For many, there can only be one winner in the race for the FIFA women’s player of the year award in 2017, and that’s Australia’s Sam Kerr. The 23-year-old attacker led Perth Glory to the final of Australia’s W-League while finishing second in goals, she finished top scorer at the Tournament of Nations as Australia defeated hosts United States and she’s scored 11 goals for Sky Blue FC in NWSL play.
It never ceases to amaze me that with a 23-year-old Lionel Messi entering the height of his powers as a footballer, the Argentine Football Association decided to put Diego Maradona in charge of the national team for the 2010 World Cup. In his previous managerial experience, Maradona had collected three wins, eight draws and 12 losses, good for a win percentage of 13%.
Iran is one of three clubs to have qualified for the 2018 World Cup, but that could be in jeopardy.
The U.S. women faced off against Japan on Thursday in their last game of the Tournament of Nations. Japan-U.S. has become a particularly heated affair in recent years with the two meeting in three of the last four major finals. USWNT fans will not easily forget the heartbreaking loss to the Japanese at the 2011 FIFA World Cup nor Carli Lloyd’s rampage to win the trophy four years later.
If you're looking for a sleeper team at the 2018 World Cup, Iran is a good candidate.
They were recently the third team to qualify for Russia 2018, having gone undefeated in both the second and third rounds of AFC qualifying to this point (12-4-0).
Two-time Europa League winner Parma Calcio 1913 sold to Jiang Lizhang on Wednesday, adding to the growing trend of Chinese businessmen buying European socer clubs.
The following first and second division teams in Europe are now all principally owned by Chinese investors.
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Australia vs. Cameroon did not matter in any larger sense. Both teams are almost certainly eliminated from the Confederations Cup. God, it was fun though. Both teams played on the front foot, and both teams, while not being good enough to affect the international soccer paradigm very much, are good enough to do one or two cool moves before taking a heavy touch and colliding with a defensive midfielder.
The game was like the show 24: entertaining, violent, fast-paced and utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Look, here's a goal:
China has a lot of people. And a lot of money.
Germany has a lot of soccer teams. And a lot of team owners who want more money.
It's a match made in heaven.
A league in Germany's fourth tier found a novel way to add a squad for a nice, even, 20-team table — they're bringing in a team from China.
History and Background
Football hasn’t always been a major sport in Australia. Although the national team was formed in 1922, the country didn’t participate in the first seven World Cups. When they did decide to start participating, they failed to qualify in their first two tries — losing to North Korea in the playoffs for 1966 and Israel in ’70.
Sven-Goran Eriksson has been sacked as manager of Chinese second division club Shenzhen and has been replaced with Wang Baoshan. We know this because Shenzhen posted a poem on their website welcoming Wang as their new coach.
We are not making this up:
Eleven years ago, you led Shenzhen football and never let us down.
Nine years ago, you took over responsibilities and saved Shenzhen football.
Memories of fighting together have never gone away, and now we recall the legend.
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