Moca FC players celebrate during Caribbean Cup action
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Over the course of the last decade, football has grown substantially in the Dominican Republic. The founding of the professional Liga Dominicana de Futbol paved the way for a new era of the sport in the Caribbean country.
At the national team level, the fruits of that labour are apparent, evidenced by their runner-up finish in the 2022 Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Championship, which not only qualified Dominican Republic for a first World Cup in any age group, but also punched their ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The growth of football in the Dominican Republic is also taking shape in the international arena at the club level. Since 2018, there have been four instances in which a team from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean country have qualified for the Concacaf Champions Cup, the latest being Moca FC, who will participate in this year’s edition.
Moca are set to make their Champions Cup debut next month, when they lock horns with Major League Soccer (MLS) side Nashville SC in Round One. This, as a result of their third-place finish in last year’s Concacaf Caribbean Cup.
The history of Dominican teams in the Champions Cup actually stretches back to 1973 when Universidad Catolica became the first club from the country to compete in the tournament. Then, Universidad Catolica squared off in the First Round of the Caribbean Zone with eventual champions SV Transvaal of Suriname and lost 0-8 and 0-6.
Nearly two decades later in 1992, San Cristobal FC got their first crack at Champions Cup and defeated Unique FC of the US Virgin Islands 5-4 on aggregate in the Preliminary Round of the Caribbean Zone thanks to a 2-1 win and 3-3 stalemate.
San Cristobal FC’s run ended shortly after when they went down 3-4 on aggregate to Guadeloupe’s Solidarite Scolaire, based on a 3-3 stalemate and 1-0 loss.
San Cristobal returned to Champions Cup three years later in 1995, but suffered a 1-2 defeat on aggregate to Haiti’s FICA in the First Round of the Caribbean Zone.
After a lull, Dominican Republic teams returned to the Champions Cup arena, courtesy of Cibao FC, who won the 2017 Concacaf Caribbean Club Championship.
Despite a heavy 0-7 aggregate defeat to eventual champions and Mexican giants Chivas in the Round of 16 of the 2018 Champions Cup, Cibao FC’s qualification showed that Dominican Republic football was on the rise.
A year later, Atletico Pantoja followed suit in the 2019 edition of the Champions Cup and exited at the Round of 16 after a 0-5 aggregate loss to New York Red Bulls. Atletico Pantoja then made their second appearance in the tournament in 2021 and made history against five-time Concacaf champions Monterrey.
Even though they were eliminated 1-6 on aggregate Lisandro Cabrera scored the club’s first Champions Cup goal when he found the back of the net in the second half of the return leg.
Now in 2024, an opportunity exists for debutants Moca FC, to blaze a new trail and rewrite the history books with victory over Nashville SC, which would book them a Round of 16 date with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.
Bristol City Women 0-4 Man City Women: Hosts relegated as Fowler double inspires WSL leaders
Mary Fowler scored twice to set WSL leaders Manchester City on their way to a 4-0 rout of Bristol City, who suffered relegation as a result, on Sunday.
With Arsenal having drawn with Everton earlier in the day, Man City knew a victory would be enough to take the title race down to two teams.
That victory duly arrived in emphatic fashion, with all four of Man City's goals arriving in the second half.
Fowler's fantastic strike opened the scoring in the 62nd minute, with the Australia international doubling her tally soon after, paving the way for an Amy Rodgers own goal and Alex Greenwood's late header to seal a huge victory.
Arsenal are now out of the title race, with Chelsea - who have two games in hand on Gareth Taylor's team - the only side capable of catching Man City.
The Robins, meanwhile, will be playing in the second tier again next term.
Data Debrief: Bristol heading down with a whimper
Bristol City have failed to score in their last five games in the WSL, a run of 544 minutes without a goal.
They mustered just 0.09 expected goals (xG) to Man City's 3.4, with the visitors having now kept a clean sheet in nine of their 20 league games this season.
De Rossi demands more from 'tired' Roma ahead of crunch run
Daniele De Rossi acknowledged his Roma team may be tired, but he insisted they must not allow themselves to be embarrassed.
Roma fought back to draw 2-2 with last season's Serie A champions Napoli in a pulsating fixture on Sunday.
Tammy Abraham's late header secured a point for De Rossi's team, who took the lead through Paulo Dybala's penalty before going behind to goals from Matias Olivera and Victor Osimhen.
With Serie A set to have five teams in the Champions League next season, Roma occupy fifth spot with four matches remaining, but sixth-placed Atalanta are just two points behind with a game in hand.
There is also the small matter of a Europa League semi-final against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen on the cards over the coming weeks, and De Rossi set the stall out.
"We drew, it is not a result to throw away, but it is not the result or the performance that we wanted," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
"At times you can steal the ball off Napoli, but we then gave it back again too many times. Napoli had a lot of chances in the first half, we did better in the second, but we have to do better.
"Look, we are tired, but we cannot start thinking that we’re tired and that means we can be embarrassed in the final few weeks of the season."
Roma host Leverkusen on Thursday before taking on Juventus on May 5, with a crunch clash against Atalanta – who are also into the Europa League semi-finals – set to follow after the away leg against Xabi Alonso's team.
Key to a successful end to the campaign for Roma will be keeping Dybala fit. The Argentine has been involved in the joint-most goals (12) in Serie A since the turn of the year, scoring nine and setting up three, level with Juve's Dusan Vlahovic.
PSG's latest Ligue 1 title arrives as Monaco lose to Lyon
Paris Saint-Germain have been crowned as Ligue 1 champions after Lyon overcame Monaco 3-2 on Sunday.
A 4-1 midweek win over Lorient ensured that one more victory would be enough for Luis Enrique's team to get over the line, but PSG failed to get the job done themselves when they faced relegation-threatened Le Havre on Saturday.
That game was the 700th match of the QSI era at PSG, and the club's 1,900th in France's top flight.
However, PSG's wait to win their third straight title did not last long, as less than 24 hours later, Lyon – who will face the Parisians in the final of the Coupe de France at the end of May – came out on top in a topsy turvy encounter with second-placed Monaco.
Substitute Malick Fofana was the matchwinner for Lyon, and ultimately the player who handed the title to PSG.
Wissam Ben Yedder had put Monaco ahead in the opening minute, but quickfire goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Said Benrahma turned the match on its head before half-time.
Ben Yedder netted his second to restore parity on the hour mark, and thought he had sealed his hat-trick when he volleyed in from a free-kick, only to have strayed offside.
With only a win good enough for Monaco to stay in the fight, the visitors were then caught out in the 84th minute, with Fofana racing onto Lacazette's throughball and finishing calmly.
After a dismal start to the season, relegation looked a real possibility for Lyon, but they are now, with three games remaining, still in with a shout of qualifying for Europe.
PSG on the other hand now have 12 Ligue 1 titles to their name, with 10 of those coming under QSI's ownership. Aside from the COVID-impacted 2019-20 season, five of their last six league titles have been secured before the start of May.
It also means Luis Enrique remains in the running for a treble in his first season at the club, with PSG taking on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-finals next week.
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