association-football Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Premier League is an abattoir for managers
Here’s a funny stat shared over the weekend. Erik ten Hag is the Premier League’s ninth-longest serving manager. He’s been on the job eight months....
The USMNT wins its last game in the pre-Balogun era
International soccer, especially this season, is highly weird. So while the USMNT’s 1-0 win over El Salvador to clinch a spot in the semifinals of the Nations League doesn’t look like much — and it isn’t — one must consider that most of the squad has been run ragged with their club teams, had a Worl...
Life ain’t easy for Bayern Munich… according to Bayern Munich
Wherever he is, George Steinbrenner must’ve smiled and nodded at the news of Bayern Munich firing their manager with three-quarters of the season gone. Not only would that have reminded Big Steinn of his “glory” days (obviously the Yankees didn’t regain their spot atop the baseball world until Stein...
The Great Debates tournament: Elite 8
We have arrived at the Elite 8, and this round is going to be a good old-fashioned slobber knocker....
The NHL’s Pride jersey problem slips into the comedic
The NHL got more Pride Night bullshit last night courtesy of the Staal brothers on the Panthers, Eric and Marc. I’d try and provide some commentary, but sometimes, you just can’t beat reality:...
Frenkie De Jong won El Clasico for Barcelona, now they’ll need to figure out how to keep him
Yesterday’s El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, and Barcelona’s 2-1 win, is the perfect microcosm of where Barcelona is now. While they were much the better team, the win still came, in some ways, by the slimmest of margins. Marco Asensio’s apparent winner late was ruled out by him being n...
Antonio Conte wants to get fired more than anyone has ever wanted to get fired
It only takes a matter of hours after becoming a soccer fan to hear the term, “Spursy.” It only takes a couple more after that to completely understand that. It refers to Tottenham Hotspur and that no matter the situation, or the seeming unlikeliness, something weird will happen to the club, and in ...
It’s been another banner week for FIFA
The election of a FIFA president is probably as close as we can get to a world president, as being the governor of the world’s most popular sport certainly allows one to wield an insane amount of power and influence. What exactly Gianni Infantino has done to earn a second term is anyone’s guess, oth...
Barcelona in yet another mess — another mess of their own doing
What FC Barcelona will tell you is that their comfortable lead atop La Liga at the moment (nine points) is indicative of being recovered from their years in financial hell. That all the levers they pulled (and the symbolism of Barca constantly talking about pulling their levers is hard to miss) have...
The 2026 World Cup is swole as fuck
Despite being shoved into the middle of the season and in a country that was in no way up to the standards of hosting such a thing, the last World Cup ended up being a hit for what went on on the field. Exciting conclusion to the group stages, classic games in the knockout stages, and a memorable wi...
Claudio Reyna sounds like a real hoot
It is so perfect it hurts that US Soccer has been tied up in knots recently, mostly due to a parent of a player bitching about his kid’s playing time and threatening everyone within shouting distance about it. But apparently, US Soccer has been dealing with that kind of thing from Claudio Reyna for ...
Does the US have anyone who would stand up like Gary Lineker?
The farcical idea that sports and politics don’t mix has once again been shaken to its cardboard foundation with what’s been going on in the UK with Gary Lineker and the BBC (every time I hear or see “BBC” I can’t help but shout it like Austin Powers during the end credits of the first film, but tha...
Mallory Swanson can win the World Cup on her own, and she may have to
It is certainly a wonderful place to be, and a comment on what the USWNT has built over generations, that they can win three straight games over three decent-to-good teams in the SheBelieves Cup, conceding only one goal, and the overriding emotion is still more apprehensive than swagger. That is the...
Real Madrid simply cannot be destroyed
Most every time it’s happened, when Liverpool are up 2-0 at Anfield within a game’s first 15 minutes, especially on a European night, and the stadium is coming loose with noise and the team is swarming, teams tend to fold. That kind of atmosphere once folded Lionel Messi’s Barcelona not so long ago....
MLS doesn’t know what fans want
It tells you pretty much everything you need to know about Major League Soccer that A) the season starts in five days and you likely didn’t know that, and B) with only five days to go is when the league actually finalized what the playoff system for this season will be. That’s right, teams didn’t kn...
Thierry Henry as the USMNT’s next coach isn’t as bad as you think
The direction of the United States men’s national team nearly three months after its World Cup campaign in Qatar began is in flux. The Yanks are at the wheel, but don’t know whether to hit the gas or the brake. The car is in neutral at a time where that’s acceptable, but not ideal. Making the right ...
The fight for equality is not over
Canada’s national women’s soccer team is the reigning Olympic Gold medalist. There is no reason why they should be taking a budget cut. There is no reason that they should be getting paid less than their male counterparts. There is no reason they should not be supported, especially as they are the b...
Arsenal blinked
Arsenal had passed most every test this season. There’s still a hint of wonder/confusion at their place atop the Premier League. While improvement was expected from their fifth-place finish last season, to run through the league for the first half of the season as they have come out of nowhere. What...
Here's what you need to know as the Champions League returns
It only feels like the Champions League is late in returning for its knockout stage, but this is the normal time of year. What isn’t normal is cramming a World Cup in between the group stages and the knockouts, which makes it seem like this season has already gone on forever even when most leagues a...
Please don’t let Jesse Marsch fall upwards into the USMNT job
Jesse Marsch talks a good game. Just ask him. He’s happy to talk to you about how he talks a good game. He’s happy to let everyone watch him talk a good game. He’ll talk about letting people watch him talk a good game. He’s always there to talk and to tell you what he’s doing. He loves talking, espe...