In every sport, there are rivalries that transcend all others — Yankees vs. Red Sox, Lakers vs. Celtics, Duke vs. UNC, North Korea vs. South Korea, Alabama vs. everyone outside of Tuscaloosa. For football purists, nothing beats the rivalry between Arsenal and Östersunds FK. Fortunately for soccer fans around the globe, the Europa League will bring us another thrilling chapter in the Arsenal vs. Ostersund rivalry on Thursday.
Valentine’s Day is a time for buying overpriced gifts, spending way too much money on a fancy dinner and pretending everything is just fine in your relationship for just one night. But no matter where you are in your relationship this Valentine’s Day, we have just the soccer GIFs for you.
Nothing matches the emotional highs and lows of love like soccer, whether it’s an unexpected winner or a devastating own goal. From embarrassing first dates to blossoming loves to heartbreaking divorce, there are soccer GIFs for everything you might come across in your love life.
The Champions League returned with two matches on Tuesday, both featuring a team with a legitimate shot at winning the title and preventing Real Madrid from a historic three-peat. One might expect Cristiano Ronaldo and Los Blancos to be watching those matches to size up the competition, or at least spend the evening preparing for the big match against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
Cristiano Ronaldo was doing none of those things. Instead, he was at home playing a game that looks like it was invented by a 6-year-old.
Last week, PSG right back Dani Alves made headlines for playing the final seconds of PSG's win over Sochaux in goal. Sunday, English non-league side Grays Athletic did PSG one better by playing their right back in goal for a full hour.
Sometimes children are the most astute observers of human behavior in our society. For example, Sydney Leroux Dwyer and Dom Dwyer's toller son Cassius is a very astute observer of soccer behavior. Specifically, we are talking about flopping.
'Tis the season for MLS clubs to release their kits for 2018. This is always a big deal. The jersey arms race must be won at all costs. Uniforms must be better, cooler, flashier, more interesting than the competition's. Sometimes, teams will throw cool "Easter eggs" and the like into their new alternate kits. That's where teams can really get creative. So, we have suggestions for one-off alternate jerseys (one for each team, to be exact) MLS teams could use to bolster their brands and bring in those sweet millennial dollars. Thank us later.
Atlanta United
It’s rare one shares a pitch with Nigel de Jong and doesn’t come out with something bleeding, broken or bruised. Somehow, Germany referee Deniz Aytekin managed to survive offering the Dutch bad boy some candy before snarfing it down himself during a DFB Pokal match between Mainz and Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday.
Whoever first said "never meet your heroes" obviously didn't see this young Stoke City fan's eyes light up when he figured out he was going to get to meet Peter Crouch.
Crouch, a tall, lanky center forward, is known as one of the game's good guys, so it's nice to see young fans so excited to see him, even if he is on the tail-end of his career.
Matt Miazga is a very promising young American center back who plays for Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie, on loan from Chelsea. Because we are interested in the goings-on of American players across the pond, we though it was newsworthy when Miazga was suspended for grabbing an opposing player's private region.
The incident happened on January 20, against Heerenveen in a 1-1 draw. The player whose crotch Miazga grabbed is Heerenveen right back Denzel Dumfries, which sounds like a made-up name but we assure you is not.
Here's a video of the incident: