There has been understandable consternation from those who are either of an Barcelona persuasion or who simply like and respect Hansi Flick when they saw the state of the German coach on Saturday. The Spanish champions had beaten Alavés 3-1 at home to go clear at the top of LaLiga despite the visitors taking the lead after 44 seconds.

Flick was back on the touchline of the club’s beloved Camp Nou for only the second time since its reopening, following a long period of extensive renovations. And yet the Barça boss looked like a man who’d won the lottery jackpot, but lost the ticket: slumped in his seat long after the final whistle, looking like there were tears in his eyes, wearing a blank thousand-yard stare, with a metaphorical black cloud over his head. One of his players, Raphinha, was standing over him protectively, looking to all the world as if he were counselling his boss. And this after a victory.

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Barcelona said that their coach was frustrated at not being able to communicate with the fourth official, but nobody believed the party line. Many who follow the club interpreted his demeanor as due to the repeated lackadaisical flaws he sees in a team he keeps promising will improve, but instead keeps on churning up the same errors and, frankly, the same air of complacency where they are supposed to be breathing fire and brimming with intensity. Not to ignore his disappointment at two of his assistants, Markus Sorg and José Ramon De La Fuente, incurring red cards. But there’s another potential explanation.

Flick had watched his team struggle to contain a nomadic striker named Lucas Boyé, and his heart sunk in the knowledge that the genuine article, a guy who makes Boyé look like a docile lightweight, is coming to town.

That man is Atlético Madrid striker Alexander Sørloth. He’s a dead ringer for Alan Ritchson, who plays Jack Reacher in the TV series, and some of his solutions to scoring and winning are Reacher-esque in that nobody who stands in his path comes away without bruises — at least to their ego.

The big center forward is, along with Erling Haaland, part of the reason that Norway are going to the FIFA World Cup for the first time this century. He’s also one of the many reasons why, for the umpteenth time in recent years, even the cynics might be tempted to tip Atlético Madrid as potential title winners.

Atlético coach Diego Simeone and his Colchoneros are at Camp Nou on Tuesday, somewhere they’ve still not won for almost 20 years (last December’s away win was at the Olympic Stadium). Whether Sørloth starts or attempts to do damage off the bench, there’s no escaping the fact that when he sees Blaugrana shirts he gets the whiff of mustard in his nostrils and prepares to dish out pain.

He’s won against Barça in Barcelona for Real Sociedad in 2023 when La Real beat Barça away for the first time in 32 years; for Villarreal in January last year, netting the decisive goal in a wild 5-3 game that effectively marked the end for Flick’s predecessor, Xavi Hernández; and he scored the winner against Flick’s team almost exactly a year ago as Atleti won 2-1 in Catalonia for the first time since 2006. Back then, Fernando Torres was the big, menacing blond fella up front. It’s a role Sørloth has adopted with gleeful menace.

Might that be why Flick was looking so morose despite winning on Saturday? A flight of fancy, maybe, but look at the stats.

The 6-foot-5 forward has faced Barça nine times, scoring six and producing three assists — his best record against any of the 238 club and international opponents he’s faced in his 14-year career. And the vast majority of those Reacher-style, hard-impact moments against Spain’s reigning champions have come away from home: either at Camp Nou or Montjuic.

Simeone doesn’t always pair Sørloth with Julián Álvarez when selecting his ‘best’ Atleti XI. And there was a stage last season when the two strikers didn’t quite seem on the same wavelength. But the coach would be utterly mad not to do so here.

Last season Sørloth outstripped the much more expensive, better-paid and, admittedly, World Cup-winning Alvarez. The Norwegian notched 24 goals and two assists in 2,145 competitive minutes for Atleti in LaLiga, the UEFA Champions League and Copa del Rey: a goal contribution every 82.5 minutes. This season? Four goals, but in just seven starts out of a possible 19. It’s a records that positively screams “nemesis.”

In case you’re wondering what caused him to become this Barça-kryptonite it’s partly because, as a kid, he was a huge fan of Didier Drogba — the former Chelsea striker who twice scored the winner against Barça and twice eliminated them from the Champions League.

“I was a Chelsea fan growing up, so he was by far my favorite striker,” Sørloth told FIFA earlier this year. “I liked the physicality of his play. Players could kick 50-meter long balls to him, with snow on them, and he would still get it down and be dangerous.”

It’s also because young Sørloth was a national champion at ice hockey and handball — he reckons that taught him toughness, flexibility and competitive ‘smarts’. About his own warrior status, he added: “I like the physical battles and the fight with the defenders. I actually prefer to play against the big ones. If I play against small ones, I get more free kicks against me!”

