cc Page 161 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

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 ...

Argentina Cancel Friendly In Israel Following Protests
Lionel Messi and Argentina were scheduled to play their final pre–World Cup warm-up match on Saturday against Israel in Jerusalem, but the game was canceled late last night. Tensions escalated after Israeli authorities decided to move the game from Haifa to Jerusalem in order to, per Israeli Sports ...

Iran Have The Right Type Of Squad To Shock The World
Iran almost had it....


Will Luis Suárez Do Something Crazy Stupid Or Crazy Awesome At This World Cup?
Uruguay have what it takes to mount another charge deep into the latter stages of the World Cup like the one they made to the semifinals in 2010. They still have one of the very best defensive fronts in the game. They still have a steely midfield capable of swatting away incoming attacks, and have b...

Novak Djokovic Went Out Swinging Against A Relentless No-Name
Marco Cecchinato is 25 years old. Until this week, he had never won a match at a major—first-round losses in all four tries. Until last month, his biggest splash on tour might have been a 2016 suspension for match-fixing, later overturned on appeal. At No. 72 in the world, he has become the lowest-r...

The Athletes Hit A Slump This Week On <i>The Bachelorette</i>, But Lil Jon Showed Up
Okay, team. This week was a rambunctious one, full of so many twists and turns that none of us could really follow the playbook. As the season goes on, the chaff will be cut and the roster will really start to gel. But in the meantime, as your stern but loving coach, I’m here to make clear what real...

Saudi Arabia Have The Honor Of Being The Shittiest Team In The World Cup
In truth, I know next to nothing about the Saudi Arabia national team. Which actually doesn’t matter much, because apparently they really suck....

Egypt Are A One-Man Team, Which Is Fine If That One Man Is Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah’s injury could not have come at a worse time. Liverpool’s newly anointed superstar was wrapping up a dream club season that featured 44 goals in 52 appearances and culminated in Kiev with a shot at ending Real Madrid’s Champions League dominance. Instead of capping a perfect season by ...

Russia Might Be A Threat To International Democracy, But They Are Nothing To Fear At The World Cup
We’ve finally made it! After four long years, the greatest sporting event on the planet has returned!...

Doctors Say Liverpool Keeper Suffered Concussion During Champions League Final
Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius flew to Boston last week in order to undergo testing for a possible concussion some speculated he’d suffered just moments before the first of two monumental errors that more or less decided the Champions League final in Real Madrid’s favor. Today, the doctors who pe...

Sydney Leroux Dwyer Delivers A Loving Slide Tackle To Her Own Son<em></em>
Cassius Dwyer, son of USWNT and Orlando Pride soccer player Sydney Leroux Dwyer, learned a valuable lesson from his mom at Sunday’s match: Okay, the lesson is unclear, but maybe it was the experience of getting tackled that was beneficial. This top-tier sports baby was delicately but absolutely wrec...

Your Guide To The CONIFA World Cup, The World Cup For Not-Quite-Countries<em></em>
LONDON — “We have nothing against FIFA,” CONIFA General Secretary Sascha Düerkop told a tittering press corps on Wednesday. We were all sitting in the basement of a student accommodation block in North London. “They are very great to learn how not to do things.” ...

Zinedine Zidane, The Perfect Real Madrid Manager, Left In Perfect Style
In the mother of all mic drops, Zinedine Zidane called a snap press conference today and announced that he was quitting his post as manager of Real Madrid, mere days after winning his record-setting third Champions League trophy in a row. It was the perfect cap to a perfect marriage of coach and clu...

Jaelene Hinkle Turned Down USWNT Call-Up Because She Didn't Want To Wear LGBTQ Pride Jersey
Jaelene Hinkle is a 25-year-old American soccer player who currently plays for the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage. Last June, the defender was named to the USWNT’s roster to play in a couple friendlies, but refused the call-up, citing “personal reasons.” In a recent interview, the devout Christian at...

Real Madrid Manager Zinedine Zidane Abruptly Resigns Days After Winning The Champions League
Less than a week after leading Real Madrid to their third consecutive Champions League title in a 3-1 win over Liverpool on Saturday, manager Zinedine Zidane announced today in a shocking press conference that he was stepping down from the club....