It’s quite cold and snowy in Serbia right now, a fact that hasn’t kept those in Belgrade from going outside.
Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Serbia’s capital on Saturday night despite immense snowfall and freezing temperatures.
There is often a fine line between clever play and good sportsmanship. Ellie Carpenter toed it with her Australian W-League goal on Thursday.
Canberra United was seeking the first goal of the match in the second half against last-place Western Sydney when WSW goalkeeper Jada Mathyssen-Whyman came out of her box to kick the ball away from United striker Rhoda Mulaudzi.
Rangers climbed to the top of the Scottish Premiership with a 2-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle Stadium on Sunday, but the march to three points for Steven Gerrard’s men was greatly complicated by the straight red issued to Canadian international Scott Arfield in the 72nd minute.
Some great goalkeeping from Hearts' Zdeněk Zlámal resulted in two saves in a matter of seconds, including the second one on the goal-line. However, with the ball secured safely at the goalmouth, Arfield came crashing in with a horrendously late sliding challenge on the ball and Zlámal’s face.
The use of VAR is a great thing; it’s a necessary development in the game. If you find someone who disputes that, you’ve probably found someone who doesn’t really understand how the system works. However, as the World Cup demonstrated, it can be great while still inviting contentious debate. The system is there to help referees, but it’s still that humanoid umpire making the final call.
Last April, the English Premier League clubs voted unanimously to reject the use of the Video Assistant Referee for the 2018-19 season. Less than a year later, they’re already seeing the folly of their ways.
The 20 Premier League clubs agreed in principle to the use of VAR starting in the 2019-20 season at a shareholder’s meeting on Thursday. However, the league will continue testing VAR throughout the remainder of the current season.
How well do you know Law 8, concerning “Kick-off” in particular? Did you know that it’s a real goddamn stickler for the rules, but it’s also a bit of a mischievous statute? Here’s the particular part of the particular subsection I speak of:
1. Kick-off
Procedure
It’s the greatest club competition in the world, but sometimes even the best footballers make mistakes. In the case of these Champions League fails from Wednesday, very bad mistakes.
Some of the best teams with the best players in the world took the pitch for Champions League group stage matches on Wednesday. A few of them showed they can be no better than your average Sunday league player with these shocking Champions League fails.
Wolverhampton Wanderers fell behind by three goals after an hour of play to Tottenham Hotspurs in a (weirdly late) Premier League match on Saturday. And yet, the underdog nearly found a way to come back to tie the match but for a Wolves disallowed goal and a referee who completely forgot the rules in a 3-2 Spurs win.
Playing at home, Wolves didn’t back down from Tottenham, racking up more shots than Spurs, 16-10. But it was the visitors who dominated on the scoreboard, with Eric Lamela, Lucas Moura and Harry Kane all scoring in the first hour of play.
An assistant referee was assaulted, a coach was hit with a coin and a fan punched a goalkeeper — just another Edinburgh Derby.
The Edinburgh Derby, the name for the match between Edinburgh-based Scottish clubs Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian, has been played since 1875. They’ve played 644 times (319 in competitive matches) with Hearts winning 282 (140).
Wednesday’s match finished in a 0-0 draw and while no goals were scored, there was plenty of action. Sadly, most of the action was off the pitch.
New York City FC defeated the Philadelphia Union 3-1 to advance to the MLS Conference Semifinals on Wednesday in the Bronx. On its face, it was a comprehensive victory, with the Union’s lone goal coming far too late in the 83rd minute. But one shocking no-call in the first half absolutely had an impact on the game, and MLS is being a bit tone-deaf in the aftermath.