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Cardiff City defeated Southampton 2-1 on Saturday, the club’s second straight victory after grabbing just five wins in its first 24 matches. The Bluebirds are playing inspired football following the tragic death of Emiliano Sala, the club’s record signing who died in a plane crash in January and whose body wasn’t found and identified until a couple days ago. 

Cardiff jumped up to 15th place with the back-to-back wins, a feel-good story coming out of devastating heartbreak. 

Ben Foster is the guy we all want to be.

At least, according to his teammate Troy Deeney.

Ben Foster, Watford’s No. 1 goalkeeper (not to be confused with the American actor of the same name), is fourth in the Premier League in saves with 78, the highest of any Englishman. He’s worked his way through the ranks, having signed by Sir Alex Ferguson from Stoke City in 2005 at the age of 22, only to struggle for top-flight match time. 

Emiliano Sala is gone. It’s a sad truth the football world must come to grips with, the wreckage of his crashed plane found at the bottom of the English Channel on Sunday, about two weeks after it disappeared days after his transfer from Nantes to Cardiff City. 

By an odd quirk in this universe in which we live, four of the best footballers on the planet — in particular, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar — were born on the same day of the year: February 5.

 Four #UCL heroes celebrate their birthdays today! 

 Cristiano Ronaldo (34)
 Carlos Tévez (35)
 Gheorghe Hagi (54)
 Neymar (27)

The USWNT is hard at work preparing to defend its World Cup title from four years ago. The players arrived for the first camp of the year in the first week of January, and their first match is Saturday against third-ranked France. Before the World Cup kicks off in June, the U.S. women will play 10 matches in 10 different cities. 

Simo Valakari is no Pep Guardiola. He’s no Jurgen Klopp. He’s definitely no Jose Mourinho. 

But he is the most inspirational manager I’ve ever seen.

Simo Valakari isn’t exactly a household name. The manager of Tromsø IL in Norway’s Eliteserien since 2017, he’s trying to get the club back into the Europa League, where it competed in five of six years from 2009-14 or even the Champions League. 

Mesut Özil has struggled to find playing time in the last couple of months with Arsenal, starting just two Premier League matches since November. But he’s found a way to win off the pitch, and this time it’s not in Fortnite, it’s for winning the #10YearChallenge.

We’re less than two weeks into 2019, but the best piece of dribbling skill of the entire year was performed by Fran Kirby in an FA WSL Cup match between Chelsea and Reading on Wednesday. 

Francesca Kirby, the reigning PFA Women’s Player of the Year, pulled out this outrageous turn to escape two defenders.