world-cup-qualifying Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Lionel Messi Is All Alone
It’s a funny thing, talking about what an athlete deserves. Sports are the ultimate results-oriented business, where no matter how much you love your mother or how kind and considerate you are to lovers and waiters or even how well you played in any given game, if the final whistle blows and you loo...
The USMNT Can't Afford To Lose
The United States Men’s National Team has two games left in CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying, two games against teams that, by all accounts, the USMNT should not have any problems dispatching. Trinidad & Tobago have gotten owned more or less nonstop throughout the Hex, and Panama were lousy enough to l...
South American World Cup Qualifying Is Dope As Hell
For most of the world’s elite national teams, qualifying for the World Cup is a charade. Sure, Spain and Germany and the other powerhouses have to earn their places into the world’s biggest sporting event, but because those countries are so reliably great, they can generally nab their spot without t...
FIFA Orders World Cup Qualifier To Be Replayed After Referee Banned For Life
Last November, South Africa beat Senegal 2-1 in a World Cup qualifying match, their only win through four qualifying games. However, a few months after the game, Joseph Lamptey, the referee in charge, was found guilty of “unlawfully influencing match results” and was subsequently banned for life. He...
The USMNT Doesn't Deserve To Qualify For The World Cup
For the majority of casual fans, international soccer is a game of tournaments. Outside of high-profile friendlies or marquee qualifying matches, this sort of ephemeral casual fandom more or less hibernates between the big tournaments, the beginnings of which reawaken rabid patriotism and communal p...
Costa Rica And Mexico Draw After Gorgeous Marco Ureña Golazo
Costa Rica got their only goal of the night in tonight’s World Cup qualifying match against Mexico from Marco Ureña, who tied things up with this laser into the corner of the net:...
Uruguay Probably Through To The World Cup On Two Goofy Goals
Fede Valverde, the 19-year-old Real Madrid prospect who is not racist, just made an enormous impact with what Ray Hudson dubbed a “wicked deflection” in his debut match for Uruguay. The young midfielder got lucky in the 76th minute, scoring a long-range goal that bounced through the defense and beca...
USMNT Lose 1-1
The USMNT avoided disaster in the most depressing way possible today against Honduras, riding a late short-range tap-in from Bobby Wood off a screaming Kellyn Acosta free kick to draw Honduras, 1-1. The score flatters the U.S., who gave their second consecutive pitiful performance and are lucky to r...
Corruption Trial Has Croatia Turning Against Its Greatest Soccer Player
Luka Modrić should be a national hero. The Croatian midfielder has been a regular for several seasons now on Real Madrid, one of the most famous teams in world soccer, and he’s appeared in nearly 100 matches for his nation. Modrić has been one of the most consistent players of his generation, and he...
The U.S. Looks Like A Lock To Qualify For The 2018 World Cup
The United States Men’s National Soccer Team started out the last round of World Cup qualifiers in the most embarrassing way possible, losing to Mexico at home then getting ripped apart down in Costa Rica. The results were bad, although CONCACAF qualification is generous to say the least, though wha...
Kellyn Acosta, The USMNT's Tenacious Young Midfielder, Is Ready For This
Who will stand beside Michael Bradley in Russia?...
Mexico Equalize, But The U.S. Hold On For Important 1-1 Draw
The USMNT used an insane strike from Michael Bradley and some nerve-wracking and occasionally infuriating bus-parking to hold on for a 1-1 draw and snatch a point in World Cup qualifiers tonight in Mexico....
Michael Bradley Scores From Long Range To Put U.S. Up 1-0 On Mexico
¡GOLAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!...
Scotland Score Two Free Kick Goals To Take Lead In Final Five Minutes; Still Don't Win
Leigh Griffiths hammered home a pair of free-kick goals in the final five minutes of Scotland’s World Cup qualifier against England today, taking a 2-1 lead only to see the match end in a draw thanks to, yeah, Harry Kane....
Sweden Beat France On 50-Meter Goal With Seconds Remaining
Ola Toivonen took advantage of a Hugo Lloris blunder as the Swedish striker (who plays in Ligue 1) hammered in a strike from midfield while the French keeper scrambled, and failed, to stop it as the clock expired on stoppage time at Friends Arena in Stockholm....
Olivier Giroud Golazo Gives France Short-Lived Lead
Olivier Giroud is no stranger to magnificent goals, and his half-volley bender to put his France side up 1-0 on Sweden today ranks up there with the best of them. (Perhaps in shock, the Frenchmen surrendered a Jimmy Durmaz equalizer minutes later.)...
Christian Pulisic Is Restoring My Faith In U.S. Soccer
There was, I must admit, a moment there before the start of last night’s crucial USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago World Cup qualifier when I thought it would be better if the U.S. blew the match and the next couple and wound up missing out on next summer’s World Cup....
U.S. Beat Trinidad & Tobago Thanks To Pair Of Christian Pulisic Goals
A pair of gorgeous second-half goals by America’s Wonderteen gave the U.S. a 2-0 World Cup qualifier win tonight in Denver over Trinidad and Tobago....
Saudi National Team Declines To Participate In Pregame Moment Of Silence For London Attacks
The Saudi Arabian national soccer team, in Australia today for a World Cup qualifying match, did not observe the pregame moment of silence the Australian soccer federation put together to commemorate the victims of last weekend’s terrorist attacks in London. Here’s video of the moment:...
Messi Says He Didn't Direct Insult At The Referee, But "At The Air"
The best player in the world and slight potty mouth Lionel Messi is appealing the four-match ban that was handed down by FIFA yesterday after he yelled at a referee in Argentina’s 1-0 World Cup qualifier win over Chile last week. Messi says he didn’t direct his insult, “la concha de tu madre,” a com...