Adding to the list of shit that would never happen in men’s football, the Algarve Cup decided to not play its final on Wednesday, instead awarding both the Netherlands and Sweden first place in the tournament. About two hours after announcing starting lineups for the final, the Algarve Cup announced the match was canceled due to poor weather conditions.
Mike DeWine, the Ohio Attorney General, along with the city of Columbus, Ohio, filed a lawsuit against Columbus Crew owner Anthony Precourt and Major League Soccer on Monday. The Ohio state government has officially joined the #SaveTheCrew movement, and Crew fans have the Cleveland Browns to thank for this intervention.
Fernandão is a Brazilian striker for Fenerbahçe in Turkey. We’re not sure if he watches American television, but my guess is if he’s seen Key & Peele he’ll be arguing his case like a young Hingle McCringleberry. The Fernandão celebration during a match against Beşiktaş on Sunday resulted in a two-match suspension and $15,900 fine, handed down on Thursday.
The 2018 World Cup was always going to be a little unhinged. This, after all, is a country in which groups of ultras get together before league games and partake in semi-organized brawls. After the Russians took the spotlight at Euro 2016 in France with some, well let's be polite and call them "antics," folks were right to be worried about fan safety during the World Cup.
Google gets it wrong. Wikipedia doesn’t do it right. Sky Sports, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, Fox Sports and Goal.com all spell it incorrectly. Al Jazeera and BeIN are inconsistent in their usage. Shit, even the nearly infallible staff at The18 used to make the mistake and we’re pretty sure you get it wrong all the time too. Spain’s Primera División is called LaLiga not La Liga.
Here’s a five-day period so Luis Suarez that even Luis Suarez would call it cliché. Last Tuesday, the Uruguayan striker was booked in the 76th minute of Barcelona’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea. Suarez was given the yellow directly after Lionel Messi’s equalizer for berating the linesman.
Freddy Adu is back, baby! On Saturday night, the future of U.S. soccer and the next Rivaldo returned to the pitch for the first time since before the Season 1 of Stranger Things came out. The Freddy Adu Las Vegas Lights debut is a sure sign that U.S. soccer is back on the right track, or something. Now 28 and on a baker’s dozen of different clubs, Adu’s preseason performance wasn’t actually that bad, despite an eventual 4-2 defeat to D.C. United.
“Hey, I got a hockey record. I took my skate off and tried to stab somebody. I’m the only guy who ever did that.” - Happy Gilmore
A Copa Libertadores U-20 semifinal match between Uruguay’s Club Atletico River Plate and Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle did not pass without incident yesterday. No, it did not.
For readers in the United States, we live in a time where no one can agree on anything. NBA players can’t agree that the earth isn’t flat, conspiracy theorists can’t agree that Parkland students aren’t actors and politicians sure as hell can’t agree on anything. Well, maybe that last one isn’t quite accurate. On Wednesday, 44 senators came together for a bipartisan agreement, and somehow it involved soccer. The 2026 World Cup, to be specific.