When the starting lineups for Saturday’s El Clasico were announced, there was really only one surprise in the 22 players named for battle: Zinedine Zidane’s decision to drop Isco to the bench in favor of Mateo Kovacic. For many, Isco has been Real’s best player over the past year — a footballer of sublime skill, technique and playmaking ability — while Kovacic’s inclusion meant one thing only: Lionel Messi limitation.
Barcelona opened up a nine-point gap at the top of La Liga with an astounding 3-0 victory over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Saturday. Real now trail the leaders by 14 points, a seemingly insurmountable margin when coupled with what transpired over the final 45 minutes in Madrid.
Wayne Shaw and pie-gate, eat your heart out. Michiel Kramer and croquette-gate are the new flavor of the month for food-related football bans.
Snow is great — you get to stay home from school, build snowmen and throw snowballs at each other (or so I’m told; I grew up in Texas where we didn’t get snow.) Snow also can make for great television, like for Panathinaikos vs Lamia in the Greek Cup on Thursday.
On Saturday, match week 17 in La Liga will boil down to one match and one match only: the El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu. Though Barcelona dares not think about losing the world’s greatest rivalry game, manager Ernesto Valverde is obviously correct in saying, “I don’t think a Clasico victory will give us the title.”
Well, happy birthday Kylian Mbappe, ya filthy animal! Today, December 20, Mbappe turns 19. The question of how good he’ll be a few years from now is dwarfed by the immediate: how good is this kid right now? Yes, today’s highlight is from a match against yo-yo club SM Caen, but my word.
Just when you think Kylian Mbappe’s personal brand couldn’t get any doper — what, with him providing us with the second coming of O Fenômeno — he goes and says something like this.
Compared to the pain of missing the event entirely, the tale of the USMNT’s 2006 World Cup can now be viewed in a more favorable light. However, after reaching the quarterfinals of the 2002 competition and subsequently breezing through CONCACAF qualifying for the ’06 tournament in Germany, it was with huge belief and soaring naivety that we approached the world’s biggest stage.