The reigning Africa Cup of Nations champion Algeria began its title defense Tuesday with a match against Sierra Leone in Douala, meaning it was also time to get a first glimpse of three-time Premier League winner and 2016 African Footballer of the Year Riyad Mahrez.
In 1986, Diego Armando Maradona was on top of the world. With five goals and five assists, El Pibe de Oro led Argentina to an impressive World Cup victory. The stat that really shows how great Maradona was that summer in Mexico wasn’t his goals, assists or record number of dribbles — it was the record he set for most fouls suffered in a men’s World Cup.
After Sporting lost 3-2 to Santa Clara on Friday, Porto was presented an opportunity to open up a lead at the top of the Primeira Liga with a positive result against Estoril Praia on Saturday.
However, Estoril Praia, the league's fifth-place team, stormed to a 2-0 halftime advantage thanks to an André Franco penalty and a wicked deflection on Arthur's shot from the edge of the area.
Week after week, Jaime Escandar proved his talents as a striker in Club Aparición, a small amateur squad in Paine, a town a few miles south of Santiago, Chile. In the words of his teammates, he was a natural. He could score goals with his right foot, with his left foot, with his head. He just scored goals for every taste.
But last weekend, his goal was a bit different.
Perhaps more so than any other type of soccer, international football lends itself to the hero forward who saves the day with a miraculous goal. Whether it’s Pelé dominating the men’s World Cup, Michelle Akers scoring at will at the Women’s World Cup, Landon Donovan’s unforgettable finish against Algeria or Carli Lloyd’s midfield bomb in 2015, there’s something about the international game that loves a star goal scorer.
While you've been up to god knows what sort of merrymaking over the past 10 days, the Indian Super League has been providing us with the best goals of the New Year. If you haven't seen either yet, prepare to fall in love with the sweet feet of Jamshedpur's Greg Stewart and Kerala Blasters' Adrián Luna.
Sierra Leone are hoping to prove competitive and lay the foundation for future qualification as they compete at this month’s Africa Cup of Nations finals for the first time in a quarter century, coach John Keister said.
Having last qualified for the 1996 edition in South Africa in only their second appearance at the finals, the west African country returns hoping to become a more regular participant, according to their Manchester-born coach.
While not quite as bad as 2020, 2021 was not exactly a great year. The Covid-19 pandemic still rages, providing daily disruptions to our lives, politics remained fucked as ever, preventing any real progress on issues of climate change or equity, and my favorite soccer teams all still suck. But an Instagram post featuring Christen Press and Tobin Heath may have just made the entire year worth it.
On Jan. 26, 2022, Amazon Prime Video Sport releases Simeone: Living Match by Match, a six-episode look at the "life, work and miracles" of Atlético Madrid manager Diego "El Cholo" Simeone.
The title derives from a famous bit of "Cholismo" (the idea behind Atlético success since Simeone's arrival) that the manager uttered over and over again during his side's run to the 2020-21 LaLiga title: "Partido a partido" (one match at a time or "game by game").
The emergence of 17-year-old Pablo Páez Gavi for both Barcelona and Spain during the 2021-22 season has been criminally under-appreciated in the English-speaking world. It's a serious offense because just putting the La Masia product through the 90-minute eye test is enough to reveal a footballer of supreme talent, which is exceptionally rare when considering all the nuance and subtlety that comes with the midfield position.