The Brazilian women’s national team, while still dominant in South America, has fallen from among the elite on the global stage, passed up by European and Asian challengers. The 2007 Women’s World Cup and 2004/2008 Olympics runner-up needs a new crop of players to replace the aging Marta, Formiga and Cristiane.
The Canarinhas may want to look at Corinthians Paulista for the next group of stars.
Last night in Porto Alegre, Athletico Paranaense captured the 2019 Copa do Brasil with a 3-1 aggregate victory over Paolo Guerrero’s Internacional. After winning the first leg 1-0 in Curitiba, Athletico-PR captured its first-ever Copa by seeing things through at Inter’s home stadium.
I know of no greater natural human curiosity than the one that demands we discover the ball’s final resting place. One of our most beloved sports, golf, is entirely based on this premise. So when a ball actually exits the field of play, the novelty of it all can lead to some of the greatest moments in all of sports.
But sometimes, you don’t want to know the end. Because how can the end be happy when so much random chance is involved?
Jimmy Butler was never really in contention for the United States squad at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. He played his part in helping Team USA to gold at the 2016 Olympics, and the 30-year-old must now adjust to life in Miami after being traded by Philadelphia. So you can’t really blame him for missing out on America’s shambolic seventh-place showing and going to Barcelona instead.
If I asked you to name the current leading scorer in Euro 2020 qualifying, who would you go with? Harry Kane? Cristiano Ronaldo? Kane is joint-second with six goals and Ronaldo has five to his name, so those aren’t bad guesses, but it's actually Israel’s Eran Zahavi.
The 32-year-old Zahavi isn’t exactly a household name — at least outside of Israel and China. The only time he's spent playing outside those two countries was a brief spell with Palermo, where he scored only two goals in 23 Serie A appearances.
We’ve written about it before. A few times, actually. But the HBO Diego Maradona trailer released on Friday only reinforces our deep desires to see critically acclaimed documentary.
On a slow news day, it’s not unusual for us here at The18 to scour the internet to find the most obscure soccer stories for you, our dear readers. In doing so, we found what we initially thought was the funniest soccer announcer ever.
We were wrong. But we didn’t mind being wrong upon further research.
Jimmy Conrad has transitioned nicely from a career as 2005 MLS Defender of the Year to a prominent YouTuber. Though 42, he’s got the content creation skills of a 20-year-old Twitch streamer, which is a compliment.
There’s so much about Paul Scholes that we are yet to understand. We’ve been studying the specimen for over 25 years, but as soon as we think we’re close to a breakthrough with regards to how this terrestrial animal has eyes going every which way, we are mystified by some new behavior.
The midfield instigator was roaming around the confines of the Etihad Stadium today with 50,000 spectators training their inquiring eyes upon him, and he delivered this . . . this thing.
AC Milan warmed the heart of the Twitter-sphere this week, posting a video of Ines, a 100-year-old Milan fan who recieved a customized jersey signed by the entire team for her birthday.
We're not crying, you are
Check out the surprise we made to 100-year-old Ines, who has been supporting us for more than 80 years