The Champions League has taken place every year since 1956, when it was originally named the European Cup. While the end result is always the same — a winner crowned club champion of Europe — the Champions League format has evolved over the years.
Since 1956, 21 different clubs have lifted the big-eared trophy symbolizing the top of the club football game, but no two paths have been exactly the same.
With all of the changes in American TV soccer rights in the last few years, it can be daunting to keep track of what is broadcast on what channel, especially when it comes to European midweek matches, which are on in the middle of the workday in the U.S. Sometimes you don’t need to see the full matches or maybe you don’t have time to sit down for 90 minutes during the middle of the day. So this leaves a lot of us wondering: Are Champions League highlights on TV in the U.S.?
National Puppy Day is apparently a thing and who are we to argue.
Because Major League Soccer and its clubs have to be like every other entity on social media (ourselves included), they of course filled our Twitter feeds with pics of pups on Saturday.
Because The18 loves dogs more than our awful Fantasy Premier League teams, we decided to compile the best #NationalPuppyDay posts from MLS.
For all of his goal-scoring success in the past couple of years with Manchester City, Raheem Sterling entered this international break with just four goals in 47 international appearances.
Sterling nearly doubled that mark on Friday.
England hosted the Czech Republic in the first match of Euro 2020 qualifying for both countries. Sterling looked right at home, scoring a hat trick to lead the Three Lions to a 5-0 victory.
More remarkable than the goals, however, was the Raheem Sterling celebration after his second strike.
I’ll be honest, from what I’ve seen of James Maddison on the pitch, he seems to play like a punk. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (I used to play the same way), just an observation of the talented 22-year-old Leicester City No. 10.
But just because you play hard doesn't mean you're a jerk. Off the pitch, Maddison has shown admirable devotion to a young cancer patient named Sophie Taylor.
Maddison befriended 5-year-old Sophie while she was battling bone cancer, a battle she sadly lost earlier this year.
Atlanta United players received their MLS Cup championship rings during a private ceremony on Thursday. It’s kind of a big deal, considering Atlanta hasn’t had a major sports championship to celebrate in more than 20 years.
In addition to players like Josef Martinez and Darlington Nagbe, plus club president Darren Eales, Five Stripes First Fan Waka Flocka was on hand and was awarded his own championship ring, because he played a big role in … I dunno, bringing awareness to the team I guess?
Last we heard from Barcelona’s Arda Turan in January, he was facing 12 years in prison for sexual harassment, assault, shooting a firearm in public and carrying a weapon without a license all stemming from an incident last year.
This came on the heels of a 16-match ban last May for shoving a referee while on loan with İstanbul Başakşehir.
The footballing world is mourning the passing of England’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who died at the age of 81 on Monday night. Banks spent the majority of his professional career with Leicester City and Stoke City, but it’s his 73 international appearances and heroics at both the ’66 and ’70 World Cups that cemented his global legacy.
Just a day after the body of Cardiff City player Emiliano Sala was found in plane wreckage at the bottom of the English Channel, the footballing world is again in mourning after a devastating fire struck Flamengo’s training center in Rio de Janeiro on Friday morning.
There’s always more to like about AFC Bournemouth: the 11,329-capacity Dean Court; cherubic 10-year-old boy whiz manager Eddie Howe; the fact that the club was in the fourth division as recently as 2010 but now sits comfortably in 10th during its fourth consecutive season in the Premier League (following on finishes of 16th, 9th and 12th).