preview Page 202 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Last Time Australia Were Bad And Fun, But Now They're Bad And Boring
At the 2014 World Cup, Australia were one of those entertaining minnows who have no real shot at escaping the maws of the big fish hunting them down but still make the chase interesting. In a hellacious group along with Spain, the Netherlands, and Chile, Australia lost all three matches, as was expe...
Denmark Will Go As Far As Christian Eriksen Takes Them
The vast majority of teams that make it to the World Cup don’t have a quart of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream’s chance in Jason Whitlock’s freezer of winning the thing. The latter stages of this edition feel particularly preordained, like if one of Brazil or Germany or Spain don’t win the tournament then...
Peru Just Might Have Enough To Make This Their Lucky Year
This is the first World Cup since 1982 for Peru, but that doesn’t mean they’re here just to play three games and go home. After weathering an absolutely cutthroat cycle of South American qualifying and earning a spot in a group from which they’re favored to place second and advance, Peru are poised ...
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...
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 ...
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...
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!...
Gregg Popovich Won't Coach Spurs In Game 3 Following Death Of His Wife
The San Antonio Spurs have announced that head coach Gregg Popovich will not be with the team for tonight’s playoff game against the Warriors. Last night, the team announced that Popovich’s wife, Erin, had died at the age of 67 after battling an illness....
A Timely And Exhaustive Preview Of The 2018 NBA Playoffs
Ah, casual sports fan: We meet again. The 2018 NBA playoffs begin this afternoon! How the hell will you know what is going on in the games, other than like a bunch of sweaty dudes bouncing a ball and throwing it through a pair of rings, if you don’t have some 10,000 words of preview and analysis to ...
The Most Fun Thing About Every Baseball Team This Year
There has, over the past several months, been plenty of conversation (and a few official rule changes) directed to answering the question of what baseball needs. Games need to be faster, or extra innings need to be spicier, or broadcasts need more mentions of launch angle. The spike in home runs is ...
MLB Season Preview: What You Need To Know For 40 Minutes Of Marlins Baseball
Aw shit yeah, buddies, it’s Opening Day! The good kind of Opening Day, too. One of those classics on which all 30 teams—well, except for the Nats and Reds and Tigers and Pirates, because their games have already been postponed—play on the same day and it’s non-stop baseball. I do have one piece of b...
A Timely Preview Of The 2017-18 NBA Season, Which I Am Now Hearing May Have Begun Already
That’s right, folks: The NBA is back, baby! Literally it is already back, literally the first game has already tipped off. Seems like a good time for a thorough and detailed season preview blog. I hope you know where to find one, because this one is some half-assed shit I just whipped up today!...
Every NHL Team Is Bad: A Season Preview
The NHL season starts tonight. Some teams have no realistic chance at a Stanley Cup. Yet all the teams are bad, in their own special ways. ...
32 Paragraphs About 32 Teams: A Thinking Fan's Guide To The NFL Season
The following is excerpted from the team chapters of the always-excellent Football Outsiders Almanac. Buy it here as a PDF, or here in print....
The Good Little Teams (And Chelsea): Our 2017-18 Premier League Preview, Pt. 3
As everyone knows, the best thing about the Premier League is its absurd depth. In England you have an entire country where practically every single town worships their local club with an intensity that makes Nebraska’s passion for Cornhusker football look like Nebraska’s passion for Cornhusker socc...
The Fun As Hell Teams: Our 2017-18 Premier League Preview, Pt. 2
My colleague Patrick Redford already laid out which Premier League clubs to watch when you’re trying to take a nap; so unless you enjoy soccer’s equivalent of eating your way through a tub of raw broccoli, steer clear of those guys (except Everton) and allow me to tell which clubs are going to be fu...