MLS Cup Playoffs
The MLS cup playoffs have begun this week with the teams playing their first-round games. It was narrowed down to the final 16 teams, with that number shrinking to just 8 at the conclusion of this week’s games. The Seattle Sounders, who were crowned champions last year played LAFC on Monday night. The big talking point of the night is the fact that both teams have players who are out for the match after testing positive for COVID-19. LAFC with 3 and the Sounders with 1. The game occurred at the Sounders home in Seattle, at Century Link field and saw the Sounders cruising to a comfortable 3-1 win against rival LAFC. Seattle’s key players showed up in the big game, with Lodeiro, Ruidiaz, and Morris all scoring in the win. The trio, which has been the bulk of the Sounders offense this year were all awarded with MLS best 11 honors last week at the beginning of the playoffs, and in this first round they showed why they deserved it. The team will continue to heavily rely on them if they are to sustain their current success.
The Seattle Sounders, who are a 2 seed in the playoffs will square away with the 5 seed FC Dallas in their next game as they have their eyes set on the franchises 3rd MLS cup.
Who is Antoine Griezmann?
Life wasn’t always so easy for Antoine Griezmann
World Soccer superstar Antoine Griezmann seems to always have had everything handed to him, but he has recently revealed in an interview that this wasn’t always the case.
Griezmann, who has consistently played and scored goals for the French national team and Atletico Madrid, recently made a dream move to one of the biggest clubs in the world, FC Barcelona.
“It is fantastic to be at this club, it is a dream I had as a child.” A dream that didn’t always seem so realistic, he would later explain. “When I was younger, no one wanted me to play for them, they said I was too small and too weak. It was hard to find a team in France.”
Griezmann was born and grew up in Macon, which is located in the Central-eastern part of France. When he was a kid he played for the local team and had multiple tryouts with the professional teams’ academies. The French professional teams are the ones that consistently told him no, and never gave him a chance due to his size. The soccer in France is known for being very physical, and Griezmann, who was a small kid was seen as not being able to keep up.
It wasn’t until he was 14, which is a somewhat older age to be identified in European soccer, when he got his first real chance. Griezmann revealed that he was playing in a tournament in Spain with a French team was when he was first recognized.
“Real Sociedad were the first ones to ever give me a chance, they really believed in me from age 14 on.”
Real Sociedad is a club that is located in the Basque country in northern Spain. Soccer in Spain is very different than the kind that is played in France, in Spain they are known for being more technical and what you can do with the ball is more important than how fast, tall, and strong you are.
“I am really grateful that Real Sociedad gave me the chance that they did at the time they did. They really helped me develop as a player and are a big reason for why I am at where I am today.”
This decision did prove to be a big one for the club, Griezmann won Spain’s second division in the first year that Griezmann was with the first team, gaining automatic promotion to the first division, where they have stayed since then. After spending 5 seasons there, he was sold to world-renown club Atletico Madrid for a club record of 30 million Euros. Since then, Antoine Griezmann has gone on to win plenty of awards such as a World cup with France and a La Liga Title. He has also scored over 100 goals in the Spanish league.
He closed out the interview with, “Thank you Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid for all the support, I cannot wait to get started here at Barcelona.”