For those who grew up watching the Champions League in the early 2000s, the extended absence of 2009-10 champions Inter Milan has certainly been felt. Between 2002 and 2012 there was a 10-season period in which Inter always had a seat at club football’s most prestigious banquet, but the 2018-19 campaign will mark Inter's first appearance in seven years.
For too many years already, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have absolutely dominated the discussion surrounding who is the best soccer player in the world. The Argentinean and the Portuguese have formed a hegemonic dynasty that's lasted since at least 2008. To find a Ballon d'Or winner other than Messi and Ronaldo, one has to travel all the way to 2007 when Brazilian star Kaká won the prize, and he's now retired.
Both born in 1998, France’s Kylian Mbappé and the U.S.’ Christian Pulisic are football superstars who, if both continue being great, will be of yet another generation that redefines the beautiful game. The question is, who’s the better 19-year-old?
“Oh man, the World Cup is over! Now I have to wait four more years for more soccer?!”
Not exactly — we still have the International Champions Cup, and then we have to wait until 2022 for more soccer. Just kidding! There’s a thing called club soccer. Google it, but then come back here to find out which club team you should support based off your strange 2018 World Cup team fetishes!
32. Panama | Your New Club: Getafe (La Liga)
A month after Russia thrashed Saudi Arabia to open the World Cup, France took advantage of its chances and was crowned world champions for the second time. Those high-scoring matches bookended a tournament in which there were 169 World Cup goals. With 12 of those resulting from own goals, there were 157 goals where the celebration wasn't marred by an untimely mistake.
We’ve taken a look at our best lineup from the World Cup, but now we turn our attention to the players that let their country down the most. That’s right people, even during what many consider the greatest World Cup of all-time, there were players and nations that fell flat. Here are our five biggest disappointments of the World Cup.
The 2018 World Cup came to a stunning conclusion on Sunday with France emerging victorious over Croatia 4-2. It was a hotly contested match with both sides going blow for blow in order to finish with the Cup. Now that the dust has settled on what many fanatics have labelled the best World Cup ever, it’s time to review the month-long festival.
That was a really ridiculous World Cup final. After getting extra time and a total of four goals at the last three World Cup finals, the 2018 event was a bit of magic theater. (“Not for everybody.”)
It’s here. The World Cup final. The culmination of one of the greatest World Cups we’ve ever seen will pit the stars of France against star-aligned Croatia. And The18 has all the World Cup final predictions and previews you could want.
We’re down to the final two. Well, technically still four because there's the game that everyone is dying to watch: the third place playoff! We’re just kidding, because that'll probably be another 90-minute rerun of the group stage match with both teams shoving out their B teams.