In the end, of course, there was no major upset. Paris Saint-Germain defeated third-division club Les Herbiers 2-0 in the 2018 Coupe de France Final. But the lasting image of Tuesday’s match between giants and minnows was the awkward moment of PSG captain Thiago Silva lifting the Coupe de France trophy alongside Les Herbiers captain Sébastien Flochon.
On Sunday, in a pivotal relegation match for his side, Florentin Pogba, Paul’s older brother, injured his knee. Pogba then decided to limp off the pitch in the 85th minute, only to be angrily confronted by his Genclerbirligi teammates.
The Stanley Cup playoffs took a blow on Sunday when Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins were knocked out in the second round. The NHL, hockey fans will note, reprimanded Marchand after he twice licked opponents during the postseason. But it got us thinking, who in the soccer world is most likely to be asked to stop licking players?
Beşiktaş is one of Turkey’s greatest clubs, having won 15 Turkish Super League titles, most recently in 2017. The Black Eagles have won nine Turkish Cups and eight Turkish Super Cups. But the club chose to throw away a chance at the next two Turkish Cups by choosing not to show up for a match on Thursday — and many have applauded the Beşiktaş forfeit.
Poor Sven. All he wanted to do was hang out on the Bayern bench and rack up trophies, but then Manuel Neuer had to go and get injured in September. Now, after another Sven Ulreich howler against Real Madrid on Tuesday, the Bayern Munich backup is making a name for himself in all the wrong ways.
In today’s youth sports, there exists a certain type of parent, the parent we know all too well. The asshole parent. Soccer parents gone wild.
The asshole parent comes in three varieties. The raging critic, whose sole objective is to criticize his or her child until he or she runs off the field in tears. The argumentative screamer, spewing insults at the other team. And finally there's the hostile screamer, provoking brawls with anyone on the opposing side, whether parent or coach.
Donald Trump put the joint 2026 World Cup bid from the United States, Mexico and Canada in jeopardy on Thursday with an ill-advised social media post. The Trump soccer tweet was an overt threat to all nations who refuse to support the united bid — and a direct violation of FIFA’s code of ethics (if that still means anything).
Fox gave a giant middle finger to all English-speaking U.S. soccer fans on Wednesday. The Fox World Cup coverage will be called almost entirely by announcers in Los Angeles — and in case you forgot, the tournament is being played in Russia.
Fox, which paid FIFA $400 million for the exclusive English-language rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in the U.S., couldn’t be bothered to spend enough money to send its announcers to Russia, a huge insult to soccer fans in America.