Football Digest: Newcastle primed for Champions League return
The dismal luck of a USMNT international has continued after he was left out of his club’s registered Champions League squad – but only by mistake. Belgian side Royal Antwerp will face La Liga giants Barcelona in their first group stage match of UEFA’s elite club competition next week. But American Sam Vines won’t be able to play against the Catalans or in any other group-stage match for that matter.
That’s because the Jupiler Pro League outfit failed to register him in their 25-man squad and only realised their administrative error once it was too late to be rectified.
Antwerp have been drawn in Group H alongside Barca, FC Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk. But 24-year-old Vines will have to watch all six matches from the stands.
Antwerp boss Mark van Bommel admitted that Vines’ omission was an error when he was pushed on the Colorado-born player’s absence in a press conference.
As per AS, said: “We didn’t do it well. Vines did belong on the list of those called up, but we made a mistake and it can no longer be corrected.
“Everyone wants to be on the list, of course he is disappointed, but now he is making an effort in his rehabilitation, that is the most important thing.”
Left-back Vines joined Antwerp from Colorado Rapids in 2021 and has made over 40 appearances for ‘The Great Old’.
But it turns out that despite having nine caps for the USMNT, he has not been blessed with luck since making his switch across the Atlantic. The number 21 was sidelined with a collarbone injury shortly after completing his three-year move to Antwerp.
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He recovered from that set-back but on the eve of the 2022 World Cup he was dealt a fresh blow after another injury ended his hopes of making the trip to Qatar.
Should Antwerp make it into the knockout stages of the Champions League, Vine will then be able to be registered to play by his club, but in order for that to happen Antwerp must finish first or second in a group that contains two former winners of the competition.
Antwerp finished last season as champions of Belgium for the first time in 66 years after dramatically pipping Genk and Union St-Gilloise to the title on the final day of the season. But they still had to come through a play-off against Greek outfit AEK Athens to make it into the Champions League group stage, which they did via a 3-1 aggregate win.
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