soccer Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The USWNT is extraordinary — don't pretend otherwise
Neither the US Women’s National soccer team’s past glory in Megan Rapinoe, nor its future in young phenom Sophia Smith, could defeat Sweden in the present. Both players skipped penalty kicks high over the goal after a 0-0 tie in regulation, clear misses of the target altogether, in a 1-0 loss that w...
World Cup Day 17: Class cares not for your story
The second day of the Round of 16 was a harsh lesson in a couple of soccer truths. The US learned that sometimes ball can lie because it’s a devious sort. South Africa learned that if you don’t take advantage of the moments you have, the other team at this level will and you’ll be going home. Let’s ...
The USWNT exits the World Cup on the cruelest margin
The symbolism of the final moment can’t be shoved off. The USWNT’s Alyssa Naeher can’t do much more to keep the final penalty out. But sometimes…the bear eats you....
Has the rest of the world finally caught up to the U.S. Women's soccer team?
For those used to the United States women’s national team dominating the globe, this edition of the Women’s World Cup has come as a shock. Those who don’t tune in every four years expected turbulence, but the level of bumps and lumps the Americans have taken in Australia and New Zealand has already ...
World Cup Day 15: You can wait on ze Germans to get here for a long while
Let’s face it, Germany were doomed as soon as I picked them to win the whole damn thing. The Fels Motherfuck knows no challenge it can’t overcome, even if it’s the No. 2 team in the world, and a lot of people’s favorite. ...
World Cup Diary Day 13: The Dutch and English show the USWNT what good soccer looks like
Running simultaneously with the United States’ infuriating performance against Portugal was just as disappointing of a game for the Vietnamese. The only difference? The United States are the two-time-defending World Cup champions and little was expected of Vietnam on the global stage. The Netherland...
Former USWNT star Carli Lloyd is never hesitant to remind everyone she was the star
The bane of sports analysis, especially when it comes to soccer in a nation that has become too mature in its fandom of the sport to accept this kind of drivel, is to default to claiming something unquantifiable as the reason a team won and a team lost. “Wanted it more” is a phrase you hear all too ...
Women's World Cup 2023: The USWNT isn't a championship squad
Portugal’s headed home looking happy. The flight back to Lisbon should be filled with post-elimination joy and realizations of long-term progress knowing how they held the former undisputed world champions in check. And that’s all you need to know about how the United States women’s national team pe...
World Cup Day 12: Speed kills, and so does a lack of it
We had our clash of teams that have looked most dominant so far, and we can pare that list down to “one team that’s looked dominant so far.” And in something of a surprise, Canada got their leaden asses booted back to the Great White North. Let’s get in. ...
World Cup Day 10: Sweden want you to know it’s not messing around
To open this year’s World Cup, Sweden hoped for a straightforward contest against, on paper, the easiest team to beat in Group G in South Africa. It didn’t go that way, with the Swedish escaping that contest Wellington by the skin of its teeth with a win. Sweden needed a 90th-minute Amanda Ilestedt ...
So this is what it feels like to be a howling soccer fan at the World Cup?
There’s a unique frustration to watching Team USA men’s basketball in the Olympics after the world caught up. Yes, America has a better collection of raw talent, and when motivated, and conducted like an actual team, they can come away with gold. However, it’s always a slog at some point, with savvy...
World Cup Day 8: The Aussies step in it
This tournament started with how every organizer wishes it would, with both hosts getting wins to up the energy and buzz around the whole thing. World Cups and big tournaments are just better when the hosts are relevant and getting the home fans excited. But now both Australia and New Zealand are up...
The USWNT gets out of medium security jail
The pregame chatter mostly centered around Netherlands manager Andries Jonker’s quotes in the Matchday -1 press conference. It certainly had USWNT followers getting a little tight in the seat. In full:...
Lionel Messi’s quick start for Inter Miami has MLS’ detractors quiet
The shouts about Major League Soccer at large from other parts of the sports world get repetitive. Stating it’s a retirement league was always a jaded view. Perhaps it was the league with the most publicity that was willing to take big names past their prime. And while a lack of promotion and relega...
World Cup Day 7: It’s easy when you’re big in Japan…and Spain we suppose
After Group A decided to keep everyone alive with some truly weird (and awful) soccer on Monday night, it was time to send some teams to the land of wind and ghosts on Tuesday, as Costa Rica, Zambia, and Ireland will make it home before the postcards. Let’s make it happen, captain!...
Saudi Arabia poaching NBA talent is possible, but unlikely
In a jocular response to the Saudi Public Investment Fund offering a record $1.1 billion to PSG and Kylian Mbappé for the French icon to play one season in Saudi Arabia, two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo offered up his services to the Al Hilal club. ...
World Cup Day 6: Linda Caicedo is ready to be soccer’s next big female star
Group H was always going to be a battle between the teams not named Germany for who would advance alongside the European powerhouses. There were thoughts that Morocco could go from unknowns to the knockout rounds, then it lost 6-0 to Germany. The last two teams to play their first group stage game w...
World Cup Day 5: We cannot run from who we are
Day 5 of the World Cup was probably the most rewarding, and a great example of how football is football no matter who is playing it, no matter where they come from. We do our best to not compare or relate the women’s game to the men’s, as they’re two different sports. But Sunday night’s fare was per...
World Cup Day 4: Not much more than a feeling
If the story of the first three days of the World Cup was that the tournament favorites were kind of inching their way through their first matches, nothing changed on Day 4. Sweden, Holland, and especially France all had an air of trying to figure out what all the buttons do and what the lights mean...
World Cup Day 3: A demolition to start the United States’ three-peat campaign didn’t happen
The last time the United States women’s national team opened a World Cup, it scored 13 goals against Thailand. That pile-on isn’t typical and wasn’t a drubbing for the sake of sticking it to Yul Brynner. There was no downside to putting up the unanswered baker’s dozen for the sake of goal difference...