The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup is here. More importantly, we’ve got a USWNT Women's World Cup drinking game for you and all your friends to play as the Americans attempt to defend their title in France this summer.
Japan, as evidenced by the first goal it scored against the Netherlands on Tuesday, is one of the most technically gifted footballing nations on the planet. The Nadeshiko combine wonderfully and, at times, appear to harmoniously coexist on the same wavelength.
But that wasn’t the case during Tuesday’s warmup before a Round-of-16 encounter with the Netherlands. This is the rondo from hell.
Guys, say these things to any female fan and she’ll instantly love you. No really, she will.
1. Where’s your boyfriend? You came with him right?
Wouldn’t you like to know.
2. I bet you can’t name five people on the team.
Yesterday, in a must-win game against Qatar, Lionel Messi did something that was very uncharacteristic of him. With the opportunity to seal the game for Argentina and secure a place in the knockout rounds of the Copa América, he skied an open shot into the stands.
This Messi miss ... pic.twitter.com/5eD5XIziDB
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 23, 2019
The Women’s World Cup going on in France right now is the biggest sporting event of the year. But don’t tell that to Texas high school football fans.
Because nothing is bigger than high school football in rural Texas, the sign for a middling high school football team showed up in Paris behind FOX’s studio in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday.
Should the U.S. women’s national team make it to the final, it will play seven matches in just under a month. But what do USWNT players do on their days off?
Apparently, they play football from hotel balconies.
Carli Lloyd posted a video to Instagram on Thursday of her making an incredible catch on a football thrown to her from what appears to be at least three stories up and about 40 yards away. Just watch:
For the second year running, Liverpool fans voted on Twitter in droves for Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva to win Lazio’s player of the season.
È @LucasLeiva87 il 'Player of the Season'
Complimenti Lucas! pic.twitter.com/e1IE55GHkt— S.S.Lazio (@OfficialSSLazio) June 18, 2019
The French love their soccer. They won the World Cup last summer and, as current hosts, are among the favorites to lift the Women’s World Cup this summer.
Even the country’s tennis stars are catching football fever.
During a recent first-round match at the Noventi Open in Germany, Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Benoit Paire showed off some impressive soccer skills on Tuesday.
Paire lost his racket on the serve and didn’t have time to pick it up before Tsonga’s return. So Paire, midpoint, switched the game to soccer tennis.
For the last decade, Freddy Adu has been quixotically rediscovering his love for the game and declaring himself a much more learned and focused footballer. The problem is, over the course of the last five years, he’s only played 34 professional games, basically the same amount that Harry Kane plays in a week.
It's been a rough start to FC Cincinnati's life in Major League Soccer.