FIFA officially approved the use of video assistant referees at this summer’s World Cup during a FIFA Council meeting on Friday in Bogota, Colombia. After testing the system out at last year’s Confederations Cup, World Cup VAR is sure to annoy all the England fans who like to complain about not having anything to complain about.
Between Spain’s run of back-to-back European Championships with the 2010 World Cup sandwiched in between, Cesc Fabregas and David Villa put La Furia in La Furia Roja.
Fabregas was the top assist provider at Euro 2008; Villa won the Golden Boot. Fabregas assisted on Andres Iniesta’s match winner in the 2010 World Cup final; Villa won the Silver Boot. Fabregas was named to the Euro 2012 Team of the Tournament; Villa tragically missed the tournament with a broken tibia (although he finished top scorer in UEFA qualifying Group I with seven goals).
With FIFA set to begin the general sales phase of tickets for the 2018 World Cup in Russia today, two previous phases have resulted in an allocation of 1,303,616 tickets for the 64 matches — knocking two matches entirely off the docket: the final at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and June 16’s Group D opener between Argentina and Iceland at Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
As a little kid, I would feverishly collect Panini World Cup sticker albums every four years. The World Cup rush was even further intensified as everyone at school was collecting the stickers. Of course, all kids specially valued their national team stamps above anything else.
There was nothing a Mexican boy or girl would hold dearest to his or her heart than a Cuauhtemoc Blanco sticker.
In Antoine Griezmann, Alex Lacazette, Anthony Martial, Olivier Giroud, Dimitri Payet, Ousmane Dembele, Nabil Fekir, Kylian Mbappe, Kevin Gameiro and the ostracized Karim Benzema, France possess 10 forwards that, if hypothetically American, would waltz into the discussion of the greatest U.S. attacker of all-time.
It’s an embarrassment of attacking riches, especially when coupled with the dreamy midfield play of players like Paul Pogba, Thomas Lemar, Kingsley Coman and Corentin Tolisso.
With 102 appearances, 18 goals and as a veteran of two World Cups, history is on Giovani dos Santos’ side. However, his play on the field over the last year and a half makes his inclusion in Mexico’s 2018 World Cup squad, by Juan Carlos Osorio’s own stated standards, a real doubt.
When Dos Santos arrived in MLS in 2016, his initial return of 14 goals, 12 assists and a place in the MLS Best XI seemed to fully justify a Designated Player salary of $5.5 million per year.
England channeled the spirit of Robert Green against the USWNT Wednesday, conceding a very silly own goal on the way to a 1-0 USA victory that gave the Americans the SheBelieves Cup.
Megan Rapinoe's cross/shot was eventually knocked into the England netby goalkeeper Karen Bardsley for the only goal of the night in the 58th minute.
France entered the SheBelieves Cup as the lowest-ranked team of the four involved, ranked sixth while the others were all in the top three. But thanks to a blistering goal from Amandine Henry for France vs. Germany, Les Bleues ensured they didn’t finish last in the tournament, beating Die Nationalelf 3-0.
Adding to the list of shit that would never happen in men’s football, the Algarve Cup decided to not play its final on Wednesday, instead awarding both the Netherlands and Sweden first place in the tournament. About two hours after announcing starting lineups for the final, the Algarve Cup announced the match was canceled due to poor weather conditions.
Russia concluded group play in the 2018 Algarve Cup without a point, losing all three matches while being outscored 7-1. A 3-0 loss to Sweden on Monday ensured the Russians finished among the bottom two of 12 national teams. But there was one positive: an exquisite rainbow by forward Marina Fedorova.