Stats

Messi's 2-goal masterclass in New Jersey overshadowed by constant pitch invaders

On Tuesday night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, Lionel Messi was limited to 34 minutes off the bench but again demonstrated why his form has Argentina firmly placed among the favorites in Qatar.

Messi scored twice — giving him nine goals in his last three international appearances — to continue his incredible start to 2022-23 (he has six goals and eight assists in 11 games for PSG).

The first was a 22-yard rip that skipped into the corner beyond a despairing Andre Blake in the 86th minute. 

USMNT striker Power Rankings ahead of the World Cup

The worst case scenario heading into September's international window, given the argument over Jordan Pefok's omission despite his incredible start to life in the Bundesliga, was that all three of Gregg Berhalter's selected strikers would fail against the modest defensive challenges posed by Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Wow, the USMNT is really REALLY bad — three takeaways from baffling 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia

Gregg Berhalter and his United States men’s national team are on a one-way collision course with a nasty ass kicking in Qatar at the World Cup. On Tuesday the USMNT played its final friendly before the World Cup and pathetically tied lowly Saudi Arabia 0-0.

There are few words that can accurately describe how poor the U.S. has looked in the last two friendly games vs. Japan and Saudi Arabia. With no words to summarize these poor performances let’s just let one stat in particular speak.

Arsenal vs. Tottenham smashes the Women's Super League attendance record

Vivianne Miedema scored twice in Arsenal's commanding 4-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in front of a Women's Super League record crowd of 47,367 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Dutch international Miedema struck in either half after Beth Mead scored the opener, with Rafaelle Souza also getting on the scoresheet in a dominant performance for the hosts, to the delight of the partisan crowd.

University of Nebraska's Reagan Raabe scores outrageous chip after just 40 seconds

The Nebraska women’s soccer team welcomed the #9 Northwestern Wildcats to Barbara Hibner Field Thursday night and opened the scoring in sensational style. Midfielder Reagan Raabe took just 40 seconds to give the Huskers the lead with an audacious, opportunistic chip.

USMNT player ratings vs. Japan: We're better than this (hopefully)

This USMNT team is very young; they'll be the youngest at Qatar. Sometimes they look like serious 2026 World Cup contenders, sometimes they look lucky to have qualified for the 2022 tournament. Friday's 2-0 loss to Japan was a look at, as we outlined in our match preview, many of the worst-case scenarios for this team.

Gareth Bale says he's on ‘good path’ to World Cup despite never going 90 minutes for LAFC

Wales captain Gareth Bale said he is on a "good path" towards full fitness ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, despite not completing a full game since joining Los Angeles FC in June.

Bale signed for the Major League Soccer club after leaving Real Madrid, where he struggled with injury in his last few seasons. He has made only two starts in his 11 appearances for LAFC, scoring twice.

Football-related arrests in England and Wales up 59% on pre-COVID numbers

A total of 2,198 football-related arrests were made in the 2021-22 season in England and Wales, the highest number since the 2013-14 season, a report by the Home Office said on Thursday.

The 2021-2022 season was the first full season where all scheduled matches were played at full spectator capacity following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The arrests made last season were around 59% higher than those in the 2018-2019 season, which was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common offense types were public disorder (36%) and violent disorder (20%).

If Berhalter plays his hottest hand, this is the USMNT starting XI vs. Japan

The USMNT begins its two-game September window Friday morning with a friendly against fellow World Cup participant Japan at Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany. 

It'll be a fascinating matchup with the Samurai Blue fielding the likes of Schalke's Maya Yoshida, Monaco's Takumi Minamino, Arsenal's Takehiro Tomiyasu and Real Sociedad's Takefusa Kubo, while the U.S. is looking for some reassurances from its banner carriers (the goalkeeper position, Christian Pulisic). 

Predicting 10 Of The Biggest World Cup Snubs

This week serves as the final international break before clubs must release players to their national teams just one week before the World Cup begins, so the latest squad selections should be huge indicators of the final 26-man rosters for the competing nations.

However, a look at the current teams indicates that this won't be a traditional World Cup of blockbuster snubs, but rather an exploration of player pools in an attritional battle against lingering muscle strains.

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