Category: Sports

Given the number of changes to the starting XI, it was always going to be difficult for the Portland Timbers to pull off a result away to LAFC in the US Open Cup on Tuesday.

In the end, Portland went down 2-0 at Banc of California Stadium thanks to goals from Cristian Arango and Mamadou Fall either side of half-time.

But the scoreline only tells half the story, with the Timbers attempting 16 shots to LAFC‘s 14, with six of them forcing saves from Black and Gold stopper Maxime Crepeau. The Canadian goalkeeper’s presence between the sticks was emblematic of how strong a side LA head coach Steve Cherundolo fielded on the night.

Portland, meanwhile, rested a number of key figures, with the likes of Sebastian Blanco, Yimmi Chara, and Cristhian Paredes only coming on from the bench to try and salvage the game. Victor Griffith was among the players to come up from Portland Timbers 2, while David Ayala and Justin Rasmussen have only managed limited minutes in MLS play this season.

Despite the round of 32 defeat, Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese left California happy with the efforts of his patchwork side.

“If you watch the match, you will see how well we played,” he said. “A good performance from a lot of new players that haven’t trained enough with us, guys that came from T2 like (Victor) Griffith and Julian Bravo.

“Nathan (Fogaça) that is part of the first team now. David Ayala who hasn’t played a lot of minutes. I thought very good performances today, and I think it says a lot when the man of the match is the goalkeeper on the other side.”

Another first-team regular to come off the bench was Jaroslaw Niezgoda, who has three goals in 11 MLS appearances so far this season. The Polish striker came on in the 67th minute to give Portland more attacking impetus but in the 88th, he left the field with an apparent groin injury.

The Timbers are already short up front with Felipe Mora sidelined due to a knee injury, so supporters were understandably concerned about seeing Niezgoda limp out.

Savarese is still in the dark about the severity of the injury, but is hopeful of having Niezgoda back for Portland’s home tie against Sporting Kansas City at the weekend.

“It seems that he pulled — a little bit — his groin,” he said. “He felt a little something and decided to come out. Now it will be evaluated if it’s difficult or severe. So we now have to look at it and hopefully, he can bounce back and be ready for this weekend.”

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has confirmed that the club would like to bring Conor Gallagher back to the club when his loan spell expires at the end of the season.

Gallagher has enjoyed a terrific campaign at Selhurst Park, registering eight goals and three assists – form that has led to him breaking into the England squad ahead of the World Cup later this year.

The Chelsea midfielder also recently won the Eagles’ player of the season award, with Parish jokingly suggesting that the club’s supporters have a ‘whip round’ to pay for his transfer fee at the ceremony on Tuesday evening.

The Palace chairman has now fleshed out these tongue-in-cheek remarks, saying: “Conor’s future and that decision lies not with us but with him and Chelsea. They’re the people that have to decide.

“Once they decide what their choice is, they know where we are and what we want. We’re not going to pretend any different but we’ve got to respect them as a football club because he’s their player.

“At the end of the season he goes back to Chelsea and they’ll make their decision. Based on that, we’ll be there and if everybody thinks it’s the right thing for him to come back then we would love it.

“If it doesn’t work out, we wish him all the best as well.”

Listen now to 90min’s brand new podcast, Talking Transfers, with Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey & Toby Cudworth. On this week’s agenda is Erling Haaland’s transfer to Manchester City, Ralf Rangnick recommending Konrad Laimer to Manchester United and the latest on the contract situations of Youri Tielemans and Sadio Mane.

Parish added that if Palace could not re-sign Gallagher – either permanently or on loan – they would look at alternative targets.

“Obviously with Conor, we’ve got to see what we can do there. He’s going back and we’ve got to either replace him or see if we can get him back,” he said.

“We’ve got one or two other situations that are well-documented so keeping what we’ve got here is an important thing. Then we’ve got one or two ideas of where we think we can add to make a difference, give ourselves something different, get even better at keeping the ball and be a bit more damaging when we’ve got it.

“There’s no limit to our ambition at the football club. We’ll obviously look to bring some of the youngsters through that we’ve got who are very good and we start every year dreaming of being Leicester.”

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Watford have announced the appointment of Forest Green Rovers boss Rob Edwards as their new head coach ahead of the 2022/23 season.

The Hornets have already been relegated from the Premier League and will return to the Championship after just one year back in the top flight.

Current boss Roy Hodgson recently confirmed that he will step down and head back into retirement at the end of the season, and Watford have revealed Edwards as his successor.

“Watford Football Club is delighted to confirm the appointment of Rob Edwards as its new Head Coach, effective after the conclusion of the current 2021/22 season,” a statement read.

“Rob had a contractual provision allowing him to leave Forest Green Rovers at any time to discuss employment opportunities at other clubs and the Hornets are delighted to confirm our discussions concluded today.”

The second line of Watford’s statement is in reference to Forest Green Rovers’ unhappy public reaction to Edwards’ departure, insisting that negotiations took place behind their backs and that the Hornets were ‘giving football a bad name’.

Edwards led Rovers to the League Two title for the first time in their history in his only season in charge at The New Lawn.

Italian center-back Giorgio Chiellini was recently offered a contract by MLS side LAFC, according to reports.

The 37-year-old has been a stalwart for Juventus since 2005, making well over 500 appearances for the club and winning nine Serie A titles among a host of major honors. At international level, the veteran defender has 116 caps for Italy to his name and was part of their Euro 2020-winning side.

Chiellini signed a new deal with Juventus last August that runs to the end of the 2022/23 Serie A campaign, but reports emerged last month that he would depart the club at the end of the current season. Major League Soccer was listed as his most likely destination.

On Tuesday, The Athletic reported Los Angeles FC have already reached out and made an offer to Chiellini, but could not confirm whether or not he is still considering it. Their report also revealed that the Vancouver Whitecaps – led by Italian coach Vanni Sartini – are also interested.

LAFC have not offered Chiellini a Designated Player contract, but instead would use Targeted Allocation Money, meaning he could earn no more than $1.65m in 2023.

Journalist Fabrizio Romano later reported that Chiellini has already received offers from two MLS clubs, with another team joining the hunt alongside LAFC.