world-cup Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Arsenal, Liverpool, and cycles
There’s always an urge, and sometimes a directive from websites and Twitter and whatever else, to attach meaning or statements to any match or result. Sometimes, two teams just play each other and the score is the score and that’s your story. It’s not an overarching comment on systems, managers, or ...
USWNT-England exhibition set as specter of NWSL abuse scandal looms
There’s no doubt about it. Friday’s far-from-friendly, friendly between the United States women’s national soccer team and the Lionesses from England is the biggest glorified exhibition in American soccer history, regardless of gender. It’s the first women’s soccer match — non-World Cup edition — to...
The 10 most proficient cheaters in the history of sports
There are many forms of cheaters in sports, and often the dumbest of them get the press because they’re as close to dumb criminals as one gets — and everybody loves a dumb criminal. The 2000 Spanish Paralympic basketball team that won gold despite only two of the 12 players actually having a mental ...
Rafael Leão is carrying AC Milan, and should punt Cristiano Ronaldo off of Portugal
In a lot of ways, AC Milan mirrors Serie A overall. They’re incredibly fun, and were able to take advantage of Juventus’s slide into the abyss and a blip from Inter to win the Scudetto last year. But how good they actually are, much like the league as a whole, is hard to pin down. Considering that t...
Tear gas fired inside Indonesian stadium resulted in one of the worst soccer tragedies in 50 years
Professional soccer is all too familiar with tragedies attributed to overzealous fans. Saturday’s disaster in the city of Malang in East Java, Indonesia following a match between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya’s match, was not one of those instances. Instead, incompetence and a blatant disregard fo...
Iranian soccer players risking more than anyone
A truly incredibly scene unfolded on Tuesday when the Iranian national team, before their match against Senegal, took the field in black jackets and covered up any logo or emblem having to do with Iran to show solidarity with the current protests going on in their country over the murder of Mahsa Am...
USMNT’s Gregg Berhalter is going to have to get over himself
All right, I’m gonna be Sammy Sunshine about the USMNT. It’s not easy, but there’s a lot of dark clouds after the team went 0-for-180 minutes in scoring goals, or looking like they could get a goal, or even looking like they were interested in scoring a goal, in their last two friendlies before the ...
What if Christian Pulisic isn’t that good anymore?
Also, he might be kind of a prick, but we’ll circle back to that....
Which USMNT players punched their ticket to Qatar?
The United States men’s national team has zero minutes of game time remaining before it lines up against Wales at the FIFA World Cup, the country’s first contest on soccer’s biggest showcase in eight years. Tuesday’s scoreless draw against Saudi Arabia gave us one final look at the Yanks before head...
Qatar is conscripting its citizens to be security for the World Cup, so this is definitely going to go well
Here’s the thing about Qatar hosting the World Cup in about six weeks: Even if you could ignore the disgusting and egregious human rights abuses that built the infrastructure for it (which you can’t), or if you could ignore the country’s homophobia and sexism as state policy (which you can’t), or th...
Don’t worry USMNT fans, England have been even more ass
As we discussed yesterday, the first half of the last batch of friendlies for the USMNT could really not have gone worse or been more discouraging. Against the B-team version of Japan, a squad that’s just about on the same plane as the USMNT, the Yanks laid a foul-smelling egg that also doubled as a...
The USMNT still have a Weston McKennie problem, but it might not matter much
One of the many complications of a winter World Cup, though far down the list, is the death of the pre-tournament friendly. Normally, teams get together for a couple weeks after the domestic season and then get two or three ramp-ups before the tourney starts to establish rapport, try some new format...
At least Matt Turner played well
It’s never a good sign when the biggest pro from the United States men’s national team’s Friday debacle full of cons — a 2-0 loss to Japan that doubles as the Yanks’ penultimate FIFA World Cup tune-up — was goalkeeper Matt Turner. The Arsenal summer signee was called into action frequently and made ...
Berhalter’s shortcomings on display with September roster omissions
Mark it down now. John Brooks, one of the two Americans in any severity of contention to claim one of the 26 United States men’s national team spots on the plane to Qatar, will be watching the games on a TV screen. Brandon Vazquez, the 23-year-old FC Cincinnati striker with 16 goals this season, won...
Do Americans really care about soccer? We’ll find out
The unbearable heat of Qatar pushed the FIFA World Cup out of the summer months for the first time in the tournament’s history. In 2022, the quadrennial footballing soccer showcase won’t crown a new champion before jackets come out of closets across America. The upcoming global event will run from N...
These USMNT players vying for World Cup roster will benefit from transfer window
The biggest hammer never dropped during transfer deadline day for the United States men’s national team fans. Christian Pulisic still wears Chelsea blue, which will prove to be a blessing in disguise or what plummets the USA’s chances at a deep run at this year’s World Cup. The Yanks’ captain and be...
France warms up for the World Cup by being their normal furiously weird selves
One of the great orators of our time, Eddie Izzard, once said of the French, “They’re a bit…fuckin’ French.” Perhaps there is no greater example than the French national team, and that covers both the men and the women....
Giannis has become the Paul Bunyan of basketball
The fake sports news on Twitter is getting a bit out of control. I’m aware that part of responsible internet usage requires users to vet sources. It’s not like people haven’t been getting burned by fake Woj and fake Schefter accounts for years, but handles like CockSources and Ballsack sports — whil...
The sports figures we've lost in 2022
Here’s a look at the athletes and sports figures we’ve lost in 2022....