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Last Weekend: MLS Cup madness, Emery’s return to the Premier League, feisty derbies and more

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In truth, we could write a column’s worth of words about the MLS Cup final and still not do it full justice, but we’ll try to cover some other matches too. Those include Aston Villa’s win over Manchester United, some big rivalries across Europe and the J.League title decider.

By Neel Shelat

🏆 MLS Cup Final: LAFC 3-3 Philadelphia Union AET (3-0 on pens)

Well, where do we even begin? Let us set the scene first: The Banc of California Stadium hosted the MLS Cup final between LAFC and Philadelphia Union on Saturday. The knockout format of the MLS Cup has often drawn criticism (especially from purists), but on this occasion, it was the two sides who finished level on points in the Supporters’ Shield, so the winner would certainly be fully deserving of the accolade.

If you had to pick a favourite, you would probably say LAFC as their squad looked stronger on paper and their underlying numbers over the course of the regular season looked more impressive too. They started the match on the front foot and were eventually rewarded for their efforts when Kellyn Acosta’s free-kick took a deflection off the wall and went in just before the half-hour mark.

The Union were forced to be more attacking in the second period, so they kept more possession on the other side of the half-time break and tried to make things happen. They got exactly what they wanted in the 59th minute, as Daniel Gazdag equalised after a set-piece. A little later, the madness began.

Jesús Murillo was celebrating in the 83rd minute after scoring a go-ahead goal from a corner from LAFC, but before the home fans had somewhat calmed down, Jack Elliott responded in kind after a set-piece to take the game to extra time.

The first 20 or so minutes were relatively uneventful, but then there was a massive twist in the tale. LAFC had a man sent off after Maxime Crépeau took out Cory Burke in a bid to reach a loose back pass, but more concerningly, he suffered a horrific injury in the process. That led to a long break in play which left us with eight minutes of stoppage-time, where Elliott scored from a set-piece situation again to seemingly win the Cup for Philadelphia.

The 10 men of LAFC desperately searched for an equaliser, and somehow, they eventually found one in the 128th minute through summer signing and extra time substitute Gareth Bale, who has quite a habit of scoring important goals in the biggest games. That meant that after 120 minutes of drama, we were off to penalties.

Crépeau’s injury meant that Philadelphia-born John McCarthy was in goal for LAFC. In his time with the Union, he had made a name for himself as a penalty specialist, and that reputation was set to be tested against his hometown club on the biggest of stages. Both sides failed to convert their first attempt, but then McCarthy rose to the occasion as he made two saves while his teammates buried their next three attempts, sealing the MLS Cup in the process.

With that, LAFC lifted their first-ever piece of postseason silverware, and also became the eighth side to do the Supporters’ Shield-MLS Cup double.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United

Sunday marked the return of Unai Emery to the English Premier League, almost three years since he was sacked by Arsenal. After a successful stint at Villarreal, the Spaniard returned to England when Aston Villa came calling after dismissing Steven Gerrard.

Emery named his first XI in what could be described as a 4-2-3-1 formation.

However, the usage of Jacob Ramsey and Emiliano Buendía in the wide attacking positions meant that this system looked quite unique in possession. Those two players are midfielders by trade so they tucked infield to the half-spaces, creating quite a narrow shape. This was not too dissimilar from what he had done at Villarreal.

Another similarity to his work at Villarreal was Aston Villa’s defensive shape, which was a compact 4-4-2 block. That worked pretty well, as Manchester United were restricted to an xG tally of 0.52 from 8 shots, scoring only through an own goal.

To be fair, Villa themselves did not look exceptional going forward as they only managed to get 6 shots away, but half of them went in including Leon Bailey’s early strike, Lucas Digne’s free-kick and Jacob Ramsey’s finish early in the second half. That was enough for what was just Aston Villa’s second win since the start of October.

Next up, they will be facing United again in the League Cup in midweek before travelling to Brighton for their last pre-World Cup league fixture. Then, a six-week break should give Emery enough time to implement his ideas properly with this squad.

🇳🇱 Netherlands: Ajax 1-2 PSV

It was time for De Topper in the Netherlands, as league-leaders Ajax hosted second-placed PSV on Sunday.

The home side started off well, but 23 minutes in, a typical PSV goal that saw Cody Gakpo deliver a right-footed cross from the left to a tall man in the box (namely Luuk de Jong on this particular occasion) gave them the lead. A few minutes into the second half, this advantage was doubled when Erick Gutiérrez netted from close range after a corner. Substitute Lorenzo Lucca pulled one back for Ajax in the 83rd minute, but by then it was a case of too little too late.

