Soccer Page 211 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Real Madrid's New Manager Julen Lopetegui Thinks Messi Is Better Than Ronaldo
Real Madrid announced Julen Lopetegui as their new manager today, just two weeks after Zinedine Zidane resigned abruptly from the job after winning the Champions League title. Lopetegui is currently manager of Spain’s national team and won’t take over at Real Madrid until after the World Cup....
It's Time For Sweden To Become More Than Just Zlatan's Team
After missing out on the two previous World Cups, Sweden squeaked into this one with an upset win over Italy in qualifying. Simply making the tournament is in many ways an overachievement for this squad, and it’s probably best for them to view things that way. They are in the Group of Death with Ger...
Can Mexico Finally Overcome A 24-Year World Cup Curse?<em></em>
It was absolutely not a penalty....
The World Cup Is Where Nigeria's Super Eagles Can Really Soar
One of the World Cup’s underrated appeals is watching players who are jammed into limited roles at club level let their hair down and run around without restraint on the international stage. For example a defensive midfielder, normally tasked with little more than standing in front of the center ba...
Nike Will No Longer Supply Iran's World Cup Cleats Because Of Sanctions
Just over a week before Iran plays their first World Cup match against Morocco, Nike has announced that they will no longer provide the Iranian national team’s cleats because of recently reimposed economic sanctions against the country. Nike has provided cleats for several Iranian players for years,...
Which Language's Native Speakers Could Form The Best Soccer Team?
Matthew Zeitlin asked an intriguing question on Twitter today that we’ve been arguing about for a while....
Costa Rica Will Try Their Best To Relive The Glory Of The Last World Cup
The undisputed second-best team in CONCACAF isn’t flying under the radar anymore, not after a 2014 World Cup appearance that saw Costa Rica win a deadly group that included Uruguay, Italy, and England, then make a quarter-final run that was only stopped by a penalty shootout loss to the Netherlands....
The World Cup Is Coming To Russia, Which Means Stray Dogs Are Being Slaughtered
This week, Russia will host the 2018 World Cup, one of the biggest international sporting events in the world. The country will play host to millions of tourists across the 11 host cities within the Russian Federation. Those visiting will be able to attend matches in Moscow, the capital city, as wel...
Argentina Will Need A Superhero To Win The World Cup, But Luckily They Have One<em></em>
People really don’t realize how much of a miracle it would be if Argentina won the World Cup....
If They Can Put It Together, Croatia Are The Perfect Bandwagon Team For You
If you’re a jilted American fan in need of a World Cup team to root for but you’re put off by the prospect of frontrunning and cheering for a titan like Germany or Brazil, I humbly suggest jumping on the Croatia bandwagon....
Spain Could Very Well End Up Winning The World Cup Again
Spain, it appears, are back. The team that won three international titles in a span of four years (the 2008 and 2012 Euros, and the 2010 World Cup), and then followed it up by crashing out of the 2014 World Cup in the group stage and losing to Italy in the round of 16 in the 2016 European Championsh...
Iceland Are Still Underdogs, But They Can't Be Counted Out
No nation as small as Iceland (population: 337,479) has ever qualified for the World Cup before, but simply getting to Russia won’t be satisfying enough for this team. After a couple of miraculous wins in Euro 2016 that put Icelandic soccer on the map, this Scandinavian group will be forced to exper...
Last Time Australia Were Bad And Fun, But Now They're Bad And Boring
At the 2014 World Cup, Australia were one of those entertaining minnows who have no real shot at escaping the maws of the big fish hunting them down but still make the chase interesting. In a hellacious group along with Spain, the Netherlands, and Chile, Australia lost all three matches, as was expe...
Denmark Will Go As Far As Christian Eriksen Takes Them
The vast majority of teams that make it to the World Cup don’t have a quart of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream’s chance in Jason Whitlock’s freezer of winning the thing. The latter stages of this edition feel particularly preordained, like if one of Brazil or Germany or Spain don’t win the tournament then...
World Cup Referee Caught Accepting $600 From An Undercover Journalist<em></em>
Footage from a documentary on corruption in African soccer, shared exclusively with the BBC, shows World Cup assistant referee Adel Range Marwa accepting a $600 gift from an undercover journalist posing as a Ghanaian soccer official. Marwa, the only referee from Kenya set to participate in the Worl...
Peru Just Might Have Enough To Make This Their Lucky Year
This is the first World Cup since 1982 for Peru, but that doesn’t mean they’re here just to play three games and go home. After weathering an absolutely cutthroat cycle of South American qualifying and earning a spot in a group from which they’re favored to place second and advance, Peru are poised ...
France Have All The Talent In The World, They Just Need To Figure Out How To Use It<em></em>
France are one of the four or so teams coming to Russia for whom anything less than a World Cup title will be a disappointment of sorts. I mean, look at their roster. It just oozes talent, with Champions League experience across the board and the depth necessary to fill in for anything from an unfor...
Morocco Are Back In The World Cup After 20 Years And They Mean Business
Hearing the name of the country of Morocco probably doesn’t conjure images of soccer greatness. It’s understandable. The Moroccans have gone 20 years—five whole World Cups—without making an appearance on the sport’s biggest stage. But while Morocco’s national team hasn’t covered itself in much sport...
U.S. Soccer Tries To Fix Its Problems By Building A Bigger Bureaucracy
U.S. Soccer’s steady march through sclerotic mediocrity continued apace today when American soccer’s governing body announced the hiring of Earnie Stewart as the new USMNT general manager. What the position of “general manager” even entails for the national team and whether Stewart will be any good ...
Cristiano Ronaldo And The People He Shares His Country With Will Not Win The World Cup
Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal won the 2016 European Championship, so they’re not not likely to make a deep push in the World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal will likely advance out of their group, alongside Spain, and they could make it even further into the knockout rounds with some luck. But ...