sanchez and focus on Burnley in his pre-match press conference on Friday and his team, thanks to Anthony Martial's second-half goal, just about managed it at Turf Moor.For the first 45 minutes, barley a thing happened. Ashley Young, back in the United XI after suspension at Luke Shaw's expense, cut inside from left-back to fizz a
They say beauty is only skin deep, but that didn't stop Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo from verifying it on someone's phone this Sunday.Ronaldo suffered a head wound when scoring a brave diving header in his team's 7-1 La Liga win at home to Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday evening but couldn't wait until he left the field to see how bad it wasHe commandeered the phone of a club physio so he could immediately see the damage done.It had seemed that Ronaldo