Soccer Page 163 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Qatar's Blood Money Will Definitely Win the Champions League Final
Sunday’s Champions League Final will be the first that is between Europe’s “Old Money” and “New Money.” ...

Barcelona Respond to Ultimate Humiliation with Ultimate Confusion
Perhaps there’s no coming back from getting utterly shamed 8-2 in a Champions League quarterfinal. Even if this is something of a makeshift Champions League tournament, 8-2 is 8-2. Barcelona have their own “Belo Horizonte” now, and cleaning up after it is going to be a massive undertaking....

Pep Guardiola Overthought It Again and City Are Out on Their Ass
We’ve all had to deal with a lot of our rites of spring being moved to another location on the calendar or lost to the pandemic altogether. Opening Day, Memorial Day blockbuster movies, Derby parties, all of these and more were lost or moved to an unfamiliar spot in life’s routine. Oh, and Pep Guard...

Sarri’s Not Enough: Juventus Boots Manager as Champions League Drought Continues
It is strange for a club to fire its manager after winning the league. It’s not unheard of, as Real Madrid once fired Vicente Del Bosque after he’d won both the Champions League and La Liga twice, but it’s still strange. To do it in two consecutive years however suggests a nutty desperation, a flail...

Lionel Messi Sees Connor McDavid's Ridiculous Goal And Raises ... As He Falls (SEE IT!)
The greatest players in their sport doing things no one else can do is … getting really old....

Stan Kroenke Takes His Evil International as FA Cup Champ Arsenal Gives FU to 55 Axed Workers
Putting that in present tense is a mistake, of course. Stan Kroenke has been the shithead owner of Arsenal FC for a long while now, along with his other teams. Today was perhaps his coup de asshole, though. ...

Fulham Return To Premier League With a Goal From Narnia
The Championship Playoff Final is often labeled “The Richest Match In The World.” Because it is. The winner gets promoted to the Premier League, and along with it the aircraft carrier of TV money, increased ticket prices, uptick in merchandise, and everything else. It is estimated that winning the g...

Is Arsenal’s FA Cup Win a Harbinger of Something New, or the Same?
Whatever Arsenal actually accomplished, and whatever they actually promise after yesterday’s FA Cup triumph over Chelsea, there’s hope. Hope that new manager Mikel Arteta is ready to take the club beyond where Unai Emery did, beyond where legend Arsene Wenger left them before that, and hope that he ...

US Men’s Soccer Team Can Screw Up World Cup Qualifying in a Whole New Way This Time
If you can believe it, World Cup Qualifying in CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) was supposed to have started already. However, with FIFA canceling the spring, summer, and September international windows due to COVID-19, the North American region ...

NWSL Restart a COVID-Free Success as Houston Dash Win Challenge Cup
As strange as it may sound, maybe because good news is rarer these days than adamantium, the NWSL Challenge Cup wrapped up today and would have to go down as a success. At the top of the “reasons why” list: after the Orlando Pride pulled out before even arriving in Utah, the tournament saw no positi...

Leicester Pull Another Brendan Rodgers, And Villa Hero’s Final Act Saves Them In Premier League’s Last Day
There was a lot to be decided on the Premier League’s long-awaited final day this morning. Two relegation spots, and two spots in the Champions League, were still up for grabs when things kicked off. It didn’t lack for drama....

Leeds United Are Finally Back Where They Belong
Anyone who claims returning from the land of the dead isn’t possible should cast their skeptical eye to the Premier League in September when the 2020-2021 season kicks off. There they’ll find Leeds United, promoted this past weekend, who will be returning from a decade-and-a-half spent in a formless...

Even Though It’s Broken, 'MLS Is Back' Can Still Teach Us About Life
The “MLS Is Back” tournament certainly has already taught us much about the world — or this country specifically. How greed and corporations can run roughshod over personal concerns, how clear logic will never apply in that process, and how the working stiffs don’t get much of a say. Also that Disne...

Manchester City Are Destroying Everything In Its Path, Including UEFA
If it’s felt like Manchester City are just an irresistible, and inevitable force, today will only underline that. Not only have they outscored their opposition since soccer returned 25-3, or won six of their eight games, or still have a very good chance at claiming three trophies this season (alread...

Soccer Doesn't Have a Coronavirus Problem, the MLS Does
Professional sports have been back for months....

Arsenal’s Defending Continues To Be The Best Television
With production shut down on everything in Hollywood these days, you might be worried that soon your entertainment options will run dry. Comedies you’ve come to count on to provide just enough giggles to get through this death march of a timeline might not be around. Don’t you worry, weary traveler,...

MLS’s ‘New Normal’ Is a Bleak, Barren Field With Ads Plastered Everywhere
As the first American men’s league and the first league to actually bring to life the dog-in-a-burning-room meme, MLS hit the field last night. We didn’t know what it was before, other than a vague, bad idea, and it doesn’t feel like we have much more of an idea now....

Philadelphia Union Players Surprise MLS With Names of Police Brutality Victims on Their Backs
Before kicking off the second MLS game in the “MLS is Back” tournament, the Philadelphia Union paid tribute to the Black American victims of police brutality....

What Exactly Is MLS’ Endgame?
The lie that every league in the U.S. has sold, and not very well, is that it can return to action safely, even if in spaces where COVID-19 is raging. Even the leagues that are returning only in Florida, where they set records daily on new cases and the state government’s response is like trying to ...

Has Barcelona Finally Broken Lionel Messi?
Everything about Barcelona the past decade and a half has been about pushing things until they break. Sometimes that’s good, as its dominance on the field has yielded an ungodly sum of league titles and four Champions’ League triumphs....