Latest news with #clean sheet
CTV News
2 days ago
- Sport
- CTV News
Vancouver Whitecaps blank struggling Sporting Kansas City 3-0
Vancouver Whitecaps' Jean-Claude Ngando (26) celebrates his goal against the Sporting Kansas City during the first half of an MLS soccer match in Vancouver, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns Yohei Takaoka isn't sure if this is the best soccer he's ever played — but the Vancouver Whitecaps goalkeeper believes he and his team are on the verge of something special. Takaoka stopped all three on-target shots he faced on Saturday and backstopped the 'Caps (13-5-6) to a decisive 3-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City (6-12-6). The result marked his Major League Soccer-leading 11th clean sheet of the season and came just days after he represented Vancouver at the league's all-star festivities in Austin, Texas. Asked whether this season marks the best of his career, the Japanese 'keeper hedged. 'It's tough to say. I hope so,' he said, noting that he and his teammates won the J-League title the league playing back in 2022. 'So I think that's one of the best in my career. But this season might be a new one.' Takaoka was quick to credit those around his success, though. 'I think it's the group, a group performance,' he said. 'I'm in the goal, but the other 10 players are working really hard. Not just the players, but the staff. Everyone's working hard.' Vancouver's group clicked on Saturday, controlling 54.2 per cent possession and outshooting Kansas City 22-12 with a 5-3 edge in on-target shots. The visitors challenged the 'Caps early, repeatedly stripping the home side of the ball through the first 10 minutes before Vancouver settled in and took control of the match midway through the first half. The Whitecaps opened the scoring in the 35th minute when Jayden Nelson sliced a ball across the top of the six-yard box to Emmanuel Sabbi, who slid and poked a shot in past SKC goalkeeper John Pulskamp to make it 1-0. The goal was Sabbi's sixth across all competitions this season. He came close to adding to the tally before the halftime whistle. The American striker sent a shot up and over the Kansas City net in the 38th minute, then sent a low ball sailing just wide of the post in the 41st. A rebound helped double Vancouver's lead in the 43rd minute. Sebastian Berhalter nodded a shot toward the net but his attempt was blocked and the ball popped out to J.C. Ngando, who put a right-footed shot in just over Pulskamp's outstretched arm. His second goal of the season gave the 'Caps a 2-0 lead. Kansas City pushed to get on the board early in the second half and got a solid chance in the 55th minute. Left winger Daniel Salloi snuck through the Vancouver defence and unleashed a rocket from the top of the penalty area, but Takaoka dove to make the save. The 'keeper has been 'very, very good' this season, said Vancouver's head coach, Jesper Sorensen. 'It just gives confidence to the players in front of him. He gives the defensive players a lot of trust in him and there's not a lot happening around him,' Sorensen said. 'So I think he gives a very calm and he has a very calm demeanour, and I think that it spreads to his teammates in front of him.' The 'Caps appeared to go up 3-0 in the 68th minute when striker Brian White touched a shot into the back of the SKC net, but the goal was quickly ruled offside. Laborda put away Vancouver's third goal of the night in the 87th minute off a corner kick. Berhalter floated a ball into the six-yard box and Laborda nodded it in under Pulskamp's arm for his third goal of the campaign. The Whitecaps are now unbeaten in their last three outings (2-0-1) and sit a single point behind San Diego FC for top spot in the West. It's been a busy year for Vancouver, which has played 35 games across all competitions. 'Right now is a tricky part of the season, because we are in a good spot, but we also used a lot of energy so far, played 35 games,' Sorensen said. 'And players, now they will get a week off because they need a break. Some of them have played Gold Cup, some of them played Austin this mid-week. So they need some time off also.' After the break, the 'Caps have 10 games to go on their regular-season schedule, and will look to defend their Canadian Championship title. 'I think that now it's a good time just to get a little bit of rest and then come back fresh,' Sorensen said. 'And then we're ready to really attack the last bit of the season.' This report by Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press, was first published July 26, 2025.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Chris Brady makes it back-to-back clean sheets in Fire's 1-0 win over Red Bulls
CHICAGO — Hugo Cuypers scored a penalty late in the first half, Chris Brady earned his second consecutive clean sheet, and the Chicago Fire defeated the New York Red Bulls 1-0 on Saturday night. Brady, who stopped four shots in a 2-0 win over Montreal before the All-Star break, had three saves against New York. He last registered back-to-back shutouts in 2024 against New York City and Cincinnati.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'Very important for us to get back into the rhythm'
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner says pre-season preparations are going "really well" and his team are "on track" following their 3-0 win over League Two side Crawley Town on Friday Mateta, Eberechi Eze and Daniel Munoz were all on the scoresheet as the Eagles made it two wins and two clean sheets from two pre-season fixtures."Pre-season is going really well," Glasner told Palace TV, external after the friendly. "The players are doing really well. They are being very ambitious and showing great work-ethic."I'm really pleased with the performance. The players did well, scored nice goals, created many chances and we got another clean sheet - so we are on track."It is very important for us to get back into the rhythm and into the pattern of how we want to play."All of the players are arriving on different days. Chris Richards will join us for the Austria camp because he played in the [Concacaf Gold Cup] final with the USA. Marc Guehi has a small injury but will train with us on Sunday. Eddie Nketiah is the same."We don't want to take any risks."The Eagles are heading out to Austria next week to continue their pre-season preparations and Glasner is looking forward to the squad "spending time together" after a lifting the FA Cup trophy and setting a club-record Premier League points tally last season."It's not like everybody goes on vacation and then after six or seven weeks you come back together and you snap your fingers and everything is back again," Glasner added. "You have to invest, work and spend time together - then the bond will be there again."Therefore it is good to have time together, have training sessions, have video meeting with the players - as a team and individually - and also enjoy the time."Unfortunately, the weather in London will be better than the weather in Austria, but no problem! We are looking forward to having a very intense week."
