Aged 31, Mexico international Andres Guardado recently told FIFA.com that he now prides himself more on bringing “balance to the team” rather than being the “box-to-box player” of old, so the Real Betis midfielder is probably less than pleased with the club’s defensive record this season — they’ve allowed 34 goals in 18 matches, third-worst in La Liga.
Lionel Messi is probably the best soccer player of all time, and one of the reasons for that is he never stops trying to improve himself. Even though he's a world-class passer, dribbler and finisher, Messi told a Russian outlet his goal now is to be a better penalty-taker.
Much of the discourse currently surrounding Arsenal revolves around whether superstar Chilean attacker Alexis Sanchez will still be there at the end of January. We can say two things about Sanchez with a reasonable amount of certainty: he is Arsenal's best player by some distance, and he cares deeply about playing for his country.
That is why it's probably a bad idea to send tweets like this:
It’s the time of year when people decide to make personal promises to be better in the coming 12 months, because nothing says motivation like waiting until the end of one year to do better. But if you really want to make a difference in 2018, instead of resolving to spend more time in the gym or less money on Starbucks, might we suggest these new years resolutions to be a better soccer fan in 2018.
Introspection is not easy, so we did the heavy lifting to give you these six resolutions perfect for any soccer fan.
As we near the end of 2017, few American soccer fans will look back on the year with any sort of fondness after the USMNT failed to qualify for the World Cup. Same for Dutch, Italian and Chilean fans, plus anyone who as ever rooted for Sunderland. So instead of focusing on 2017, let’s turn our attention to how much 2018 will suck. Here are 18 horrible 2018 soccer predictions.
This Pique-Neymar interview will bring tears to the eyes of many Barca nostalgics who still cannot understand the Brazilian star’s decision to leave Barcelona for PSG.
Neymar and Gerard Pique when they were teammates. Photo: @diarioas | Twitter
It’s been a long time coming but the first officials have been convicted in a U.S. court stemming from the FIFA bribery scandal that rocked the world's football federation. Jose Maria Marin of Brazil and Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy on Friday, the top charge they faced in the New York federal court.
A Spain World Cup ban is an unbelievable possibility. FIFA is very emphatic when it comes to football federations' independence: they simply will not tolerate any government – or any other third parties, for that matter – influencing national soccer federations.
Similar to the rumors warning that Peru was in danger of a similar ban a few weeks ago, now FIFA admittedly has Spain in sight.
Paolo Guerrero will be able to play in the World Cup after all. A couple weeks after FIFA suspended the Peruvian captain for a year for testing positive for a banned substance, FIFA partially upheld Guerrero’s appeal and reduced his ban to six months. Because the ban began in November, he will be back in time for Peru’s World Cup opener against Denmark.