Tuesday’s game could well be pivotal in this season’s title race. Last season the four Barça-Atleti matches gifted us 18 goals, Barça trailed in three of those games but only lost once and. With Real Madrid stuttering, most recently in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Girona, whoever wins at Camp Nou this is guaranteed to end the night top of LaLiga.

But when you watch, keep an eye on poor old Flick. He’ll be a bit more solitary in his Barça dugout given that those two staff members, No. 2 Sorg and goalkeeping coach De La Fuente, will be banned after being sent off against Alavés. And, although his team have an identical points haul (34) after 14 matches as at the same stage last season’s title-winning campaign, he’s hugely underwhelmed with them, even admitting: “We don’t have the control and intensity we had last season”

That will be music to the ears of Atleti’s hulking great Jack Reacher lookalike. Look out Barça: here comes Sørloth.

After wrapping up its inaugural season, the Athletes Unlimited Softball League is expanding from its original four teams to six. That expansion kicks off on Dec. 1, with an expansion draft for players already in the AUSL, followed by an allocation draft for new players.

The two new expansion teams — Cascade and Oklahoma City Spark — will pick from a pool of unprotected players from the other four teams. Each team will select five players to start. After that, there may be up to three additional rounds, and original teams can add a player to their protected lists before each round. Any unselected players will go back to their original teams.

The allocation draft will follow and will feature all six teams selecting players not currently on an AUSL roster.

The draft will be broadcast on ESPNU (7 p.m. ET) and on the AUSL streaming hub. Check out the picks and some highlights below.

Expansion draft picks

No. 1: Spark — Utility Maya Brady

the moment Maya Brady became the first EVER draft pick of the Oklahoma City Spark in AUSL history! 💙#BeTheSpark pic.twitter.com/WT89vK28xX

— Oklahoma City Spark | AUSL (@ausl_spark) December 2, 2025

No. 2: Cascade — Pitcher Sam Landry

Let’s make some history ✨ pic.twitter.com/ycVUaHBtRX

— Cascade | AUSL (@AUSL_Cascade) December 2, 2025

No. 3: Cascade — Pitcher Carley Hoover

No. 4: Spark — Utility Sydney McKinney

No. 5: Spark — Sydney Romero

No. 6: Cascade — OF Sierra Sacco

No. 7: Cascade — P Payton Gottshall

No. 8: Spark — 3B Jessi Warren

No. 9: Spark — P Alana Vawter

No. 10: Cascade — OF Korbe Otis

No. 11: Cascade — INF Tori Vidales

No. 12: Spark — Utility Bubba Nickles-Camarena

No. 13: Spark — INF Delanie Wisz

Allocation draft picks

Round 1

No. 1: Cascade — P Kelly Maxwell

No. 2: Spark — C Kinzie Hansen

No. 3: Talons — OF Jayda Coleman

No. 4: Bandits — P Kat Sandercock

No. 5: Blaze — INF Alyssa Brito

No. 6: Volts — P Ally Carda

Round 2

No. 7: Spark — P Maddie Penta

No. 8: Cascade — C Mia Davidson

No. 9: Talons — OF Jadelyn Allchin

No. 10: Bandits — INF Jocelyn Alo

IT’S HAPPENINGGGGGG 🤩

Jocelyn Alo is a Bandit 🤠 pic.twitter.com/z6jD7ZORQJ

— Bandits | Athletes Unlimited Softball League (@AUSL_Bandits) December 2, 2025

No. 11: Blaze — INF Jenna Laird

No. 12: Volts — P Alyssa Denham

Round 3

No. 13. Cascade — INF Sis Bates

No. 14. Spark — P Jailyn Ford

No. 15. Talons — INF Rachel Becker

No. 16. Bandits — OF Jessica Clements

No. 17. Blaze — P Jala Wright

No. 18. Volts — OF Rylie Boone

Round 4

No. 19. Spark — INF Billie Andrews

No. 20. Cascade — INF Paige Sinicki

No. 21. Talons — INF Maddie Moore

No. 22. Bandits — INF Sami Williams

No. 23. Blaze — Utility Valerie Cagle

No. 24. Volts — P Aliyah Binford

Round 5

No. 25. Cascade — Utility Ali Newland

No. 26. Spark — INF Sydney Sherrill

No. 27. Talons — OF Aliyah Andrews

No. 28. Bandits — P Emiley Kennedy

No. 29. Blaze — Pass

Round 6

No. 30. Spark — C Haley Lee

No. 31. Cascade — OF Kendra Falby

No. 32. Talons — Pass

No. 33. Bandits — Pass

Round 7

No. 34. Spark — Pass

No. 35. Cascade — Pass

Teams will fill their remaining roster spots at the AUSL College Draft this spring.