On the pitch
Soccer weekly recap: Cristiano Ronaldo named “The Best,” Dynamo secure home field for playoffs opener
Oct 24, 2017, 2:00 am
The Dynamo are back in the playoffs and will have a home game. Houston Dynamo
European competition takes a break this week as FIFA celebrated “The BEST” in London after an action-packed weekend. Here are the takeaways from the week in soccer:
The Best FIFA Football Awards 2017
The second edition of FIFA’s “The Best” award ceremony took place this past Monday in London. Cristiano Ronaldo was named the best male player for the second year in a row over Lionel Messi. Here is the complete list of winners:
Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Women’s Player: Lieke Martens
Men’s Coach: Zinedine Zidane
Women’s Coach: Sarina Wiegman
Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon
Puskás Award: Olivier Giroud
Fan Award: Celtic supporters
Fair Play Award: Francis Kone
World11: Gianluigi Buffon; Dani Alves, Leonardo Bonucci, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo; Toni Kroos, Andres Iniesta, Luka Modric; Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar.
UEFA Champions League
The group stage reached the halfway point in Europe’s premier club competition. The biggest takeaway is that, for the moment, all five English teams lead their groups. Harry Kane forced an own goal and Cristiano Ronaldo tied things up in Tottenham’s 1-1 draw at Real Madrid. Manchester City scored two goals in the first 13 minutes to win 2-1 at home against Napoli, at the time the only perfect team out of one of Europe’s top league’s.
Wednesday’s matchups featured wins by Barcelona, Juventus, Manchester United and Paris while Chelsea and Roma played to a thrilling 3-3 draw at Stamford Bridge. Atletico Madrid made life difficult on themselves by tying 0-0 at Azerbaijan champion Qarabag.
UEFA Europa League
In Europa’s secondary competition, the scores that stand out are wins by Marseille, Zenit, Red Bull Salzburg, Real Sociedad, Lazio and Hoffenheim. Arsenal collected three points in Serbia against Red Star Belgrade on an 85th minute wonder goal by Olivier Giroud to extend their comfortable lead in the group. AC Milan still lead their group despite a 0-0 draw at home against AEK Athens. Everton remains in the bottom of their group, with only one point, after a 2-1 loss at French club Lyon.
Premier League
Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle all took care of business by collecting three points. Manchester United, however, were upset 2-1 at newly-promoted Huddersfield Town, managed by former United States national team forward David Wagner. After firing their manager Craig Shakespeare, Leicester City bounced back with a 2-1 win at Swansea. Everton’s downward spiral continued with a 5-2 loss at home against Arsenal and Tottenham demolished Liverpool 4-1 at Wembley.
Top 5: Manchester City (25), Manchester United (20), Tottenham (20), Chelsea (16), Arsenal (16)
La Liga
Everything was business as usual in Spain this weekend as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico collected three points. Real Betis, Valencia and Villarreal also picked up three themselves as did Leganes over Athletic Bilbao.
These results lead to the top 5 to look like this: Barcelona (25), Valencia (21), Real Madrid (20), Atletico Madrid (19) and Leganes (17).
Bundesliga
In Germany, things are getting interesting at the top as Dortmund dropped points by drawing 2-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Munich earned a 1-0 win at Hamburg. Leipzig and Schalke also earned wins as Hoffenheim drew at Wolfsburg.
The top 5 in Germany: Dortmund (20), Bayern Munich (20), RB Leipzig (19), Hoffenheim (16), Schalke 04 (16).
Ligue 1
PSG remain at the top of the table but not without some drama as Neymar was ejected from his first match in Ligue 1 in the 2-2 draw at Marseille. Monaco got right with a 2-0 win over Caen and Lyon got a 5-0 win at Troyes.
The top 5 in France: Paris Saint-Germain (26), Monaco (22), Nantes (20), Lyon (19), Marseille (18)
Serie A
The weekend in Italy began on Friday with a matchup of the two top teams in the standings. Napoli hosted Inter Milan to a 0-0 draw at home, a result that ends their perfect run to start the season. Roma got a 1-0 win at Torino, Juventus demolished Udinese 6-2 on the road and AC Milan continued their winless form with a 0-0 draw vs. Genoa.
The top 5: Napoli (25), Inter Milan (23), Juventus (22), Lazio (22), Roma (18)
Major League Soccer
Decision Day, what has become an annual tradition in MLS, took place as all 22 teams took place in 11 simultaneous matches. One playoff berth was on the line and playoff positioning was at stake. The Houston Dynamo were big winners, 3-0 over Chicago Fire, as a Sporting Kansas City loss allowed them to move up to 4th place and will now host SKC in the one-off playoff match Thursday. The biggest loser was FC Dallas, who’s last minute effort at the playoffs was done in by San Jose’s stoppage time goal against Minnesota. By the way, expansion side Atlanta United broke their own record by once again setting an MLS record in attendance as 71,874 packed the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday.
The MLS Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday and Thursday, with the winners advancing to take on the top two teams in each conference.
Knockout matches: Chicago vs. NY Red Bulls, Vancouver vs. San Jose, Atlanta vs. Columbus, Houston vs. Kansas City (TV listings below)
First round byes: Toronto FC, New York City FC, Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders FC
MVP of the Week - Sebastian Giovinco
The “Atomic Ant,” dubbed that because of his 5’4 stature, continues to dazzle Major League Soccer as he rose to the occasion once again in front of the 71,874 record-breaking crowd in Atlanta. The former Juventus midfielder played the villain as his top-seeded Toronto, having nothing to play for as they are assured home-field throughout the playoffs, helped deny Atlanta a higher seed with a 2-2 draw. Altidore scored tied the match, 1-1, in the 60th minute and, after a fan threw a beer at Altidore, Giovinco picks up the cup and drinks the beer to celebrate. In the 84th minute, he drew the match 2-2 with one of his trademark free kicks. He is a big reason why Toronto where far and away the best club in the regular season and may be the reason they are favored to win it all.
