The 2018-19 season has been packed full of drama, emotions and even comedy. What happens on the pitch is usually in focus — players making tackles, scoring goals, playing beautiful soccer; all of that takes the cake in media attention. But managers get that attention too. After a goal or an important moment in a match, the camera always pans to the manager, showing their jubilation, anger or their stoicness.
Christian Pulisic, a 20-year-old from Hershey, Pennsylvania, is the 25th most expensive player in the history of soccer.
Really?
As much as we here at The18 love Christian Pulisic, we were a bit blown away by the fee he garnered on his transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea this week. We understand why, but the more you look at it, the more absurd it appears.
We live in an age when there is growing equality among all genders and all colors of skin — perhaps the best we as a species have ever been in treating everyone equally. But one look at the Italian Super Cup — and Serie A as a whole — and it’s easy to see we still have a really fucking long way to go.
She said it, and viewers felt it, because NBCSN gets it.
“Best game of the season by a country mile,” Rebecca Lowe said as the NBCSN coverage of Manchester City’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool moved from the announcers in the booth at the Etihad back to the studio analysts stateside.
The best match of the season, perhaps the most important match of the season, had all the gravitas expected of such an event on Thursday because NBCSN continues to show it is the best soccer broadcaster in America.
Before today’s Premier League showdown between leaders Liverpool and defending champions Manchester City, a tweet from The Guardian’s German football correspondent Raphael Honigstein was shown a lot of love, and, in hindsight, for incredible reason.
We had a lot to be thankful for in 2018 — a World Cup, a historic Real Madrid three-peat, the remarkable seasons from Luka Modric, Mohamed Salah and Kylian Mbappe, other things that I’m forgetting because I'm a goldfish boy.
Here are 10 trends that I’ve managed to remember in the footballing calendar year of our Lord Gourav Mukhi 2018.
#1. Wall Tactics to the Fore
Marcelo Brozovic's sliding stop.
To coincide with The Guardian’s excellent list of the 100 best male footballers in the world — compiled by a panel of 225 experts from 69 nations — we here at The18 have compiled our own list over the last couple years. There are no experts involved, there’s no rhyme or reason for anything, but we do hope you’ll join us on this adventure into the bowels of the beautiful game.
The holiday period is a crazy time for the Premier League. Many of Europe’s top leagues take a break until the new year, but England continues its fixture list with a plethora of matches. The Christmas period is considered one of the toughest periods of the season, as the calendar for England’s top clubs is packed to the brim.
Well, 2018 was something, wasn’t it?
Soccer in 2018 had a thrilling World Cup in Russia and an engrossing Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign around the world. Real Madrid (again!) won the Champions League and Manchester City had a record year in the Prem. Atlanta United obliterated attendance records in the U.S. while the USMNT took more than 400 days to hire a coach. El Tri gave fans hope at the World Cup with a win over Germany, only to once again go out in the Round of 16.
When you break down soccer to its simplest form, it’s all about scoring goals. Score more than the other team and you win.
Not all goals are created equally. While it’s easy to pick out the strongest, toughest, most impactful goals from the biggest matches, we here at The18 have picked out our favorite goals of 2018 for you to enjoy.
Now, these aren’t all necessarily the best goals of the year (see: No. 17), just our favorites. Some were epic World Cup golazos. Some were literally from the training ground.