The break in football has allowed us to step back and analyze some of the trends that’ve defined the 2019-20 season so far, and there’s nothing more eye-catching than the steep decline of headed goals in the Premier League. According to a recent tactical study, the English top-flight is on course for its fewest headed goals ever in a single season.
When Christian Pulisic scores or DeAndre Yedlin showcases his pace on a recovery run, the highlights are available for consumption across the United States almost instantaneously. 15 years ago, that was certainly not the case.
This was a time without Twitter, YouTube and Reddit — a time when you had to visit yanks-abroad.com for news while scrounging up money to pay for Fox Soccer Channel because your parents sure as shit weren’t expensing it.
After swapping England's South Coast for Hamburg, Leo Östigard and Viktor Gyökeres have become vital to St. Pauli. Arriving at the Millentor within one week of each other, the two Brighton loanees have gained invaluable experience in Germany's second division.
After a long time away from home, Mark Uth is thriving again in Cologne.
In the summer of 2018, Uth moved to Schalke from Hoffenheim, where a series of injuries saw him unable to maintain any sort of form. FC Köln manager Markus Gisdol, who worked with Uth for six months at Hoffenheim, decided to bring him to 15th-placed Köln on loan in January. Since his return to his boyhood club, no Schalke player has scored as many goals or provided as many assists as Uth (four apiece).
With social distancing coming to the fore, many are turning to video games to pass the time. In turn, many are realizing — or just remembering — how aggravating the FIFA 20 experience can be. After almost 20 years of the game myself, I can hardly look at it without feeling like Roy Keane at a convention of TikTok influencers.
Moroccan side Raja Club Athletic followed its tradition for posting the team’s starting lineup ahead of its next match. This time around, the club’s opponent just so happens to be humanity’s adversary as well.
Let’s take a look at the chosen 11 Raja Club Athletic is fielding against COVID-19 and break down each player.
Raúl Jiménez scored his 13th Premier League goal of the season on Sunday (equalling his total from last campaign with 10 games remaining), and it was an all-important match-winner as Wolves defeated Tottenham in North London. With the victory, Wolves moved above Spurs and into sixth-place. The club’s now level on points with fifth-place Manchester United and only three behind Chelsea in fourth.
They’re calling Liverpool’s Premier League title challenge a procession because that’s exactly what it is. For whatever reason, that’s come to be seen as a howl of despair from neutrals, as though Liverpool’s brilliance is setting off an ennui inside us all that can only be rectified by allowing offside goals scored against the Reds to stand.
Norwich City has ventured into the transfer market this month in a bid to boost its chances of Premier League survival. Manager Daniel Farke has brought in Ondrej Duda from Hertha Berlin and Hoffenheim's Lukas Rupp in hopes they will be able to help turn around the fortunes of the struggling Canaries.
Duda arrives on a loan until the end of the season, while Rupp was purchased outright for $570,000. Their signings continue the trend of Farke scouting the German leagues he knows so well; the two represent his 11th and 12th additions from Germany since his 2017 arrival.
Wolverhampton forward Adama Traoré is one of the fastest soccer players in the world. The 23-year-old Spaniard has clocked in at a blistering 23.61 mph in training and has reached speeds of 22 mph in games.
Traoré’s physique is what separates him from other speedsters like Kylian Mbappé and Mohamed Salah. The Wolves forward stands at 5-10, but weighs 159 pounds, the majority of which is muscle.