What a wild ride the 2017 MLS regular season was. The league, for all its various shortcomings and absurdities, is incredibly exciting and ever-growing in quality. However, for all of its maturation and development, there’s still a brilliant charm to MLS that’s long since left Europe’s biggest leagues and the likes of the NFL, NBA and MLB.
Borussia Dortmund has not had a great month and a half, but maybe the club can take solace in the impressive teamwork that led to a goal Friday — even if that goal was scored by Stuttgart. As the Bundesliga returned from the international break, Dortmund defender Marc Bartra and goalie Roman Burki combined to great effect to allow Chadrac Akolo to score in the fifth minute.
The list of the 32 nations competing in the World Cup was finalized on Wednesday night. That also meant the list of 179 nations not competing in the World Cup was also finalized. While 15 percent of the countries who compete in FIFA will be preparing for the World Cup draw on Dec. 1, the remaining countries, constituting most of the world’s population, will be wondering “What if…” for the next four years.
Here’s a pro tip for all you executives out there who want to run a professional soccer league: make sure your best team doesn’t disband the same week it wins the league championship.
Speaking of, it’s been one helluva week for the San Francisco Deltas — henceforth to be referred to as NASL’s bottle rockets. The Deltas came, they saw, they conquered then they got the hell out of Dodge, all within a span of two years.
Neither Burkina Faso nor Cape Verde Islands had a chance of qualifying for Russia 2018 after Senegal wrapped up their group earlier this international break, so their World Cup qualifier Tuesday was really more of a glorified friendly. That's a good thing for Cape Verde's goalkeeper, who produced a pretty interesting howler in first half extra time to give Burkina Faso their first of four goals.
Oh sweet baby Jesus, won’t you please just make this 2017 USMNT horror show stop? Can’t we just be done with it until, say, 2019 or 2020?
At halftime in Portugal vs. U.S., it’s been a tale of two decidedly different things, although both have to do with players that pundits around the nation plugged into their “GUARANTEED 2022 World Cup Starting XI” article.
Un amistoso entre los participantes en la Copa Mundial de 2018, Corea del Sur y Colombia en Suwon, alcanzó niveles totalmente deplorables en el minuto 62, con los coreanos liderando 2-0 tras un doblete del delantero del Tottenham Son Heung-Min.
La estrella colombiana James Rodríguez estuvo en el centro de la desdicha cuando, a sabiendas y de forma muy obvia, le propinó una patada a Jin-Su Kim mientras fingía un intento de controlar el balón. El contacto pudo haber sido mínimo, pero James luego procedió a arrastrar a Kim fuera del campo.
Of the four UEFA World Cup qualifying playoffs, few would have expected this sort of entertainment from the Croatia vs. Greece match. Greece, a team that once turned winning while attacking as little as possible into an art form, were away to a resolute Croatia with its star striker on the bench in what is usually a cagey first leg. But the match was refreshingly exciting.
If you come at Barcelona in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, you best not miss. On Wednesday night, Lithuanian side Gintra Universitetas attempted to come at Barcelona in the Round of 16 and they missed. Horrendously.
Barcelona were already leading 3-0 when the home team hilariously failed to convert a 3-on-0, and the Catalan side would go on to win 6-0 in the first leg. The return leg, scheduled for November 15 in Barcelona, is now something of a formality.