Soccer Page 215 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Women's World Cup Has A Refereeing Problem
Despite what our lovely commentariat might believe, we here at Deadspin do not have a quota of anti-VAR posts to hit. If it feels that way during the Women’s World Cup, it’s only because FIFA, through the kind of casually negligent behavior that typifies its treatment of the women’s game, has put it...
Almost Every Penalty Kick Save Ever Is Illegal Now And It's A Mess
The idea, which is not an unreasonable one on its face, is to “get it right.” The less inspiring extension of that is “to avoid something horribly embarrassing.” There are examples that spring to mind when it comes to justifying VAR’s existence—the people in charge are probably thinking of moments ...
Edinson Cavani Scores Game-Winning Goal Over Guy Who Once Stuck Fingers Up His Butt
Edinson Cavani secured Uruguay a big win over Chile yesterday with a stunning goal in the 82nd minute. The goal itself was sweet, as it meant Uruguay finished atop their group in the Copa América. But what made it even sweeter was that Cavani scored it over the guy who once stuck his fingers up Cava...
Canada Must Wait Four More Years To Discover What It Might Be Like To Win Big In The World Cup
When former Canadian national team player and current TSN pundit Kaylyn Kyle criticized the USWNT for their goal celebrations during the historic 13-0 win over Thailand by saying, “I think, as a Canadian, we would just never ever think about doing something like that,” it raised the question of whet...
What Was Jill Ellis Doing?
Yes, the United States beat Spain 2-1, thanks to two soft-ass penalties converted by Megan Rapinoe, to advance to the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals. And yes, we will get the clash of the titans between the USWNT and France on Friday in Paris. But it should not have been this difficult. The United ...
A Pair Of Megan Rapinoe Penalties Sent A Shaky USWNT To The Quarterfinals
It wasn’t the type of breezy victory that defined the USWNT’s run through the group stage, but in their first knockout game of the 2019 World Cup, the U.S. gutted out a tough, unpretty 2-1 victory against Spain in which two Megan Rapinoe penalties outweighed one disastrous defensive mistake....
Brazil's Golden Generation Won Nothing But Changed Everything
Heading into this tournament, one of the few things that felt certain was that this was to be the last hurrah at a World Cup for Brazil’s feared foursome of Marta, the G.O.A.T. of women’s soccer; Cristiane, her long-serving battering ram of a strike partner; Formiga, the 41-year-old marvel in midfie...
Here's What Every Member Of The USMNT Has To Say About U.S. Soccer's Wage Inequality
When the United States Women’s National Team takes the field for their World Cup knockout-round game against Spain today, they will try to forget everything else: their personal drama, their fears, their ambitions. Oh, and the gender discrimination lawsuit they filed against U.S. Soccer, the sport’s...
VAR Has One Job, And It's Failing Miserably At It
The most common complaint against VAR—or any form of video review in sports—in one of aesthetics. If referees insist on stopping the game for several minutes to double check every key play, the thinking goes, all the drama and intensity and emotion of the biggest moments will be lost, and the celebr...
France Outlasts Brazil's Tired Old Legs To Advance To The Quarterfinals With A 2-1 Victory
France are moving on to the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup after defeating Brazil, 2-1, in extra time. Despite scoring a surprise goal against the run of play late in regulation, Brazil’s tired legs eventually caught up to them and it became only a matter of time before France would strike f...
England Crawl Out Of Dumpster Fire Relatively Unscathed With 3-0 Win Over Cameroon
England lived up to their FIFA ranking as the third-best women’s team in the world for maybe 30 minutes in their match against Cameroon on Sunday. Had it not been for Cameroonian players allowing the poor implementation of VAR that has become a staple of this tournament to get to them, Cameroon woul...
Hell Yeah, England Scored From An Indirect Free Kick
One of the most infrequently-experienced joys in soccer is the short burst of chaos that comes from an indirect free kick, where a team’s free kick opportunity is placed inside their opponent’s penalty box. Thanks to the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup, we can now reset the “days without” co...
Norway's Perfect Penalty Shootout Deflated Australia Into Submission
A horrendous miss from Australia’s Sam Kerr set the tone for the Matildas’ penalty shootout against Norway, sending the Scandinavian nation into the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Cup with a 4-1 win on penalties....
Lisa Byington And Cat Whitehill Bust Out Lazy Tropes About African Teams For Their Germany-Nigeria Commentary
Commentating on live sports for a national television audience can be a herculean task, but it’s a lot easier if you decide to rely on tired racial stereotypes to fill the dead air—as Fox’s Lisa Byington and Cat Whitehill discovered on Saturday....
A Hectic Round Of 16 Will Separate The Women's World Cup Contenders From The Pretenders
After 36 group stage matches, and seemingly triple that number of VAR headaches, the Women’s World Cup is getting into the good shit. Gone are the eight teams unworthy of continuing on, while the 16 best remaining sides prepare for a four-round elimination chaos pit. The survivor of that churn will ...
The USWNT Got Sweet Revenge, But Now The Real Work Starts
One could mount an argument that the United States’ long-term interests at this here World Cup would have been better served had they thrown their group-stage finale against Sweden yesterday and given themselves an easier path to the final. Let your opponents win Group F and let them deal with the F...
Men's Pro Teams Express Support For USWNT By Reminding Everyone That Guys Also Play Sports
Twitter user Malinda has done excellent work curating a delightfully ill-advised collection of nearly identical tweets sent from the accounts of men’s pro sports teams, all of which attempted to express support for the USWNT while also making sure that nobody is in danger of forgetting that dudes pl...
Tobin Heath Declares War On Sweden, Wins
It’s truly a crime that we missed out on 90 minutes of Tobin Heath in the U.S.’s last game against Chile, but today against Sweden, the magical American winger came back with a vengeance. In the 50th minute, Heath’s deadly feet took on an overmatched opponent in Sweden defender Jonna Andersson and o...
Cameroon Advance To World Cup Knockout Round With Ludicrous, Last-Minute Solo Goal
Facing elimination from the Women’s World Cup and desperately searching for a late goal to push them through to the knockout rounds, Cameroon countered a late New Zealand throw-in with a burst forward toward the Football Ferns’ net in the 95th minute. It was Cameroon’s goal, but most of the credit s...
Too Much Of The World Cup Is Just Soccer Failing To Get Out Of Its Own Way
Ideally, this would be a story about the best saves of the group stage from the group stage of the 2019 World Cup. The field for this eighth run of the women’s tournament is deeper and more talented than ever, and there have already been a number of highlight-worthy stops to match. I would love to u...