Thursday’s soccer news starts in Serie B, where Gianluca Busio, Tanner Tessmann, and Andriya Novakovich’s Venezia lost 1-0 at Bari to a 63rd minute goal. Busio subbed out at halftime and Novakovich subbed on in the 69th minute. Venezia is 16th in the table with 29 points from 27 games, a point behind 15th-place Perugia.
“I told my players that sometimes good performances don’t pay off,” Venezia coach Paolo Vanoli said. “We need to be sharper under the goal and have less trouble to make an impact. We are a young team, today the average age on the field was 24 years old, and we express a good game. We need to apply more lucidity and serenity in order to bring home points.”
Matt Turner was on the bench for Arsenal’s 4-0 home win over Everton in the Premier League. Bukayo Saka opened the scoring in the 40th and Gabriel Martinelli doubled the lead in first-half stoppage time. Marton Odergaard made it 3-0 Arsenal in the 71st and Martinelli scored again in the 80th minute. After 25 games, Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table is five points over Manchester City.
“I think we are here because we work how we work and we have really good players, and we have an incredible connection with our people so everything adds to the table and we have to continue to do that,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
Also in the soccer news, NYCFC announced the addition of James Sands to their roster after he spent 14 months on loan to Rangers in the Scottish Premiership. Sands made 24 appearances for Rangers, winning the double and reaching the Europa league final last season.
“I am excited to return to New York,” Sands said in a press statement. “As someone who grew up in New York and played for local youth teams and the NYCFC academy, it was and continues to be a great honor to represent this Club. NYCFC has had a tremendous impact on my development, the Club’s support of my initial step in Europe and continued understanding of my career goals has been very important to me. I would like to thank Rangers for the fantastic opportunity to play with a top-notch European team.”
FRIDAY’S SOCCER TV
Super Lig on beIN Sport: Alanyaspor vs Basaksehir at 12pm. Serie A on CBS Sports: Napoli vs Lazio at 2:45pm. La Liga on ESPN/ Deportes: Real Sociedad vs Cadiz at 3pm. Ligue 1 on beIN Sport: Nice vs Auxerre at 3pm. Liga MX on TUDN: Necaxa vs Tigres at 8pm. FS2 has Tijuana vs Atlas at 10pm ET.
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Photo by Francesco Scaccianoce – IPA via ZUMA Press – ISIPhotos.com
