Humor

BERLIN - Germany's World Cup winner Lukas Podolski has long dazzled crowds with his power and speed but he left fans at a charity match on Sunday speechless when he was sent off for dissent.

The 37-year-old former Bayern Munich and Arsenal forward, who now plays for Poland's Górnik Zabrze, was given his marching orders after he brought down an opponent in the indoor arena at Gummersbach during a charity match under his auspices.

He got up and walked to the referee, speaking to him and then coming face-to-face as he kept addressing him.

Atlético Madrid's slender hopes of catching Barcelona and Real Madrid at the top of the table took a massive hit Sunday when Barça travelled to the Metropolitano and emerged with a 1-0 victory, opening up a 14-point gap between the teams after 16 games.

It was all too predictable from this Diego Simeone side with the João Félix and Antoine Griezmann led attack failing to breakthrough and the midfield unable to gain much of a foothold against Sergio Busquets, Gavi and Frenkie de Jong.

Ángel Correa couldn't even connect on an attempted shot aimed at the linesman.

Kylian Mbappe took himself a couple of vacation days after practically jumping on a plane from Qatar to PSG’s training ground to restart the 2022-23 campaign.

Yet, after a more than draining couple of months that were topped off with a loss in the World Cup final against Argentina, Mbappé was reminded and taunted by a couple dozen of Argentina fans that were just in the right place at the right time.

After finishing his professional career on Nov. 8 with a red card and the infamous last words of "I s**t on your prostitute mother!" aimed at the referee, Gerard Piqué has returned to the limelight with his latest business venture, serving as the president of the Kings League in Barcelona.

With the USWNT just months away from defending its World Cup title out in Australia and New Zealand, it's only fitting that some of the team's stars should feature in ESPN's first ‘This is SportsCenter’ ad since 2019.

The beloved campaign returns this week with spots being shown throughout college football bowl games on ESPN. This one — featuring Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn, Sophia Smith, SportsCenter anchor Nicole Briscoe and Syracuse mascot Otto the Orange — debuts Friday night during the Capital One Orange Bowl between Tennessee and Clemson.

Brazilian soccer legend Pelé is expected to pass away soon. His family gathered around him at the Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo earlier this week as he struggles with his battle against cancer. 

Doctors from the hospital said that Pelé’s cancer had advanced and that he’s under “elevated care” related to “kidney and cardiac dysfunctions.” 

Pelé's daughter: "Here we go, in the fight and in faith. One more night together." ❤️ pic.twitter.com/dn3iophYCW

I saw something today that pointed out how it'd been exactly 31 days since Lionel Messi drove a dagger through the heart of Mexico from 25 yards out, and a part of me just stopped, stumbled and staggered. How could that be? An entire month has passed?

It's clear that although the Christmas period provided a welcome respite from the 29-day smorgasbord that was the World Cup, I was still experiencing harsh symptoms of withdrawal. 

The World Cup has this supernatural power over soccer fans. It fills a void we didn’t even know we had, but now that the tournament is over, this missing piece in our lives is impossible to ignore.

For the past month, we have been treated to endless soccer of the highest caliber. Like babies being fed, we haven’t needed to think about what our next game was going to be. It was always there, waiting for us, and it never disappointed.