Opinion

It is an almost impossibly touchy subject. Should the size of women's soccer fields and goals be made smaller, scaled to the average size of women instead of the average size of men, to improve women’s soccer?

Just to bring it up would open yourself up to calls of sexism, but Emma Hayes, coach of the Chelsea Women in the Women’s Super League in England, is doing just that in a recent column in The Times. 

Summer in the soccer world is a time of hope, drama, disappointment, loss and new beginnings. In a footballer’s life, it could be a time of complete change and new opportunities; new challenges to take on. This summer is proving no different. 

There is hope that teams can add players that will make them stronger and more competitive — take Real Madrid buying Eden Hazard and various others after a disappointing 2018-19 season. There is drama circulating too, with Gareth Bale being a lighting rod of speculation at Real as well. 

In 2018, for the first time ever, FOX owned the U.S. broadcast rights to the men’s World Cup. 

We hated it.

This year, for the second time ever, FOX owns the Women’s World Cup U.S. TV rights.

We almost hate to admit it, but FOX is doing a great job.

While Portugal’s national team was for the most part all smiles during the trophy ceremony after its 1-0 Nationals League Final win over the Netherlands on Sunday, one player couldn’t hide his disappointment when it came to individual awards.

The Women’s World Cup began Friday with host France dismantling South Korea 4-0. It was a thrilling show from Les Bleues, who put down a marker as the team to beat this summer.

But all ESPN.com wants to talk about is Eden Hazard and Euro 2020 qualifiers.

Since there are 24 teams participating in the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the knockout format is slightly different than the men’s format. To ensure 16 teams make it to the knockout stages, out of the six groups, four of those groups have three out of the four teams in the group go through the to the knockout stages. The way these four teams are chosen is simple: The third-place teams with the most points out of the six move on to the knockout stages.

Neymar has once again shown that he has just as much flair off the pitch as he does on it.

The PSG striker arrived in style to the Brazilian national team training session this week in a custom Mercedes-Benz Airbus H-145 helicopter worth over $14 million.

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In the upcoming July issue of FourFourTwo, Argentine legend and current Dorados manager Diego Maradona provides us with a fascinating thought: “If Manchester United need a coach, I’m the man to do it,” he says. “I know they sell lots of shirts around the world, but they need to win trophies, too. I can do that for them.”

Apart from the match itself, last night’s most anticipated action in Madrid was I̶m̶a̶g̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶i̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶d̶r̶u̶m̶s̶ taking place inside the beIN Sports studio at the Wanda Metropolitano, where longtime Premier League rivals José Mourinho and Arsène Wenger sat side-by-side for pregame, halftime and post-game analysis of the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final.

Turner Sports — including TNT and B/R Live — had its first go at broadcasting the Champions League for the 2018-19 season. It was a huge opportunity for the American broadcaster to venture into soccer, a domain previously dominated by ESPN, FOX and NBC. 

Capped off by some dreadful decisions covering the Champions League final (won 2-0 by Liverpool), I can definitively say the first season of the Champions League on TNT was nothing short of a shit show.