soccer Page 34 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Please, please, send John Smoltz to a farm upstate
It was a slow, lazy Saturday afternoon. It would have to be for me to turn on the Mets when Jacob deGrom isn’t pitching (though Marcus Stroman can be a very entertaining watch, too). I grew up at a time here in Chicago when we hated the Mets as much as the Cardinals, and those instincts still flicke...
Amid Super League <i>schadenfreude</i>, we almost missed our chance to laugh at Tottenham firing Jose Mourinho
Shrouded in the Super League fiasco, and perhaps because of it, Tottenham Hotspur were able to admit a huge mistake while no one noticed, or could laugh at them, or wonder if they have any sort of plan, by firing manager Jose Mourinho. ...
I know better, but I’m falling for the Canes again
One of the ripple effects of Moneyball, at least one that isn’t primed to destroy a sport from the inside, is that a lot of fans have that one team — the team whose games you watch most outside your own team’s on whatever streaming service you have. The team you’re convinced is doing things in a mor...
Deadspin fixes NBA’s Out-of-Bounds Rule: Reward the defense
NBA basketball. It’s fantastic!...
Why the European Super League is terrible for soccer and bad for pro sports
I got a lot of texts and messages last night from my non-soccer initiated friends. It was surprising how big of a story the formation of “The Super League” became on every U.S. outlet. Obviously European soccer has become a big deal on these shores, but that it hit every major website near the top (...
MLS is back, and I’m really going to try this time
MLS returns this weekend, and unlike most of the big soccer leagues in the world, it can do so in front of some fans. We won’t hear the sheer wall of noise we would usually get in Seattle, Portland, Atlanta, and Orlando, or in more and more places these days, just yet. But it will be a relief to hea...
15-year-old Olivia Moultrie could change how soccer works here
You probably haven’t heard of Olivia Moultrie. You’re going to, either on the field, or off, or both. And her name has a chance of being associated with massive change of the structure of soccer in the U.S....
The USWNT’s fight is with FIFA
Yesterday, the USWNT and U.S. Soccer dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s on their settlement over the amenities/facilities/training half of their dispute over equal pay. While it’s a good thing that the women’s team will have the same flights, hotels, medical and training staff as the men, the settle...
Filthy rich NFL owners aren’t <i>quite</i> as rich as other sports' fat cats, according to new list
In American sports, everybody is always trying to catch up to the NFL. They have the biggest ratings, the largest fan base, and new stadiums constantly trying to out-gargantuan the others. It’s also a league full of shrewd business people who don’t have to pay guaranteed contracts....
So about those ‘deadened’ baseballs … exit velocity says, ‘Nope’
While watching Shohei Ohtani take a Dylan Cease fastball that was at the height of his Adam’s apple 450 feet out to right center Sunday night, I felt my curiosity piqued when the Statcast numbers came in. 450 feet seemed right, because he utterly murdered that ball. But that wasn’t what shifted my e...
Please don’t be an illusion, Daryl Dike
It’s been a few weeks of conflicting emotions for USMNT fans. Which I suppose is a slight improvement on just total dread, sorrow, and Cure makeup, the usual state in which we find ourselves. Take our victories where we can find them, I guess....
Rebecca Welch becomes first woman to ref English Football League match
When Rebecca Welch sounded the opening whistle during today’s Harrogate Town and Port Vale tilt, she became the first woman to referee an English Football League game....
The ones that do the least during games make the most money. No wonder baseball is America’s pastime
When I was in elementary school, we used to take annual field trips to the old Tiger Stadium. One year, Detroit was playing the Royals. I remember those blue jerseys. Our school was sitting in the outfield and somebody who wasn’t in our group pulled a beach ball out from nowhere. It eventually bounc...
The Pulisic, the bad, and the ugly of USMNT’s up-and-down weekend
It was a mixed day for USMNT fans Sunday. Then again every day pretty much is. The afternoon saw the full squad win their first game in Europe against a European team in five years, beating Northern Ireland 2-1. Yeah, it was Northern Ireland. Yeah, it was Northern Ireland’s B-team. Still, Christian ...
Soccer legend Thierry Henry quits social media over racism, toxicity
Thierry Henry is leaving social media forever....
Empty protests of Qatar World Cup show players see evil, but can't close FIFA's Pandora's Box
It’s been a week for performative protests in soccer. Last Sunday, Glasgow Celtic and Rangers followed Wilfried Zaha’s lead and tore the facade of the kneeling before the opening whistle protest. It was just three days after one of Rangers’ players was racially abused by an opponent, and it was clea...
The USWNT’s fight for equal pay is still kind of nebulous
Yesterday, Megan Rapinoe and Margaret Purce met with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Afterward, both Rapinoe and Purce met with the press. As always, Rapinoe was forthright, cutting, insightful, and funny. None of what comes next is to argue against Rapinoe being anything less than a ...
Winning doesn’t change everything, ask Megan Rapinoe
“There is no level of status, and there is no accomplishment or power, that will protect you from the clutches of inequality. One cannot simply outperform inequality.” – Megan Rapinoe, testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Reforms on March 24, Equal Pay Day...
Dodgers fans buy billboard outside Fenway to taunt... someone
I wouldn’t sit here and try to argue that Red Sox Nation is undeserving of being kicked while they’re down. They’ve had it their way for a very long time, though they would say they didn’t have it their way for a much longer period of time. And obviously, there isn’t anyone they didn’t annoy even ju...
Celtic, Rangers are unlikely duo to show that kneeling has outlived usefulness in Euro soccer
The debate over players kneeling right before kickoff in soccer games across Europe started almost before they started doing it last summer. On one side were those who said it was worth the symbolism and regular reminders that the fight is A) everyone’s, and B) ongoing, even if these kinds of thing...