soccer Page 36 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

U.S. Soccer nixes ban on anthem protests, and one guy's dissent exposes the hypocrisy of the right wing
U.S. Soccer has had a rule since 2017 that players must stand for the national anthem. As of Sunday, that rule is gone, allowing American players to do the most American of things: use their freedom of speech to express themselves by taking a knee if they so choose....

In more optimistic stadium news, England races to host Euro 2020 fans (in 2021)
While the NFL begins to lick its chops about having full capacities for the 2021 season, and MLB try to find every break and crack they can to start getting fans in from Opening Day, across the pond they’re planning for big returns too....

Naomi Osaka isn't Serena Williams' rival – she's her legacy
There is a poignancy in the current moment in women’s tennis. Naomi Osaka learned from the best, and then ended another one of Serena Williams’ evanescent chances to tie Margaret Court’s 24 record Grand Slam singles titles....

Another armada of soccer-playing Yanks is heading to Europe
The January transfer window closed yesterday — sometimes it closes in February, sometimes it snows in April — and a plethora of American players left their MLS digs behind for European riches. Some will be back, some are real longshots, some have very bright futures. The fact that this has become so...

MLS is all grown up, on the verge of its very own work stoppage
Can you be a legitimate league in North America and not have a work stoppage? Apparently MLS doesn’t think so, as it is on the verge of careening into their first one in their 25 years of existence....

Budweiser celebrates Messi by shipping bad beer to every goalie he’s beaten
Lionel Messi has driven many a goalkeeper to drink over the course of his legendary career. Now, all the more so....

You’ll say you were there when the NHLPA finally owned the owners
Every so often, a blind squirrel finds a nut. And there’s been no blinder squirrel than the NHL players’ union over the years. This is a side that got locked out for an entire season and still got a salary cap with no exceptions enforced on it. Eight years later it got locked out again and got an ev...

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey furiously swiping right to find new opponent to put at risk
You have to assume that Mike Brey at least made a few phone calls, sent a few texts, something, anything, before he decided to tweet in desperate search for someone to play basketball against Notre Dame next weekend....

Arizona to host massive soccer tournament because stupidity
This story warrants direct honesty. Adults in this country are really stupid....

On Maradona, his life, and the most famous two goals in soccer history
This story was taken from an episode of Julie DiCaro’s now-defunct sports history podcast, Stick to Pods, and originally aired on July 13, 2018....

The NBA and NHL are just making things up now
It’s certainly strange to be in hockey and basketball preseason with Thanksgiving next week. It’s even weirder that we’re a month or so from a start date — one that is most certainly not rock solid — and yet we don’t know what the schedule will be. But that’s 2020 for you, as both the NHL and NBA co...

Through the fog, there’s finally some light for the USMNT
Maybe having 10 months off from each other is exactly what the U.S. Men’s National Team and their fans needed. The last time we saw the national squad, they were hacking, gagging, and stumbling through the Gold Cup or attempting to play out from the back in another friendly with Mexico with truly di...

Sergio Ramos’s No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Day
Sergio Ramos might be the biggest villain in European soccer, but part of the reason he is that is he’s already won, and you know it. He’s got two European Championship medals, a World Cup, a murder of Champions League trophies, a handful of La Liga titles, and will go down as one of, if not the, be...

Diego Maradona still kicking, by the Hand of God
Let’s talk about Diego Maradona....

NWSL dramatically expands TV audience as women’s sports leagues see viewership growth
When we talk about “sports ratings” being down, let’s start adding a “men’s” before the phrase....

European soccer isn’t clear of Coronavirus either
It was likely that at some point last spring or over the summer, all the North American sports that were so desperate to return looked at European’s soccer reemergence in May and June, and figured if they could do it, we should too. Of course, everyone on this side of the Atlantic ignored the ways i...

Sergino Dest’s move to Barcelona continues the Yanks’ storming of the castle
It wasn’t that many years ago that the push from a large swath of US Men’s National Team observers was to get more players out of MLS and to Europe. ...

Gareth Bale and Tottenham Deserve Each Other
It can be startling to remember that Gareth Bale has only been something of a punchline for two seasons. And we should all be so lucky to be considered a joke when making over $37 million per year to live in Madrid and not do a whole bunch. We’d all accept a pretty healthy share of laughs at our exp...

Let's Enjoy the Celtics' Implosion. Plus, the Yankees Continue Hitting Homers Like Crazy
The Celtics’ season is going down the toilet....

Christen Press and Tobin Heath are the Latest to Head for Blighty
It might seem like an exodus, and it sort of is. If reports are true, then Christen Press and Tobin Heath will become the third and fourth members of the World Cup-winning US Women’s squad to head for England’s WSL this season. ...