Central & South America

A charter plane carrying 81 passengers including Brazil's Chapecoense football team and a large press contingent crashed en route to Medellin, Colombia on Monday night.

Ze Roberto might just be the most unheralded footballer of all time. The 42-year-old left back has amassed almost 100 caps with Brazil, is a legend at Bayern Munich and has a trophy cabinet that includes (and this is the abridged version):

If you believe in soccer, you have to believe in miracles. And a 31-year-old goalkeeper in Brazil nicknamed Danilo just performed the greatest of miracles against a team that has none other than the Pope as its most avid fan.

Odds are, unless you are an avid spectator of the Brazilian League you have never seen or heard of Danilo. Let us provide a brief introduction.

This recent international break has proven, once again, why South America is the toughest qualifying process of any continent on the planet. On Thursday, Brazil trounced Argentina 3-0, Venezuela put up five on Bolivia and Peru handedly laid waste to Paraguay, 4-1. Then on the following Tuesday, Ecuador beat that same Venezuela team 3-0, that same Bolivia team beat Paraguay 1-0 and Argentina rebounded to shut Colombia out in a 3-0 win.

Carolina Portaluppi has almost 500,000 followers on Instagram and is the daughter of Gremio coach Renato Gaucho. For these reasons, cameras were unfairly turned on her during the final stages of Gremio’s 2-0 aggregate victory over Cruzeiro in the Brazilian Cup semifinals.

Sebastian "El Loco" Abreu's career has been a long, winding, magical journey.

The 40-year-old former Uruguay international has been transferred a record 28 times (23 different clubs in nine different countries) in his 22-year career.

Here is Abreu's entire transfer history, including loans:

Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates have invoked the Geto Boys' "G-Code": they’re not going to talk to the press, they’re not going to make a peace bond, they don’t trust in the journalistic system — they'll just do battle in the streets and shoot 25-yard free kicks.

The Unofficial Football World Championships (UFWC) are a beautiful anomaly in the world’s game. While world and continental champions are officially determined by the corresponding, internationally sanctioned tournaments, what if the world champion was instead determined using a knock-out system like the one used in boxing? That’s exactly what the UFWC set out to do in 2003, spearheaded by freelance journalist and author Paul Brown.

“We need to change this s---ty situation. We didn't expect this result. It could have even been worse. We weren't able to react,” Lionel Messi said after Thursday’s match, summing up their loss to Brazil as well as anyone could. 

Judging by their recent form and the fact that Brazil never lost a World Cup Qualifiers match at home, it would be no stretch to predict a draw or a win against Argentina. 

Madrid-based football journalist Sid Lowe brought a very simple realization to our attention while covering the Real Mardid vs. Legia Warsaw UEFA Champions League match last week. The 3-3 draw was played out behind closed doors in Poland after Legia fans had been found guilty of a myriad of crowd disturbances during their match against Borussia Dortmund.