There was a time, not so long ago, when Pepe was one of the world’s fiercest defenders. He might not necessarily have been the best defender tactically and certainly wasn’t the cleanest of tacklers, but goddamnit he was not going to let you score without at least putting either a cleat or elbow into your cranium, usually both.
AC Milan has made its worst start in Serie A in 81 years this season. Winning just two and losing four games out of six, under-fire manager Marco Giampaolo is under even more pressure to get the Rossoneri up and running.
The former Sassuolo manager replaced Gennaro Gatuso as manager over the summer and the move was lauded by fans. Now, things don’t look as good.
AC Milan has not lost four games in its first six matches since 1938. Almost all of these losses have come to lesser opponents: Udinese, Inter, Torino and, now, Fiorentina.
It has to be the greatest third round fixture in the history of Carabao Cup. Wednesday’s meeting between Burton Albion and Bournemouth at Pirelli Stadium featured three floodlight failures, a minimum of 28 minutes of added time and a giant killing.
On Sunday, the Czech First League had one of its biggest games of the season: the Prague derby between rivals Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague. The match went down at Letná Stadium, home of Sparta, but the visitors — and current league-leaders — Slavia emerged with a 3-0 win.
After Tomáš Souček had given Slavia the lead with a 19th-minute penalty, the game’s pivotal moment arrived in the 55th minute. With Slavia pushing hard to increase its lead, the two-goal cushion finally arrived in bizarre fashion.
Loris Karius bloopers are like the Rolling Stones: They never get old and they never stop entertaining.
I know of no greater natural human curiosity than the one that demands we discover the ball’s final resting place. One of our most beloved sports, golf, is entirely based on this premise. So when a ball actually exits the field of play, the novelty of it all can lead to some of the greatest moments in all of sports.
But sometimes, you don’t want to know the end. Because how can the end be happy when so much random chance is involved?
Whatever you do, don’t show this to Joe Buck. Yesterday, Guadalajara registered a 1-0 victory over Atlas at Estadio Akron thanks to a 63rd-minute crack from Alexis Vega, who then exposed his crack. The 21-year-old Mexican boofed one from over 25 yards out to keep Chivas in the thick of the liguilla race, and then he fought off a strong desire to strip nude before settling for half-naked.
The Orlando Pride might just be the worst-named club in the world. Not because Pride is a bad name, but because the ownership and/or marketing team doesn't seem to understand its fans and community.
Being a national team coach in a landscape where you rarely get to see your players must be difficult, and Costa Rica manager Gustavo Matosas has said to hell with it after less than one year in charge.
Matosas, the head coach, said that he gets bored with the amount of downtime he has compared to the amount of time he actually has to train and work with his players. He felt “unproductive” with so much down time, even though he spends loads of it studying film so that he is prepared to get the most out of the little time he has with his players.
Scoring a goal is a beautiful thing, as is clearing one off the goal-line from a defensive perspective. But scoring a goal 13 seconds into a match without even touching it? Well it doesn’t get much better than that. It sounds like some serious witchcraft was at play in the early moments of this game. The league should look into that.