Soccer is the world’s greatest sport. It doesn’t matter where you are or what time of day it is, you can always find a ball and start a pickup game. It’s a beautiful game, but what makes it more beautiful is when you have the necessary equipment.
Many kids in Haiti have been playing soccer barefoot in gravel for years. Thanks to a soccer-loving family in New Jersey many kids will no longer have this issue.
When it comes to the notoriously ill-advised FIFA World Ranking system, there’s generally a lot to laugh at. Nations are cruelly punished by virtue of not playing (the United States, unbeaten since November of 2016, drops 12 places to 35th) while others largely benefit by playing lesser sides in meaningful competition (Poland is up to sixth after waxing Romania in World Cup qualifying).
Last Saturday, 30 women hailing from six different continents summited Mount Kilimanjaro before descending to play a 90-minute, 11-a-side match at 18,799 feet, setting a world record for highest altitude in a competitive football match. The event was setup by the Equal Playing Field initiative, a movement aiming to raise awareness towards the systematic inequality that women’s sport is challenged with and to empower aspiring athletes to challenge the social norms for girls in sport.
The MLS has said they’d like to implement Video Assistant Referees during the second half of the season, but the Philadelphia Union’s Haris Medunjanin should probably win the MLS Fair Play Award for overturning an incorrect call himself during Saturday’s match between the Union and DC United.
Medunjanin was shielding the ball for a throw-in when some pressure from United’s Luciano Acosta bowled him over near the sideline. The referee marched over, believed he saw Acosta kick-out at Medunjanin on the ground and promptly displayed a straight red.
Arsenal and Chelsea will meet in the Community Shield in August, and both clubs will donate their match fees to victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. The match is expected to raise about £1.25 million. Both clubs announced their actions in statements on their respective websites.
From Chelsea:
Our dads are there to catch us when we fall and pick us up when we're down. They hold our hands when we are lost and guide us when we need help. Our dads are our number one supporters and we dream of the day we can make them proud — we want to be just like them.
These 11 footballers not only have famous fathers, but they followed in their footsteps and continued their legacy out on the pitch. Take a look at the these players and their fathers in celebration of Father’s Day.