The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday recommended banning Russia from global sports for four years, including a ban on hosting major events. Oddly, any such ban will not affect the Russia Euro 2020 team, because it does not fall under WADA’s “major event” classification. But questions remain about the 2022 World Cup.
Belgium and Russia had already qualified for the 2020 Euros, both ensured of finishing in the top two in qualifying Group I. The Russians had a chance to overtake the Belgians for first place in the group with a win on Saturday, but the Hazard Brothers weren’t having it.
Eden and Thorgan Hazard combined for three first-half goals as Belgium cruised to a 4-1 win over Russia on Saturday in Saint Petersburg, clinching first place in Group I.
Following this November’s upcoming international break (Nov. 14 — 19), we’ll know 20 of the 24 participating nations at UEFA Euro 2020. While the four remaining spots will be decided in late March through the qualifying playoffs, it’s safe to say that we can begin to look forward to next summer’s European Championship in earnest.
Adidas feels the same way.
We’re a little over a month away from the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Asunción, Paraguay, but the defending champion has just delivered a timely reminder of its mastery of the sand. The World Beach Games wrapped up yesterday in Doha, Qatar, and it was Brazil that captured the men’s beach soccer title following a 9-3 victory over Russia in the gold medal match.
A UEFA Executive Committee meeting in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana has hashed out some future Champions League final locations, so we can now confirm sites for 2021, 2022 and 2023. This year’s final will be staged in Istanbul, and then Ol’ Big Ears will travel to Saint Petersburg, Munich and London over the course of the following three competitions.
Evgeni Chernov deserves a raise after making perhaps the best double save of all time.
He’ll have to settle for three points.
Chernov and his FC Rostov crew traveled to Moscow to play Lokomotiv Moscow on Saturday and came away with a 2-1 victory over last season’s runners-up. The Muzhiki (translates to Tough Guys) have Chernov to thank for the win.
A 26-year-old left back, Chernov made an unbelievable double save to deny Lokomotiv, and we’re still trying to wrap our heads around that second block.
Although the Premier League kicked off this weekend and demands our undivided attention, I think you’ll be pleased to see a couple things outside of Pep Guardiola spending $1 billion on assorted full backs. I give you two videos unashamedly taken from r/soccer.
If you don’t know, r/soccer is a sort of void that begins in the pit of your stomach before lodging at the back of your throat — it’s the ultimate representation of what it means to see fear in a handful of dust. It’s like Twitter in that respect.
Every four years, hundreds of thousands of fans descend upon a new country, laying waste to incomprehensible volumes of a pale, frothy liquid. The World Cup is a time to celebrate not just soccer, but humanity, and what better way than by consuming the same beverage many anthropologists believe to be impetus behind early mankind giving up its nomadic societies to create what we know today as civilization — beer.
Chertanovo Moscow does things a bit differently. With an average age of 20.2, the youngest club in the Russia Football National League (second division) is currently in fourth place with a second consecutive promotion a realistic goal. The recent addition to the first team of Sergey Pinyaev highlights the club’s commitment to youth.
During a Russian National Student League match between Rubin Kazan and Cheboksary, Kazan’s Norik Avdalyan blatantly ripped off a penalty technique that I invented. Inspired by Columbine’s Dylan Prichett-Ettner, I’ve been working on incorporating flipping into my every action on the pitch in a painstaking process that, up until this point, I’ve wholeheartedly trusted in.