world-cup Page 101 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Is America Ready For Gus Johnson, Soccer Announcer?
Last spring, Gus Johnson showed up in the unlikeliest of places. Less than a year removed from parting ways with CBS and joining Fox, Johnson was decidedly out of his comfort zone. A familiar voice over college hoops, and with Fox the NFL and college football, here was Johnson, on the radio, calling...

Soccer In The World's Most Violent City: A Postcard From Honduras
Outside Magazine sent Ryan O'Hanlon to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to cover the United States Men's National Team's first World Cup qualifying match. He's writing a daily dispatch from Honduras, which we will be republishing here....

Investigation Finds Hundreds Of Fixed Soccer Matches, Including World Cup Qualifiers And Champions League Games
The day after the Super Bowl, you might have an annoying European friend or co-worker tell you he's unimpressed. He'll say how football is filled with commercials and downtime and Beyonce instead of game action, how the third-quarter brownout is an embarrassment to American infrastructure, how it's ...

French Magazine Reports That Qatar Bribed Its Way To The 2022 World Cup
This is not new; from the moment Qatar was named the 2022 World Cup hosts, allegations have been made that FIFA committee members had accepted millions of dollars in bribes to make it happen. Some of those executives were even banned or quit in disgrace! So it's not outside the realm of probability....


Brazilian Prostitutes Learning English For The World Cup
You know what they say: English is the international language of negotiating payment for sexual services provided by a professional. To that end, since World Cup is heading to Brazil in 2014, a prostitute advocacy group in the city of Belo Horizonte is offering free English classes to get the women ...

A Soccer Match Between Teams From Argentina And Brazil Ended Early Because Police Beat And Threatened The Argentine Team In Their Locker Room At Halftime
This happened a couple of days ago, but we missed it with everything else going on. At Wednesday evening's Copa Sudamericana—Wikipedia calls it "the second most prestigious club competition in South American football"—between Brazil's São Paulo and Argentina's Tigre, some pre-match gamesmanship and...

U.S.A. Escapes From Antigua With A Win Thanks To Eddie Johnson's Last-Second Goal
Eddie Johnson scored both goals for the U.S. men's national team and helped lift his side to an enormous 2-1 upset over the heavily favored Antigua & Barbuda team tonight in North Sound....

The Zinedine Zidane Headbutt Statue Is A Powerful Homage To French Defeat
You've probably heard by now that France - a country that Lady Liberty would tell you knows from great statues - has unveiled one of the world's finest tributes to tantrums. The pair of 16-foot resin figures outside the Pompidou Center depict everyone's favorite soccer violence blooper: Zinedine Zid...

The U.S. Avenged Its Jamaica Loss Before A Raucous Columbus Crowd, And Clint Dempsey Made A Bitchface For The Ages
Desperately needing a win after dropping the ball in Jamaica last week, the U.S. Men's National Team rode the wave of a rowdy crowd in Columbus to eke out a 1-0 World Cup qualifier win last night, though not without a bit of struggling....

On Eve Of World Cup Qualifier Against Canada, Panama Holds Street Party Outside Canadian Team's Hotel
This is the second day in a row and Panamanians continue undaunted. Megaphones, loud music and fireworks are all part of the madness as Canada tries to sleep the night before the qualifier on Tuesday....

FIFA Can't Even Properly Ban Corrupt Executives
Let's make this clear: No one believes Mohammed bin Hammam, the FIFA executive committee member instrumental in bringing the 2022 World Cup to his native Qatar, didn't bribe people. It's still pretty much accepted that bin Hammam was the brains behind the envelopes full of cash handed out to represe...

Soccer Is Not Like Sex
I'm going to let you in on one of the secrets of the internet: people like clicking on things about sex. Like, maybe you wandered over to the Fox Sports home page today, and you saw the headline "Score! European study says soccer like sex for fans." You probably clicked on it! I know I did....

Zinedine Zidane's Headbutt Is Now Art
Among the works of Adel Abdessemed, now on display at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York, is this sculpture commemorating the ignominious, agressive end of Zidane's 2006 World Cup....

Needing A Nine-Goal Swing To Qualify, Bahrain Wins Match 10-0
Here's every goal in Bahrain's 10-0 thumping of Indonesia, which was already fielding a bunch of junior players due to internal suspensions. Indonesia's goalkeeper was sent off in the third minute, and the floodgates opened....

Learning The Secret Of Rugby, Nine Concussions Later
I once drank so much weight-gain powder that I couldn't go 40 minutes without peeing. I was an intern in San Francisco, trying to play rugby with the big boys, and working part time clearing tables. Whoever designed Mass XXX surely did not intend for it to provide 50 percent of my daily calories, us...

FIFA Mandates World Cup Drunkenness
At long last, we've identified the one cause FIFA will fight for: The right to sell their sponsors' beer....

Dwarf Tossing Is All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses The Ability To Walk Unassisted
Martin Henderson, a 37 year-old British man who suffers from dwarfism, was out celebrating his birthday and watching the Rugby World Cup when he was suddenly, and violently tossed by a "hooded thug" while trying to enjoy a smoke outside of the White Horse Pub in Wincanton, Somerset....

Barcelona Striker David Villa Snaps Tibia In FIFA Club World Cup Match
Spain's all-time record scorer David Villa will be off the pitch for months after suffering this nasty broken leg during Barcelona's FIFA Club World Cup match against Qatari side Al-Sadd....

One "All Blacks" Fan Stands Out In This Rugby World Cup Crowd Shot
Writes tipster Ryan W., "The Rugby World Cup finals are on currently airing NBC. I took a break from watching terrible NFL games to catch some of the finals between France and New Zealand (aka the 'All Blacks'). During a shot of the New Zealand crowd, I spotted this charming young man on the right ...