Just a couple of months before June’s World Cup begins, a next-generation Spain squad incinerated a mostly full-strength Argentina in Madrid today, riding an Isco hat trick to a 6-1 laugher. It’s only a friendly, but still, it wasn’t good, and Argentina star Lionel Messi, missing the game with a hamstring injury,…
By now, you’ve probably seen the images on Twitter or Facebook of Spanish police in riot gear breaking a Catalan woman’s fingers, beating people as they sought medical attention, and even battling firemen. The shocking violence came as Spanish authorities tried, in vain, to block the referendum for Catalan…
On the day of a controversial referendum on Catalonian independence, which led to the Spanish police shutting down polling stations and firing rubber bullets at a crowd of voters, Barcelona’s game against Las Palmas was closed to the public and played in an empty Camp Nou due to security concerns.
Spain’s wonderful Gasol-led national team today took on a Czech Republic squad that was distressingly overpowered given the presence of Wizards’ backup and future All-NBA guard Tomas Satoransky. This was a Eurobasket group stage match, played in Romania.
It hasn’t even been a full week since Cristiano Ronaldo’s camp began leaking to anyone who’d listen that he was done with Spain and had resolved to leave Real Madrid, a supposedly “irreversible” decision borne of his deep feelings of persecution because the Spanish government has taken issue with him potentially …
According to Spanish prosecutors, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho owes the state €3.3 million in taxes from his time coaching Real Madrid in 2011 and 2012, as El Mundo reported.
In the last week, Spanish Segunda Division club Eldense were thrashed 12-0 by Barcelona B, accused of fixing the match, and saw their coach and manager arrested and charged with corruption. (Two players and another coach were arrested Wednesday.) Despite evidence to the contrary, Eldense coach Filippo Vito di Pierro…
A game between Spanish youth sides Alaró and Collerense was interrupted and later canceled yesterday after a bunch of riled up sports parents got into a big brawl. El Confidencial reports that an Alaró player made a hard tackle, which sparked an argument. The argument then roped in a herd of overeager parents, who ran…
Jonathan MejĂa and his UCAM Murcia squad lost to Real Valladolid on Saturday in some hot second-division Spanish soccer action, but really, who cares, for young MejĂa scored the goal of his life. Look at the Honduran international turn these four dudes into jelly.
One-eyed torero “El Pirata,” who lost an eye in 2011 after being gored, has been gored in the eye again. Â
Croatia stunned Spain 72-70 in basketball, coming back from a 14-point third quarter deficit to win their Olympic opener. The win was sealed by soon-to-be 76er Dario Šarić, who swatted Pau Gasol at the buzzer, and set off celebrations as if they had won gold.
Yesterday, France and Spain met in the Women’s U-19 Euro final. Torrential rain before and during the match—and the baffling decision not to cancel play on a count of the pitch being a swamp—meant there was always the threat of something truly zany and/or horrifying happening. That threat was realized at at the…
Today, Lionel Messi and his father Jorge—the latter who oversaw his son’s finances—were both convicted of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities for €4.1 million. They were given a suspended sentence of 21 months in prison, which will not result in any actual jail time.
It says something about the outrageous quantity of quality Spain have that even late on in a match in which they had been thoroughly dominated by a famously talent-poor Italian team, it still felt like they’d somehow snatch an equalizer and at least force extra time. Instead, Italy continued pressing back the…
So yeah, Brexit! What a thing, right? So crazy, that Brexit. Can’t believe it, uh, went down. I definitely understood before last night the stakes and nuances of the Brexit—of course I did, I am after all a learned individual and a conscientious member of the global community, duh—but if you need a primer, let Spanish…
Until the 87th minute of this afternoon’s match against Spain, the biggest news Croatia had made at Euro 2016 was when fans threw a bunch of explosives and flares onto the pitch during a game against the Czech Republic. Croatian fans were reportedly planning another attack during the 30th minute today, but they…
You’ve probably never heard of CD Palencia, and probably never will again. The club plays in Spanish fourth division, though they currently are in the playoffs for promotion to the third. To support their promotion hopes, they’ve unveiled a new kit. It is ... strange.
Unless Marchamalo player Mario’s languid dribbling style here is literally hypnotizing, then this barely impeded run of his through the entirety of Toledo B’s half en route to goal might be some pretty strong evidence of match-fixing.
That Javi Gómez, of third division Spanish club UD Socuéllamos, managed to score with this insane, volleyed overhead kick is crazy enough. But that he even thought to shoot there, when probably no one in the world save maybe Zlatan Ibrahimović would’ve considered it, makes it all the more spectacular and ridiculous.
Now this—with intensity overflowing from the first whistle until the last, and frantic, blitzkrieg attacking being thwarted by heroic defending—was everything El Clásico was not.