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sam Surridge scores his 18th goal and Joe Willis earns 9th clean sheet as Nashville beats Toronto
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sam Surridge scored his 18th goal of the season, Joe Willis earned his ninth clean sheet and Nashville beat Toronto FC 1-0 on Saturday night. Nashville (14-5-5), which won its ninth home game this season, set a franchise record for wins during the regular season, topping 13 set in 2022 and '23. Nashville is unbeaten in its last six matches against Toronto (5-12-6), outscoring the Canadian side 8-3. Nashville is also undefeated (3-0-0) against Toronto when Surridge scores. Surridge scored in the 28th minute. Goalkeeper Sean Johnson made a diving save of Hany Mukhtar's left-footed shot outside of the box but it spilled to Surridge for an easy finish. Surridge became the 10th player in MLS history to score at least 18 goals in his team's first 24 games of a season and the first to do so since Carlos Vela and Josef Martínez in 2019. The shutout victory marked Willis' 76th career MLS regular season clean sheet and his 101st career MLS regular season win. ___ AP soccer:
New York Times
18-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Chelsea's positional fluidity stifled PSG, providing Maresca with a blueprint for next season
Not many teams keep a clean sheet against Paris Saint-Germain. In a long, quadruple-winning 2024-25 season, Luis Enrique's side had failed to score on just five occasions before the Club World Cup final, but each of those shut-outs were qualitatively different from the blueprint that Enzo Maresca laid out for Chelsea on Sunday. Advertisement 'The message was quite clear. We won the game in the first 10 minutes,' Maresca told reporters after the 3-0 victory. 'The message before the game was, 'Let them understand we are here to win the game'. It set the tone of the game.' It was a statement that would not be out of place in a Sunday league dressing room, with players imploring their team-mates to 'let them know you are there early' as an act of hostility. But Chelsea's aggression out of possession was a crucial factor in their victory as they snapped into challenges and got tight to their Parisian opponents, particularly in the first half. PSG's fluid positional rotations have the capacity to twist anyone's blood, as so many of Europe's elite sides have found out in recent months. Luis Enrique's side can pull your defensive shape apart to create space with their movement. However, space does not score goals. Chelsea's adaptable defensive performance matched the fluidity that PSG looked to implement in possession. They were aggressive with it, but it was clear that every action they did off the ball, they performed with conviction. This was clear from the opening exchanges, when Trevoh Chalobah tracked midfielder Fabian Ruiz's run across the pitch to receive the ball. By shutting the passing option off at source, Fabian was unable to gain possession as PSG continued to circulate the ball elsewhere. Chelsea were not entirely man-for-man across the pitch, but it was crucial that their centre-backs tracked their runners all the way when they were getting touch-tight to their markers — even if it meant being in unnatural positions at times. Below, you can see Ousmane Dembele dropping as far as left-back to find a pocket of space, but Chalobah follows him all the way to force him into a simple pass, while Chelsea briefly shuffle across to form a temporary back three. There were countless other examples, with Chalobah's centre-back partner Levi Colwill doing exactly the same in stepping out from the defensive line to stop any danger before it grew — dovetailing excellently with midfielder Moises Caicedo, who would drop into Chelsea's back line to plug any gaps opened by his team-mate. This was even more prominent with an example later in the first half, where you would be forgiven for thinking that it was Colwill who was playing as Chelsea's defensive midfielder and Caicedo as left centre-back, based on this image. With the threat that PSG are known to pose in wide areas, similar communication was needed on the flanks. Wingers tracking their runners is a tale as old as time, but the extent to which Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto shut down the space and stuck to their jobs will have pleased Maresca as much as any of the three goals his team scored. Advertisement With barely four minutes on the clock, Cucurella pushes high to track Desire Doue's run, dropping deep. As Marquinhos winds up to play the ball over the top, the Chelsea player deepest is Neto — who has followed Achraf Hakimi's run back to his own penalty area, nodding down the long ball for Robert Sanchez to collect. Such was Neto's desire to get back defensively, that Chelsea formed a back five at times to block the space. The image below shows the outcome of a strong first 20 minutes out of possession, with no PSG player properly inside Chelsea's compact block as they look to circulate the ball once more. It was not exactly beautiful football at times — with Chelsea comfortable playing the percentage game by whacking it upfield and starting again in the first half — but it was no less effective. It required plenty of communication, lots of pointing and a fair share of shuttle runs, but Chelsea laid the foundation for their performance in the opening stages, just as Maresca declared. In fairness, their out-of-possession approach was equally as impressive in their semi-final clash with Fluminense, but that was based more on high pressing from the midfield and forward line. With the fluidity of PSG's movement, Chelsea were unable to use defensive triggers in the same way to start a coherent press across the whole team. Instead, they opted to embrace the chaos with their front-footed one-v-one battles. As much as anything, Maresca can use Chelsea's Club World Cup final victory as a platform to show how much he can adapt tactically and curate a game plan to beat any side in European football. Such flexibility was the order of the day across the whole tournament, with Maresca using this summer to establish new ideas and strengthen the buy-in he has within the squad. Will they use an identical tactic next season in similar, high-profile games? That remains to be seen, but the defensive discipline that Chelsea showed is what they can carry into the new campaign. Advertisement 'For me, the biggest achievement this season is that exactly one year ago, no one was talking about Chelsea for football (reasons), but talking about the big squad, big money,' Maresca said on the Friday before the final. 'Now, no one is talking about this, but they are talking about the way we play, and the way we win games. This is personally the biggest achievement of this season.' With two trophies won in less than two months, you can understand why there is now greater focus on the club's on-pitch matters.
