Soccer teams mostly do soccer drills, but sometimes they do drills that don't involve soccer. And sometimes these non-soccer training methods are weird. Here are five such instances.
Batten down the hatches, because I am about to unleash the takestorm to end all takestorms.
Arsenal are in trouble. This much is obvious. They just conceded six unanswered goals to Manchester City in 180 minutes of competition. Manchester City are very good, granted, but Arsenal are one of the biggest, richest clubs in Europe. Arsenal have lost more matches in all competitions (seven) than any other Premier League club in 2018.
Roberto Firmino cemented his reputation as the most disrespectful, no-fucks-given player in the game when he scored Liverpool's third goal against West Ham this weekend with a no-look finish.
That was not the first time Firmino has scored a no-look goal this season. In fact, it has been a staple throughout his career, so much so that there's enough material available for a whole highlight video.
Roberto Firmino - Made You Look pic.twitter.com/LXlk94Kkod
It wasn't that Arsenal lost to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final. That was to be expected. It was how they lost. At least, that's what the folks who get paid lots of money to unleash Hot Soccer Takes are saying. No word on what their Hot Soccer Takes would be if Arsenal had gamely hung in there and lost a close one.
Goalkeepers are a peculiar folk. For all the glory field players conquer, goalies made the choice to stay behind and save goals instead of scoring them.
Did something go wrong? At what point in one's life does one abandon the ideal of becoming the league's top scorer in order to become the player with most clean sheets?
Now enough with the joking. To be fair, goalkeepers play a fundamental role in soccer.
Most kit sponsorship deals in soccer are dumb, bad, boring and unimaginative. Frankly, with so many brands clamoring for real estate on the front of big football clubs' shirts, we should be seeing kit sponsorships that are a lot more creative. With that in mind, we have some suggestions.
Arsenal
Instead of Emirates Airlines, let’s go with a different airline: Frontier. Put one of the animal mascots on the shirt.
Manchester City
Endorsing products is a great way for footballers to earn money in addition to their salaries. Most players take advantage of this in some way, some more than others. Some players, though, are not taking as full advantage of the product-endorsing racket as they could be, The18 has decided. Specifically, these 15 (or so) players need to endorse these 15 products/brands RIGHT NOW.
Alex Morgan-Disney World
Last week, there was a horrific moment in the Champions League when Real Madrid left back Marcelo shattered his arm while unleashing a blood-curdling scream that was captured by live television cameras. Millions of viewers at home thought they were going to be sick.
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled weeping about the U.S. Men's National Team failing to qualify for the World Cup with a startling bit of information that could turn out to be good news.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Ana Ivanovic are about to have a baby in Chicago, and that kid will be USA-eligible
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) February 23, 2018