When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus, he immediately became the team’s No. 1 free-kick taker, despite the fact the Old Lady already had a couple world-class free kick takers.
Ronaldo has proven himself to be one of the best at spot kicks, but the numbers show he hasn’t brought that prowess with him to Italy.
After a disastrous 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign that ended with a playoff defeat to Sweden and the firing of manager Gian Piero Ventura, Italy’s just finished its UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying cycle in emphatic fashion: A 9-1 victory over Armenia gives the Azzurri a final record of 10 played, 10 won, 37 scored and only four conceded.
In the 1885-86 Scottish Cup, Arbroath defeated Bon Accord 36-0. In the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the USWNT beat Thailand 13-0. In the 2019 NCAA Women's College Cup, Stanford beat Prairie View A&M 15-0. Throughout the course of history, the trend of scoring an excessive amount of goals has continued to receive backlash from all levels.
It was always going to happen eventually — it’s just that nobody could’ve predicted how insanely long it’d take for age and the grind of professional sports to somewhat catch up to Cristiano Ronaldo. The 34-year-old has played 982 matches for club and country over the last 17 years, and although he remains decisive, indomitable and a catalyst for one of the world’s best teams, he’s beginning to show signs of what Louis C.K. referred to as “incurable shitty ankle.”
Cristiano Ronaldo had been subbed off, as had goal scorer Aaron Ramsey. So needing a goal late to see off Lokomotiv Moscow, Juventus winger Douglas Costa took things into his own hands.
Costa almost single-handedly smoked the entirety of the Lokomotiv defense to score a stunning 93rd-minute winner as Juventus eked out a 2-1 win in Champions League Group D play on Wednesday in Moscow.
There’s a term in multiplayer video games called KSing — kill stealing — that refers to one player getting credit for a kill when another did most of the hard work.
Aaron Ramsey just KS’d Cristiano Ronaldo.
A 10-year-old boy was racially abused during a soccer match by a mother of an opposing player on Saturday in Italy. The youngster played on and only reported the abuse after the match.
In response, those clubs will take a stand against racism this weekend — by making their youth players wear blackface in a match.
Hellas Verona defeated Mario Balotelli’s Brescia 2-1 today, but the lasting images of the match all pertain to the former Manchester City striker. In the 54th minute, Balotelli took possession near the corner flag and with the ball still in play, he responded to racist chanting by picking it up and punting it into the stands of the Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi.
A good portion of the sports-loving world would love it if politics never entered sports. While that’s a pipedream (politics and sports will always be intertwined), we expect at the very least for sports to be conducted outside the purview of politicians.
But in Italy, two senators have brought up a debate on the state of Serie A.
Inter Milan revived its hope of advancing to the Champions League Round of 16 with a much-needed 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund at the San Siro on Wednesday. Goals from the red-hot Lautaro Martínez and Antonio Candreva catapulted Inter up to second in Group F — three points behind leaders Barcelona — while Dortmund dropped to third.
Home