Soccer

3:40 AM ET In this week’s Insider Notebook, Liverpool’s row with VAR shows no sign of ending, Wayne Rooney is unlikely Derby manager job just yet and Barcelona are fighting to keep one of their rising stars. Jump to: Barca’s battle to keep rising star | United to reject Dalot move | Rooney not the

11:34 AM ET Bayern Munich’s dominance in Germany is only going to get stronger over time. MARTIN MEISSNER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Last week, we took a look at the stats behind the Premier League’s odd start. The other leagues among Europe’s Big Five haven’t been quite as strange by comparison: Bayern and PSG are still leading

12:57 PM ET Jeff Carlisle Close U.S. soccer correspondent Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC. Austin Lindberg The 2020 MLS Cup playoffs are upon us, with games beginning this Friday, and with 18 clubs vying for an opportunity to lift that most prized piece of silverware, ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle

11:13 AM ET Inter Miami CF striker Gonzalo Higuain needed a fresh start. The 32-year-old Argentine wanted to take control of the next step in his career and rekindle his love for the game after almost 14 years playing at the highest level in Europe. Landing at Real Madrid from River Plate aged 19, winning

11:00 AM ET After a nine-month gap between games due to COVID-19, the United States men’s national team finally returned to the pitch this past week with a pair of friendlies in Europe against Wales and Panama. The games, a 0-0 draw with Wales and a 6-2 win over Panama, showcased the growing talent standard

12:00 PM ET You have faith in your captain. He led your conquest of the Seven Seas. You see the cracks in the hull; he shows you how to repair them. You take on water; he tells you to pump it out. You capsize in Russian waters; he gets you to right the boat, jettisoning

5:09 AM ET Adriana Garcia Monaco midfielder Cesc Fabregas has said he considers his former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho a friend while he has no relationship with ex-Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola. Fabregas, 33, played one season under Guardiola at the Camp Nou before the manager left in the summer of 2012 to take a sabbatical.

12:45 PM ET Every day at 6 a.m., Minnesota United manager Adrian Heath wakes up, and the first thing he does is look at his phone. Did the latest COVID-19 tests for players and staff come in? Did anyone test positive? With four positive tests in his team since the start of October, his tension

10:32 AM ET The Grand Place was packed, a sea of red shirts. The Belgium squad waved down from the balcony of Brussels’ City Hall, celebrating their third-place finish in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It felt like the entire country (population: 11 million) was packed into the square. “It’s a difficult environment, sometimes, but

5:01 AM ET When Spain welcome Germany at an empty Estadio de la Cartuja in Seville on Tuesday in their final Nations League match, it offers the chance to see where they are in their evolution. When Spain won back-to-back European Championships and a World Cup in their dominant spell from 2008 to 2012, they

7:28 PM ET The worth of a forward is often in the eye of the beholder. A 30-yard-blast counts as much as a two-yard tap-in, even though the former is often what gets the hearts of fans beating faster. There is value in both kinds of goals — not to mention link play and pressing

France duty gives Paul Pogba a break, Liverpool’s list of absentees grows, Spain captain Sergio Ramos won’t be rattled, Italy and Belgium are on an upward curve at the right time, Leroy Sane shows he can among world’s best, and Norway have gotten creative in a bid to overcome their COVID-19 woes. It’s Monday, and

6:35 PM ET Moving to a three-man defence at the 2018 World Cup was widely acclaimed as a masterstroke by Gareth Southgate. The jury is still out, however, on whether returning to a similar shape will prove equally effective when it matters most. As a disciple of former Three Lions boss Terry Venables, Southgate is

7:19 PM ET Paul Pogba has said that his time away from Manchester United when he is playing with France is a “breath of fresh air.” In an interview on Sunday the midfielder admitted he was going through the toughest period of his career at the moment at United and that joining the French national

7:50 AM ET FOR AMERICAN SOCCER FANS, Oct. 10, 2017, still lives in infamy. In front of roughly 1,500 spectators at a slapdash pitch in Trinidad, the U.S. men’s national team failed to qualify for a World Cup for the first time since 1986. The Americans had advanced from the group in three of the

4:55 PM ET France handed defending Nations League champions Portugal a rare defeat on Saturday, winning 1-0 in Lisbon with N’Golo Kante‘s second-half strike to reach the competition’s final four at the expense of the holders. – Stream LIVE games and replays on ESPN+ (U.S. only) Kante scored only his second France goal in the

2:47 PM ET Sergio Ramos has become the most capped European footballer ever, making his 177th appearance for Spain in their UEFA Nations League match with Switzerland on Saturday. The Real Madrid defender — who captains both club and country — has now played one game more than the previous record holder, former Italy goalkeeper

9:00 AM ET Austin LindbergESPN FC On Thursday, the United States men’s national team played its first match since February and gave fans a solid look at the Yanks’ future. Head coach Gregg Berhalter gave debuts to six players — including a pair of 17-year-olds, Yunus Musah and Giovanni Reyna (who turned 18 on Friday)