No event defines an athlete’s career quite like the World Cup. It’s why people still look at Lionel Messi like he’s got something to prove (he doesn’t) and why the name Chris Wondolowski still brings a tear to the eye of many Americans. The 2014 World Cup made Mario Gotze an international icon, turned James Rodriguez into the hero of Colombians everywhere and earned DeAndre Yedlin a Spurs contract.
There's something tragic about each of Mexico's six-straight World Cup Round of 16 eliminations — being unable to reach the quarterfinals has become a haunting nightmare for El Tri. However, it doesn't detract from the country's long and rich history of playing in the world's greatest competition.
In fact, Mexico is one of the national teams with the most World Cup appearances. El Tri have been present at 15 World Cups, only trailing Argentina (16), Italy and Germany (17), and Brazil (20).
All-Star gaaaames. There’s nothing more exciting than watching the NBA’s West beat the East 192 to 182 while the 6-10 Anthony Davis scores 52 points off 39 shots, and there’s nothing more sporting than watching Canadian journeyman Will Johnson crunch Bastian Schweinsteiger on the ankle after the German graciously appears following a grueling summer spent winning the World Cup.
The UEFA Nations League is objectively a cool idea — turn meaningless friendlies into interesting competitions, replace boring lopsided matches with enticingly even matchups, create another tournament for players and fans to enjoy. But Wednesday’s draw didn’t exactly get the pulses racing for next fall’s Nations League schedule outside of a handful of UEFA’s 55 countries.
League A, Group 1 is awesome: Germany, France and the Netherlands. Group A4 is pretty good too: Spain, England and Croatia. But the other 14 groups fail to really move the needle.
Serie A returned after a short winter break and everything seemed to go according to plan. Napoli won. Juventus won. Benevento lost. Pretty much par for the course.
Ronaldinho retired this week. Maybe you’ve heard. We’ve mentioned it a few times. But it’s worth revisiting once more because the Brazilian was one of the most creative footballers to ever play the game. He was, in essence, the Nintendo Labo of soccer.
One of the few certainties in soccer is players (and coaches) will not get along with referees. There will always be contentious calls and subjective decisions that could go either way. This isn’t exclusive to soccer, but there is one sport that avoids this aspect completely: ultimate Frisbee, which does not have referees. Could the beautiful game ever follow suit and institute self-officiated soccer?
Abdoulaye Doucouré is one cheeky fella. The Watford midfielder took advantage of some poor refereeing and some poor decision-making from the English FA to help earn his team a point with a 2-2 draw. You see, the 90th-minute Doucoure goal vs Southampton was scored with the Frenchman’s hand.
Yes, it’s still illegal to use your hands if you’re not the goalie. And no, England hasn’t joined the rest of the civilized world by adopting VAR. So yeah, the goal stood, and Southampton is rightly livid.
On the second day of 2018, West Brom’s Jake Livermore rushed into the stands to confront a West Ham fan during an English Premier League match. On Wednesday, the English FA decided not to punish the midfielder. This stunning lack of a Jake Livermore punishment is wholly unacceptable.
The NASL, which once boasted such stars as Pelé and, well, Pelé should be enough for you to keep reading this sentence, cannot seem to sort itself out. The league is a mess right now and not even its move to the international calendar should convince you otherwise — in fact, the move is merely propaganda to make you think everything is just fine.
The NASL announced Monday it would move to an August-to-June calendar, one employed by most of Europe and many of the top leagues around the world.