Tempers did flare up on a couple of occasions in this match as there were some scuffles from time to time including after the full-time whistle, but some relatively lenient refereeing enabled everyone to avoid a sending-off. So, despite creating little in the way of attack, PSV came away with a crucial win that takes them to top of the table.

🇮🇹 Italy: Juventus 2-0 Inter

Sunday was derby day in Serie A, as two huge fixtures were scheduled back-to-back. First, Roma took on Lazio in the Derby della Capitale, and after that, it was time for the Derby d’Italia between Juventus and Inter.

Both sides had begun the season in an underwhelming fashion which left them 13 and 11 points away from the league leaders Napoli respectively, so if either of them still harboured hopes of participating in the title race, they were already close to must-win territory.

Massimiliano Allegri’s side were arguably having the worse season so far as they also crashed out of the Champions League in the group stage, but they had some reason to be positive of late. In these tough times, youth team players such as Fabio Miretti, Nicolò Fagioli, Samuel Iling-Junior and Matías Soulé were coming to the fore and helping the side get some good results.

Miretti has somewhat become a regular starter, while Fagioli was given his full league debut in this match after scoring the winner against Lecce in midweek. He made the most of this opportunity by getting on the scoresheet once again late on in the match to cap off Juventus’ victory after Adrien Rabiot scored the opener in the 52nd minute.

Truthfully, the story of this match was more about a really bland performance from Inter than a great showing from the home side. The 2020/21 title winners missed some big chances in the first half, but more concerningly, showed a real lack of fight after going down and looked well beaten by the end.

This result leaves Inter down in seventh and outside the European spots as it stands, so perhaps they should shift their focus from gunning for the title to securing a Champions League spot next season.

🇪🇸 Spain: Real Betis 1-1 Sevilla

Juventus vs Inter might not have had all the feistiness you would typically associate with a derby, but over in Spain, El Gran Derbi more than made up for it. Fourth-placed Real Betis were hosting Sevilla, who were down in 19th going into this fixture but were looking to set things right under recently-appointed head coach Jorge Sampaoli.

After a relatively peaceful first half an hour, the drama kicked off after the referee was called to the monitor by VAR to review a dangerous tackle by Sevilla right-back Gonzalo Montiel, who was subsequently sent off. Jesús Navas was sent on to plug the gap, but he ended up scoring an own goal with his (inadvertent) first touch of the ball.

There was more to come before half-time, as Nabil Fekir was sent off in stoppage time following a VAR review for a stray arm in an opponent’s face. So, Betis began the second half a goal up but with 10 against 10 in terms of players on the pitch – although that quickly changed when the referee completed his VAR-assisted hat-trick of red cards in the 49th minute. This time, Borja Iglesias was given his marching orders for stamping on an opponent’s foot.

With a 10-9 numerical advantage on the field, Sevilla then proceeded to pepper the Betis goal with shots, but some poor shooting and great defending meant that they could only score once through Nemanja Gudelj’s long-range screamer in the 81st minute and had to settle for a disappointing draw.

If you think this was a crazy game, wait until you hear about what happened between Boca Juniors and Racing Club in the Trofeo de Campeones final in Argentina, which saw just the 10 red cards at the end of extra time.

🇯🇵 Japan: Vissel Kobe 1-3 Yokohama F.Marinos

The headline act of the final matchday of the J.League season was the title race, which had gone right down to the wire after leaders Yokohoma F.Marinos were really stumbling over the line. Having lost two and drawn one of their last five league fixtures, they missed the chance to seal the title with a little breathing room to spare, so the pressure was well and truly on now.

They still maintained a two-point lead over Kawasaki Frontale, so their task was to visit Kobe and come away with at least a point, which would most likely have been enough for the title thanks to their goal difference advantage. The equation for Kawasaki, therefore, was to beat FC Tokyo and hope for a huge favour from Vissel Kobe.

Toru Oniki’s side held up their end of the bargain in the first half by taking an early lead, although going down to 10 men thereafter was not ideal. The trouble for them was that the Marinos took the lead before the half-hour mark too, but Kobe equalised in first half stoppage-time to make things really tense.

The numerically disadvantaged Kawasaki Frontale fought admirably in the second half where they clawed the lead back on two separate occasions after conceding an equaliser, but their efforts were in vain because Yokohoma F.Marinos retook the lead in the 53rd minute, and went on to add a third 20 minutes later to effectively seal the title.

So, Frontale’s bid to win a third-consecutive title failed as the Marinos lifted their first league title since 2019, and their fourth in club history.

