Soccer Page 342 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Violent Idiot On The Field In The UK Has Been Banned From All Football Matches Since He Was 16
77 minutes into a Football League Championship match between Leeds United and Sheffield at Hillsborough (where fan involvement and safety has always been an issue), a fan ran out onto the field and pushed Leeds United goalkeeper Chris Kirkland in the face. He then slipped, righted himself, and dis...

One Greek Soccer Team Needed A Sponsor, And A Brothel Saved The Day
American sports fans know that sponsorship deals can occasionally veer into the realm of the unfortunate—Enron Field, anyone?—but enlisting the deep pockets of a brothel isn't something we'll likely see here any time soon. One amateur soccer team in Greece, though, had no other choice and needed to ...

High School Soccer Player Is Very Sorry For Destroying Her Opponent With A Knee To The Face
"Sorry" doesn't put the teeth back in the jaw, or reset the broken nose. Still, it's a good start toward sportsmanship! The incident, from a Utah high school soccer game a couple weeks ago, managed to go viral when video of Petiola Manu going all Great Muta on Makenzie Clark's face made the local ...

Asian Football Confederation Does Racist Thing, Blames Wikipedia
An article recently appeared on the Asian Football Confederation's website that referred to the United Arab Emirates' national soccer team as the "Sand Monkeys." That's a really racist thing to do, in case you didn't know....

U.S.A. Escapes From Antigua With A Win Thanks To Eddie Johnson's Last-Second Goal
Eddie Johnson scored both goals for the U.S. men's national team and helped lift his side to an enormous 2-1 upset over the heavily favored Antigua & Barbuda team tonight in North Sound....

An Astounding Story Of Fraud, Blackmail, And The Fake Twitter Rumormonger Who Took On Liverpool
You don't need a ton of context to appreciate how batshit amazing this story is. Out of nowhere, a Twitter account emerges, claiming to have inside information. He floats some transfer rumors, scores a few hits, and all of a sudden becomes one of the more trusted sources covering Liverpool FC. So tr...

Here's A Belgian Soccer Player Driving His Porsche Into A Store
A rough Saturday night for Belgian midfielder Jonathan Legear. He had just found out he was not selected by his Russian club, and spent the night...somewhere. Whatever he did, he found himself on the road at 5:30 a.m., and this happened....

Last Night's Massive Sounders-Timbers Match Featured A Tifo Worthy Of The Occasion
Seattle dispatched rivals Portland 3-0 before a crowd of 66,452 at CenturyLink Field last night, retaining the Cascadia Cup in the Emerald City for at least a few more weeks and leading coach Sigi Schmid to respond, "This is what heaven must be like."...

The Same Firm That Designed The Nets' Rusty Spaceship In Brooklyn Will Make A Soccer Stadium In Queens
The old maxim says that you can't determine the quality and endurance of a sports arena until Jay-Z has played at least six of eight consecutive concerts there. With that requirement satisfied and the Barclays Arena yet to crumble into a pile of orange-brown dust, MLS felt comfortable asking Barclay...

Ukrainian Soccer Fan Chokes Referee In Crazy Attack During Match
We love us a good idiot on the field video as much as anyone. But it's not always fun and games....

The Zinedine Zidane Headbutt Statue Is A Powerful Homage To French Defeat
You've probably heard by now that France - a country that Lady Liberty would tell you knows from great statues - has unveiled one of the world's finest tributes to tantrums. The pair of 16-foot resin figures outside the Pompidou Center depict everyone's favorite soccer violence blooper: Zinedine Zid...

Americans' Favorite Soccer Clubs, As Determined By <i>FIFA 12</i> Plays
ESPN FC had a neat piece this week on the ties between soccer video games and soccer fandom, and the idea that even in the days of satellite television, nothing's done more to grow the sport in the United States than gaming. Here's the money quote, from social scientist Rich Luker:...


Watch This Soccer Team Use Their Trainer To Cheat, But Not In The Usual Way
Tired of pretending to mend pretend injuries in the pursuit of ill-gotten timeouts and yellow cards, the trainer for Brazil's Coxim Atlético Clube decided he finally wanted to contribute to his team's success in a more conscionable way. With Coxim up 1-0, the trainer—while pacing the sidelines wit...

Manchester United Fans Chanted "Murderers" At Liverpool In The First Match At Anfield After The Hillsborough Report
Yesterday's match, a controversial 2-1 loss to United, was Liverpool's first time back at Anfield since the release of the Hillsborough Independent Panel's findings. The report absolved Reds supporters of any blame in the 1989 stampede that killed 96 fans, and the day was sure to be an emotional o...

Soccer Ref Gets Trucked At The Point Of Convergence Between Two Sliding Premier Leaguers
This is from today's Premier League game between Fulham FC and Wigan. Fulham won, the ref, Lee Probert, jokingly gave himself and red card, and Metro called it "the most exciting thing to happen in the opening 15 minutes of the match." Flopper....

With Ink Like This, Who Needs A Shirt?
We mentioned last month that it seems the soccer fans who shouldn't go shirtless are the ones who always do. I wouldn't ascribe that rule to this gentleman, though whatever his physical fitness I'd hate to think he spent all that money on what appears to be Cubist design principals in tattoo form a...

One-Legged Soccer Player Scores Incredible Goal Off Corner Kick
This is Nicolai Calabria, a senior at Concord-Carlisle Regional H.S. in Concord, Massachusetts, with one of the coolest goals you've ever going to see in a soccer match. Straight off the arching corner kick, Calabria bangs it in by pivoting off his crutches from a backward position and slamming th...

Yep, Someone Threw A Live Explosive On The Pitch During A Soccer Match
Last night saw an Asian Champions League quarterfinal match between Sepahan FC (Iran) and Al-Ahli SC (Saudi Arabia, in Sepahan's home city of Isfahan. A Sepahan player, who will wake up every morning for the rest of his life being thankful for having two arms, tossed what he thought was a piece of...

New York Red Bulls Fans Struggle With Spelling
New York Red Bulls suffered a painful 2-0 loss at home to Sporting KC last night in a match played with little fire in front of few fans. A few supporters showed up, however, and they brought a massive banner using the most tired expression about Kansas since "Bleeding." (Yes, Sporting KC plays in ...