One player dominated the headlines after Manchester United's match against Newcastle on Saturday: Cristiano Ronaldo. His two goals, thanks to two mistakes from Newcastle keeper Freddie Woodman, ensured a story book ending for his Old Trafford return.
The Panama World Cup qualifying campaign is smooth sailing after the first three games. This is the exact opposite of what we predicted here at The18.
In our Concacaf World Cup qualifying predictions, six out of seven people predicted the Panamanians to finish dead last in the group of eight teams. Only one person had Panama finishing higher than eighth. That individual had the Central American country finishing seventh.
Will the US qualify for the World Cup? One month ago, even the most pessimistic of USMNT fans would begrudgingly say this squad will qualify for Qatar 2022.
Fast forward to the afternoon of Sept. 8 and there’s a thick fog of anxiety and nervousness in the air ahead of the American’s clash against Honduras.
If you’ve been searching for the "guy yells suuu during meeting" video, then you’ve come to the right place. That was me during one of The18’s weekly meetings.
While the USMNT is dealing with the travails of Concacaf World Cup qualifying, MLS play continues on, because international breaks are for the weak, or something. But MLS is still seeing its share of Concacafy nonsense, if this Henry Kessler time wasting is anything to go by.
I love all things “Ted Lasso.” I don’t go to church, but if I did, I’d go to the church of Ted Lasso. Hell, it’s better for you than most organized religions. I watch each episode as they’re released at midnight ET to stay fully abreast of the series and avoid spoilers. So I was shocked this week to see a conspiracy theory sweeping across the internet, with people legitimately wondering: Is Roy Kent CGI?
My Spanish is a little rusty, but here is a snippet from a conversation overheard between a few El Salvadorian fans shortly before the country's World Cup Qualifier against the USMNT on Thursday:
Guy No. 1: "OK, here's the plan: step one — get a ladder. Step two — carry the ladder into the stadium."
*Pause*
Guy No. 2: "What's step three?"
Guy No. 1: "What do you mean step three? That's the whole plan, we take the ladder and bring it into the game. That's it."
Imagine after a bad day at the office you get questioned on what went wrong and then have some random person run up to you begging for a photo. Everyone will react differently, but I personally would react the same way that Virgil van Dijk did after his Dutch side drew with Norway 1-1 on Wednesday in World Cup qualifying.
Van Dijk’s day could have gone smoother as the big man had his finger dislocated trying to stop Erling Haaland’s opening goal.
It’s almost been 90 days since the raucous CONCACAF Nations League final in Denver between the USMNT and Mexico, but still just thinking about the atmosphere, the back-and-forth scoreline and the improbable ending is enough to give you chills.
The match was perfectly poised throughout, beginning with Tecatito Corona’s early opener and Gio Reyna’s first-half response, and continuing into the second half with Diego Lainez’s impressive strike cancelled out by Weston McKennie’s late towering header.