With football returning in some of Europe’s Big Five nations while the summer leagues continue, the 2022/23 season is about to lift off. On our agenda this time around, we have England’s Euros triumph, Wayne Rooney’s first match in charge of DC United, Vincent Kompany’s managerial debut for Burnley and more.
🏆 UEFA Women’s Euros: England 2-1 Germany
The big day was finally here. Almost a year after the men’s team faltered at the final hurdle, England’s women had the chance to win their nation’s first major footballing trophy since 1966.
The Euros had been filled with high-quality football from a tactical, technical and entertainment point of view, but the final was different. It was chaotic, often scrappy, and sometimes a little violent but that is just how such big finals tend to be.
There were no goals in a first half of limited chances but England took the lead after the hour mark when Keira Walsh played Ella Toone in behind and the Manchester United forward beat the keeper with a delightful scoop. Before the English fans could really start to dream — just before the 80th minute — Germany popped the party as Lina Magull applied a finish to a mesmerising passing sequence.
As extra time wore on, the Wembley crowd would inevitably have been reminded of the Euro 2020 final which the men’s team lost on penalties. 10 minutes before the end though, Chloe Kelly scored her first-ever England goal in the scrappiest fashion possible to snatch the lead again.
That was followed by 10 minutes of the artform that is keeping the ball in the opposition corner, and then finally, the referee called it a day. The significance of this achievement, not just on a sporting level but also on a societal level, cannot be overstated.
In truth, this could have been anyone’s game as the xG indicates, but buoyed by their home crowd, England showed just a little bit more in extra time, and that was the difference between victory and defeat.
This is a very clichéd thing to say, but genuinely, football was the real winner on this occasion.
🇺🇸 MLS: DC United 2-1 Orlando City
MLS is no stranger to action-packed weekends but this one was even crazier than usual as there were 37 goals scored, two four-all draws, and two other matches that featured four or more goals.
We will be making do with a match that saw just three goals though, because it featured Wayne Rooney’s managerial debut for DC United, a club he represented as a player during his previous spell in America.
The ex-Derby County manager set his side up in a 4-4-2 formation, but things did not exactly start well as Júnior Urso opened the scoring for Orlando with a wonderful lob in the ninth minute. The visitors were in control of the match thereafter, but as Rooney and co. so often did during his playing days under a certain Scottish manager, his team fought back late in stoppage time to turn the game on its head.
The xG faithful would call this win far from deserved, but DC United got the three points in the end, and that is what matters. This win takes them off the foot of the Supporters’ Shield standings but they remain last in the East so there is lots of work to be done from here on in.
🏴 England: Huddersfield Town 0-1 Burnley
The Community Shield in England provided most of the weekend’s headlines but a more consequential match was the Championship opener between Huddersfield Town and Burnley on Friday night.
There were new managers in both dugouts so both sets of fans would have been full of that new-season optimism. Burnley were kicking off in the second tier for the first time since 2015/16 and they were much-changed. With Sean Dyche departing towards the end of last season Vincent Kompany was brought in from Anderlecht and tasked with leading the Clarets back to the Premier League.
Saying that Dyche and Kompany’s styles of play are polar opposites would be an understatement. Dyche was known for a defensive style of football centred around an organised and hard working 4-4-2 block. Kompany, on the other hand, developed a lot of his tactical ideas as a player under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, so he likes his teams to play a possession-dominant brand of football.
The Belgian manager named his XI in a 4-3-3 formation, which morphed into a sort of 3-4-2-1 in possession with lots of positional rotations. The keeper was regularly involved outside his box as he popped up on the right of defence to offer passing options, while the wingers, and full-backs had defined and different roles.
For a side renowned worldwide for their defensive football, Burnley’s adaptation to this stylistic shift was very impressive. There were some favourable factors for them that should be mentioned, such as the fact that over half of their line-up was comprised of debutantes, and Huddersfield looked clueless as they sat in their defensive shape and let their opponents do whatever they pleased.
Nonetheless, Kompany and his side should be very happy with this win, which was more comprehensive than the scoreline suggests as they outshot their opponents 16-2. Undoubtedly, though, tougher tests await the Clarets.
