It’s a scene familiar to any soccer fan. A player goes down after a collision or misstep, the trainer runs onto the pitch with a trusty kit in hand, the contents of a mysterious aerosol are released on the affected area and, within seconds, the player emerges anew and is able to continue play. A miracle has just happened before our eyes! The miracle of magic spray.
Remember Michael Jordan’s flu game in the 1997 Finals, when he scored 38 points to will Chicago to a 3-2 series lead over Utah? Well, while Germany left back Jonas Hector stayed home to recover from a cold, Mexico attackers Carlos Vela and Chucky Lozano were slicing through the Die Mannschaft defense while emulating MJ — playing with guts while puking up said guts.
Brazil fans may want to look away. After being held out of practice on Monday, the latest Neymar injury update saw the world’s most expensive player limp off after just 15 minutes of practice on Tuesday.
After being given a day off, Neymar was spotted limping out of Brazil training. pic.twitter.com/seqAqCGBUG
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 19, 2018
Colombia will be without attacking midfielder James Rodriguez when it opens group play against Japan Tuesday. The latest James Rodriguez injury update says the 2014 Golden Boot winner is still struggling with a left calf injury that he sustained during training, and he’s since been omitted from Colombia’s starting eleven to face Japan.
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Rightfully so, the storyline everybody’s been talking about from Friday's fixture between Iran and Morocco is the 95th minute own goal that saw Iran take just its second ever World Cup victory and its first in 20 years (against the U.S.). They will also be going into Match Day 2 leading a group that consists of Spain and Portugal. Football is awesome.
After being spotted training alongside his Egypt teammates at yesterday’s training session in Grozny, manager Hector Cuper has today revealed that star forward Mohamed Salah is almost certain to feature against Uruguay on Friday in Yekaterinburg.
After a “comprehensive examination” in Massachusetts General Hospital, it turns out Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius did indeed suffer a concussion during the May 26 Champions League final against Real Madrid. This report, however, isn’t going to clear our conscience on tearing Karius apart as a bad keeper, is it?
No qualified nation’s World Cup cycle has been quite as dramatic as that of Egypt’s. The Pharaohs got off to a flyer in qualifying before an August defeat to Uganda threw everything in jeopardy. Step forward Mohamed Salah.
Early in the second half of Saturday's Champions League final, Liverpool fans were still hot over Sergio Ramos' controversial tackle that knocked Mo Salah out of the game. Ironically, the focus on Salah might have detracted from the attention given to a Sergio Ramos elbow on Liverpool keeper Loris Karius.
After the dust had settled and Real Madrid walked off the field in Kyiv as champions of Europe for the third consecutive season, the soccer world shifted its attention to answering one simple question: Is Mo Salah out for the World Cup this summer?
Following close to 24 hours of speculation, Salah tweeted that he believes he will be back on the pitch in time to represent Egypt.