The new football season is just over a month away (except for the U.S., among other countries) and that means that FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) will be releasing their 2020 editions of their popular soccer simulation games.
OK, so hear me out. I understand that Rapinoe has had an excellent World Cup performance thus far, and she deserves an immense amount of credit for helping get the U.S. to the final. However, when watching the U.S. play England on Tuesday, I saw something that I hadn’t seen from the USWNT all tournament: cohesion on both sides of the ball.
OH WHEN THE YANKS...
England’s crusade to knock the USWNT from its perch has ended in failure.
From the British media’s uproar over the Americans’ nerve to celebrate scoring goals at a Women’s World Cup to Phil Neville’s attempts to motivate his charges by trying to claim the U.S. was spying on the team, the USWNT has been Public Enemy No. 1 in England for some time now.
But when it came down to it, there were too many antics and too few goals as the U.S. defeated England 2-1 in the Women’s World Cup semifinals on Tuesday.
Is this it — the moment we all live to regret? Yesterday, a U.S. team administrator and her boss were apprehended whilst dozily meandering around the private rooms of England’s Fourvière hotel, which the rogue Americans could potentially use as a base of operations should they secure passage to the final at the expense of the Lionesses.
With contracts ending on June 30, there's a slew of footballers who'll be free to sign with the club of their choosing in a few days. This is a list of who I believe to be the most valuable free agents on the market. The players range from established veterans to promising youngsters, and while they vary in terms of talent and experience, I feel that evey one of them is capable of making an important contribution to the club they eventually sign for.
Here are my top 10 free agents heading into July.
The Telegraph has reported that Qin Liang, the England vs Cameroon referee, twice ignored VAR advice in order to prevent the Cameroonian team from walking out during the game.
The first instance was Fran Kirby’s penalty appeal, in which Kirby was taken down with a high challenge in the box by a Cameroonian defender.
With the USWNT and Spain knotted at 1-1 after the hour mark at the Stade Auguste-Delaune in Reims on Monday, La Roja’s Patricia Guijarro broke free on the left-hand side of the U.S. defense and fizzed a shot just wide of Alyssa Naeher’s far post. It was in this moment that a possible upset of historic proportions went from “there’s no way in hell” to “oh shit, this kinda feels like it’s happening.”
The U.S. women’s national team cruised through the group stage of the Women’s World Cup, overpowering its three opponents by the tune of 18 goals for and zero against. It was the most dominating group-stage performance in the history of the tournament.
Now it gets trickier, starting with a round-of-16 matchup against Group B runner-up Spain on Monday.
For the last decade, Freddy Adu has been quixotically rediscovering his love for the game and declaring himself a much more learned and focused footballer. The problem is, over the course of the last five years, he’s only played 34 professional games, basically the same amount that Harry Kane plays in a week.
By holding World Cup host France to a draw today, Nigeria could’ve secured passage to the Round of 16 for the first time since 1999. For close to 80 minutes, that looked like the Super Falcons destiny.
Step forward the VAR.
First, the referee looked at the monitor to review a collision in Nigeria’s box between Ngozi Ebere and Viviane Asseyi. The ref decided it was a penalty and sent Ebere off for her second bookable offense.
Up stepped Wendie Renard for the spot kick. Her initial attempt clipped the outside of the post and went directly behind for a goal kick.