The club of David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Robbie Keane has been through a downturn. A sixth title would restore some shine As Major League Soccer moved into a new age with Inter Miami’s signing of Lionel Messi last year, the LA Galaxy had seemingly been left behind as a relic of different era. The club of David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Robbie Keane failed to make the playoffs for the fifth time in seven seasons. Supporters protested against the Galaxy’s leadership and boycotted matches. MLS’s original glamour club had lost its shine. Now, though, the Galaxy are just one game from a record sixth MLS Cup title with Greg Vanney’s team hosting the New York Red Bulls in Saturday’s championship decider. Ten years after they last lifted the trophy, the Galaxy have the opportunity to reassert their standing as the league’s marquee franchise while Messi and Co watch from home. Continue reading...

Updates from Old Trafford (4.30pm KO GMT)Get in touch: email Rob with your thoughts Ruud van Nistelrooy makes three changes from the side that walloped Leicester in the Carabao Cup. Andre Onana returns in goal, with Altay Bayindir dropping to the bench, while Noussair Mazraoui and Rasmus Hojlund replace Victor Lindelof and Joshua Zirkzee. Enzo Maresca, who made 11 changes for the Carabao Cup tie at St James’ Park, makes 11 more: it’s the same team that started against Newcastle in the Premier League a week ago. Continue reading...

Seven squad members missed draw at Fenerbahce‘We have to do better to get more available players’ Erik ten Hag has said he, his staff and Manchester United’s players must ensure more of the squad are fit, with the team again hampered by several injuries this season. Last term United had a total of 66 injuries and although the club were determined to address the issue in the summer, Leny Yoro, Ramsus Højlund, Luke Shaw, Mason Mount, Jonny Evans, Kobbie Mainoo, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelöf have sustained injuries this season. Tyrell Malacia remains a long-term absentee. Continue reading...

Football fans don’t really like change, and a 36-team table and playing eight teams instead of three certainly counts as that A few weeks ago I was sitting down to eat the neighbour’s cat (it’s OK, I’m an immigrant) when I saw something even more off-putting – The Uefa Champions League’s X (Twitter) video entitled The dawn of a new era. This 30-second clip was an attempt to soft-launch the European Cup format which starts next week. They’d hired a good set of ex-pros: Luís Figo, Gianluigi Buffon, Robbie Keane (who presumably has supported the new 36-team league system since he was a small boy) are there looking confused. It culminates with Zlatan Ibrahimovic ready to conduct an orchestra. “Who wrote this?” he asks. In walks Uefa’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, in impossibly shiny shoes. “I did,” he says, arms outstretched, before folding them and smiling. Continue reading...

United happy to wait until deadline day to make movePSG currently value the Uruguay midfielder at £51m Manchester United are willing to wait until transfer deadline day to try to sign Manuel Ugarte. There does not have to be any outgoings to finance the deal although Paris Saint-Germain’s £51m valuation of the Uruguay midfielder is deemed too high by United and there is belief that the French champions may reduce it as the deadline nears. Ugarte could be purchased now by United should PSG lower their asking price but the manager, Erik ten Hag, and the sporting director, Dan Ashworth, are prepared to bide their time to force a reduction. The window closes at 11pm on 30 August and United are intent on making more sales before then. The players the club would listen to offers for include Victor Lindelöf, Casemiro, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Scott McTominay. Continue reading...

BBC Sport looks back at goals that tell the story of the Euro 2004 tournament - featuring memorable strikes from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Zinedine Zidane and Wayne Rooney.

BBC Sport looks at goals that tell the story of Euro 2012 - featuring Mario Balotelli, Fernando Torres and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Manchester United go to Chelsea reeling from new injuriesTen Hag ‘doesn’t care’ if wounded list counts in job review Erik ten Hag has admitted Manchester United will struggle to qualify for the Champions League with the club’s mounting injury list a big factor. United travel to Chelsea for Thursday’s late kick-off in sixth position with Lisandro Martínez and Victor Lindelöf the latest defenders to suffer muscle problems. The club announced on Tuesday that they will be out for at least a month. Continue reading...

Manchester United defenders Lisandro Martinez and Victor Lindelof both have muscle injuries and will be out for at least a month.

The Manchester City playmaker controlled the game from tight spaces to offer mouthwatering encouragement to England At times during the opening hour of this game it might have seemed to a casual observer that Phil Foden had walked on to the pitch with a handler in tow; perhaps some tolerant elderly relative, there to stand close but not really that close, to chase dutifully, prepared to let him show off his twinkly footwork, like some weary Sunday morning dad scrolling his phone in the park. In the event this turned out to be Victor Lindelöf, Manchester United’s stand-in left-back, who did his best to track and chase and non-specifically hinder Manchester City’s outstanding attacker in what was ultimately a neck-crickingly one-sided 3-1 victory. This was a thankless security detail. Even with United’s deep-set midfield filling the spaces, Lindelöf simply didn’t have the physical capacity to stop this full-bore, mid-season version of Foden, who is just a different style of human, his feet moving too quickly, the tendons set to a different level of twang. Continue reading...

While United avoided embarrassment against Luton, their latest prosaic victory could well be another false dawn “We want to do it in the United way,” Erik ten Hag proclaimed before the start of the season. This concept was supposed to be “aggressive” and “dynamic” but most importantly it would “surprise” supporters. Twelve Premier League games and a seventh win by one goal later, the only surprising element is how mundane the football has become. It required a winner from Victor Lindelöf to secure the points against Luton, the third time this season United have needed a centre‑back to settle the result. Continue reading...

Erik ten Hag can breathe his latest sigh of relief as he and his Manchester United team head for the international break in good cheer. For this Victor Lindelöf should be thanked after a match-winner that ended a three-year wait since his last goal for the club and lifted Ten Hag’s team up to 21 points, three behind fourth-placed Liverpool, who have played a game fewer. The goal came from a corner on the left. Bruno Fernandes took this, the move broke, and the ball was worked by Mason Mount to Marcus Rashford on the opposite flank. He drilled a cross in and there was the Swede to blaze beyond Thomas Kaminski. Continue reading...

The teenage sensation missed his Spain debut because of a panic attack but hopes to offer youngsters the type of support he received from Ibrahimovic, Henry and others The plane had started to taxi towards the runway when Bojan Krkic told the flight attendant he was sorry, he couldn’t travel. It was July 2014, he was 23 and he had signed for Stoke for €1.8m, finally severing ties with Barcelona, his “home” where he became the youngest player in their history and had worked to overcome the anxiety attacks that conditioned his career. But he couldn’t do it. “She can see it’s real and asks the pilot not to take off,” he recalls. The plane turned round and went back to the terminal. “We didn’t tell Stoke what had happened; I don’t remember if we told them I’d missed the flight or if there was a problem with the papers. It was a trauma: I still find it hard to fly alone because of what happened that day. But I knew I had to; there was no other option,” Bojan says, and the next day he was back again. By the time he landed, things looked better. “Stoke were in a hotel in Germany for pre-season and I remember as soon as I got there I had the feeling that there was light.” Continue reading...

Lindelöf says players halted game after two fans were shot deadNo need to finish match, says Sweden coach Janne Andersson Victor Lindelöf has said it was the players who made the decision to abandon the Euro 2024 qualifier against Belgium after they were told that two Swedish fans had been shot dead in Brussels before the game. The attack on the supporters happened before the game at the King Baudouin Stadium, which kicked off at 8.45pm local time, but the players were not informed of the incident until half-time, at which point Lindelöf, Sweden’s captain, felt it was impossible to carry on. Continue reading...