The Spanish football season begins on August 12, 2018, with the Supercopa de España in Tangier, Morocco. That trophy match will be contested by La Liga winner Barcelona and Copa del Rey runner-up Sevilla, and it’ll serve as the curtain raiser for the new league season. The La Liga fixtures for 2018-19 were announced Tuesday, including opening weekend matches and the dates for this season’s El Clásicos.
The Vinícius Júnior Real Madrid transfer was the headline of the day on Friday.
President Florentino Pérez is looking to replace legend Cristiano Ronaldo after the Portuguese moved to Italy’s Juventus.
Numerous consolidated players and World Cup stars have been said to be Ronaldo’s replacement, but none of those rumors have materialized just yet.
We’ve taken a look at our best lineup from the World Cup, but now we turn our attention to the players that let their country down the most. That’s right people, even during what many consider the greatest World Cup of all-time, there were players and nations that fell flat. Here are our five biggest disappointments of the World Cup.
Fernando Torres just finished his time at boyhood club Atletico Madrid, and he's now a free agent. The world is his oyster. Torres is 34 years old, and he's obviously coming to the twilight of his career. But, as he showed for Atletico this past season in La Liga and the Europa League, there's still life in him.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, you would have heard that the host nation of the 2018 World Cup, Russia, managed to send Spain packing by defeating them on penalties. Not many people, if any at all, gave Russia a glimmer of hope of advancing past La Roja, but here we are, awaiting a quarterfinal between Russia and Croatia.
The Round of 16 is off to a flying start, and it's everything we need in a World Cup. The underdogs have been ruthless — Russia taking down Spain and Japan nearly beating Belgium.
Every game this weekend from the Round of 16 was an absolute nail-biter. Two games went to PKs and the world's two best players went out in tight, goal-filled games. It was awesome.
Spain controlled nearly 80 percent of possession, out-passed Russia 1,005 to 191 and attempted 24 shots compared to Russia’s seven, but all those stats are so entirely meaningless in the face of what’s transpired today: Russia has stunned Spain on penalties thanks to the heroics of goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
Russia, with 80,000 countrymen cheering them on in Moscow, were stone cold in the shootout, burying all four kicks form the spot. Spain, on the other hand, saw Rodrigo’s shot saved before Akinfeev denied Iago Aspas with a wonder stop.
You don’t grapple with Sergio Ramos. Unless you want to damage your shoulder ligaments or score a disastrous own goal in front of 80,000 of your countrymen, just stay away from the guy. He’s always a threat on set pieces — especially when the clock reads 92:48 — but he’s also a major threat with his understanding of judo.
The second day of the Round of 16 pits the host nation against a strong Spanish side and Croatia trying to show they are for real against Denmark.
Here are the picks from Connor Fleming (@conmanfleming), Bryce Badwan (@bbadss) and Travis Yoesting (@travisyoesting).
This World Cup featured the craziest group stage I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if it was the VAR, something in the Russian water or if Putin's cronies were up to something, but the 2018 edition of the world’s greatest sporting event will forever live on as one of the best.