In the early days of football and throughout most of the 20th century, it wasn’t uncommon for players to stay at a club for their entire career. Legends such as Santiago Bernabeu, Giampero Boniperti, Lev Yashin and dozens of others all stayed with one team for decades. It was kind of the thing to do.
Wayne Rooney announced his retirement from international football on Wednesday, bringing a close to a tumultuous 14-year England career. While Rooney goes down in the record books as England’s all time leading goalscorer and most capped outfield player, his legacy is still a polarizing one given the profligacy of the Three Lions during that period.
Soccer is an evolving game. From the original codification in 1863 to the modern institution of video replay, football’s lawmakers are constantly tweaking the rules.
The following is a timeline of the major changes made to the game.
Touching is good. It’s a display of endearment, a bonding behavior, an affectionate act.
Touching is bad. It’s a display of aggression, a divisive behavior, a violent act.
Contrary to popular belief, referees are people too. They like good touch. They don’t like bad touch. On Sunday, Cristiano Ronaldo did a bad touch. The referee didn’t like it. Ronaldo is suspended five matches.
Maybe you’ve heard already, but this Christian Pulisic guy is pretty good. At 18, the Borussia Dortmund and U.S. men’s national team star has proven himself to be one of the best Americans in the game today. He has an impeccable first touch, composure in the box beyond his years and makes impressive runs on and off the ball.
Liverpool have been chasing Southampton center back Virgil van Dijk all summer, and they're running out of time.
Earlier in the transfer window, a move seemed imminent, but then Southampton reported Liverpool to the FA for supposedly "tapping up" the Dutch international. Liverpool were forced to apologize and said they had ended any interest in van Dijk.
However, van Dijk is training alone at Southampton because he wants to leave. He handed in an official transfer request and word on the street is he only wants to go to Liverpool.
You probably didn’t notice, but the MLS Rankings of Power went on a long hiatus. It went off into the woods, swallowed a cocktail of hallucinogenics, found a small passage in a dense thicket and wormed its way into a little clearing in the shrubbery. There, it pondered the value of power, the capacity for channeling such robust faculties and the question of how to then present it to the people in a safe for consumption listicle format.
A spot kick. It’s from 12 yards out. You can either place it or go for power or just close your eyes and hope. Either way, the goalkeeper is at a massive disadvantage. There’s not much more to it than that. You should try to keep it simple, stupid.
But here are three instances when, for whatever reason, the penalty taker managed to get it all horribly wrong. These are the 3 worst penalties ever taken.
For those of us who threw our collegiate and professional aspirations out the window after high school, we have to search for glory in other ways. Whether it's by playing FIFA, arguing with other fans or ranting on Twitter, the game will always be in our blood. When ranting loses its appeal, you turn to dusting off your cleats and trying to remember where your shin guards are hiding.
The prospective loss of Neymar, as well as the astronomical fee Barcelona will receive for his sale, has fueled rumors of a potential domino effect in the transfer market. After receiving the giant check in the mail from Qatar (I think that’s how it works), will Barcelona turn around and hand the check to Borussia Dortmund for Ousmane Dembele or Juventus for Paulo Dybala or Liverpool for Philippe Coutinho?