The USWNT crushed Panama 5-0 to improve its record at the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Championship to 2-0 with a goal difference of +11, all but guaranteeing a place in the semifinals of the competition and moving one step closer to automatic qualification for the 2019 World Cup in France.
An upset in sports is a tale of the split-screen day. One team — the emboldened underdog — rides the highest of highs, storming the field and reveling in its victory as it has just pulled off the seemingly impossible. The other team — the deflated heavyweight — is humbled and humiliated, slumping off into the locker room and being forced to grapple with a reality it had never considered.
November 5, 2010, was one of those split-screen days.
Mexico, the emboldened underdog. The United States, the deflated heavyweight.
His tattoos sit on the surface, superficial representations of the inner thoughts of a man praised and vilified in near equal measure.
For the outside world, the tattoos are the only insight into the mind of someone who has reached the pinnacle of his craft by the age of 26.
For the world of “Inked,” they are so much more.
We’re sorry to bring it up, but directly following the USMNT’s fiasco at Ato Boldon Stadium, a lot of talking heads entered the debate surrounding how to fix U.S. Soccer without offering much in the way of concrete, actionable plans. But it was hard to ignore the insight offered from two of America’s most prized European exports: Borussia Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic and Newcastle United’s DeAndre Yedlin.
In 2017, a study announced the existence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in four former footballers. Many have asked: Do soccer players get CTE? This was, according to media that pounced on the story, definitive proof.
However, a closer analysis of the study, one that doesn’t just take the findings completely out of context, as most media publications do when any new scientific study comes, shows it’s far more complicated than that.
While members of the French national team were dancing in the rain, kissing their new trophy and celebrating a well-deserved FIFA World Cup victory in Moscow on July 15, waiting for them back in the locker room was a unique surprise.
The world watched as Croatia president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic soaked in the moment, Russian president Vladimir Putin refused to allow himself to get wet and France reveled in its second world championship.
Exactly 10 years ago Thursday, the Argentina national team won gold in soccer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It remains as Lionel Messi’s greatest triumph at the international level.
So what's happened to the players since?
The 2008 Argentina Olympics squad was absolutely loaded with talent. Youngsters like Lionel Messi, Sergio Agüero, Ángel Di María, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Éver Banega and Pablo Zabaleta were just starting their careers. They were joined by over-age player Javier Mascherano (then just 24 himself) and led by the serene Juan Román Riquelme.
The Cristiano Ronaldo Juventus debut ended with the expected three points — eventually.
The Bianconeri scored early, went behind in the second half and then needed a wild ending to see off Chievo 3-2 on Saturday in the opening match of Serie A.
Ronaldo made his debut for the Old Lady and was at the center of some late controversy before Federico Bernardeschi scored a stoppage time winner.
VAR and goal-line technology were both used in the closing minutes of the 90 with the match even at 2-2.
The Premier League returns this weekend with the marquee matchup of the opening round of fixtures being Arsenal vs Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium in London. Without waxing too lyrical, it’s an encounter between the most aesthetically pleasing side in the division and a club desperate to return to that echelon.