cup Page 10 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

USWNT’s treatment is the latest example of right-wing hatred for ‘nasty women’
Indigenous Americans were almost eradicated. Black people were enslaved. Asians are mistreated. Millions still want to “build a wall.” People of color have been oppressed for centuries, and each group has its own plight. But misogyny has stood the test of time. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, the re...

Whoa! The Premier League starts this weekend!
Most of the attention of the soccer world is fixed on the Women’s World Cup. And whatever’s left over is on Lionel Messi’s daily brace. But the world of soccer never stops, and in that fashion, the Premier League returns this weekend (so does La Liga but we can hold off on yet another discussion of ...

It doesn’t get any more pathetic than watching the LLWS
It’s mostly accurate that youth sports are the last true, untainted brand of competition. Children are too naive to grasp the concept of money, and too preoccupied with having fun to care about the result, so they just run around and chase a ball for all the character-building reasons, but largely t...

World Cup Day 19: Colombia is now the lone hope for the Cinderellas
The bottom-right side of the World Cup knockout-round bracket was always a double-edged sword. More upsets happened in Groups F and H than any other, with powerhouses Brazil and Germany watching the final 16 play instead of competing among them. The quarterfinals are now composed of seven heavy hitt...

World Cup Day 18: And then, sometimes, you just win
If the previous day’s lesson, at least for the USWNT, was that soccer sometimes just decides you’re going to lose because that’s what it wants, then the current European champions England showed that sometimes you just win, even when all logic dictates that you shouldn’t. Who knows what’s left on th...

If players on the Orlando Magic had heart they’d kneel during the national anthem — again
Jonathan Isaac being one of only two members left (Markelle Fultz) from the Orlando Magic’s roster from their time in the 2020 Bubble is irony at its finest. It speaks to the high amount of turnover that occurs in the league, as well as being an example of just how fast the “Black Lives Matter” move...

The backlash to USWNT's loss is predictably sexist
Imagine, if you will, an American team. One that is known the world over as not only being the best, but the best by a wide margin. One that is so good, so exhilarating in their play that they’ve inspired kids (and adults!) the world over to take up the sport. A team so good that they’ve been the ob...

Don’t sleep on the men’s team that America is sending to the FIBA World Cup
Since NBA players have been permitted to play in international competition, the United States has never sent over a unit like the one they are sending to Asia later this month for the FIBA World Cup. Not a single player on this roster has made an All-NBA team — a first since American pros were allow...

If Penguins GM Kyle Dubas is going to go down, it’s going to be with the most flames possible
Whatever Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas’s analytic-rep is, he’s going to be remembered for always opting for the big swing. While he may have been championed as a hockey sabermetric darling who rose to the biggest chair in the sport in Toronto, those that deride him would happily point out that a...

The USWNT is extraordinary — don't pretend otherwise
Neither the US Women’s National soccer team’s past glory in Megan Rapinoe, nor its future in young phenom Sophia Smith, could defeat Sweden in the present. Both players skipped penalty kicks high over the goal after a 0-0 tie in regulation, clear misses of the target altogether, in a 1-0 loss that w...

World Cup Day 17: Class cares not for your story
The second day of the Round of 16 was a harsh lesson in a couple of soccer truths. The US learned that sometimes ball can lie because it’s a devious sort. South Africa learned that if you don’t take advantage of the moments you have, the other team at this level will and you’ll be going home. Let’s ...

The USWNT exits the World Cup on the cruelest margin
The symbolism of the final moment can’t be shoved off. The USWNT’s Alyssa Naeher can’t do much more to keep the final penalty out. But sometimes…the bear eats you....

Has the rest of the world finally caught up to the U.S. Women's soccer team?
For those used to the United States women’s national team dominating the globe, this edition of the Women’s World Cup has come as a shock. Those who don’t tune in every four years expected turbulence, but the level of bumps and lumps the Americans have taken in Australia and New Zealand has already ...

If Anthony Rizzo played hockey they’d put him in the Hall of Fame
You’ve probably heard that Anthony Rizzo hasn’t been able to hit the baseball much farther than he can piss lately. Mostly because whatever the New York Yankees’ problems are becomes everyone else’s problem, given that most baseball media still think we give a shit what goes on in the Boogie Down. W...

World Cup Day 15: You can wait on ze Germans to get here for a long while
Let’s face it, Germany were doomed as soon as I picked them to win the whole damn thing. The Fels Motherfuck knows no challenge it can’t overcome, even if it’s the No. 2 team in the world, and a lot of people’s favorite. ...

World Cup Day 14: New kids on the block
As the group stage nears its close, we got some more surprises going through, and an old favorite calling it a career at this level. We also got some hilarity, which the last group games always promise but don’t always deliver. Let’s spin this right round!...

World Cup Diary Day 13: The Dutch and English show the USWNT what good soccer looks like
Running simultaneously with the United States’ infuriating performance against Portugal was just as disappointing of a game for the Vietnamese. The only difference? The United States are the two-time-defending World Cup champions and little was expected of Vietnam on the global stage. The Netherland...

Former USWNT star Carli Lloyd is never hesitant to remind everyone she was the star
The bane of sports analysis, especially when it comes to soccer in a nation that has become too mature in its fandom of the sport to accept this kind of drivel, is to default to claiming something unquantifiable as the reason a team won and a team lost. “Wanted it more” is a phrase you hear all too ...

Women's World Cup 2023: The USWNT isn't a championship squad
Portugal’s headed home looking happy. The flight back to Lisbon should be filled with post-elimination joy and realizations of long-term progress knowing how they held the former undisputed world champions in check. And that’s all you need to know about how the United States women’s national team pe...

World Cup Day 12: Speed kills, and so does a lack of it
We had our clash of teams that have looked most dominant so far, and we can pare that list down to “one team that’s looked dominant so far.” And in something of a surprise, Canada got their leaden asses booted back to the Great White North. Let’s get in. ...