premier Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
A serene Tottenham Hotspur will take some getting used to
It’s pretty obvious a team has a habit, even a reputation or history, of being a fuckaround when its very name is used as a definition of that. “Spursinees” has been a term thrown around since just about the Premier League’s beginning, which makes it clear what everyone thinks of Tottenham. No matte...
How far can Brighton go?
The question almost every soccer fan gets from non-soccer fans, which is healthy, is, “So which team should I support?” You never mind hearing it, because it means your friend/acquaintance/bookie wants to become a fan, but it’s also an impossible question to answer. Your football club usually finds ...
Bring Brittney back: Griner needs to return to the U.S. ASAP
Brittney Griner is not forgotten, as she sits in a Russian jail cell after pleading guilty to having a tiny amount of cannabis oil in her luggage after playing basketball for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the WNBA offseason....
Todd Boehly knows Chelsea aren’t the Dodgers, right?
Chelsea fans knew it would be a bit of a comedown from the ownership of Roman Abramovich — though from dubious-at-best roots he did turn Chelsea from basically an also-ran to a world power beyond all of their dreams — to whoever came next. American ownership of Premier League teams has always been v...
The Yanks are marching into Elland Road
Normally, when you’re a manager and you save a team from certain relegation, you’d be given a key to the city and have a welcome mat anywhere (and let me tell you from experience, having that in Leeds can lead to a lot of rough mornings). Jesse Marsch isn’t that guy, even though he did save Leeds fr...
The next stop for Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo knows he hasn’t got much time left in his career. He has likely one more shot at a World Cup in Qatar, unless Ronaldo waits until he’s 41 for a chance in 2026 when the showcase returns to North America. At the club level, success at an older age is easier to attain with more option...
Which players have played on the most teams in each sport?
Adjusting to the environment around you is key to success in any sport. Even with NBA rosters having the smallest maximum roster size of the big four North American leagues with 15 players, there are personnel changes all the time. Imagine having to deal with that in new cities with new teammates an...
This isn’t good for Christian Pulisic
Stages of development aren’t linear, and not every stage as you move along the line are pleasant. As the USMNT has more and more players making their mark in the biggest leagues in the world, one stage before they are main stars on the biggest teams is that they’re going to be shuffled around a bit ...
Man U chairman’s trip to the pub confirms Glazers don’t care about the fans
I’ve always been fascinated by the difference in sports fandom here in the colonies and abroad. Specifically, how soccer fans still feel like they have some control and say in how their clubs and sport is run (and in Germany they most certainly do). While here we have a more just-take-it mentality. ...
If you want to drink or get laid at the World Cup, this is not your year
Qatar has gone the way of Catholic parents before prom, enacting a ban on sex for the biggest party the city has ever thrown in the 2022 World Cup. If the lethal heat, deadlier working conditions, strict rules concerning alcohol, and summer-ruining schedule change wasn’t enough rain (sunlight of a h...
The most exhausted pro athletes are…
The funny thing about sportswriters complaining about how a professional season is too long is if you ask a person if they’re overworked, how many are going to say no? Any amount of work is too much. Interview me after a long shift or following a session with a therapist, and I’m ready to chase get ...
The arms race between Manchester City and Liverpool has gone nuclear
The narrative between Liverpool and Manchester City has always been something like the A’s and Yankees from the early 2000s. The two powers of a league operating on completely different planes and through wildly different methods. The Big Bad with all the money that can buy their way out of anything...
When does sportswashing come for an American team?
The story of the weekend was the LIV Golf…whatever, or LIV Golf Whatever, finally going from theory or proposal to the real thing. Even complete with the suppression of the press, which is an astonishingly good look for a company funded by a government that is mostly known for suppressing the press ...
Long Live the LIV?
The LIV Invitational Golf Series has been a drag on a PGA Tour that was already flailing to find its next superstar. LIV, which is funded by blood money from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has sparked a mini-exodus of several PGA stars. By offering boatloads of cash for appearance fees, LIV ha...
Emotional Ukraine team one win away from 2022 World Cup
For the first time since Russia’s senseless invasion, the Ukraine men’s national soccer team took the field....
Icarus can kiss my ass
Perhaps there’s no bigger showcase of Lucy yanking the football away than Liverpool chasing The Quadruple. Because as it got closer, it only became harder and only felt further away. Which sounds stupid, because no team has gotten closer. But fatigue was clear for the last few weeks, and the more ma...
Real Madrid shouldn’t have even been there
We’ll likely never see a UEFA Champions League run like the one Real Madrid just completed. If only quality of play decided Los Blancos’ quarterfinal and semifinal two legged-ties, as well as Saturday’s one-game final against Liverpool, they would’ve lost each one. Real Madrid trailed late in each s...
Upcoming sale of the Trail Blazers could partially atone for team not hiring Becky Hammon
If the recent sale of Chelsea FC taught us anything, it’s that sports franchises are as valuable as ever. The English Premier League club sold for $5 billion, and there was no shortage of suitors. That should make Portland Trail Blazers’ fans sleep better in the coming months as a sale of the team i...
If you’re gonna be late, be late
One of the many lessons I learned from my older brother, most of them the wrong ones but they’ve made life more entertaining, was that if you’re running late for something, just go ahead and be late. He taught me this one day as I was hurrying and scrambling to 8th grade or high school, and I had no...
FIFA forgoing $150 million annually to pursue delusions of grandeur
Like people who are addicted to Coca-Cola products, gamers can spot a knockoff within the first three seconds of tasting one. Try giving a Coke lover a Pepsi, and they get offended. A waiter responding to a request for a Coke with, “We only have Pepsi. Is that OK?” is met with a laugh more often tha...