🇩🇪 Germany: Elversberg 4-3 Bayer Leverkusen
We had the Supercup in Germany too, which Bayern won 5-3, but our focus will be on the Cupset laden first round of the DFB Pokal.
2. Bundesliga side Jahn Regensburg beat Köln on penalties, Lubeck, who play in the fourth tier got the better of Hansa Rostock, fifth-tier club Stuttgarter Kickers won by a two-goal margin against Greuther Fürth, who were only relegated from the Bundesliga last season, and 2. Bundesliga newcomers Eintracht Braunschweig sent Hertha Berlin packing, amongst others.
Arguably the biggest upset, though, was Elversberg prevailing over Bayer Leverkusen in a seven-goal thriller. They won promotion from the Regionalliga, which is the fourth tier of German football, for just the second time in their history last season, so going and beating a side that qualified for the Champions League by finishing third in the top flight is a mightily impressive achievement. In fact, it was the first time they defeated a top-division side in a competitive fixture.
Even more impressive is the fact that they went toe-to-toe with their opponents, taking the lead on three separate occasions and almost matching them in terms of chance creation.
Elversberg have never made it past the second round of the DFB Pokal, so they could create yet more history in a few weeks’ time.
🇫🇷 France: PSG 4-0 Nantes
As in England, the French season kicked off with the second tier playing the same weekend as the Super Cup but for once, we’ll give precedence to the latter.
A big reason for that was the fact it was Christophe Galtier’s first competitive match in charge of Paris Saint-Germain and there were lots of positive signs to take. Last season, Mauricio Pochettino lost this match as he was still figuring out the best way to use his superstars in collaboration but Galtier has appeared to have taken notes from his predecessor.
Both at Lille and Nice, Galtier employed a 4-4-2 formation and emphasised defence first, but he unsurprisingly is not doing that at PSG. Over midway through last season, Pochettino seemed to realise that switching to a back-three was the best way forward for his squad, and Galtier did not change that as his XI lined up in a 3-4-3 formation.
Lionel Messi played through the middle as a false-nine while Neymar had lots of freedom to drop deep on the left. Kylian Mbappé was suspended so Pablo Sarabia operated as the most advanced attacker on the right but no doubt the French super star will do a better job in this role. Apart from that, the only intriguing thing of note was Marco Verratti dropping in the last line to allow the wide centre-backs to push forward, but this happened only occasionally in the first half.
Of course, the big question is how PSG will work defensively with the lack of input from their superstar attackers, and this is a question that was not really answered here as Nantes kept little possession. Barring a couple of early saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma, this was a smooth win for the French champions with Messi, Neymar and Sergio Ramos all getting on the scoresheet.
🇳🇱 Netherlands: Ajax 3-5 PSV Eindhoven
In a weekend full of Super Cup finals, the best one by far in terms of entertainment was played in the Netherlands, where Ajax took on rivals PSV in a day of debuts. Six players including four starters were making their competitive debuts for their clubs, with an even split on both sides. Additionally, there were new managers in both dugouts – Alfred Schreuder for Ajax and Ruud van Nistelrooy (yes, that one) for PSV.
Steven Bergwijn, who recently left Tottenham, opened his Ajax account with a wonderful curling effort to give them a early lead. Guus Til did one better by half-time, though, as he scored two near-carbon copy headers to turn the match on its head. Antony equalised for the hosts early in the second half, but a Gakpo goal, and Til completing a hat-trick on debut gave PSV a two-goal cushion.
Substitute Mohamed Kudus pulled one back with almost 20 minutes left to bring Ajax within touching distance of their opponents but Calvin Bassey’s first competitive outing for Ajax was soured when he got sent off in the 78th minute. PSV had lots of chances to put the game to bed, but they only successfully did so in stoppage time through Xavi Simons, the highly-rated youngster who left PSG this summer.
It should be said that in the last 11 seasons, the winners of the Johan Cruyff Shield have only gone on to lift the league title on three occasions, so perhaps this result is not truly indicative of the season to come!
Written by Neel Shelat.
Cover Image from IMAGO