world-cup Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Toronto sports, man
On one level, I get it. I bet Toronto is a lot like Chicago. Whenever the first warm stretch hits, you’re looking for any excuse to be outside. And most likely drunk as shit when you are. Usually that streak doesn’t hit until somewhere around Memorial Day, so to get it in April feels like you’re ste...

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...

Hasn't Lionel Messi made enough money?
Lionel Messi’s time playing for Paris Saint-Germain has long appeared to be reaching its conclusion this summer, as signing another contract with the French giants never made sense. While a return to boyhood club Barcelona or Major League Soccer looked to be in his future, spurning both of those cho...

The NCAA women’s tournament was given a proper platform — and is a massive success
Good to know the crowd, and thankfully fringe minority, that shouted “women’s sports are boring” never had a leg to stand on in the first place. Their ignorance becomes clearer and more definitively described as sexist each day. This year’s NCAA Tournament has been a huge catalyst for the Field of D...

Does Roger Goodell even know when he’s lying anymore?
It’s never a good sign when John Mara, the answer to the question of what would happen if George Will ate paste, is the voice of reason. But that’s where the NFL, and Roger Goodell, found themselves at the owners’ meetings yesterday. Somehow, the owners were able to resist the urge to flex Thursday ...

The USMNT wins its last game in the pre-Balogun era
International soccer, especially this season, is highly weird. So while the USMNT’s 1-0 win over El Salvador to clinch a spot in the semifinals of the Nations League doesn’t look like much — and it isn’t — one must consider that most of the squad has been run ragged with their club teams, had a Worl...

Life ain’t easy for Bayern Munich… according to Bayern Munich
Wherever he is, George Steinbrenner must’ve smiled and nodded at the news of Bayern Munich firing their manager with three-quarters of the season gone. Not only would that have reminded Big Steinn of his “glory” days (obviously the Yankees didn’t regain their spot atop the baseball world until Stein...

You can’t script baseball, but sometimes it can seem like it
What they tell you about baseball a lot, is that because everyone gets a turn, you can’t guarantee that your best player will get to the plate with the game on the line. Sometimes it’s your second baseman with no concept of the strike zone who wets himself at the sight of any fastball over 96 MPH. S...

No, Keith Olbermann, we should not 'kill' the WBC
If you ever wonder why much of the world views Americans as arrogant and uninterested in anything that happens outside the United States’ borders, look no further than Keith Olbermann’s recent tweets about the World Baseball Classic....

Stop bitching about the World Baseball Classic
We tend not to appreciate things that don’t matter as much to us as it does others. If there’s anything more American than “I got mine,” I don’t know what that would be. That seems to be the trouble with the World Baseball Classic, even though with every iteration it seems to pick up more steam. The...

So, what was this Ja Morant suspension all about?
Ja Morant will be back on the court next week at some point. Which is good…maybe? One gets the sense that no one around him is really looking out for him, including his employer. But the NBA has a lot of money invested in him, so they need to rehab his image but do so quickly so he can get back on t...

It’s been another banner week for FIFA
The election of a FIFA president is probably as close as we can get to a world president, as being the governor of the world’s most popular sport certainly allows one to wield an insane amount of power and influence. What exactly Gianni Infantino has done to earn a second term is anyone’s guess, oth...

Turns out the Nikola Jokić kicks a LOT of balls
Nikola Jokić possesses the most versatile skill set in the entire league. Assists — he’ll dish him. Points — he’ll score ‘em. Rebounds — he’ll grab ‘em in droves. His defensive impact is questionable, despite what metrics might imply, but there’s one area where his game-changing skill has translated...

The 2026 World Cup is swole as fuck
Despite being shoved into the middle of the season and in a country that was in no way up to the standards of hosting such a thing, the last World Cup ended up being a hit for what went on on the field. Exciting conclusion to the group stages, classic games in the knockout stages, and a memorable wi...

Claudio Reyna sounds like a real hoot
It is so perfect it hurts that US Soccer has been tied up in knots recently, mostly due to a parent of a player bitching about his kid’s playing time and threatening everyone within shouting distance about it. But apparently, US Soccer has been dealing with that kind of thing from Claudio Reyna for ...

Does the US have anyone who would stand up like Gary Lineker?
The farcical idea that sports and politics don’t mix has once again been shaken to its cardboard foundation with what’s been going on in the UK with Gary Lineker and the BBC (every time I hear or see “BBC” I can’t help but shout it like Austin Powers during the end credits of the first film, but tha...

Mikaela Shiffrin is the GOAT, and 'medalz culture' can shove it
I know I’m one of the few sports writers leaping to my keyboard to riff on Mikaela Shiffrin breaking the all-time record for wins — earning No. 87 in Åre, Sweden, and passing Ingemar Stenmark on Saturday — but I wanted to issue this as a reminder that Olympic success is kind of bullshit. The last im...

Team USA loses exhibition to 3-9 San Francisco Giants
Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Nolan Arenado, Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Schwarber. With a roster like that, you’d expect Team USA Baseball to dominate every game they play. They’re totally going to destroy Great Britain this Saturday in their first game of the World Baseball Classi...

Besides Aaron Rodgers, what other sports figures could use a darkness retreat?
With the news that Aaron Rodgers has emerged from his darkness retreat and will soon regale the people with the tablets he has produced, and certainly not the tablets or whatever else he definitely did not take while locked away by himself in obsidian, it got us to thinking who else could use some t...
