MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United beat Chelsea, 4-0, to ruin Frank Lampard’s debut as a Premier League coach in their season-opening game on Sunday.
Marcus Rashford scored twice, Anthony Martial grabbed another and substitute Daniel James completed the rout on his debut, but it was also an impressive defensive performance from United with the world’s most expensive defender, Harry Maguire, playing his role in keeping the visitors at bay.
Maguire, who completed his $97 million transfer from Leicester last Monday, was man of the match after playing from the start on his United debut.
“It’s a great start for myself and obviously the team,” Maguire told Sky Sports. “We rode our luck a little bit in the first half. We gave them too many chances and were sloppy on the ball. In the second half we were a lot better.”
Aaron Wan-Bissaka also impressed on his debut after playing from the start. “The boys have been working hard and this is just the start,” United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.
Chelsea dominated possession, twice hit the post and had more efforts on goal, but the visitors were picked apart by counterattacks with United midfielder Paul Pogba showing his importance to the side with two assists.
“If you give it to our front three you’ve always got a chance of scoring because they’re so dangerous,” Maguire said.
Christian Pulisic came on for his Chelsea debut in the 58th and the American was given a tough welcome to the Premier League when his run was stopped abruptly by Pogba’s shoulder.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A National Women’s Soccer League-record 25,218 fans watched the Portland Thorns beat the North Carolina Courage, 2-1, at Providence Park on Sunday.
The game featured numerous stars from the U.S. national team that won the Women’s World Cup this summer in France. Among them was Crystal Dunn, who scored in the fourth minute to put the Courage on top early. The Thorns evened it on a North Carolina own goal in the 56th minute and went ahead on another in the 82nd.
The game was a rematch of last season’s NWSL championship, which the Courage won, 3-0
The NWSL is in its seventh season. The previous league record crowd was 23,403, set at a match between the Orlando Pride and Houston Dash in 2016.
ATLANTA — Josef Martínez scored twice to extend his MLS-record goals streak to 10 games and Atlanta United beat New York City FC, 2-1, on Sunday.
Martínez has 10 goals in Atlanta’s last seven games and scored 15 times in his last 10.
Defending champion Atlanta (13-9-3) has won four of its last five games.
CHESTER, Pa. — Kacper Przybylko and Jack Elliott scored and Philadelphia beat Houston.
Elliott’s header game the Union a 2-1 lead in the 78th minute. Jamiro Monteiro played a high entry to the center of the area where a clearance attempted deflected off Elliott and bounced off the crossbar before he headed it into an empty net.
The Union (13-7-6) have won three of their last four games.
Przybylko rolled it to Haris Medunjanin at the top of the area, who tapped it back to Przybylko for a first-timer that rolled through the legs of goalkeeper Joe Willis into the net to make it 1-0 in the 18th.
Christian Ramirez, in his first game for Houston after being traded from Los Angeles FC on Wednesday, tied it in the 42nd. DaMarcus Beasley, on the left side, played a cross to Ramirez at the top of the area where he flipped it up and then rifled a volley inside the post.
The Dynamo (9-13-3) have lost seven of their last eight games.