It turns out spending millions of dollars on manager Andre Villas-Boas and immediate want-aways Carlos Tevez and Jackson Martinez amounts to little more than burning money for the Chinese Super League. According to a recent audit by accounting firm PwC and as reported by Goal, the CSL’s clubs are currently in a combined debt of over $600 million.
The World Cup draw was completed this morning at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow with the 32 finalist nations placed into eight groups of four. The 2018 FIFA World Cup will kick off on June 14 at Luzhniki Stadium with a match featuring host-side Russia and Saudi Arabia. We now know the makeup of the entire field for the competition as well as the group stage matches that'll captivate the planet next summer. Here are the full results from the 2018 FIFA World Cup draw.
Nicolás Ladislao Fedor Flores, otherwise known as Miku, spent six years at Valencia, making a grand total of two appearances and scoring exactly zero goals with the La Liga side from 2004-2010. In three matches with Bengaluru FC, Miku already has three goals, including two on Thursday. For the second, he played a pass to himself before dribbling past three defenders.
Even though Bengaluru FC lost 4-3 to FC Goa, the second Miku goal was easily the highlight of the match.
A macaque monkey (fun fact: the most widespread primate genus aside from humans) delivered the match ball in a Japanese J-League match over the weekend while threaded out in full Cerezo Osaka kit. The monkey attempted a brief session of free styling before picking up the football and delivering it to the referee.
It’s not as riveting as War for the Planet of the Apes, but you do get the feeling that an evolved chimpanzee like Caesar would absolutely hate something like this.
Iraqi soccer doesn’t exactly get a lot of exposure in the English-speaking world, but Friday’s Iraqi Super Cup between Baghdad rivals Al-Zawraa and Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya in Karbala was absurdly ludicrous and ludicrously absurd. It was a match you had to see to believe.
Most readers will probably never have heard of Al-Zawraa and Al-Jawiya so we’ll spare you the details and get right to the silliness.
30-year-old German midfielder Daniel Adlung really caught a hold of that one, huh? This rip evened the score for Adelaide United in their A-League match against Central Coast Mariners on Thursday, allowing Ryan Kitto’s 93rd minute strike to constitute the game-winner for the Reds.
Adlung, who represented Germany at the U-21 level, just arrived in Australia back in September after a 12-year professional career in his native country, including lengthy spells with FC Energie Cottbus and 1860 Munich.
And so it’s settled. On November 15, Peru claimed the final spot in the 32-team field for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, bringing us to the final event before the June 14 kick off at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow: the draw to determine the eight groups of four for the finals.
The eyes of the footballing world are set on Lima, Peru, today with only one spot at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia still up for grabs. That ticket will be punched tonight when Peru hosts Oceania representative New Zealand at 9:15 ET on beIN SPORTS.
After a 0-0 first leg draw in Wellington, Peru (the 10th ranked side on the planet) will be heavy favorites in the return leg, but New Zealand (ranked 122nd) know they are just one vital away goal from causing los Incas all sorts of trouble.
Radamel Falcao is back to his brilliant best for both club and country, and he’ll surely lead the line for Colombia in Russia. Accordingly, Los Cafeteros could very well match or better their 2014 run to the quarterfinals — the country’s best-ever World Cup finish — which Falcao missed because of a knee injury.