Outrageous

We like to think of soccer as being special, with teams that are “more than a club” and inspire you to never walk alone. But during the novel coronavirus pandemic, soccer is being exposed as the disgusting fraud it is, one that leaches off its fans with no shame. 

The last few weeks have been tough for football fans around the globe. Soccer has ground to a halt as leagues quite rightly do all they can to prevent the spread of COVID-19, leaving viewers with no sports to watch and the athletes themselves cooped up inside like the rest of us.

In recent history, the USWNT and World Cup glory go hand in hand. The last time the USWNT didn’t make it to a World Cup final was in 2007. The team has only lost four of 50 World Cup matches it has played. The 2007 World Cup in China was also the last the USWNT lost a World Cup game in regular time. A 21-year-old Brazilian superstar led the demise of the USWNT.

It’s crazy to think it has been two years now since MLS was graced with the first taste of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. March 31, 2018, was a day the LA Galaxy and the league may never forget with a classic El Trafico and the beginning of Ibrahimović’s short reign in MLS.

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinal aired again on March 28 so we could relive the excitement of the USWNT’s run. Becky Sauerbrunn joined in on @FoxSoccer to answer questions on Twitter, and she did not hold anything back about her teammates. Here are some of my faves:

12/10. As Sam told me after the tournament, "I felt like crying before every game." https://t.co/pJPfAw97MN

Football clubs in Europe are among the wealthiest organizations in the world. They toss around nine-figure transfer fees like it’s nothing while charging exorbitant prices for entry into their stadiums. 

And yet, these same clubs who regularly lead the list of richest sports teams in the world have been among the first to claim they don’t have money to pay their players as soccer has screeched to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Due to events, is your dialogue with work colleagues now limited to Google Hangouts and Zoom conferencing? Has quality time with friends and family been restricted to phone calls? Have you now realized, weeks later, that you just don’t have that much to say?

Take it from me — someone whose job is to convince you otherwise — there’s actually not that much worth communicating. There's no shame in that; most noise deprives us of our peace of mind and better feelings.  

I don’t know what this woman was pitching in this conference call, but it’s a yes from me. I’m all in. Let’s produce 100,000. Shut 'em down, open up shop. Oh, no. That’s how Ruff Ryders roll.

Her ability to stay cool and collected in the face of what appears to be Querétaro’s Jair Pereira smashing into stuff is as impressive as an Edwardian cockerel. 

Every former footballer can think back to their playing days and remember those games when the elements went wild. Sometimes you were about to pass out due to heat exhaustion, freeze to death in tundra-like weather or drown from a downpour of rain.

The professionals have to deal with the elements as well, as seen in this list of the worst weather football games ever.

The Worst Weather Football Games Of All Time

#1. The Cold

There is nothing more American than a McDonald’s apple pie and Major League Soccer. Probably. But is there a correlation between MLS success and a club’s proximity to McDonald’s? Let’s take a closer look.

There are around 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States. So it’s no surprise every MLS stadium falls within four miles of a Big Mac and fries. We took a look at every MLS club and its proximity to the closest McDonald’s and found some interesting trends. 

Felipe Melo, who’s still going strong for Palmeiras at the age of 36, has revealed what it took to stop Lionel Messi back in his days of anchoring Brazil’s midfield.

Between 2009 and 2010 — when Melo was at the height of his power with Juventus — the hard-tackling “Pitbull” represented the Seleção 22 times and came up against Messi’s Argentina during 2010 World Cup qualifying.