Cover Image from IMAGO

Last Weekend: MLS Cup madness, Emery’s return to the Premier League, feisty derbies and more

In truth, we could write a column’s worth of words about the MLS Cup final and still not do it full justice, but we’ll try to cover some other matches too. Those include Aston Villa’s win over Manchester United, some big rivalries across Europe and the J.League title decider.

By Neel Shelat

🏆 MLS Cup Final: LAFC 3-3 Philadelphia Union AET (3-0 on pens)

Well, where do we even begin? Let us set the scene first: The Banc of California Stadium hosted the MLS Cup final between LAFC and Philadelphia Union on Saturday. The knockout format of the MLS Cup has often drawn criticism (especially from purists), but on this occasion, it was the two sides who finished level on points in the Supporters’ Shield, so the winner would certainly be fully deserving of the accolade.

If you had to pick a favourite, you would probably say LAFC as their squad looked stronger on paper and their underlying numbers over the course of the regular season looked more impressive too. They started the match on the front foot and were eventually rewarded for their efforts when Kellyn Acosta’s free-kick took a deflection off the wall and went in just before the half-hour mark.

The Union were forced to be more attacking in the second period, so they kept more possession on the other side of the half-time break and tried to make things happen. They got exactly what they wanted in the 59th minute, as Daniel Gazdag equalised after a set-piece. A little later, the madness began.

Jesús Murillo was celebrating in the 83rd minute after scoring a go-ahead goal from a corner from LAFC, but before the home fans had somewhat calmed down, Jack Elliott responded in kind after a set-piece to take the game to extra time.

The first 20 or so minutes were relatively uneventful, but then there was a massive twist in the tale. LAFC had a man sent off after Maxime Crépeau took out Cory Burke in a bid to reach a loose back pass, but more concerningly, he suffered a horrific injury in the process. That led to a long break in play which left us with eight minutes of stoppage-time, where Elliott scored from a set-piece situation again to seemingly win the Cup for Philadelphia.

The 10 men of LAFC desperately searched for an equaliser, and somehow, they eventually found one in the 128th minute through summer signing and extra time substitute Gareth Bale, who has quite a habit of scoring important goals in the biggest games. That meant that after 120 minutes of drama, we were off to penalties.

Crépeau’s injury meant that Philadelphia-born John McCarthy was in goal for LAFC. In his time with the Union, he had made a name for himself as a penalty specialist, and that reputation was set to be tested against his hometown club on the biggest of stages. Both sides failed to convert their first attempt, but then McCarthy rose to the occasion as he made two saves while his teammates buried their next three attempts, sealing the MLS Cup in the process.

With that, LAFC lifted their first-ever piece of postseason silverware, and also became the eighth side to do the Supporters’ Shield-MLS Cup double.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England: Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United

Sunday marked the return of Unai Emery to the English Premier League, almost three years since he was sacked by Arsenal. After a successful stint at Villarreal, the Spaniard returned to England when Aston Villa came calling after dismissing Steven Gerrard.

Emery named his first XI in what could be described as a 4-2-3-1 formation.

However, the usage of Jacob Ramsey and Emiliano Buendía in the wide attacking positions meant that this system looked quite unique in possession. Those two players are midfielders by trade so they tucked infield to the half-spaces, creating quite a narrow shape. This was not too dissimilar from what he had done at Villarreal.

Another similarity to his work at Villarreal was Aston Villa’s defensive shape, which was a compact 4-4-2 block. That worked pretty well, as Manchester United were restricted to an xG tally of 0.52 from 8 shots, scoring only through an own goal.

To be fair, Villa themselves did not look exceptional going forward as they only managed to get 6 shots away, but half of them went in including Leon Bailey’s early strike, Lucas Digne’s free-kick and Jacob Ramsey’s finish early in the second half. That was enough for what was just Aston Villa’s second win since the start of October.

Next up, they will be facing United again in the League Cup in midweek before travelling to Brighton for their last pre-World Cup league fixture. Then, a six-week break should give Emery enough time to implement his ideas properly with this squad.

🇳🇱 Netherlands: Ajax 1-2 PSV

It was time for De Topper in the Netherlands, as league-leaders Ajax hosted second-placed PSV on Sunday.

The home side started off well, but 23 minutes in, a typical PSV goal that saw Cody Gakpo deliver a right-footed cross from the left to a tall man in the box (namely Luuk de Jong on this particular occasion) gave them the lead. A few minutes into the second half, this advantage was doubled when Erick Gutiérrez netted from close range after a corner. Substitute Lorenzo Lucca pulled one back for Ajax in the 83rd minute, but by then it was a case of too little too late.

