Western Counties Soccer

Former Manchester United star Zlatan Ibrahimovic would not be moving to the Serie A to play for AC Milan, as per the comments of the sporting director Leonardo. Milan dreamt of a big return of the Swede to help reinvigorate their attacking power. However, the 37-year old has decided to stick it out in the Major League Soccer (MLS).

Leonardo revealed that Ibrahimovic said as far as LA Galaxy satisfied his conditions he would remain in America. Leonardo said it would have been “a marvelous story and a strong signal” had the former player returned to the club. Zlatan played from 2010 to 2012, winning the Serie A title before his big move to PSG.

LA Galaxy great Robbie Keane has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 38. The former Republic of Ireland international enjoyed a well-travelled career, which saw him feature for the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Inter Milan, and Galaxy, and he has down brought curtains to his playing days to step into coaching.

“From Crumlin United around the world to the likes of Milan, London, and Los Angeles, I could never have imagined the path my football life would take. It has exceeded all the hopes I had as a football-mad boy growing up in Dublin,” said Keane in a statement. “I was a street footballer full of hope armed with huge ambitions and a determination to succeed. All I needed was that one chance.”

AC Milan manager Gennaro Gattuso has indicated that the talk of Zlatan Ibrahimovic making the comeback with the Rossoneri is just ‘hot air’. The 36-year-old has been a huge revelation since making the move to Major League Soccer with LA Galaxy in March, contributing 20 goals and nine assists from just 24 appearances.

As such, there has been the speculation of Zlatan joining the Rossoneri on a short-term loan at the turn of the year but Gattuso has appeared to pour cold water on the gossip saying: "You have to ask Leonardo. I can only talk about [Ibrahimovic] in terms of the period in which he was my team-mate. He was a leader, a champion with a very strong personality but, as far as the market is concerned, so far it is just hot air."

DC United would be excited with the results against their guests at the Audi Field, Washington. They thrashed Atlanta 3-1 and would be happy with the maximum points from the game, even happier that they could stop Josef Martinez from entering the scorers’ list. Martinez has been on a scoring spree which has fired Atlanta United to one of the top spots in the conference.

Luciano Acosta opened scoring through a successful counter attack through team effort. Wayne Rooney doubled the scoreline from the penalty spot early in the second half, sealing their path to victory. Atlanta was pressuring them so the goal was a much need break. After what they suffered in the hands of Philadelphia on Thursday, losing 2-0 at home, it was a dream result for them to be 2-0 up against one of the best performing teams in the league.

Colorado Rapids’ poor run continued with the team losing against Montreal Impact. The team has been unable to pick up form even after recently registering back-to-back victories. Montreal Impact were excellent from the word go and they had 70% possession in the match. This dominance on the ball led to Montreal creating a large number of chances and they were able to open up a 2-0 lead quite early in the match. Even though Anthony Hudson tried to make an impact by bringing on Dominique Badji, who did score a goal in the game, it was not enough for Colorado.

Hudson is coming under intense pressure due to a bad set of results. The manager claims that his team wanted to have more of the ball in the second half but a few mistakes made by his players kept them on the back foot. Meanwhile, Montreal Impact claimed that they do not want to rest on the recent set of results and want to continue the progress. Rapid are going through one of the worst campaigns in terms of results and statistics. Hudson has already come in with a lot of excuses and he is running on the same. His latest excuse after the game against Montreal was the excessive travel for the team.

United States head coach David Sarachan has indicated that he is not looking into some of the old guard for the upcoming international friendlies. The North American nation suffered a rather shocking defeat to Trinidad & Tobago in their last World Cup qualifier game and this eventually saw them fail to qualify for the global tournament.

Since then, several younger players have been brought into the mix and Sarachan has admitted that this could be the way to go for major tournaments ahead. Nevertheless, the experienced head coach has not ruled out recalls for the likes of Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard, who are unquestionably among the country’s football greats.

Sky Sports pundit Thierry Henry believes Jordan Pickford has been Everton’s player of the 2017/18 season. The England international joined the Toffees from struggling Sunderland last summer, and he has since put in a number of top-notch performances, which have earned him comparisons with club legend Tim Howard.

Former Germany international Bastian Schweinsteiger is set to remain in the United States for a longer period after extending his contract with Chicago Fire. He agreed to push up his stay by another year to remain at Chicago Fire for an extra season.

He joined the club from Manchester United last year but has gone on to feature in 24 games. He has scored three times since joining the MLS side. He says he remains committed to helping the club win silverware.

Marcus Rashford has surprisingly named Tim Howard as his childhood idol Tim Howard despite pursuing his professional career as a centre-forward. The Englishman watched the former United goalkeeper as a six-year-old in the Fletcher Moss Rangers development line and admits that watching the USA international harboured his intention to take football as a career.

Though he is now regarded as one of English's brightest young strikers, Rashford revealed that he started his initial career between the sticks, he told The Times: "My first season, I went in net. The thrill of scoring a goal, you get that same thrill when you save a good chance. Tim Howard was my idol. I used to have a little Tim Howard shirt."

Colorado Rapids interim manager Steve Cooke claims that former Dominique Badji could be one of the important players in the MLS over the next couple of years.

The striker came up with his eighth goal of the league campaign after scoring in the 1-1 draw with New York City. The 24-year-old striker is the top scorer at the club. His goals have been a crucial factor behind Colorado Rapids trying to get off from the bottom of the table. Even though results have not improved dramatically since the arrival ofCooke, it has slowly been increasing and it is down to the performances of the striker.