It’s a tactic that’s frequently implemented during elementary school recess, but its application at the professional level is far less pronounced: After a quick throw-in during a match in Romania between Makedonija Gjorce Petrov and Akademija Pandev, a defender chased after play with a spare ball in his hands before throwing it at the feet of the attacking player and knocking the live ball away.
I’ve never played goalkeeper before, but I can imagine it’s pretty damn infuriating when an opponent stands directly between you and your distribution. I’m not trying to excuse the behavior of Tigres keeper Nahuel Guzmán — who absolutely lost it in those exact circumstances and attempted to punt a man — but I also can’t suppress a chuckle while he blatantly attempts to drive his knee up Eduardo Aguirre’s sphincter.
It’s been an excellent 24 hours for Tottenham’s Champions League aspirations.
With the 2020 MLS season less than 20 days away, it’s time to prepare for an outpouring of insightful, well-written preview pieces that are met with a churlish “who cares” from social media user Pete_69.
I’ll have you know that my FIFA 20 Career Mode is going pretty well. I don’t concede often (I could probably play at a higher difficulty considering my 18 years of experience), but I'm also a dumpster fire going the other direction. Still, there’s a lot to like up in Newcastle as the city continues to come to gripes with its first American manager — I’m a trailblazer like Bob Bradley, screaming about “PKs” and “road games.”
Nearly every FIFA video game player can recall one moment they wanted to rip their hair out and throw the controller out the window. The reasonings may differ, but the majority of the time it’s because of the most blasphemous and ridiculous spell of play that leads to conceding.
The majority of these instances are defended with “that would never happen in a real game” or “a real life player would never make that mistake.”
When his side slipped to a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa in 2014, then-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho produced one of the great memes of recent memory speaking in the mixed zone after the game. When pressed on the impact of two red cards produced by referee Chris Foy had on his side, Mourinho famously said "I prefer not to speak ... if I speak I am in big trouble, and I don't want to be in big trouble".
For 82 minutes against Chelsea on Sunday, Arsenal put forth a performance of rare shape, commitment and defensive solidity on manager Mikel Arteta’s home debut. But then Mason Mount’s innocuous free kick fluttered over the despairing arm of Bernd Leno and the excrement hit the air-conditioning again inside the Emirates.
Look, we've all been there. We've accidentally walked into the wrong work cubicle after moving a few weeks prior, went to the wrong classroom after the start of a new semester or called our significant other by our ex's name (hopefully this one doesn't happen too often).
We become so used to doing something that we just do it on autopilot. That's what happened to the ever-confusing player that is Tiémoué Bakayoko on Saturday.
Once dubbed the future holding midfielder partner of N'Golo Kante at Chelsea, the French international is now on loan with Monaco for the season.
Two stats stood out ahead of today’s Premier League match between Sheffield and Newcastle United at Bramall Lane: (1) Andy Carroll was handed his first Newcastle start in almost nine years and (2) Martin Dúbravka was busy making his 65th straight EPL appearance for the Toon, a run which began directly following his move from Sparta Prague back in January of 2018.
Both players played massive roles in Newcastle’s bizarre 2-0 victory.