Barcelona wins, honors a city
Wearing shirts honoring victims of the recent attacks in Spain, Barcelona opened its Spanish league season with a 2-0 win over Real Betis on Sunday.
Players had the word “Barcelona” instead of their names on the back of their shirts, and the Catalan hashtag #TotsSomBarcelona (We are all Barcelona) was on display around Camp Nou stadium.
An emotional minute’s silence was held before the game as the music of Catalan cellist Pau Casals played in the background. Before the minute was up, the more than 55,000 fans at the stadium broke into a round of applause and began chanting “No tinc por” (“I’m not afraid”), a chant which has become a symbol of people’s reactions to the attacks that killed 14 people and injured more than 120 in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils.
Without Neymar, who moved to Paris Saint-Germain, and the injured Luis Suarez, Barcelona scored two goals three minutes apart near the end of the first half: an owngoal by Betis defender Alin Tosca and a close-range shot by Sergi Roberto. Lionel Messi looked lively but wasn’t able to score his 350th goal in La Liga. Neymar ignites PSG: Neymar was in unstoppable form on his home debut for Paris SaintGermain, with the Brazilian scoring twice and playing a role in the other four goals as PSG routed Toulouse 6-2 to move to the top of the French league.
Neymar saved the best to last, bringing the Parc des Princes crowd to its feet with an astonishing solo goal in injury time. He dribbled through a forest of defenders, changing direction and rolling the ball off his foot left and right in an almost balletic display of skill and balance, before stroking the ball home as if at a training session. Briefly: In the English Premier League, Marcos Alonso scored twice and Chelsea beat Tottenham 2-1 as the defending champions bounced back from their opening loss to Burnley. Also, newly promoted Huddersfield hosted an EPL game for the first time, and the home side moved to 2-0 with a 1-0 victory over fellow promoted side Newcastle . ... David Villa scored his MLS-leading 19th goal in the 77th minute, and Jonathan Lewis scored the winner in the fourth minute of added time to give host NYCFC a 2-1 win over the New England Revolution . ... Clint Dempsey converted a penalty kick in the final seconds of stoppage time to lift the Seattle Sounders to a 2-1 MLS victory over Minnesota United.