ns Page 1615 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Switzerland: World Cup Prodigies, Or Untested Posers?
Usually, you’d think you’d know about a team after a long World Cup qualifying campaign, especially one that traversed the oft-difficult UEFA gauntlet. But one question still engulfs Switzerland as they head to Canada: are they any good?...

J.R. Smith Has The NBA By The Shoelaces
Hello again, casual basketball fan! The NBA Finals begin tonight. The heavily favored Golden State Warriors will face the Cleveland Cavaliers; league MVP Steph Curry and rising star Klay Thompson will take on the immortal LeBron James and whiz-kid Kyrie Irving. The Warriors will seek their first tit...

Cubs' And Marlins' Benches Clear, And Everyone Immediately Apologizes
There were no punches thrown in the sixth-inning scrum during last night’s 7-3 Marlins win, and both sides quickly headed back to their own dugouts. In fact, it might have been one of the politest bench-clearings of all time, as the main instigator, Cubs outfielder Junior Lake, apologized unreserved...

Let's Watch Some Dudes In Chicago Engage In Roman Candle Warfare
You haven’t lived if you haven’t engaged in the highly dangerous yet thrilling pastime of fighting with fireworks. We mostly used bottle rockets where I come from, but here are some friends (or gang rivals, depending on who you’re asking) on Western Ave. in Chicago using roman candles as the weapon ...

Women's World Cup Group B Preview: Germany Are Going To Hang Some Goals
Here are our Group B previews, full schedule, and predictions....

Women's World Cup Group A Preview: Canada Got This (This Is Not A Jinx)
Here’s a roundup of all our Group A previews of the day. You can check those and our group prediction out below, and talk about how you see things shaping up in the comments....

Can Thailand Take Advantage Of Their Lucky Break?
Thailand’s journey to the World Cup was a strange one, and they had to take advantage of a unique set of circumstances to get here. In 2009, FIFA decided to bump up the number of teams in the 2015 World Cup from 16 to 24, which increased the amount of bids for Asian teams from three to five. And in ...

World Cup Debutantes Côte d'Ivoire Will Be Here For Years To Come
When Côte d’Ivoire take the field against Germany on June 7, how they will play will be a mystery. Not because they have ginned up some tactics in secret—though maybe they have!—but because they have only played a single match in the past seven months. While the Côte d’Ivoire men’s team is known for...

Norway's Brute Force Past Meets Soccer's Future
Two decades ago Norway were a soccer power, finishing second at the 1991 World Cup and winning it all in 1995. But recent years have seen a tactically naïve Norway surpassed, or at least equaled, by nations that got a later jump on women’s soccer, like France, England, and Spain. While they should h...

Germany Are A Steamroller, And They Expect To Win It All
Germany have historically been one of the best teams in women’s soccer, and they go into the 2015 World Cup like they go into every tournament: with the expectation of winning. They won the World Cup in 2003 and 2007, finished runner-up in 1995, and have won every Women’s Euro since 1995. They went ...

The <i>Entourage </i>Movie Is The Hate-Watching Event Of The Summer
I’m gonna forego all ceremony and just tell you the best part of the Entourage movie, which is Ronda Rousey’s reading of the line, “I think somebody’s fuckin’ in there.” I will be purchasing this film on Blu-Ray six months hence in hopes of viewing outtakes from this scene. I need variations. “I thi...

Shhh, James Harden's Sleeping
A woman in bed with James Harden snapped this photo of the snoozing Houston Rocket. If he starts tossing and turning, wake him up. He might be having a nightmare about Lil B....

The Once Great, Now Unknown China Women's National Team
There was once a time when China were one of the biggest names in women’s soccer. A time when, come a World Cup, you could pencil the then-giants of Asia into the knockout rounds and rightly expect them to make a run. That time has passed. Now, no one really knows what to expect from this team....

How New Zealand Will Go From Beating Up Bad Teams To Being The Bad Team
If ever there was a poster child for the dangers of weak competition, it’s New Zealand. Here are the results of their three most recent competitive matches, coming in the OFC Women’s Nations Cup:...

Finally, A Netherlands Women's Team That Lives Up To The Name
One of the most enjoyable things about international soccer is the way you can notice various stylistic through-lines. Each nation has its particular soccer heritage—sometimes a broad affinity for a certain type of athlete, other times a specific formation or tactical ideology—and how this in turn m...

Will Canada Earn The Right To Get Knocked Out By The USWNT Again?
The stage is set. Fresh off of their best-ever result in a major tournament (a bronze in the 2012 London Olympics) that climaxed with probably the sport’s greatest-ever game, Canada enter this summer’s World Cup on home soil turf with, as Beatrix Kiddo would say, some unfinished business. Unfortunat...

The Indians' Bullpen Held Brandon Moss's HR Ball For Ransom
Indians slugger Brandon Moss’s solo home run, in the fourth inning of Cleveland’s 2-1 win in Kansas City, was the 100th of his career. Naturally, he wanted to hang on to it. Unfortunately for Moss, the ball didn’t land in the stands, where it could be collected by a fan and be negotiated for in good...

Lloyd McClendon Gets Ejected, Goes Berzerk, Receives Standing Ovation
Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon was extremely mad at the umpires in tonight’s contest against the Yankees, so mad that he made sure to yell at three different umps individually....

Joey Gallo Is Already Raking
Rangers third baseman Joey Gallo made his major league debut tonight, and I can already tell that he is going to be one of my favorite baseball players. Basically, every time he comes to the plate, Gallo swings as hard as he possibly can. This results in a ludicrous number of strikeouts, but an equa...