A friendly between 2018 World Cup participants South Korea and Colombia in Suwon reached utterly deplorable levels in the 62nd minute with the Koreans leading 2-0 following a brace from Tottenham forward Son Heung-Min.
Qatar actually won some soccer and all it took was a field player making an impressive save in a penalty shootout. After the goalie was sent off with a second yellow card for coming off his line during the shootout, a field player came in and saved the retaken shot to lift Qatar’s U-19 team over Iraq.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has come through on his promise to make the World Cup bidding process more transparent and open to scrutiny after the fallout following the 2010 vote which saw the 2018 and 2022 World Cups handed to Russia and Qatar.
On June 13, 2018, 211 member federations and the 38-person FIFA council will decide who’ll win the right to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and all of those votes will be open to public viewing.
At least the U.S. still has one national team that can kick ass. The USWNT stars came out to shine in a 3-1 victory over South Korea on Thursday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Julie Ertz, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe all found the back of the net in a comfortable win over the 15th-ranked team in the world.
While the USMNT won’t make the Men’s World Cup next summer, the reigning Women’s World Cup champions are still going strong, winning their fifth straight and moving to 10-3 in 2017.
Being a referee is a difficult, thankless job. No ref will ever get every call right (or wrong) but it’s always important to remember that 99.9 percent of referees are just trying to facilitate a fair match between two teams. Unfortunately these refs in New Delhi, India, were attacked for doing their job.
Indonesian goalkeeper Choirul Huda died from injuries suffered during a collision in a match on Sunday.
Playing in Liga 1 in Indonesia, the Persela Lamongan goalie collided with a teammate going for a low ball in the box. He was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
A brace from Australia’s all-time leading scorer, Tim Cahill, was enough to see the Socceroos narrowly edge Syria 2-1 after extra time, 3-2 on aggregate, in Sydney. Cahill’s header in the 109th minute completed the Aussie turnaround and sent them into the inter-confederation playoff, most likely against Panama or Honduras, at the expense of a spirited Syrian side that pushed them until the very end.
Syria salvaged an improbable 1-1 draw with Australia in the first leg of their qualifying playoff to keep their World Cup dream alive, but the Socceroos are still in control of this tie having scored a vital away goal ahead of the return leg in Sydney on Tuesday, October 10.
The level of football in China, millions of dollars spent on foreigners not withstanding, is not quite up to par with some of the top soccer leagues in the world. As evidence, may we present to you Oscar, a Brazilian midfielder who had a decent spell at Chelsea but absolutely annihilated the near non-existent defense of Guangzhou Evergrande on Saturday while playing for Shanghai SIPG in the Chinese FA Cup semifinals.
For the first time since 2006, Saudi Arabia will be in the World Cup. The Green Falcons, having missed out on the last two tournaments, will return to the world stage after a 1-0 win over already qualified Japan on Tuesday.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Saudi Arabia become the fourth Asian team to reach the #WorldCup, joining Iran, Japan and Korea Republic! pic.twitter.com/vQQylx8GyU