Last night, Real Madrid started its 2018-19 LaLiga campaign off right with a win over Getafe. Goals from Gareth Bale and Dani Carvajal were enough to lift Juan Lopetegui’s side over the Azulones as they cruised to a comfortable victory.
As a neutral, I’m a big fan of this back and forth between Jurgen Klopp and Sergio Ramos. I hope it continues forever. After Klopp labeled Ramos “ruthless” and “brutal” a couple weeks ago during Liverpool’s preseason tour, Ramos duly responded by saying: “He will be wanting to explain not winning the final, but it’s not the first that he has lost. Some of us have been operating at a very high level for many years — I’m not sure he can say the same.”
While Barcelona will return to classic thin Blaugrana stripes on its home shirt this season, the club’s away jerseys and rumored third kits are much more bold.
The away is confirmed, and it’s “volt” (a sort of light green/yellow) with a bit of blue and red on the cuffs. However, it’s the third shirt that’s got tongues wagging across the planet.
SCR Peña Deportivo has officially won the battle for the best kit in all of soccer. It might simply be the best soccer kit ever.
At the age of 32, David Silva has announced his retirement from international football after collecting 125 caps and scoring 35 goals for the Spanish national team. Silva was a member of the squads that won Euro 2008, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2012. At Euro 2012, Silva started all six of Spain’s matches and scored the opening goal of the final against Italy.
Barcelona defeated Sevilla 2-1 in the 2018 Spanish Super Cup thanks to goals from Gerard Pique and Ousmane Dembele. Pablo Sarabia had given Sevilla an early lead in the ninth minute, but Barcelona’s comeback was complete when Dembele thundered in a crossbar down effort in the 78th.
Sevilla earned a penalty and had a chance to equalize from the spot in the 90th minute, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen saved Wissam Ben Yedder’s tame effort.
The Summer of the Goalkeeper (admittedly not as fun as the Summer of Love in '67) continued today with news of Kepa Arrizabalaga’s transfer from his boyhood club of Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea. The 23-year-old’s meteoric rise has continued unabated after a stellar season with Bilbao — only his second with the senior side — was rewarded with a call-up for Spain's World Cup squad. Now he gets to play behind David Luiz.
Ever since Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure to Juventus, questions have been whirling about as to who will fill his shoes and be the leading man for los Blancos this season. What star will Madrid pluck from another European giant for an absurd sum of money? What precocious youngster will hastily be labeled "The Next Ronaldo?”
At the age of 19, Alex Hunter’s career is already approaching that of the journeyman. Back in FIFA 17, you selected a Premier League club to start with, but you were then loaned to a Championship side before returning to the EPL.
In FIFA 18, you started with your parent club before being offloaded to the Los Angeles Galaxy because of Michael the conniving agent. After grinding in MLS, you then signed with either Atletico Madrid, PSG or Bayern Munich.
Since Barcelona unveiled its plans to renovate the Camp Nou (including expanding capacity from 99,354 to 105,000 and adding a roof to cover seats around the entirety of the stadium) back in 2016, the club has always maintained that a large portion of the cost (rumored to be around $700 million) would be footed by selling partial naming rights for the new ground.