Soccer Page 328 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Chart: Who Has The Hardest World Cup Draw?
With the world cup just six months away, The Guardian has put together a great set of charts comparing the relative schedules of each qualifying team, based on their opponents' FIFA rankings. As you can see above, by this measure the U.S. has the third-hardest schedule, just behind Ghana and Austral...
Mario Balotelli Wears Thing
White cleats are usually a conservative choice on the pitch, so it took seeing this close-up before noticing that, like most things in his life, these too are testament to Mario Balotelli's own awesomeness....
On-Field Idiot Kicks Player, Gets Stomped On By Two Others
In European soccer, where idiots on the field are tolerated more than they are here, sometimes the only modicum of justice can be meted out by the players themselves. At least that's what two Besiktas players must have thought when they decided to stomp out one fan who reportedly kicked their teamma...
Croatian Player Banned From World Cup For Pro-Nazi Chant
Last month, defender Josip Šimunić celebrated Croatia's World Cup qualification by leading fans in a call-and-response chant made famous by the nation's fascist puppet regime that ruled during World War II. FIFA has now banned him for 10 matches, which will extend through the World Cup....
André Villas-Boas Out At Tottenham After Humiliating Loss
Well, that was fast. Today, Tottenham Hotspur have announced that André Villas-Boas and the club have mutually agreed to terminate his contract on the heels of a 5-0 home routing at the hands of Liverpool. This is his second mid-season sacking in three seasons, and we wouldn't be surprised if he nev...
Guy Forgets <i>He's</i> Allowed To Use Hands, Takes Soccer Ball To The Face
Here's a delightful moment from the Queens Park Rangers visit to play Blackpool F.C. Some poor guy gets drilled in the dome with a misfired shot and, for some reason, keeps his hands at his sides the whole time. I think he even tries to kick it away from him, but he's not quick enough and it bounces...
Jürgen Klinsmann Extends His Deal With USMNT Through 2018
Today, US Soccer announced that manager Jürgen Klinsmann agreed to a four-year contract extension today. The deal, which keeps Klinsmann as manager through the 2018 World Cup in Russia, is abigdeal, because the extension signifies two things. First, of course, is that it means Klinsmann's been absol...
NFL Logos As European Soccer Badges, Part II
Football As Football, a project by a Minneapolis-based team of designers to reimagine all 32 NFL logos as crests in the style of various European soccer leagues, has entered Phase 2 of 4. That means that if you didn't love your team's badge the first time around, you've now got two styles to choose ...
German Announcers Lose Their Minds Over Dortmund Goal
An 87th minute strike from Kevin Grosskreutz put Dortmund over Marseille and into the Champions League round of 16. Here's the call from the Dortmund radio crew. (If you have headphones in, this video gets loud.)...
Premier League Team Tries Charging Press For Interviews
Newcastle United are coming off a huge win at Manchester United, but they're making news for the wrong reasons: Multiple outlets report that NUFC have approached local and national newspapers, offering them access to players between matches only if they're willing to pay for it....
Schalke 04 Goes Up 2-0 On Basel Thanks To Having Four Guys Offside
Schalke 04 scored a massive goal in its attempt to advance from the UEFA Champions League Group E when Joel Matip took advantage of a failed Basel offside trap—or, more accurately, a blunder by the linesman....
New York's Second MLS Team May Have Its Stadium
New York appears close to an agreement with incoming MLS team NYCFC to build a 28,000-seat, $400 million stadium in the Bronx. ...
Champions League Match Postponed Due To Biblical Hailstorm
This is just stupid. The final Champions League group stage games are this week, with the top two teams in each of the eight, four-team groups advancing to the Round of 16. Most of today's matches had something riding on them with the final group standings still unresolved, but perhaps the most exci...
Vicious Riots Break Out In Brazil During Soccer Match
Scores of fans fought in the stands during today's match between Atlético Paranaense and Vasco da Gama at Arena Joinville in Santa Catarina, eventually turning into a riot....
Sporting KC Wins MLS Cup On PKs That, For Once, Were Exciting
Sporting KC won their first MLS title since 2000 by outlasting Real Salt Lake last night in a match decided on penalty kicks, a usually-anticlimactic outcome that in this instance turned out to be thrilling....
The MLS Cup Final Is Today. Here's Why You Should Watch.
Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake face off today in Kansas City at 4 p.m. Eastern for the Major League Soccer title. No, the biggest names in North American pro soccer won't be playing. But that's exactly why you should tune in....
Dani Osvaldo's Golazo Will Make You Forget About That Suárez Guy
So, that Suárez goal from earlier this week? We think Southampton striker Dani Osvaldo topped it today....
The USMNT Probably Won't Win The World Cup
Going into today's World Cup draw, we already knew just how stacked the 32-team field that make up next year's tournament in Brazil was. Seemingly every perennial superpower—hosts Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, and the Netherlands, Italy—as well as the ridiculous "underclass" of teams like Belgi...