Tempers did flare up on a couple of occasions in this match as there were some scuffles from time to time including after the full-time whistle, but some relatively lenient refereeing enabled everyone to avoid a sending-off. So, despite creating little in the way of attack, PSV came away with a crucial win that takes them to top of the table.

🇮🇹 Italy: Juventus 2-0 Inter

Sunday was derby day in Serie A, as two huge fixtures were scheduled back-to-back. First, Roma took on Lazio in the Derby della Capitale, and after that, it was time for the Derby d’Italia between Juventus and Inter.

Both sides had begun the season in an underwhelming fashion which left them 13 and 11 points away from the league leaders Napoli respectively, so if either of them still harboured hopes of participating in the title race, they were already close to must-win territory.

Massimiliano Allegri’s side were arguably having the worse season so far as they also crashed out of the Champions League in the group stage, but they had some reason to be positive of late. In these tough times, youth team players such as Fabio Miretti, Nicolò Fagioli, Samuel Iling-Junior and Matías Soulé were coming to the fore and helping the side get some good results.

Miretti has somewhat become a regular starter, while Fagioli was given his full league debut in this match after scoring the winner against Lecce in midweek. He made the most of this opportunity by getting on the scoresheet once again late on in the match to cap off Juventus’ victory after Adrien Rabiot scored the opener in the 52nd minute.

Truthfully, the story of this match was more about a really bland performance from Inter than a great showing from the home side. The 2020/21 title winners missed some big chances in the first half, but more concerningly, showed a real lack of fight after going down and looked well beaten by the end.

This result leaves Inter down in seventh and outside the European spots as it stands, so perhaps they should shift their focus from gunning for the title to securing a Champions League spot next season.

🇪🇸 Spain: Real Betis 1-1 Sevilla

Juventus vs Inter might not have had all the feistiness you would typically associate with a derby, but over in Spain, El Gran Derbi more than made up for it. Fourth-placed Real Betis were hosting Sevilla, who were down in 19th going into this fixture but were looking to set things right under recently-appointed head coach Jorge Sampaoli.

After a relatively peaceful first half an hour, the drama kicked off after the referee was called to the monitor by VAR to review a dangerous tackle by Sevilla right-back Gonzalo Montiel, who was subsequently sent off. Jesús Navas was sent on to plug the gap, but he ended up scoring an own goal with his (inadvertent) first touch of the ball.

There was more to come before half-time, as Nabil Fekir was sent off in stoppage time following a VAR review for a stray arm in an opponent’s face. So, Betis began the second half a goal up but with 10 against 10 in terms of players on the pitch – although that quickly changed when the referee completed his VAR-assisted hat-trick of red cards in the 49th minute. This time, Borja Iglesias was given his marching orders for stamping on an opponent’s foot.

With a 10-9 numerical advantage on the field, Sevilla then proceeded to pepper the Betis goal with shots, but some poor shooting and great defending meant that they could only score once through Nemanja Gudelj’s long-range screamer in the 81st minute and had to settle for a disappointing draw.

If you think this was a crazy game, wait until you hear about what happened between Boca Juniors and Racing Club in the Trofeo de Campeones final in Argentina, which saw just the 10 red cards at the end of extra time.

🇯🇵 Japan: Vissel Kobe 1-3 Yokohama F.Marinos

The headline act of the final matchday of the J.League season was the title race, which had gone right down to the wire after leaders Yokohoma F.Marinos were really stumbling over the line. Having lost two and drawn one of their last five league fixtures, they missed the chance to seal the title with a little breathing room to spare, so the pressure was well and truly on now.

They still maintained a two-point lead over Kawasaki Frontale, so their task was to visit Kobe and come away with at least a point, which would most likely have been enough for the title thanks to their goal difference advantage. The equation for Kawasaki, therefore, was to beat FC Tokyo and hope for a huge favour from Vissel Kobe.

Toru Oniki’s side held up their end of the bargain in the first half by taking an early lead, although going down to 10 men thereafter was not ideal. The trouble for them was that the Marinos took the lead before the half-hour mark too, but Kobe equalised in first half stoppage-time to make things really tense.

The numerically disadvantaged Kawasaki Frontale fought admirably in the second half where they clawed the lead back on two separate occasions after conceding an equaliser, but their efforts were in vain because Yokohoma F.Marinos retook the lead in the 53rd minute, and went on to add a third 20 minutes later to effectively seal the title.

So, Frontale’s bid to win a third-consecutive title failed as the Marinos lifted their first league title since 2019, and their fourth in club history.

Cover Image from IMAGO