Yesterday, in a must-win game against Qatar, Lionel Messi did something that was very uncharacteristic of him. With the opportunity to seal the game for Argentina and secure a place in the knockout rounds of the Copa América, he skied an open shot into the stands.
This Messi miss ... pic.twitter.com/5eD5XIziDB
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 23, 2019
Have you ever seen Key & Peele’s “Fútbol Flop” sketch? Well, an actual match in the actual country of Argentina has made that look like an interpretive dance of the FIFA Fair Play Award.
Here’s 25 seconds of action from Argentina’s Primera B Nacional — it’s a promotion playoff semifinal between Club Almagro and Central Córdoba.
By my count, there’s at least seven instances (maybe more?) of shithousery here, climaxing in an Almagro player attempting to get the referee sent off.
Clubs LOVE kit reveals. Why? Not only because the club gets new threads for next season, but also because people will buy them. Lately it seems like big kit manufacturers have lost their creative touch, opting to go for cookie cutter designs on their kits that are shared throughout Europe.
Apart from the iconic three stripes somewhere on the shirt, adidas kits can be pretty boring when they're the same shirts that are shared by different clubs. Take a look at these photos from this past season’s adidas-sponsored Premier League teams.
Cardiff City
Despite president Gianni Infantino’s last-ditch visit to Kuwait in an attempt to coerce the nation into co-hosting the 2022 World Cup with Qatar in order to expand the field from 32 to 48 teams, FIFA has now admitted failure in its expansion plan.
The next World Cup will remain a 32-team affair taking place between Nov. 21 and Dec. 18 solely in Qatar.
Everything was going perfectly for Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United on Wednesday.
Then, a shocking mistake between a goalie and his defender started a snowball effect that resulted in a stunning comeback by Derby County, which defeated Leeds United 4-2 (4-3 on aggregate) to advance to the final in Wembley against Aston Villa.
The growth of soccer in the United States has been incredible over the past decade. Not only have we seen growth domestically within Major League Soccer, but just walking down the street you can pick out multiple different soccer jerseys being casually worn. It has become one of the most popular sports in the country.
With Mohamed Salah ruled out of Tuesday’s Liverpool-Barcelona Champions League semifinal second leg with a concussion, maybe Jordi Alba thought he was in for a beautiful stroll across the lovely confines of Anfield. Maybe, looking across at replacement Xherdan Shaqiri, he thought, “Hell yeah, I might be marginally taller than this dude.”
Or perhaps he thought he’d simply feed it to Lionel Messi (as has been the case on three occasions in LaLiga and twice in the UCL this season) and let him do the rest.
It’s obviously been the wildest of title races, and Monday’s meeting between Manchester City and Leicester City only intensified how preposterously frantic it’s been. The Foxes were oh-so-close to doing Liverpool the ultimate favor, but the 2015-16 champions fell short due to Vincent Kompany’s 30-yard wonder strike in the 70th minute.