The buzz of excitement in the streets of Doha was palpable. The tournament was to kick off between Ecuador and host nation Qatar at 7 p.m. local time. Supporters and travelers who don’t have tickets to the World Cup matches are invited to witness the games throughout the tournament in an epic atmosphere at the Al Bidda Park FIFA Fan Festival.
AL KHOR, Qatar - Captain Enner Valencia extended his cult status in Ecuador to wider international acclaim with a first-half double that propelled the South Americans to a comfortable 2-0 win over hosts Qatar in the opening game of the World Cup on Sunday.
The 33-year-old forward, nicknamed Superman, increased his record tally of goals for Ecuador to 37 and became the country’s highest scoring player at World Cup tournaments as his double at the Al Bayt Stadium added to the three he scored in 2014.
Nearly four and half years after the World Cup ended in Russia, the pinnacle sporting event takes center stage once again in Qatar. I was amongst diverse soccer fans waiting in long lines to board a full plane in Frankfurt, Germany. The lines ended up turning into a cluster of a mob, bursting to get their boarding pass checked and themselves onto the plane. Qatar 2022 is the most scrutinized World Cup in recent memory, and was this unbridled chaos at the airport another warning for more disorganized madness to come?
It's time to get laughed at. Here are The18's 2022 FIFA World Cup predictions, although many of our employees have elected the safest route after gazing into their crystal balls.
Many football lovers hope an African team will finally win the men’s 2022 FIFA World Cup. The world has been waiting for this since the great Brazilian player Pelé predicted (in the 1970s) that an African country would win before the year 2000. That didn’t happen, but it didn’t stop Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football, from saying (in 2021): "An African team must win the World Cup in the near future."
The Nike World Cup commercial 2022 is an instant classic. The full version — clocking nearly four and a half minutes — has it all: past and present versions of Cristiano Ronaldo hitting the "SIU!" together, multiple past versions of "O Fenômeno" Ronaldo getting after it, Kylian Mbappé introducing 2006 Ronaldinho to the low wall, Alex Morgan sipping tea, Edgar Davids just being Edgar Davids and so much more.
The film is part of Nike FC's Footballverse, which has its own snazzy website to explore.
Have you come down with World Cup fever? The only cure is more of the beautiful game. Thankfully, we've got new soccer shows on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus to watch this month.
Looking ahead to 2023, we know we'll have a third and final season of Sunderland 'Til I Die, a third season of Ted Lasso, a second season of Welcome to Wrexham and the release of Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins. I'm also still working on an original film about the life and badass times of André Villas-Boas.
With the 2022 FIFA World Cup set to begin the commercials are beginning to appear. The title for best 2022 World Cup commercial is up for grabs and right now Lays is a leading candidate. On Tuesday the chip (or crisp) giant released a two and a half minute Peyton Manning vs. David Beckham, soccer vs. football commercial.
There are so many cameos in this ad it’s hard to keep track.
Brazil, king of kings, became one of the first World Cup participants to reveal their final squad Monday — basically telling the rest of the world to gaze upon its marvelous 26-man roster and despair.
When Jack Elliott's 120+4' effort on the rebound put the Philadelphia Union up 3-2 on LAFC in Saturday's MLS Cup, it seemed like a fittingly batshit crazy ending to a remarkable match. Philly, after coming back from one-goal deficits twice during regular time, could breath easy and the city's special unit for greasing the poles could begin its work.