Upcoming Matches (All Times CT):
Wednesday, Oct. 25:
7:30 p.m. - Chicago Fire vs. New York Red Bulls (FS1)
9:30 p.m. - Vancouver Whitecaps vs. San Jose Earthquakes (UniMás [ENG via SAP])
Thursday, Oct. 26:
6:00 p.m. - Atlanta United vs. Columbus Crew (ESPN2)
8:30 p.m. - Houston Dynamo vs. Sporting Kansas City (KUBE 57/UniMás [ENG via SAP])
Saturday, Oct. 28:
6:30 a.m. - Manchester United vs. Tottenham (NBC Sports)
8:30 a.m. - Hannover 96 vs. Dortmund (FOX Sports)
9:00 a.m. - Liverpool vs. Huddersfield (NBC Sports)
9:00 a.m. - West Brom vs. Manchester City (NBC Sports)
11:30 a.m. - Bournemouth vs. Chelsea (NBC Sports)
11:30 a.m. - Atletico Madrid vs. Villarreal (BeIN Sports)
11:30 a.m. - Bayern Munich vs. RB Leipzig (FOX Sports)
1:45 p.m. - Athletic Bilbao vs. FC Barcelona (BeIN Sports)
Sunday, Oct. 29:
10:15 a.m. - Girona vs. Real Madrid (BeIN Sports)
11:00 a.m. - Leicester City vs. Everton (NBC Sports)
Monday, Oct. 30:
3:00 p.m. - Burnley vs. Newcastle (NBC Sports)
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Through the ups and downs of the first four games, the stellar play of Nico Collins has been the one constant for the Houston Texans.
Collins had a career-high 12 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown Sunday to help the Texans (3-1) rally for a 24-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
He leads the NFL by a wide margin with 489 yards receiving and is the first player in franchise history with more than 450 yards receiving though the first four games. New York Giants rookie Malik Nabers was second entering Monday night’s games with 386 yards.
Sunday was the eighth career 100-yard game for Collins and his third this season.
The great start by Collins, who is in his fourth season, comes after his breakout 2023 where he had a career-high 1,297 yards receiving.
After his big game Sunday, quarterback C.J. Stroud recalled the first time he worked out with the receiver after being drafted second overall by the Texans last year.
“I told him: ‘You’re a superstar, and I’m going to make sure people know that,’” Stroud said. “I feel like ever since then, he’s had a swagger and a confidence … and it’s just rolling now. He’s been big for us. He’s always somebody that I lean on.”
Collins has remained Stroud’s favorite option this season despite the blockbuster offseason trade for four-time Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs.
Coach DeMeco Ryans couldn’t say enough good things about the performance of Collins.
“He’s deserving of all the praise and all the credit that he’s getting,” Ryans said. “He’s one of the top receivers in the league, and he’s showing it. He doesn’t have to talk it; he’s showing it by what he does on a game-to-game basis. He’s proving that he’s one of the best.”
Collins was asked what it’s like to hear so many people praising his play.
“It doesn’t feel real,” he said. “Those are the type of achievements you want to have. It’s early, but it’s a great position to be in right now. I feel like, for me, just continue to be myself, don’t get comfortable and continue to build, find that 1 percent.”
What’s working
Houston’s passing game, led by Stroud and Collins continues to be the team’s strength. Stroud had a season-high 345 yards passing with two touchdowns Sunday to become the seventh quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least 300 yards seven times through their first 19 games.
Sunday was Stroud’s eighth game with multiple passing touchdowns and no interceptions, tying Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson for the most by a player age 22 or younger in NFL history.
What needs help
The Texans had 12 penalties for 93 yards Sunday to give them 35 penalties combined in their past three games. They have 40 overall this season, which is the most in the NFL through Sunday’s games.
Ryans is tired of talking about these mistakes week after week.
“A lot of them are just bonehead penalties that are uncalled for,” he said. “You don’t need those. They’re not helping us at all. We still have positive things that happen to us, and we’re going backward … it seems like I’m a broken record every time I step up here (but) the Texans have to get out of the Texans’ way for us to be a good team.”
Stock up
RB Dare Ogunbowale’s 1-yard touchdown reception with 18 seconds left Sunday lifted Houston to the victory. It was the first TD since 2022 for Ogunbowale, whom the Texans relied on Sunday with running backs Joe Mixon and Dameon Pierce out with injuries.
Ogunbowale had an important guest at Sunday’s game in sister Arike Ogunbowale, who plays for the WNBA’s Dallas Wings.
“It was special,” he said. “Anytime I get to see her up there is fun. I get to go to her games; she gets to go to my games. We’re just living our childhood dreams and for her to be up there while I was able to make some plays was fun.”
Stock down
LT Laremy Tunsil had two holding penalties, both in the fourth quarter, on Sunday. Those penalties come after the veteran was flagged six times in last week’s loss to the Vikings. Tunsil has 12 penalties this season, including seven false starts.
Injuries
Mixon missed a second game Sunday and Pierce was out for a third straight week. Mixon returned to practice in a limited capacity Friday and could be available this week. … WR Tank Dell missed Sunday’s game with chest and hand injuries.
Key number
8 — Although Collins is Stroud’s top option, Stroud has done a good job of spreading the ball around and eight different players had at least one reception Sunday.
Next steps
The Texans host the Bills on Sunday where Diggs will face his former team for the first time since the trade. Diggs spent the past four seasons in Buffalo where he had more than 1,100 yards receiving each year, highlighted by an NFL-leading and career-high 1,535 yards in 2020.