Maybe you, like me, put on Brazil’s first two Olympic soccer matches in the background, halfway monitoring the excitement in the announcers’ voices so as to switch browser windows in time to see one of the presumed dozen or so goals this super-talented team would put past their group stage opponents. If so, you were…
Immediately following the USWNT’s humbling ouster from the Olympics at the hands of a tough-defending Sweden team, salty hater Hope Solo said the Swedes “played like cowards” and that she didn’t “think they’re going to make it far in the tournament.” Add prognostication to the things Solo probably shouldn’t do…
It’s always a little strange seeing how calmly soccer players react to Idiots On The Field. Even with some rando hopping onto the pitch and sprinting straight for them, most guys greet the accosting fan with an unnerving placidity. Let’s hope this crazy kid in Sweden, who attacked a goalkeeper in a first division…
It’s funny, seeing Yaya Touré and Pep Guardiola say nice things about each other through the media, when it’s pretty clear that that the two probably don’t particularly like each other in the slightest.
It would not be an overstatement to call this Premier League season the most anticipated one in years. Coming off the collective disaster on the part of all the league’s biggest clubs last season that allowed something that three years ago you probably would’ve called Lysester City run away with the title, all of the…
Liverpool’s star-filled squad struggled with Arsenal’s collection of anonymous jamokes until Philippe Coutinho rocketed home this bender past Petr Cech to draw his side level at the half.
Zlatan Ibrahimović has never once let us down, so there was no question that he would score in his Premier League debut with Manchester United against Bournemouth today; the only question was how. Volley from 40 yards out? Bender from a corner? Hypnosis? If you had your money on “exploiting a near-invisible seam,”…
And the award for “The guy who feels like the biggest dummy in all of the Netherlands right now” goes to Fortuna Sittard’s Leon ter Wielen. No, you don’t get a speech.
It seems like so long ago, when we thought we’d said our final goodbye to Lionel Messi’s international career. Try to think back to those times: Messi, still then a brunette, had just suffered another heartbreaking loss with Argentina when they lost on penalties in that year’s Copa América, England had voted their way…
After a strangely stilted, disjointed performance, the USWNT has been kicked out of a major international tournament before the semifinal stage for the first time ever. Sweden were good, the U.S. were pretty bad, and the refereeing was worse.
When we last heard from Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino at the end of last season, he could barely contain his rage following Spurs’ embarrassing defeat to Newcastle, which capped what was almost a perfect season with yet another humiliating St. Totteringham’s Day. He has not forgotten that day and those…
Behold Lionel Messi’s perfect overhead-kick assist from today’s friendly against Sampdoria in all its glory:
Yes, Manchester United won a huge, potentially era-defining victory when they convinced Paul Pogba to join them this summer. It makes sense that everyone at the club would be ecstatic about it. What is less necessary is the way the club, and shit-talk lover José Mourinho himself, appear to be using this as an…
In the end, the process was simpler than many imagined. Any serious follower of the game has predicted for years that, when Paul Pogba—absurdly precocious and ludicrously talented Juventus midfielder—was finally convinced that he’d outgrown the Bianconeri and Serie A and decided to make the leap from the Italian…
Our latest example of Bad Soccer Manning comes courtesy of Daniel Pedrosa in Guatemala’s third division. The player didn’t like seeing the referee’s red card after Pedrosa appeared to bump into him, decided that the ref didn’t deserve to be able to see out of his left eye, and sent his forehead and hands flying:
For at least a month, it has been clear that Juventus star Paul Pogba would be transferring to Manchester United, with the only question being how much money it would take. But while Pogba spent his post-Euro summer dicking around, the rumor mill went into overdrive: that Pogba would stay, that Real Madrid had made a…
Here is Aberdeen’s Joe Lewis, re-enacting that embarrassing time in elementary school when the kickball pitcher served you up a duck just waiting to be crushed, but you tried so hard to kill it that you whiffed. Unfortunately for Lewis, he did it in a decisive Europa League qualifying match, meaning it won’t be…
Jeremy Menez left AC Milan for Bordeaux two days ago with two ears. He left his Bordeaux debut with one-and-a-half.
A week ago, United States national team keeper Hope Solo posted a pair of photos on her Instagram showing off the extremely large arsenal of anti-mosquito products she was bringing to Brazil to stave off the Zika virus. This afternoon, in the United States’ opening win over New Zealand, she was roasted by the home…
Yes, it’s just a friendly against Premier League champions (still insane to say that) Leicester City. But despite playing only three players from what will be Barcelona’s best line-up when the season kicks off for real, the Spanish squad is showing that they are in fact still incredible. In case there was any doubt.
