FIFA World Cup (Men's)

In 1994 an event happened that shook the very foundation of soccer. During the World Cup in the United States, apparently some marketing hacks decided to have Diana Ross take an exhibition penalty for reasons that are still unclear.

Now, Diana Ross is very talented at many things, singing chief among them. Not chief among them, however, is kicking a soccer ball. Which is how we found ourselves in the position of having to write this article.

Alejandro Bedoya deserves a call up for the USMNT when they take on Guatemala in World Cup Qualifying. Bedoya has become something of a hero of late for French Ligue 1 side Nantes. After not scoring for Nantes for nine months, the United States international has now scored four in six games. Some of those goals have been extremely important. 

This Sunday all over our nation people will gather for what might as well be considered a national holiday. 

It is just a perfect embodiment of what America is: food, beer, and Football! And maybe it’s a tad “Grinch That Stole Sundays” of me with all their noise, noise, noise, but I guess I think it’s unfortunate that the sport's biggest game has reduced itself to the spectacle that it has become and it's more about the party, food, commercials and halftime show for most of its viewers than the game itself.  

Carles Puyol embodies all of the characteristics of a defender you fear: he’s strong, he’s aggressive, he’s got hair to put Tarzan to shame, he just might be an animal of a man. You are used to him scoring goals off of set pieces, but that’s about it when it comes to Carles Puyol skills. He’ll pass around the back like all world-class center-backs do. He’ll have the odd long ball forward.

Andres Cantor's most noticable attribute in his broadcasting is his exuberance. Never was that exuberance more on display than his call of Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup to send the USA to the knockout round.

Mexico is off to an auspicious start in its World Cup qualifying group, defeating El Salvador at home 3-0 and Honduras away 2-0. What will come as a pleasant surprise to Mexico fans is how well El Tri's youngsters have played in the two games.

Everyone knows how good Jesus "Tecatito" Corona can be, the Porto winger having flashed his considerable potential on numerous occasions, but his goal to put Mexico ahead of Honduras on Tuesday was something special. 

UPDATE: here's footage of the singing of La Marseillaise at Wembley. 

Despite our geographic proximity, or perhaps because of it, the English and French endure a relationship that is best labelled “tetchy”.

Andres Cantor is the best soccer announcer in the world this is not up for debate, although we do allow we have not seen/heard every single soccer announcer in the world. It's kind of like how we haven't seen every single soccer player in the world, but still recognize Lionel Messi as the best. 

In news that can perhaps be filed under “Yet More Evidence That The Pope Is a Committed Catholic”, the World Anti-Doping Agency has released a 325-page report accusing the Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) of sending athletes to the 2012 London Olympics that it complicity encouraged to use performance enhancing drugs. The report calls for Russia to be banned from the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Mexico's run in the U-17 World Cup came to an end Thursday in a 4-2 loss to NIgeria in a game that mayy would describe as a thriller (we would describe it like this, for example).

The U-17s got off to a near-perfect start when Kevin Magaña put El Tri ahead in the seventh minute.

Goal Mexico to Nigeria https://t.co/0DguFijwxJ