Outrageous

One of the most important jobs a manager must accomplish in order to be successful is earning the respect of his or her players. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including but not limited to leading by example through hard work, displaying superior soccer knowledge while gameplanning, showing players they are truly cared for or displaying actual soccer skills to impress players.

The ship has probably sailed on that last bit for England U-21 manager Aidy Boothroyd. Look what Everton youngster Ademola Lookman did to Boothroyd in training.

Christian Pulisic is kind of a big deal, and not just in the United States. He’s one of the few reasons to get excited about American soccer over the next couple years, and he’s one of Borussia Dortmund’s star performers this season. Heck, he recently nutmegged Dutch star Arjen Robben.

Soccer is the beautiful game and the most popular sport in the world. We know you like it because you’re reading about it right now. But there’s one thing missing from soccer that is ever present in most team sports: a clock counting down to the end of a match. 

When this Maribor defender woke up this morning, he probably didn't know today would be his last day as a professional soccer player. He probably didn't think Roberto Firmino would nutmeg him so badly as to necessitate his rejecting society and living out his days in a cave, as a hermit.

But that's what Firmino did, so this poor man must now grow a giant beard and take a vow of silence.

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Hey, it’s Halloween! Aside from tooth decay induced by copious amounts of sugar-loaded candy, that means all your favorite soccer teams are releasing spooky and/or goofy Halloween videos. Horray! We here at The18 have done the hard work of rounding up the best soccer Halloween videos from this week, so grab some bite-sized candy bars and enjoy. 

Bender Bending Rodriguez has the right idea. If you can’t get into the party, just create your own.

With the U.S. officially out of the 2018 World Cup, it should consider hosting its own alternate World Cup for other World Cup castoffs. We’ll call it the Jack Warner Invitational and invite all the other countries who suck too much to be included in Russia. Plus, who wanted to go to Russia anyway? Buncha Commies. 

Russia and Qatar will host the next two World Cups. But neither country is very good at soccer. It may be hypocritical right now to throw dirt on Russia and Qatar after the U.S. failed to qualify for the World Cup themselves, but let’s be bitter Americans and point out all the teams that are better than Russia and Qatar in soccer.

Tuesday sure was wild, huh? CONCACAF CONCACAF’d the sh*t out of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers for two insane hours. There was a lot to take in. A lot. Wacky own goals, rampaging ball boys and hugging commentators. And USMNT World Cup dreams dashed. So like Hillary Clinton after her election loss, let’s revisit what the hell just happened.