General Football
‘They have 24 months to milk the hell out of it’: will Son signing open up Asia for MLS?
The South Korean superstar is one of the most beloved players on his home continent, giving MLS a valuable chance to raise its profile
South Korean baseball fans have long been accustomed to organizing their weekends around MLB schedules – now it is time for the country’s soccer supporters to do the same with MLS.
Son Heung-min has started his two-year contract with Los Angeles FC, coming just after the attacker helped Tottenham Hotspur become the biggest club in his homeland (even if claims of close to 13 million fans are surely wildly overexaggerated) and one of the biggest in his home continent. Now it is the time to see what he can do in Los Angeles on the field and what the club can do off it.
Premier League 2025-26 preview No 12: Liverpool
Big-money signings have shown the champions’ ambition but the death of Diogo Jota cast a shadow over the summer
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 1st (NB: this is not necessarily Andy Hunter’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 1st
Van Dijk wants Liverpool to tighten up and backs club to sign reinforcements
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‘You defend as a team, you press as a team’
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Champions begin defence of title on Friday night
Virgil van Dijk has acknowledged Liverpool must improve defensively to retain the Premier League title and backed the club to bring in more reinforcements before the end of the transfer window.
The Netherlands defender revealed after Sunday’s Community Shield that he had spent the previous five days in bed with a virus. Van Dijk was culpable for Palace’s first equaliser in the 2-2 draw when he brought down Ismaïla Sarr for a penalty and Liverpool’s defence struggled to contain the Senegal forward, who scored his team’s second to take the game to a shootout won by Palace.