When Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli announced his final 23-man roster for the World Cup, he didn't call on one of the hottest strikers on the planet. Inter Milan's Mauro Icardi tied Lazio's Ciro Immobile for golden boot honors in Serie A, scoring 29 goals in 34 games during the 2017-18 season. Instead of being rewarded for a stellar season, Icardi joined the unenviable list of World Cup snubs.
The World Cup is a global phenomenon, with almost the entire world paying attention to the beautiful game at some point over the month-long tournament. This is especially true on social media — the last World Cup final set a record for tweets per minute. So if you want to get involved, you need to know what Twitter handles to follow for the World Cup.
Joachim Low is a very well respected and accomplished manager who has had a lot of success, with winning the 2014 World Cup as his crowning achievement. He has been the manager of the German national team for 12 years, and managers lasting longer than two years at the same place isn’t something you see often today.
When Germany announced its final roster for the World Cup, the exclusion of Leroy Sane vaulted the Man City winger to the top of the list of the best players not going to the World Cup this summer. Whether a player was snubbed from a loaded World Cup roster or plays for a country that didn't qualify, there is some great talent that will be missing out on the action in Russia.
Last week, Germany coach Joachim Low announced that his squad will be barred from having sex during the tournament. The ban, which also includes alcohol and social media, is a move toward minimizing distraction or anything else that could deter performance.
For the first time ever, the FIFA World Cup will utilize video replays after voting unanimously to adopt the system back in March. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is most prominently used in Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga and MLS, but a World Cup debut is a different animal entirely. So how does VAR work in soccer and at the 2018 World Cup? Can you get sick from VAR?
*WARNING: READ THIS OR YOU WILL BE BUTT HURT*
I too know the obvious favorites based off the readily accessible odds that are available to everyone. But upsets do happen at the World Cup. In fact, they happen every single tournament. Every. Single. Time.
So if you want to see traditional power rankings with all the countries lined up entirely how you’d expect them to be, go to ESPNFC or something. Have fun reading that.
The Mexico national team defeated Scotland 1-0 in a relatively poor performance on Saturday night. It was the team’s final friendly before heading to Europe for the 2018 World Cup. On Monday the Mexico team announced its final 23-man roster and on Tuesday the team flew to Denmark. But all the Mexican tabloids want to talk about is the El Tri party that took place on Saturday night.
Manchester City’s promising forward Raheem Sterling has hit a trifecta of problems recently with England’s manager, British news media and anti-gun violence advocates, but are they really problems?
After word broke out that Sterling had tattooed an M16 assault rifle on his right leg, which he posted on Instagram during training, the 23-year-old didn’t have much time before being bashed by British tabloids. England’s The Sun placed Sterling’s Instagram photo on its front page on Tuesday and titled it “Raheem shoots himself in the foot.”
Everyone knows the World Cup really gets going once the group stage ends and the knockout rounds begin. While plucky underdogs can get to the Round of 16 and maybe even the quarterfinals, the World Cup bracket is where the big boys make names for themselves.