Lion Links: 11/3/19

Happy Sunday, Mane Landers. I hope you remembered to turn your back your clocks or you’re really not going to be on time for anything until the spring. Don’t forget the one in the car. That one can be tricky.

Let’s do this. Here’s your Sunday helping of Links. Enjoy!

Nani Hits Cape Verde on Tour

Our Portuguese captain is off to his birthplace of Cape Verde, where he’ll do some combination of charity work and charity match play — neither of which do I believe Nani even views as “charity work,” but as something he merely wants to do. I don’t have all of the details at my disposal, so I think it’d be wise to keep an eye on #17’s social media feeds to see what he’s up to. (Insert eyes emoji here). Or you can have Chrome translate this article for you, which gives more details.

U.S. Knocked Out of U-17 World Cup

The United States needed to beat the Netherlands to have a shot at getting out of group play at the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup but instead went gently into that good night, getting pounded by the Dutch, 4-0 in Goiania, Brazil. It was almost worse but the U.S. stopped a penalty.

The United States finished dead last in Group D and scored only one goal in the tournament. If you’re looking for a brighter future for the USMNT, the U-17s failed to provide any hope for that with their quick World Cup exit. The U.S. went 0-2-1, earned just one point with a draw vs. Japan, and finished with the side’s all-time worst goal differential (-7) in the competition. Woof.

Christian Pulisic Continues to Shine for Chelsea

The American midfielder and Chelsea starlet was at it again this weekend, helping decide a clash against Watford by scoring a goal in a 2-1 win. Pulisic scored in the 55th minute, and the goal ended up being the match winner. The youngster has been on fire as of late, showing excellent form in finishing and buildup play. Cheers, Christian! Keep it up and then take that same mentality with you to the national team. We surely need it.

Jürgen Klopp: VAR is a “Problem”

You know you have something to think about when, arguably, one of the greatest managers of both our time and of all time has emerged to publicly state his disdain with how VAR has worked thus far in the Premier League.

“Look, we have now a real problem,” said Klopp, who admitted it wasn’t a key talking point for him given his side secured the victory. “But now we talk about serious moments, very important moments in football. It is not the right way that we sit here, talk about it and everybody wants to laugh about. It’s not to laugh about, to be honest. For that it is too serious. Managers get the sack for losing football games. It’s just like this. I don’t want to make it bigger really than it is, but in fact we just have to clarify it. I don’t say anybody is doing it on purpose or whatever, we just have to clarify it.”

Klopp is a likable man, and it’s hard to disagree with him here. The man makes a valid point.

Free Kicks

• Unfortunately, my club of choice FC Bayern took a thrashing at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt, 5-1. It happens, but this season’s Bundesliga could be an entertaining race to keep an eye on.
• Levante upset Barcelona, 3-1. You read that correctly.
• Look away Manchester United fans, but the Red Devils dropped all three points to a deserving Bournemouth side.
• A German derby between Union Berlin and Hertha Berlin resulted in clashes, as Union’s goalkeeper was forced to confront some of his club’s own supporters.
• An Italian Serie A match between Napoli and Roma was suspended due to abusive chanting. I mean, c’mon people. Be better humans.

All right folks, that’s it for today. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and kick some ass this week!