Records

Things are heating up in the Champions League (read: Real Madrid bottom of Group A) and there’s no surer sign of the increase in dramatics than managers getting booked. In a first for the Champions League, coaches can now be on the receiving end of both yellow and red cards from the match official, and although Match Day 1 of the competition came and went without history being made, Match Day 2 brought the moment we’d all been waiting for.

Although she finished eighth in The Best FIFA Women’s Player 2019 voting, Lyon attacker Ada Hegerberg was omitted from the first-ever FIFPro Women’s World11 due to the inclusion of Marta in attack. With all due respect to Marta’s legacy, the 33-year-old playmaker didn’t warrant her place after scoring five goals and providing zero assists in 12 appearances for the NWSL’s worst team before a disappointing World Cup that included zero goals from open play and zero assists in three games.

The Best FIFA Football Awards 2019 went down in Milan today, and you can rest assured that The18 tried its best to watch on YouTube, but good lord, this stuff is mostly unwatchable. It's remarkably drawn out, full of self-aggrandizing nonsense from FIFA and the forced banter between hosts Ilaria D'Amico, Ruud Gullit and the guests makes you search for the mute button while your skin crawls.

But other than that it's pretty good! 

Let’s go to the green carpet for some select photos before the ceremony. Here’s Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe looking fly. 

Josef Martinez is joining (and exceeding) elite company. He’s surpassed Gabriel Batistuta, Jamie Vardy and Robert Lewandowski and is now chasing Lionel Messi for one of the most impressive goal records in the world. 

And he’s doing it by embarrassing defenders in Major League Soccer.

Despite missing three games while on World Cup duty with Australia — where she finished with five goals in four games — the Chicago Red Stars’ Sam Kerr is just one goal shy of the NWSL’s single season goalscoring record. Kerr scored against Sky Blue yesterday to bring her total to 16; the record is the 17 she scored as a member of Sky Blue back in 2017. Time is a flat circle.

It was awfully late on a Sunday night, but hopefully you didn’t check out of last night’s LA Galaxy vs. Sporting KC match on FS1 at halftime. At that point, the score was level at 1-1. After an exchange of seven second half goals, it would finish 7-2 in favor of the Galaxy.

Zlatan Ibrahimović registered his third hat-trick for Los Angeles, and in the process, he set a new single season Galaxy record by bringing his total on the year to 26, surpassing a Carlos “El Pescadito” Ruiz record that had stood since 2002. 

For the world’s 130th-ranked side, the sight of Cristiano Ronaldo “Ronaldo Chopping” and “SIUUUU-ING” his way around a 5,000-seat stadium was simply too much to bear. So Lithuania decided to stand off and give him 57 touches, seven shots and four goals in exchange for a substitution in the 79th minute of a 5-1 loss to Portugal. That’s a good trade.

With men’s club soccer on hiatus due to the international break, the women’s game took center stage in England this weekend with the opening of the new Women’s Super League season. The marquee matchup was a first-ever WSL Manchester derby between City and United at the Etihad Stadium.

The previous attendance record for a WSL match was set by Arsenal last year with a crowd of 5,265; the crowd on hand yesterday in Manchester smashed that with a total of 31,213 spectators.

And they left happy thanks to an incredible strike from Scotland international Caroline Weir. 

The 2018-19 UEFA Champions League technical report was released today, and it’s got 51 pages of highly entertaining and valuable information that analyzes specific tactical and technical trends at the very top of the world’s game. The comprehensive overview of last season’s competition includes some fascinating insights.