The wide world of soccer featured everything under the sun this weekend, from a desolate Camp Nou, to a near-tragic barrier collapse, to celebration for new MLS playoff teams, and a potential season-defining victory by Manchester City sprinkled in.
90 Minutes presents the Top Five things from a jam-packed weekend of international soccer:
1. Camp Nou muzzled by political unrest
Not even the majestic Camp Nou, one of the “cathedrals” in world soccer, escaped the effects of the political unrest in Catalonia.
As police and civilians clashed in the streets, Barcelona and Las Palmas went about their scheduled La Liga match in front of an empty Camp Nou, as decided by the Catalonian club after having a postponement request denied by the league given the social unrest. Lionel Messi led the way with two goals, and Barcelona remains atop the league with a perfect record. But the feeling of uneasiness and the sour taste is what remains to those who tried to enjoy this encounter in search of some feeling of normality.
Unfortunately, politics silenced the beautiful game on Sunday. But the game shall return with a resounding roar.
2. Lille narrowly avoids tragedy
Sunday’s strange environment in Barcelona was preceeded by a near-tragic accident in France on Saturday.
The Amiens-Lille match was suspened after only 15 minutes when the barrier holding visiting fans gave way as Lille celebrated its first goal of the match. Dozens of fans collpased onto each other in an avalanche effect, leaving 29 people injured. Supporters scrambled to escape the pile-up, as other attempted to aid from the outside. For a period of several minutes, the world witnessed scenes remisicent of previous soccer tragedies that marked the history of the game.
Lille announced Sunday all 29 fans were released from the hospital, fortunately avoiding what could have been a lamentable tragedy.
3. Citizens of the highest class
Returning to the events happening on the pitch, it is time to salute arguably the best performance by Manchester City under Pep Guardiola.
Those who check out the Top Five Midweek remember the praise give to Chelsea’s marvelous performance against Atletico Madrid in Champions League. Today, simply change the mentions of “Chelsea” with “Manchester City” from Friday, and apply to City’s dominance of Chelsea Saturday at Stamford Bridge. City had Conte’s side totally pinned in their own half, controlling possession and position, and frustrating most of Chelsea’s offensive attempts with high pressure and double teams.
For the first time, City looked like a quintissential Pep Guardiola team, reminiscent of those Barcelona sides. And big kudos to Kevin De Bruyne, who created and finished an amazing screamer to keep City atop the Premier League.
4. The road to MLS glory narrows
With only three weeks left in the regular season, the MLS playoff picture is starting to become more clear.
As of this weekend, six out of 12 teams have punched their ticket to the big dance, and the Supporters’ Shield has a new owner. Toronto FC defeated the New York Red Bulls Saturday night, becoming the first Canadian franchise even to lead the league in points in the regular season, and still have a legitimate shot at breaking the single-season points record with four more points in the final stretch. Celebration spilled over to Columbus, as the Crew will return to the playoffs for the first time since 2015. So is the case for the Vancouver Whitecaps, who earned a tough victory at Kansas City, are continue to hang on to first place in the Western Conference.
Columbus and Toronto join New York City, Atlanta United, and Chicago in the East, while Vancouver is the lone playoff team in the West, where seven teams will fight it out for five remaining spots.
5. Meanwhile in Paris…
For the first time in many days, the spotlight is not shining bright upon Paris. But just in case anyone forgot, PSG is a really, really good team, and Saturday’s shellacking of Bordeaux, 6-2 was just an exaggerated encore to the 3-0 win against Bayern that confirms PSG as a world superpower.
PSG’s ascent is credited in great part to Neymar, whose scintillating free kick is the Top Five’s Goal of the Weekend.
