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From Jamie Vardy's mannequin challenge to Giroud's scorpion kick and James Harden's stirring the pot, FIFA 18 from EA Sports has created more blood-boiling taunts for your online rivals.

Now that all the hysteria surrounding the USMNT's final World Cup qualifiers has dissipated somewhat, it's time to look toward the future. I am referring, of course, to Christian Pulisic's tattoo game. Pulisic was photographed on the bench during the second half of the USMNT's 4-0 demolishing of Panama with a rather large eagle/American flag tattoo. It's an extremely patriotic piece of ink, the type of thing I've only regularly seen at country music festivals.

So we’re 10 match days into Serie A action and the stupid levels of excitement coming out of Italy show no signs of abating. After Wednesday’s midweek matches, we find Napoli at the top of the table with INTER MILAN two points back. Right behind them we have six-time defending champions Juventus and then Lazio. We’d be remiss not to mention Roma as well — they still have a game in hand on the clubs above them.

Vladimir Putin “would be glad” to see banned FIFA dignitaries Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini at the 2018 World Cup, according to the Russian president’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. Blatter and Platini have both received lengthy bans from FIFA for their roles in a secret payment made from Blatter’s FIFA to Platini, then the UEFA boss. The two held their posts atop the federations when Russia was awarded the 2018 World Cup (and Qatar for 2022, but that’s another story). 

Back in August, Juan Mata used The Players’ Tribune to announce his commitment to Common Goal, a collective fund that supports football charities around the globe. Mata’s pledge was to donate 1% of his salary to the NGO streetfootballworld.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a man of many brands. Probably more brands than anyone else. Let's rank them.

So the USMNT won’t be in the World Cup next year. Your summer plans probably got completely thrown out of whack without the Red, White & Blue to watch in Russia. But fear not. We here at The18 have a list of 10 things to do next summer that don’t involve the U.S. at the World Cup.

These 10 things should keep you busy for most of the summer, or at least keep you distracted enough from the fact the U.S. won’t be in the World Cup for the first time since 1986. 

Whether you’re ready for it or not, club soccer is back. Following the recent international break, some players return to their clubs after achieving incredible success with their home country (Mohamed Salah, anyone?). Others return after suffering indelible defeats. These important six players could cost their teams points if they struggle to overcome heartbreak at the international level.

U.S. Soccer Federation announced a conference call for Friday morning with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati addressing the media after the recent World Cup qualifiers. It would surprise no one if Gulati announces Bruce Arena is no longer the coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team — it would probably be a bigger surprise if he didn’t. The question then is, who will be the next USMNT coach?