Arturo Vidal is one of the best midfielders in the world. He can do pretty much everything on the field. There is no skill that escapes him, although we would struggle to describe any one skill of his as "great."
Except for rocket ship header own goals, of course. Check out this beauty from Chile's 3-0 loss to Paraguay Thursday.
Will done @kingarturo23
Super own goal pic.twitter.com/UJlLiqSyKx
What a moment this was: Philippe Coutinho, plagued by a back injury that, according to Brazil national team doctor Michael Simoni, “was something emotional” and simply required “a pep talk” to resolve, turned out for Brazil after missing Liverpool’s opening five competitive fixtures and scored a goal 16 minutes after coming on! Warrior.
Before Argentina and Uruguay kicked off Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez joined together in makeshift jerseys combining to display 2030, the year the two nations would like to co-host the World Cup. The two countries then played some brother-in-law offense as they scrapped to a 0-0 draw in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying on Thursday evening in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi wearing no. 20 and 30 shirts tonight to promote Uruguay and Argentina's joint 2030 World Cup bid.
Messi is an icon, so everywhere Messi goes, folks are trying to get close to him. One little lad in Montevideo, where Messi and the Argentinian National Team are preparing for a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay, tried to get close to the best footballer in the world, but was thwarted by security.
Or so he thought.
It’s do or die time in South American World Cup qualifying, and Thursday features some all-important matches between Uruguay-Argentina, Brazil-Ecuador and Chile-Paraguay. For Chile and Paraguay, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Paraguay’s World Cup hopes are hanging by a thread with only four matchdays remaining. Defeat at the Estadio Monumental in the Chilean capital of Santiago would essentially put an end to any hopes of participating in Russia, but Los Guaranies can take heart from the fact that they defeated La Roja 2-1 in their last encounter.
Up until their quarterfinal defeat to Brazil, no side was more thoroughly entertaining at the 2014 World Cup than Colombia. James Rodriguez was the tournament’s standout performer and plenty of additional firepower was provided by the likes of Juan Cuadrado, Jackson Martinez and Teofilo Gutierrez.
Russian hackers Fancy Bears dropped a complete non-story this week regarding the use of banned substances in soccer. You see, the typical SHOCKING TRUTHS UNCOVERED AND REVEALED that we’ve come to associate with hacking were nonexistent in this information dump, which is insane given football’s history of being corrupt to the core.
CONCACAF aficionados have long watched the development of Joel Campbell with bated breath (what else are we supposed to do?). The Costa Rican international has routinely punished the United States in international competition, and he seemed to come of age at the 2014 World Cup after scoring against Uruguay.
The 2017 Copa Libertadores round of 16 wrapped up last Thursday, and among the advancing quarterfinalists will be some of the usual South American powers. Traditional favorites will be three-time winners River Plate and Santos, two-time champions Gremio and 2014 victors San Lorenzo.
But four remaining sides have never captured the Copa Libertadores trophy in their history: Brazil’s Botafogo, Argentina’s Lanus, Ecuador’s Barcelona and Bolivia’s Jorge Wilstermann.
Newly appointed Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli has wasted no time putting his own stamp on the national team by recalling once-exiled Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi and dropping the oft-criticized Gonzalo Higuain for crucial upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela.
Icardi is joined in Argentina’s attack by Lionel Messi, Paulo Dybala, Joaquin Correa and Sergio Aguero, who was left out of Sampaoli’s first Argentina squad for friendlies against Brazil and Singapore back in June.