cup Page 56 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Kyle Kuzma Demonstrates Beautiful Touch As He Scores On His Own Basket
Team USA is down to 13 players, who are all in contention for the final 12-man roster. With the FIBA World Cup just 10 days away, the squad played the first of a two-game exhibition against Australia on Thursday, and won comfortably, 102-86. During the first quarter, Donovan Mitchell skied for an im...

Team USA Routed In Bleak Scrimmage Against D-League Crew
Team USA still needs to winnow its pool of 15 finalists down to 12 before the FIBA World Cup begins on September 1. No one else is getting added to this team, but perhaps they should burn down the roster and start all over....

UEFA Thankfully Won't Uphold The Dumb VAR Rule That Marred The Women's World Cup
One of the worst-received aspects of the Women’s World Cup this summer was the VAR-induced penalty kick debacle. The choice to subject goalkeepers’ feet locations to exacting scrutiny with video review, and to let penalty takers try their kicks again should VAR detect that a keeper drifted a centime...

MLS Coach Fired Over Unhinged, Multi-Phase Homophobic Meltdown
Real Salt Lake head coach Mike Petke was fired by the team Sunday, a little over two weeks after his meltdown at the end of his team’s 1–0 loss to Tigres UANL in the Leagues Cup. Between then and now Petke was hit with three different suspensions plus a fine over the incident, which was notable both...

Bianca Andreescu Wins Rogers Cup, Comforts A Hobbled Serena Williams
So long as she’s able to play—and even if she’s half-mummified in physio tape—Bianca Andreescu doesn’t lose. The 19-year-old Canadian won the Rogers Cup on Sunday in front of the home crowd, continuing a season as woozy as it is dominant....

Carmelo Anthony Can't Even Get A Gig On A Depleted Team USA
All poor Carmelo Anthony wants to do is play basketball, for whoever will have him. He recently went on ESPN to talk about his abrupt exit from the Rockets and then the NBA, and though he did not quite seem to grapple with Houston’s on-court case for getting rid of him, it is still bizarre that he h...

This Ball Was Called In Then Out Then In
John Isner had his second match point over Jordan Thompson, at 6-5 in the third-set tiebreak of their Rogers Cup match, when a Thompson forehand landed somewhere near the left sideline, well out of Isner’s reach. There was no call from the linespeople or ump; Isner used his last remaining challenge....

Bayern Munich Had No Answer For Jadon Sancho
Super Cup matches are usually glorified friendlies—unless your team wins, then they’re vastly important—but they can still tell us something about the upcoming soccer season. This is doubly true when two bitter rivals battle over a trophy no one cares about, and so I’m prepared to declare Jadon Sanc...

FIFA Is Screwing Up The Women's World Cup
On Wednesday, FIFA approved the expansion of the 2023 Women’s World Cup from 24 teams to 32, ignoring concerns about match quality and financial investment in an attempt to capitalize on the growing popularity of women’s soccer. It’s a very FIFA move, as no entity is better at taking a good idea and...

Here Are All The People Who Complained To The FCC About The St. Louis Blues Saying "Fuck"
When the St. Louis Blues won their first-ever Stanley Cup back in June, they said “fuck”—and all its variations—a lot. Audible to anyone watching on TV at home was “fuckin-a,” “fuck yeah,” “fuckin’ right,” “holy fuck,” and “let’s fuckin’ go” as the team took turns raising the Cup, until NBC finally ...

Impish Messi Fan Delights In Beer-Soaked Chaos His Trolling Inspires
Soccer fans in the U.S. aren’t usually the most rambunctious sort. As one Lionel Messi stan found out during last Friday’s Real Madrid-Atlético Madrid friendly match in New Jersey, though, even American fans will resort to chucking beer and debris at you if properly provoked:...

The Team USA Rejections Are Getting Grim
The FIBA World Cup has only drawn closer since Monday, and Team USA’s prospects have only gotten drearier. The players’ excuses are starting to increasingly resemble ones that might be used to beg out of a coworker’s birthday party....

Idiot On The Pitch Is Nearly Trampled, Escapes Unscathed, Has Whiskers, Is A Cat
An idiot invaded the pitch in the 92nd minute of Wednesday night’s Leagues Cup Tournament match between Real Salt Lake and Liga MX side Tigres UANL, at a point when the game was very much still up for grabs. The absolute moron very nearly took the ball off the feet of Tigres player André-Pierre Gign...

Marco Asensio's Knee Is The Latest Casualty Of Soccer's Money-Grubbing Friendlies
Marco Asensio’s 2019-20 season is over before it began, his torn ACL yet another pointless sacrifice to soccer’s financially motivated preseason schedule....

Team USA Is Bleeding Out
The FIBA World Cup begins in China on the last day of August. After a training camp in early August, Team USA will set its 12-man roster by August 12. Who will still be standing at that point?...

Harry Kane Scores Magnificent Extra-Time Winner Against Juventus From Midfield
While it does carry some importance in terms of team fitness and strategic practice, gimmicky preseason tournaments are often seen as nuisances for both managers and players. Nobody on the pitch necessarily wants to play longer than they have to, but that appeared to be the direction that Juventus a...

Algeria Beat Senegal In AFCON Final Thanks To VAR And The Dumbest Goal Possible
Pour one out for Senegal. The African Cup of Nations final went horribly wrong Friday for the Senegalese national team from the second minute on, and the Lions of Teranga will feel that their 1-0 loss to Algeria was a matter of divine intervention or, at the very least, horrible luck. For Algeria, w...

The Biggest Thing Holding Back Women's Soccer Is The Same Old Thing
PORTLAND, Ore. — The crowd decked out in red and black sways between elation and disappointment as the seconds tick away. Voices rise when the hometown Portland Thorns take possession of the ball, and heavy sighs spread through the crowd of close to 19,000 when they turn it over. The Thorns have mos...

USWNT's Ashlyn Harris Says Former Teammate Was Excluded For Homophobia, Not Christianity
In the never-ending search for fuel to feed the conservative backlash against the world champion USWNT, some media outlets—mostly of the conservative Christian variety—dredged up a year-old interview with former USWNT defender Jaelene Hinkle. Talking to The 700 Club last May, Hinkle said that she tu...

The AFCON Final Is Set Thanks To A Late Winner Off A Free Kick And One Unfortunate Goalkeeping Boner
The Africa Cup of Nations is nearing the end of its summertime debut, with the final officially set to feature Algeria going up against Senegal. Both semifinal matches were played on Sunday, and both featured some wild finishes that will certainly left the supporters of both losing nations absolutel...