National Teams

Soccer is the beautiful game, although sometimes it can be ugly too. One of these instances of soccer turning grisly happened during the 1994 World Cup hosted right here in the United States. 

It was a match neither team could afford to lose in Group E and it appeared to be heading toward a draw in the closing minutes. Then Xherdan Shaqiri made one game-changing run and the next thing you know he’s peeling his shirt off with a 2-1 win for Switzerland vs Serbia. 

It turns out, Nigeria is more than just a pretty uniform. They’ve got Ahmed Musa.

After looking inept in a loss to Croatia to open the World Cup, the Super Eagles were flying against Iceland. Ahmed Musa scored two goals in a 2-0 win on Friday, succeeding where Lionel Messi and Argentina failed, but at the same time giving hope to La Albiceleste that they can advance through the group stage.

Neymar had a rough start to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Against Switzerland he was pounded with repeated fouls in an eventual disappointing draw. Against Costa Rica, the Concacaf side frustrated Neymar and his teammates for 90 minutes, Brazil’s star man even attempting an ill-fated flop or two. In the end, thanks in part to Philippe Coutinho, Brazil prevailed and we got to see some sweet Neymar skills in the final minutes.

The United States is not in the 2018 World Cup and Costa Rica just showed the world why. No matter how skilled a team is (or isn’t), it is extremely difficult to beat a Concacaf side like Costa Rica, Panama or Honduras. But a stoppage-time Philippe Coutinho goal vs Costa Rica was just enough to get Brazil a vital three points with a 2-0 win and knock Los Ticos out of the tournament on Friday in Russia.

England's looking to potentially book its place in the next round of the World Cup with a victory over Panama. A last-minute winner from Harry Kane gifted the Three Lions three points, but the team from that match will be slightly different for this match.

How do we know this? We have an inside source from the England camp.

We wish.

The team lineup was leaked by England assistant Steve Holland, who had a team with all the names on it that could potentially start against Panama.

Can you believe we’ve already been going at this for over a week and that it’s already June 21? No? Because you haven’t slept much and your feeling kind of delirious and you have World Cup Powerade commercial-inspired dreams?  Oh my god, me too.

Watching Lionel Messi vs Croatia was like watching LeBron James against the Golden State Warriors. Even the best players in sports are only as good as their supporting casts — and Messi’s midfield right now is just no good.

LeBron James couldn’t come close to beating the Warriors in the NBA Finals this year because the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have much going for them aside from James. Sure there’s Kevin Love and JR Smith, but, yeah, it’s Kevin Love and JR Smith. 

As the Argentina vs Croatia highlights show, Lionel Messi and company collapsed against an altogether superior opponent on Thursday in Nizhny Novgorod, 3-0. Spearheaded by the influential play of the sublime Luka Modric, Croatia is through to the Round of 16 while Argentina is on the verge of a shock group stage elimination.