Maybe you’ve never heard of John “Budgie” Burridge. That’s understandable, because although his career lasted nearly 30 years, he spent that time bouncing around 29 different clubs. However, he did make over 50 appearances for eight different teams: Blackpool, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Sheffield United, Southampton, Newcastle United and Hibernian.
The powers that be in the National Basketball Association apparently decided that the annual All-Star Game and surrounding weekend activities were not Fergalicious enough for their liking. So, they enlisted Fergie (of Black-Eyed Peas fame, not of Manchester United fame) to sing The Star-Spangled Banner prior to Sunday's game.
It went . . . interestingly.
Sometimes The18 editorial meetings are productive and sometimes they degenerate into discussions about which football club is the most like Olive Garden. This week, we somehow managed to do both. Football clubs are a lot like restaurant chains: shiny, consumer-pandering and people often have bad opinions about them. But which football clubs correspond to which restaurant chains, specifically?
Liverpool - Chipotle
It’s great up front but there are serious problems on the back end.
Arsenal - Red Lobster
Liverpool are reportedly sizing up a move for Roma's bearded Brazilian goalkeeper, Alisson Becker.
(Please ignore the reports from today that the move is off. We will be over here pretending they do not exist.)
West Brom is in a lot of trouble. The club is bottom of the Premier League, seven points from safety. But Alan Pardew and his boys are turning things around. The great West Brom taxi heist and McDonald’s rendezvous of 2018 is the ultimate team building exercise in football history. I believe it was John Wooden who said: “The team that commits crimes together, stays up together.”
Josef Martinez is too sexy for the Major League Soccer website. Martinez appeared in a Valentine's Day photo spread on MLSSoccer.com, and, really his photo was the only good one.
In every sport, there are rivalries that transcend all others — Yankees vs. Red Sox, Lakers vs. Celtics, Duke vs. UNC, North Korea vs. South Korea, Alabama vs. everyone outside of Tuscaloosa. For football purists, nothing beats the rivalry between Arsenal and Östersunds FK. Fortunately for soccer fans around the globe, the Europa League will bring us another thrilling chapter in the Arsenal vs. Ostersund rivalry on Thursday.
Valentine’s Day is a time for buying overpriced gifts, spending way too much money on a fancy dinner and pretending everything is just fine in your relationship for just one night. But no matter where you are in your relationship this Valentine’s Day, we have just the soccer GIFs for you.
Nothing matches the emotional highs and lows of love like soccer, whether it’s an unexpected winner or a devastating own goal. From embarrassing first dates to blossoming loves to heartbreaking divorce, there are soccer GIFs for everything you might come across in your love life.
The Champions League returned with two matches on Tuesday, both featuring a team with a legitimate shot at winning the title and preventing Real Madrid from a historic three-peat. One might expect Cristiano Ronaldo and Los Blancos to be watching those matches to size up the competition, or at least spend the evening preparing for the big match against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
Cristiano Ronaldo was doing none of those things. Instead, he was at home playing a game that looks like it was invented by a 6-year-old.
It was a harmless tweet — maybe even a funny one. Before Chelsea’s Premier League match with West Brom on Monday, the Blues’ Twitter handle (@ChelseaFC) made a Star Wars joke centered around one of the space opera’s most lovable characters. But the Chelsea Twitter fans were having none of it.
Just to confirm, it's #CHEWBA tonight, not... pic.twitter.com/u8vctTuaez