GERRARD SACKED AFTER VILLA LOSS
Steven Gerrard had only just finished telling interviewers he would fight on at Aston Villa when the announcement came.
“Aston Villa Football Club can confirm that head coach Steven Gerrard has left the club with immediate effect,” the club said in a statement Thursday. “We would like to thank Steven for his hard work and commitment and wish him well for the future.”
It felt particularly cruel that Gerrard would be thrust in front of the cameras to defend his position if, as appears, his fate had already been sealed by a 3-0 loss to Fulham minutes earlier.
Villa fans had called for him to be fired after a result that left his team just above the relegation zone.
“It’s tough,” he told Prime Video. “I’m a man, I accept it, I feel their frustrations, I’m frustrated. It was a tough night for me personally.
“We will see what happens. I’m a fighter, I will never, ever quit anything whether it’s football or in life.”
Fulham fans had mercilessly taunted Gerrard with chants of “Sacked in the morning.”
They underestimated the speed with which Villa would act — ending his reign after less than a year in charge, amid growing speculation that Mauricio Pochettino is the dream target to replace him.
More soccer
Cristiano Ronaldo suggested the “heat of the moment” got to him when walking out on Manchester United’s 2-0 win against Tottenham. The Portugal international issued a statement after being omitted from United’s squad to play Chelsea on Saturday and made to train away from the first team.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin says the project of a Super league of European soccer teams “is dead.” In a meeting with journalists in Argentina the head of Europe’s football association rejected comments made by Bernd Reichart, the new director general of the company behind the breakaway competition, A22 Sports Management. Reichart said the initiative is still standing but would be under a different format.
MLS
No MLS team has won more games, scored more goals or earned more points in the regular season than LAFC since it entered the league five years ago. But the playoffs have been the team’s kryptonite.
Four times the team has made the postseason and until Thursday it had one win to show for it. Nineteen other MLS teams have won at least that often in the playoffs over that span.
Denis Bouanga, who joined LAFC in August, wasn’t here for any of that history. And if he knew about, he ignored it, scoring twice in his MLS playoff debut to help LAFC to a 3-2 win over the Galaxy, sending the team to the Western Conference finals against the winner of Sunday’s Austin-Dallas game.
The winning goal came from Cristian Arango three minutes into stoppage time, rescuing a team that had given up one-goal leads in each half. The Galaxy scores came from Samuel Grandsir and Dejan Joveljic.
Leon Flach scored his first goal of the season in the MLS Eastern Conference semifinals, and the topseeded Philadelphia Union beat fifth-seeded Cincinnati 1-0 at home.
College football
The third in-person meeting of conference commissioners who manage the College Football Playoff since August ended in Dallas without a resolution on expansion, but not without optimism. The CFP management committee, comprised of 10 major college football conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director, met for six hours. They worked on a plan to triple the number of playoff teams from four to 12 for the 2024 season. Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock says the work is “not finished” and that time is running short.
Local colleges
San Diego State women’s soccer (7-4-6, 5-2-2 MW) drew 0-0 with Utah State (7-5-6, 43-2) in Logan, Utah. Alexa Madueno had seven saves for the Aztecs.
The SDSU women’s volleyball team suffered a 3-1 loss at New Mexico.