the-world-cup Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The best from the start
There’s an old hockey axiom that any young defenseman needs 200 games in the NHL to come into his own. Unlike most of the sport’s theories, which are usually grizzled old horseshit that everyone has just gone along with out of terror for ever rocking the boat in any way, it holds some water. It’s a ...
A few thoughts on the start of 2022 World Cup
While the World Cup started yesterday, it doesn’t really kick off until today. The World Cup, for fans, is about the NCAA tournament-type feel of multiple games every day, and there are three today and four per for the next couple of weeks. That’s the real tournament. If we didn’t all feel weird eno...
USMNT’s Christian Pulisic finally gets his chance
The embarrassment of the United States men’s national team missing the 2018 World Cup had several layers. One of the most understated at the time, and one that luckily has been forgotten about over time for fans of the Stars and Stripes, is how the adorned future of American soccer would always be a...
The USMNT needs a striker in Qatar — can Jesus Ferreira be the answer?
It’s been the longest-standing position battle for the United States men’s national team. It’s been basically a forever chase to find a stable striker. The No. 9 spot has been taken by dozens of Americans, with no real claim to the throne. Brian McBride? Jozy Altidore? Joe-Max Moore? All had tempora...
World sporting events are becoming a different kind of guilty pleasure
While this World Cup is unlike any other due to the start time and Middle East location, there is a recent world competition that comes to mind. Think about it. Climate unfit to host the event, haphazard accommodations, stories of government overreach, and sportswashing. That sounds like the Beijing...
Does Aaron Long belong in Qatar?
It’s hard to describe why there’s angst around Aaron Long. Does the United States men’s national team have better center backs? Yes. Has he taken the spot of more deserving players? Yeah, but that’s more up for debate. If you’re basing personnel decisions on trust with USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalt...
Walker Zimmerman ready to test himself ‘against anyone’ at 2022 World Cup
Has anyone done more to improve his stock with the United States men’s national team over the last 18 months than Walker Zimmerman? There’s no one clearly above him. The Nashville SC stalwart was in and out of the Yanks’ lineup for years before asserting himself as the captain of the 2021 Gold Cup s...
Shaq Moore’s surprise World Cup inclusion gives USMNT comfort on backline
One of the true shockers of the United States men’s national team’s World Cup roster reveal was Shaq Moore making the cut. His inclusion, alongside striker Haji Wright, appeared to come the most out of left field for diehard fans of the Stars and Stripes. Moore has had recent call-ups, played in fou...
Are Twitter and sports headed for a crash?
In 2008 when I started covering the New York Jets, I also joined Twitter. It was a great way to break news, see what your competition knew, and hear from regular fans....
DeAndre Yedlin is USMNT’s only bridge to last World Cup appearance
Before we can truly look forward, we must go back in time, to a marvelous place where the United States men’s national team missing the World Cup was such an afterthought, it would be equal to falling into the abyss. Yeah, a few CONCACAF rivals like Panama and Costa Rica were rapidly improving and b...
It’s no less a referendum on Neymar — World Cup 2022 Group G preview
This World Cup is setting up as either a treatise or a coronation for Lionel Messi. He recently collected his first major trophy with Argentina — 2021’s Copa America — but still needs the World Cup to stand on the same pedestal as Diego Maradona in most’s eyes. He’s coming to Qatar with unquestionab...
Qatar definitely understands how this whole 'sports media' thing works
We’re less than a week away from the opening ceremonies for the World Cup (which, by the way, still don’t have an announced performer, after being turned down by Rod Stewart, Dua Lipa, and now Shakira), and things in Doha are progressing just about as well as expected when you hold a World Cup in a ...
World Cup 2022 Preview — Group F: Old man take a look at my defense, I’m a lot like you
“BELGIUM’S LAST CHANCE!” You’ve heard or seen this already. They are Europe’s big waste of the last decade. There has been no bigger collection of talent than what Belgium has sported for the last four major tournaments, and a 3rd place in Russia is all they’ve had to show for it. Either this is whe...
I guess pop stars will be our moral compasses for the Qatar World Cup
Qatar’s effort to sportswash its abysmal human rights record has received a couple of assists from notable soccer players, with David Beckham taking some cash to be an ambassador for the country during the World Cup, and French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris essentially saying he will shut up and dribble....
There's a new nepo baby in sports broadcasting
Updated Feb. 21, 2024: Chris Caray, the great-grandson of Harry Caray, will call A’s games for NBC Sports California. ...
Oh, I can’t drink alcohol at the World Cup, can I? Hold my beer
One of the pastimes of my college football fan experience was sneaking booze into the stadium. A lot of venues nixed alcohol sales after crowds devolved into angry mobs in the ’90s. A few rolled back those policies recently, and whether it’s due to the unending greed of universities, or a sense of h...
The casual American soccer fan's guide to the best international players ahead of the World Cup
For the fair-weather soccer fan, and let’s be real, that’s 99 percent or more of American sports fans, the World Cup is the one event taking place over multiple weeks where general interest is at a high. The United States men’s national team didn’t make the world’s best 32 in 2018, and a huge chunk ...
Cristiano Ronaldo goes to Kevin Durant’s school
You’d be severely challenged to come up with a duo more up their own ass than Cristiano Ronaldo and Piers Morgan, so it was kind of perfect and perfectly puke-worthy that Ronaldo carefully chose Morgan for his tactical masterplan to get booted out of Manchester as soon as possible. It was right as t...
This ESPN video should put a smile on your face
We have something that just might make your day, weekend, or month, depending on how things are going in your life....
Here's the USMNT's roster for the 2022 World Cup
Well, it’s official. Here’s the merry band of men that will head to the deserts of Qatar…unless they get hurt this weekend and have to be replaced. But let’s be positive. After eight years, we now have an actual World Cup squad to debate! Get to know them and love them before you curse their name wh...