After playing 56 games last season, Liverpool FC basically said to hell with it and just kept playing. The Reds began their 2018-19 fixture list back on July 7 as part of a nine-game preseason tour that includes a trip to Ireland and the United States. This is how Jurgen Klopp ensures that the gegenpressing is still pressing come the 90th minute of matches in May.
A Luka Modric trial is perhaps not the first thing that comes to your mind when thinking about the Real Madrid and Croatia star.
Croatia will face France in the World Cup final this Sunday. However, it is not only France that worries captain Luka Modric at the moment.
Modric has led his team to an historic achievement, managing to qualify for its first-ever World Cup final.
For Tottenham fans, Friday’s news must have come as a relief. Their savior Harry Kane, who scored more goals in 2017 than anyone else in Europe, signed a six-year contract with Spurs. But the new Harry Kane deal might not keep the England striker in North London for long if you consider Tottenham’s last megastar.
Tottenham is in a unique position in English football. The club doesn’t have the resources of a Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City, and yet the team has finished in the top three for three years running.
We have already established that Jessica Silva is terrifying, and the most terrifying thing about her is she is finding more creative and interesting ways to be terrifying. And by "terrifying" I mean "nutmegging the living hell out of people."
The Levante and Portugal winger did this to a defender this weekend:
If you ever find yourself, as a defender, in a situation in which Jessica Silva has the ball somewhere in the vicinity of the corner flag and you are standing between her and the goal, just give up. Accept that she is going to humiliate you and get on with your life. Move into a cabin in the woods and meditate. Live off the land. Develop a hobby like woodworking. No one can nutmeg you when you're woodworking.
Silva, though, will nutmeg you. She will nutmeg you to death. Here is proof, via Portugal's 2019 World Cup qualifier against Belgium:
Nutmegs are among the most brutal ways for a footballer to humiliate an opponent. Something about the act of a football going in between a footballer's legs and geting collected on the other side can leave one drained of one's will to live. The following videos are of nutmegs so ruthless we highly doubt any of the players on the receiving end have ever been seen again.
This is like one of those Oscars "In Memoriam" montages but for footballers.
(Sad piano music plays)
Behold, the most nonchalant double nutmeg of all-time. Like a video game hero encountering the first two nameless henchmen on level one, our beloved mad lad wastes these two opponents before they fade off our screen entirely.
All that’s left is our gallant No. 9, who looks like he could either kill you with subtle skills (as below) or just “Gonzalo Higuain Truck You” into the afterlife. He’s built like the nameless beast of AMC’s The Terror. He’s the thing that eats on two legs and four. The thing made of muscles and spells.
A few days ago, Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio was lamenting Croatia’s decision to send Luka Modric and Marcelo Brozovic back to Europe ahead of the two nations’ meeting on Tuesday night. Osorio was looking forward to playing one of Europe's most talented midfields, and the loss of those two exceptional talents appeared to have dumbed down the excercise.
There is a massive divide in how different generations have come to view and use the video-sharing network known as YouTube. I’m an old man geezer kind of content boy, and when I first learned that people were using YouTube to do things besides watch Ronaldinho highlights, I stared off into space for 17 straight hours and whispered the word “vlogger” until my temporal lobes exploded in a cacophony of new age understanding.
Without reviewing the entire 2006 World Cup — or at least just France’s quarterfinal victory over Brazil — it’s difficult to get a sense of just how deserved a Golden Ball winner Zinedine Zidane was.
Having announced his retirement from Real Madrid at the end of the 2005-06 season, the summer’s World Cup served as Zidane’s swan song on the pitch. He turned it into his personal testimonial, particularly when the knockout stages began.