Men

Jurgen Klinsmann, the man who invented football in 2006 and created Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger using nothing more than some bits of string and an abandoned Doritos bag, is targeting a top-four finish at the 2018 World Cup after finishing fifth in the Hex.

For many of the players who tasted glory with Portugal at the 2016 European Championship in France, it’s not been a story of pushing onwards and upwards ever since.

France announced the 23-man squad it will be taking to Russia in a few weeks and to the shock and awe of no one, Karim Benzema isn’t on manager Didier Deschamps’ list. Instead in the forward positions Deschamps has named Ousmane Dembele, Nabil Fekir, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Thomas Lemar, Kylian Mbappé and Florian Thauvin. 

Today, ESPN published a Lionel Messi story by Sam Borden that’s scheduled to appear in ESPN The Magazine’s June 8 World Fame issue. The long-form article mainly concerns Messi’s off-field demeanor — he’s quiet, reclusive and prefers to express himself on the pitch. 

Bruce Arena and Jurgen Klinsmann are two very different people both hung with the blame for failing to get the U.S. to the 2018 World Cup (because it’s easier to blame coaches than the players fans worship).