UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has reiterated his opposition to FIFA's plans to stage a biennial World Cup, saying the women's tournament or the Olympics would be affected if they were held in the same year as the finals.
In 2021 and soon-to-be 2022, it’s officially cool to believe in the USMNT again.
The two years after the disaster in Couva against Trinidad and Tobago was a gray, murky time period with nothing to show for it. In 2019 the Americans lost both games against foe Mexico, including the Gold Cup final. Several months later Canada defeated the U.S. in Concacaf Nations League play and it felt like everything was falling apart for this team.
HONG KONG — Chinese authorities have banned footballers from getting tattoos and instructed national team players who have been inked to remove or cover them up to set a "good example for society."
A growing number of high-profile Chinese players have been sporting tattoos, including international defender Zhang Linpeng, who has previously been told to cover up while appearing for both the national team and club side Guangzhou FC.
After a 2020 that was, in many ways, a lost year for international soccer, the U.S. women’s national team went into 2021 with high hopes. The year ended with feelings of missed opportunities and the need for a rethink moving forward less than 20 months away from the next Women’s World Cup.
The FIFA rankings are nonsensical 75% of the time and only truly matter for seeding of group stages at the World Cup. Three out of every four years these rankings mean squat, but in 2022 they matter a whole lot. The top seven teams and host get the most favorable seeds during the World Cup draw. FIFA has released the December rankings and the USMNT sits at its highest ranking to end a calendar year since 2005.
The U.S. is ranked No. 11. One spot above Germany.
Of all the years in the 2020s, 2021 was probably the least bad one. Maybe. But worry not; 2022 can’t possibly be as bad as the first two years of the decade, right? According to our 2022 soccer predictions, it’s going to be the best year ever, or at least the best of the last three.
Are you the kind of person who prefers to respond to emails and texts with GIFs instead of having to type something out? Do you also love the USWNT? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, then you or a loved one may be entitled to a plethora of new USWNT GIFs.
As a sendoff for 2021, the USWNT social team decided to do its version of Spotify Wrapped in GIF form. You might want to put a few of these in your back pocket for a rainy day.
The USWNT released 18 total GIFs for your viewing pleasure. The18 (see what I did there?) USWNT GIFs are as follows.
The “UNITED 2026” name for the 2026 World Cup doesn’t hit home for me personally. The United States, Canada and Mexico will become the first countries to be part of a three-host World Cup and will unfortunately have a subpar name for the tournament.
Before jumping into my revolutionary alternate names for UNITED 2026, let’s quickly remind ourselves where the games will be played. The host cities for the 2026 World Cup will be announced at some point next year as the excitement grows.
In October of 2020, after a devastating summer for a country unwilling to reverse centuries of systemic white supremacy, Imani Dorsey and dozens of other Black women playing in the NWSL creating the Black Women’s Player Collective, aimed at advancing opportunities for Black girls in sports and beyond. On Wednesday, the U.S. Soccer Federation honored Dorsey, one of the BWPC’s founding board members, with the inaugural Social Impact Award.
In Europe there's a pretty established pathway to becoming a professional footballer: get signed to the academy of a professional club at an early age and hope that one day you're good enough to make the first team.
For an American with European dreams, the route is similar: either have a rich family that can send you abroad or hope that a European club somehow spots you.