When thinking of heroines and heroes on the pitch, the referee isn’t typically too high on the list, but American ref Katja Koroleva is proving to be one of the sport’s biggest heroines during the pandemic.
In an interview with Los Angeles Times writer Kevin Baxter, Koroleva shared her experiences while battling the novel coronavirus as a physician assistant.
Seven years ago, the wildest sequence of events took place at Vicarage Road during the Championship playoff semifinal between Watford and Leicester City. Troy Deeney’s goal vs. Leicester is fondly remembered years later as one of the best last-second winners.
At the time, Watford had been out of the Premier League for six years, and this was the first time in five years that the Hornets had finished in the top six of the Championship and even qualified for the playoffs.
On June 24, Lionel Messi celebrates his 33rd birthday. From a purely sporting perspective, one of the great injustices of the pandemic is depriving us of precious Messi time — after all, conventional wisdom tells us that the Argentine’s peak is now well behind him. Of course, actually watching him tells you something completely different.
For basketball fans, “The Last Dance” has been a welcome reprieve from a total lack of hoops action over the last two months. The Michael Jordan-centric Chicago Bulls docuseries has been a rating bonanza for ESPN.
But there is no real like-for-like equivalent for soccer fans to dive into during this pandemic.
Update May 9: Alex Morgan gave birth on May 7. Read all about it here.
It’s a good thing the 2020 Olympics were pushed bacl to 2021, because it would’ve been mighty hard for Alex Morgan to return to playing shape given how long it’s taking her baby to arrive. The latest Alex Morgan baby update showed the USWNT superstar riding her bike while 41 (!) weeks pregnant.
The term “breaking ankles” is when you juke your opponent so bad, they end up on their backside. It’s an act seen lots of times in basketball and sometimes in soccer. It makes supporters and the bench go wild and adds an element of excitement to the game. Conceding a goal or basket is one thing, but losing your own ankles is on another echelon of humiliation. The Lionel Messi goal vs Bayern Munich in 2015 features one of the worst ankle breakers in soccer history. How does it compare to the time Allen Iverson snatched a pair of his own ankles?
Jose Mourinho has done it all throughout his illustrious career. He’s won eight league titles across Portugal, England, Spain and Italy, won the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan and even helped underdog Manchester United win the Europa League. But only one match ever made Jose Mourinho cry.
While many professional athletes have used this recent downtime from sports to relax, hang out with family and stay out of the limelight, one soccer star is doing just the opposite. More than perhaps any athlete over the last two months, Megan Rapinoe has been raising her profile in nearly every way possible.
At this rate, she might just become the next Oprah.
Despite the fact that no soccer is being played right now, our annual pre-game playlist is now ready for when the sport returns. The Fall 2019 playlist served us well, but 2020 has already produced some quality songs.
We all know the true worth of a footballer is measured by how they perform against the best of the best, when everything is on the line. In men’s soccer, there is no stronger barometer of greatness than how one fares against the U.S. men’s national team. So to resolve the Ronaldo vs Messi debate once and for all, here’s a look at how the two GOATs have performed against Michael Bradley and Co.