the-world-cup Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Becky Sauerbrunn’s absence at the World Cup hurts more in the heart than on the field
The women’s World Cup continues to be a battle of attrition, even if it doesn’t start for another month. All the major powers are heading to Australia and New Zealand next month, seemingly with one hand tied behind their back, either through injury or strife within their programs (Canada and Spain)....
Gregg Berhalter is pretty sure he’s getting the USMNT job back
There is something so very U.S. Soccer about taking nine months in their search for a new USMNT manager, going through two interim managers because the first one didn’t want to wait around and took a full-time job in the Middle East, and then ending up back where they started by re-hiring the guy th...
The United States men’s national team’s Gold Cup squad lacks stars, serves better long-term purpose
It’s clear by interim United States men’s national team head coach B.J. Callaghan’s 23-man roster for this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup that winning the tournament isn’t the only priority. How else do you explain giving players like Christian Pulisic a pass? It’s not a break as he barely played at Che...
Lionel Messi is the only person who can move tickets like Taylor Swift
This article is a veritable dream for those enslaved (or in love) with SEO-driven content. Taylor Swift and Lionel Messi in the same headline? If I could fold in the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Yankees, and Dallas Cowboys, I’d be up for a $10 Starbucks gift card. While I’m not ruling that out — I n...
What Lionel Messi coming to MLS means — and what it doesn’t
MLS, arguably, have already gotten what they wanted from the signing of Lionel Messi. They were in the headlines the past couple days, a place the league has struggled to stay in. It is something, for the league, that ESPN.com has a Messi headline right next to a headline about Liverpool signing Ale...
Lionel Messi retirement tour is coming to the US, not Saudi Arabia
Labeling MLS as a “retirement league” has been unnecessarily callous for a few seasons now. It is much more than that, and has become more of a selling league, i.e. a league that is mostly interested in developing young players to sell off for big profits to Europe to then be reinvested and start th...
WNBA, NSWL TV rights are more valuable than ever as leagues seek new deals
Hours before the WNBA’s New York Liberty were set to take the court against the Connecticut Sky at 2 p.m. on Sunday, the crowd near the players’ entrance was already entrenched. Parents and their kids, couples, and groups of friends, many decked out in shirts and shoes with that distinctive Statue s...
Israel's U-20 World Cup Team is a bright spot in a world where antisemitism is on the rise
The phrase “David and Goliath” gets thrown around too much in sports. There is typically a reason for those mismatches to take place, like in the case of No. 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament needing to defeat a No. 1 to reach the round of 32. According to several Jewish texts, David was the King of I...
Zlatan Ibrahimović retired from soccer, and the world is a bit duller today
To say we’ll be Zlatan-less is probably wide of the mark. Whatever Zlatan Ibrahimović goes on to do, you can be sure it’ll be loud and full of bravado. But he won’t be on the field, which is a loss for the sport, if only because there simply can’t be anyone like him again. First off, no one’s going...
A month before the start of the Women’s World Cup, TV rights are still a mess
In the moments after England won the Women’s European Championships last summer, BBC presenter Gabby Logan issued an inspiring call for the accomplishment to be a mere stepping stone in the growth of the women’s game. Would have been nice if her employers were listening ahead of the 2023 Women’s Wor...
Karim Benzema is the latest to take the blood money
And people thought MLS was a retirement league. ...
Where should the USMNT players move this summer?
There’s going to be a lot of movement for the top end of the USMNT roster, but what would be best for them? We mean other than Ibiza or The Algarve on vacation. Though they should do that too. They’ve earned it. But after the Nations League semis and (hopefully) final, the main cogs of the USMNT wil...
USWNT's striker depth will be put to the test at World Cup
The U.S. Women’s National Team’s spoils at forward have always been in excess. Most countries’ talent pools over 50 years don’t go as deep at striker as America’s would for one World Cup cycle. That depth is being put to the test this summer as a second potent goal-scorer won’t be traveling with the...
What’s next for Arsenal?
When you’ve spent 248 days on top of the Premier League (somewhat aided by the World Cup break, of course), getting not just passed but utterly dusted in the last month or so of the season can feel pretty deflating. That’s where Arsenal find themselves, and certainly conceding the title by getting o...
Putting the World Cup Final in New Jersey would be great, if you like cruel and unusual punishment
The states of New York and New Jersey launched a joint successful campaign to be a host city for the 2026 World Cup a while back. And yeah, of course the world’s biggest individual sporting event couldn’t have the most populous region of the country left out when the United States, Mexico, and Canad...
The WNBA finally gets the sports documentary it deserves
In the early days of the WNBA, it wasn’t a given that the league was going to make it. A new film set for theatrical release this weekend, Unfinished Business, goes back to the first year through the lens of the New York Liberty, to lay out the stakes those young players experienced....
Weston McKennie is not having a good time
Soccer moves fast, and it moves faster in the January transfer window. All the things Weston McKennie had to consider when a move to Leeds United from Juventus was probably thrown at him in a matter of days, if not hours. Questions of role, money, future, and the allure of moving to a country where ...
The Women’s World Cup is already a battle of attrition
The World Cup is always a measure of health and a team’s ability to deal with it. It comes at the end of a long season — unless you’ve fisted it into a desert, totalitarian country that makes you have it in the middle of the season — and players have logged the most possible miles before they play i...
The NBA has a Charles Barkley problem — again
TNT’s flagship show Inside The NBA is at its best this time of the year, as fans tune in multiple times per week to watch Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, and Shaquille O’Neal do their thing. But what happens when the star of the NBA’s biggest and best studio show gets on TV to tell fans...
The Mavericks give away the game
Well now it’s pretty obvious what NBA teams really think of the play-in tournament. The Dallas Mavericks spent the weekend doing everything they could to drop right out of the 10th seed and into the draft lottery, which they successfully did. Mavericks fans are probably most excited about the season...