Swansea City was on the verge of a season-defining victory against Manchester City in the FA Cup quarterfinals on Saturday. Then Raheem Sterling threw himself to the ground under a challenge from USMNT defender Cameron Carter-Vickers and the entire match dynamic changed.
You gotta feel bad for Cagliari regista Luca Cigarini.
During a Serie A match against Fiorentina on Friday, Cigarini scored what could have been the best goal of his career, launching a free kick from his own half into the back of the net.
But the goal didn’t count.
No, it wasn’t the result of VAR or suspicious refereeing (well, maybe a little of the latter). Instead, it was a case of a direct vs indirect free kick scenario.
The short-lived Paul Scholes coaching career might be over after 31 days.
Scholes took over for Pete Wild at League Two Oldham Athletic in February, the 44-year-old's first ever full-time coaching gig. About a month later, the former England midfielder quit after recording one win in seven matches.
Now the manner in which Scholes quit has come to light, and it’s not flattering for the Manchester United legend.
First things first, before we talk about controversy or points of contention with referees, we have to simply talk about the game and how it actually flowed. After Atlético Madrid’s sensational performance at the Wanda Metropolitano on Feb. 20, this was an absolute debacle at Juventus Stadium on Tuesday.
It’s difficult to remember a time when Diego Simeone got things so ineffably wrong. How could Atlético go from this (cojones):
A number of college soccer coaches have been indicted in the massive college admissions bribery and cheating scandal that became public Tuesday.
An assistant referee and a player were taken to the hospital after a wooden light pole was knocked over by heavy winds, crashing onto the field during a high school soccer match on Saturday in Clarksville, Arkansas.
The referee sustained two broken bones in his leg while the player had superficial wounds to his head and legs, according to KFSM. Neither injury was considered life-threatening.
Brazilian striker Anderson Lopes played his first match for Consadole Sapporo in the J1 League on Friday, and the attacker came away with four goals and an important lesson in the layout of his club’s home ground, the Sapporo Dome.
With Consadole leading Shimizu S-Pulse 2-1 in the 49th minute, Anderson Lopes scored his second of the match and promptly went to celebrate with supporters behind the goal. Unfortunately, his jump over the advertising hoardings was quickly met with the realization that he faced a 10-foot drop to the hard ground below.
The Second City Derby between Birmingham rivals Aston Villa and Birmingham City was decided by a 67th-minute goal from Villa captain Jack Grealish, who’d earlier been punched in the back of the head by a pitch invader.
In the match’s ninth minute, with the ball in the Birmingham end, a City fan could be seen entering the pitch near the corner flag and hightailing it towards an unsuspecting Grealish.
After landing a punch, he was immediately apprehended and led away by police while blowing kisses to the crowd.
Last Sunday, an indoor soccer match between Rockford, Illinois-based San Jose FC and FC Wisconsin U-19 descended into madness in Brookfield, Wisconsin, when a skirmish ultimately resulted in a referee getting punched in the face.
The referee, 50-year-old Terry From, approached a boy who’d thrown a water bottle in his direction, identified as the 12-year-old son of San Jose FC’s coach, before being punched by a 17-year-old San Jose FC player, identified as the older brother of the 12-year-old.
We got 10 years of Pepe at Real Madrid, and if time weren’t such a cruel mistress, we could’ve been blessed with 10 more. I, for one, would welcome an eternal version of Pepe, a timeless incarnation of shithousery that doesn’t care about VAR now being a thing — a mad lad with his face cast in an eternal scowl, eyebrows bulging cartoonishly from his skull and always looking for fingers to stomp on and fouls suffered to greatly exaggerate.