Adidas just released a new World Cup ball for the knockout stages of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The new ball is called the Telstar Mechta and features plenty of red.
Telstar Mechta, the official match ball for the 2018 @FIFAWorldCup Knockouts. pic.twitter.com/ZMDAww5UQt
Through two weeks of scintillating soccer we’ve weeded out the pretenders (seeya, Germany) and kept the contenders (hello, Croatia). Now is when it gets really fun — when every match is do or die, win or go home. So it’s time to go over some more prognostications. These are our World Cup Round of 16 predictions.
Today brings to a close one of the greatest World Cup group stages in recent memory. Today, however, wasn’t all that great. Well, it was a little great.
Michy Batshuayi sums up all our feelings on #ENG #BEL pic.twitter.com/DULKERz7h0
It’s official. Panama will be the 2018 World Cup last place team, finishing 32nd out of 32 teams in Russia. Los Canaleros were in the World Cup for the first time, but other than a goal against England, it was a tournament to forget.
In a tournament with surprising parity throughout, Panama was the lone outlier, piling up poor results and not exactly bringing pride to the Concacaf region.
With all of the group stage matches finished, the attention now focuses on the Round of 16. This next stage will now see the loser eliminated from the World Cup. Harsh, we know. But that’s just how the cookie crumbles. Here's the World Cup Round of 16 schedule with the dates, times and the stadium it will be played at. Strap yourself in, because the World Cup is about to get even better.
The presidents of the United States and Portugal sat down for a bilateral meeting on Wednesday. Beforehand, Donald Trump and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa held a joint press briefing, with comments that ventured into the realm of soccer, the World Cup and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Trump Ronaldo comments were just about the most bizarre thing the U.S. president has said while in office, which is saying something.
Belgium claimed top spot in Group G after defeating England 1-0 Thursday thanks to Adnan Januzaj’s beautiful 51st-minute curler. Michy Batshuayi celebrated the goal by thunder punting the ball off the post and back into his own face.
If England and Belgium had played in the first match day for Group G, it probably would’ve been one of the best matches of the group stage. Instead, as the final match of the group stage, it turned into a bit of a bore. Belgium forward Michy Batshuayi perfectly summed up the feelings of fans everywhere with a celebration gone wrong.
With one thrilling upset and a few hearty dances, Senegal quickly became a fan favorite at the 2018 World Cup. Sadly, after a 1-0 win for Colombia vs Senegal, the Lions of Teranga are going home in the most excruciating way possible — FIFA fair play points.
Senegal and Japan finished tied in every way imaginable except for one. The two finished with the same number of points, goal differential, goals scored and head-to-head tiebreakers.