National Teams

One of the worst open-goal misses of the year reminds us of awful Cristiano Ronaldo howler at Manchester United

Indonesia routed Brunei 7-0 at the 2022 AFF Championship, a traditional tournament among South Asian nations. After the game, players from Tim Garuda celebrated the victory, except for crestfallen defender Hansamu Yama, who experienced an embarrassing moment during the game. 

Yama could have added another goal for Indonesia on the scoreboard but ended up submitting a strong entry for the howler of the year award, missing a shot so close to the goal line that it's almost impossible to understand how he was able to miss the chance. 

PSG coach says no bad blood between Messi-Mbappé, but Emi Martínez is another story

After sending 11 players to the World Cup, Paris Saint-Germain's season resumes Wednesday with the Ligue 1 leaders needing to find motivation for a home match against 19th-place Strasbourg.

PSG manager Christophe Galtier gave his pre-match press conference Tuesday and outlined how many of the club's World Cup stars would be available for selection — including France's Kylian Mbappé, Morocco's Achraf Hakimi and Brazil's Neymar — but Argentina's Lionel Messi had been given extended leave until early January.

FIFA investigating how Salt Bae was able to crash Argentina's celebrations and touch the World Cup trophy

FIFA has launched an investigation to determine how in the hell restaurant owner and famous chef Salt Bae got access to the field during Argentina's World Cup celebrations in Qatar. 

"Following a review, FIFA has been establishing how individuals gained undue access to the pitch after the closing ceremony at Lusail Stadium on Dec. 18," the world soccer body said in a press release.

Salt Bae World Cup acts anger fans 

Although FIFA didn't name Salt Bae, whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, you don't need to be a genius to know what's going on here. 

Vuelve la campaña por el regreso de Chicharito Hernández a la selección mexicana

Tras el fracaso en Catar 2022, México comienza – más lentamente de lo que uno quisiera – a dar los primeros pasos camino al Mundial de 2026, un proceso que debería estar marcado por la renovación y las inclusión de nuevos talentos.

Sin embargo, no faltan las voces que creen que el nuevo proyecto debe iniciarse mirando al pasado. Dicho de otro modo, el coro que busca el retorno de Javier Hernández a la selección nacional está de regreso.

Death, taxes and FIFA’s rankings making no sense — USA ranked above Germany in latest edition

The almighty FIFA overlords who control the rankings that decide which countries are the best at soccer have spoken. The latest FIFA rankings released on Thursday say that the USA is better than Germany, Brazil is still the best in the world and a whole bunch of other nonsense.

The USA is officially the 13th best nation in the world according to FIFA.

Latest FIFA Rankings

Siguen las malas noticias: México pierde lugares en el ránking FIFA y queda debajo de Estados Unidos

La eliminación en la fase de grupos del Mundial de Catar fue catastrófica para México y las consecuencias se siguen sintiendo. Una de ellas quedó reflejada en el último ránking FIFA de 2022, donde el Tri cayó un par de lugares y cedió su sitial como el mejor representante Concacaf de la lista a Estados Unidos.

Brutal.

Lugar de México en el ránking FIFA

Pese a que el rendimiento del Tri en los últimos partidos de la era comandada por Gerardo Martino fue mediocre, "lo positivo" es que la caída no fue tan estrepitosa.

Watch all 172 goals scored at the 2022 World Cup

Do you miss the World Cup? Well, you are not the only one.

In terms of spectacle, Qatar 2022 was fun and set an all-time goal-scoring record for the tournament. The 32 teams participating in the event bagged a combined 172 goals, one more than the 171 we saw in France 1998 and Brazil 2014.

That's an average of 2.68 goals per game. Not bad, right?

Wild videos from Argentina parade shows fan trying to jump on the team bus from a bridge but missed

Argentina’s World Cup victory parade became a bit of a nightmare as an estimated 4 million fans packed the streets of Buenos Aires to celebrate the return of the champions. Argentina’s players had to leave their bus and board helicopters after the bus couldn’t move past the mass of people.

Video also showed several injuries including one Argentina fan falling from a bridge after he tried to jump onto the team bus.

Here's the history behind the black cloak Lionel Messi wore while lifting the World Cup trophy

Written by Pardis Mahdavi courtesy of The Conversation

Shortly before Lionel Messi took to the stage to lift up the World Cup trophy, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani put a black cloak, called a “bisht,” over the Argentinian soccer star’s shoulders.

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