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Substitute Fafa Picault scored his first goal for Inter Miami in the 89th minute, Lionel Messi also scored his first of the regular season and Inter Miami earned a dramatic 2-1 victory at Atlanta United on Sunday evening.
Miami (3-1-0) triumphed despite six saves from Atlanta's Brad Guzan, who played an integral role in Atlanta's playoff upset of Messi's squad in a best-of-three Round One series last fall.
Messi's goal came in the 20th minute of just his second regular season appearance for Miami, which has already played eight matches because of Concacaf Champions Cup play. He had missed three games due to muscle fatigue before coming off the bench on Thursday night in a 2-0 win at Cavalier FC of Jamaica.
Emmanuel Latte Lath scored his third goal in the 11th minute to give Atlanta (1-1-2) an early lead. But his teammates are still stuck on one goal combined as Atlanta's winless run extended to three matches after defeating Montreal in their season opener.
Both teams had plentiful chances for a second-half winner from open play, but the diminutive Picault providing an unlikely header ultimately decided affairs.
Jordi Alba got the ball out wide from a late short corner kick and served an outswinging ball to the back post. Picault outmuscled Ajani Fortune and sent a header bouncing back across goal, somehow wrong footing Guzan and nestling inside the far left post. It was Picault's first goal for his sixth MLS club, having moved to Miami from Vancouver this offseason.
Miguel Almiron started the attack, opening the scoring with an excellent ball over the top to play Brooks Lennon down the right. Lennon then served an excellent, early outswinging cross that Latte Lath met with a powerful back-post header past Rocco Rios Novo.
Latte Lath thought he has his second just after the quarter-hour mark, but it was ruled offside. Miami pulled level on its next foray forward.
Guzan sprawled off his line to disrupt an initial cross from the right. But Messi surprised Bartosz Slisz with some rare defensive pressure to dispossess the midfielder as Atlanta tried to play out. From there, he weaved his way past the sliding Derrick Williams, then deftly chipped the charging Guzan.
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How can I watch the UEFA Super Cup final where Tottenham take on PSG?
European champions Paris Saint-Germain will take on Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur tonight in what surely has to be one of the most exciting games of this soon-to-end close season. Tottenham has been forced into making some serious changes ahead of this one due to injury and, in an interesting twist, an internal disciplinary issue. Yves Bissouma has remained in London after Thomas Frank made the point in his press conference that the midfielder had been late ‘one too many times‘. Dominic Solanke is one positive and is available for selection, which sounds like he may start from the bench. Sadly Destiny Udogie, Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin will miss out along with James Maddison, of course. PSG plausible XI: Chevalier; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Pacho, Mendes; Vitinha, Ruiz, Zaire-Emery; Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia. Spurs plausible XI: Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Spence; Palhinha, Bergvall, Bentancur; Johnson, Kudus, Richarlison. This year’s 2025 UEFA Super Cup will take place on Wednesday, August 13. It will be played at the 25,000-seater Stadio Friuli in Udine, Italy, with kick-off in the big clash set for 8 pm UK time. Fans around the world can watch the game live on TNT Sports or Discovery, and coverage will start at 7 pm for what is going to be a massive game. The match will be played over 90 minutes plus stoppage time. Should the scores remain level at the final whistle, the winners will be decided by a penalty shoot-out. It is worth remembering that there will be no extra time in this game! The bookmakers have this one as somewhat of a foregone conclusion, with PSG currently runaway favourites. The best price you’ll find is probably 6/13. Tottenham have it all to do, with the best price being somewhere in the region of 6/1. Does this mean we are certain to lose? No, it doesn’t, but equally, one rarely walks past a closed bookmaker.
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Jon Gruden sent another warning shot toward the NFL after scoring a major win in court. On Tuesday, Gruden welcomed a ruling that will force the NFL to litigate the circumstances of his firing in court rather than closed-door arbitration. The former Las Vegas Raiders coach made clear that he intends to continue his legal challenge to the NFL to ensure that they are held accountable. “I’m looking forward to having the truth come out, and I want to make sure what happened to me doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Gruden said in a statement provided to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. “The league’s actions disrupted the whole season. We were leading the division at the time and they completely blindsided me and the team.” The Raiders were 3-1 in 2021 when Gruden was forced to resign after some offensive emails that he sent between 2011 and 2018 were leaked. Gruden has alleged that the NFL leaked the emails to force him out of a job after obtaining them during an investigation into the Washington Commanders. The NFL is set to appeal Monday’s ruling, but if that appeal fails, the league may be forced into public discovery. One alternative would be to offer Gruden a settlement, but he has not said whether or not he would be interested in such a resolution. Gruden has not held an NFL coaching job since the Raiders forced him out. He has recently spoken about possibly making a return to coaching at the college level.
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