International Break: What to Watch Oct. 7-8 | OneFootball

Oh no, my club football is on the dreaded international break! Never fear, dear readers, we have a breakdown of good soccer action to help you feed your addiction.

Tuesday, October 7

U-20 World Cup

There are two quarterfinals today. The early game (still in play as this article is being written) sees Ukraine take on Spain. The Ukrainians went undefeated in group play, and are favored in this contest. Spain’s squad were lucky to emerge from a brutal Group C that included Morocco, Mexico and Brazil, qualifying as the last 3rd place team from the group stage.

The later game (kickoff is 7pm ET) features Mexico against Chile. Mexico stunned a strong Moroccan side in their opening match, with 16-year old phenomenon Gilberto Mora scoring the only goal from the spot. They then went on to draw both Spain and Brazil. Statistically Chile is the worst team to advance into the knockout round. They have one win and a -2 goal differential, and were even on five of the seven tiebreaker criteria with Egypt. Only by earning a lower “fair play” score (meaning they got fewer yellow/red cards) were they able to move on. They’ll be counting on home crowd fervor to give them energy.

UEFA Women’s Champions League

Four fixtures here (all streaming on Paramount+):

Wednesday, October 8

MLS – LAFC vs. Toronto

Two major storylines in play for this fixture.

The first is LAFC’s pursuit of the Western Conference title. Sitting on 56 points with three games to play, they’ll be looking to win out and hoping Vancouver drop points in their next two. That starts tonight in their home stadium against a much weaker Toronto side.

The second is Denis Bouanga’s race for the Golden Boot. He’s tied with Messi on 24, and one up of Nashville’s Sam Surridge. He does, however, have tonight’s extra game to leap in front of the Argentinian and will be looking to terrorize the Toronto back lines.

U-20 World Cup

Four quarterfinal matches will be contested.