No event escalates individuals to the status of national hero or global villain as dramatically as the World Cup. The idolatry that follows success and the stigma that follows failure are woven into the fabric of history, and the repercussions will typically follow footballers for the rest of their lives. Daily, we’ll take a look at who played the role of hero and who played the role of villain at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
It's often the case that professional soccer players have the option of competing for more than one national team. That option is commonly the result of a player being born in a different country than where he was raised. This year's World Cup foreign-born players account for 11 percent of total roster spots.
This World Cup has been insane to say the least. There have been five own goals already and four free-kick goals (there were three in all of the 2014 World Cup). Favorites are losing or drawing and we love it.
Russia’s 3-1 win over Egypt at Saint Petersburg Stadium has almost guaranteed the hosts a place in the Round of 16 while Mohamed Salah and the Pharaohs have been all but eliminated from the World Cup. After failing to come off the bench in Egypt’s devastating 1-0 opening defeat to Uruguay, Salah was unable to make his presence felt Tuesday until earning and converting a conciliatory penalty in the 73rd minute.
Remember Michael Jordan’s flu game in the 1997 Finals, when he scored 38 points to will Chicago to a 3-2 series lead over Utah? Well, while Germany left back Jonas Hector stayed home to recover from a cold, Mexico attackers Carlos Vela and Chucky Lozano were slicing through the Die Mannschaft defense while emulating MJ — playing with guts while puking up said guts.
Every team has now played one match at the World Cup. No team has earned itself more fans after one round of play than the Lions of Teranga after a wild 2-1 win for Senegal vs Poland in Group H of the 2018 World Cup on Tuesday.
Senegal’s only other appearance in the World Cup came in 2002, when the Lions upset defending champion France on the way to a quarterfinals appearance. Senegal looked capable of returning to the quarterfinals after thrilling in its win over Poland, ranked No. 8 in the world.
Disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter will attend two matches at the 2018 World Cup at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin despite, the former’s six-year ban from football on unethical conduct charges.
Blatter will attend Wednesday’s match between Portugal and Morocco at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow before traveling to St. Petersburg to watch Brazil take on Costa Rica Friday.
South Korea’s manager Shin Tae-Yong is a smart man. Recent accusations of a Swedish scout spying on South Korea’s training led the gaffer to explain a very interesting tactic that he uses in training.
This quote from South Korea’s manager in response to Sweden spying on their training is amazing. #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/BatRX4oli3
I’m making this up — this could’ve happened at the 1934 tournament or something — but I’m pretty sure that Tuesday’s match between Colombia and Japan is the first-ever World Cup game in which a player has been sent off in the third minute, resulting in a successfully taken penalty, only to be followed by a 39th minute equalizer in which a player strokes a free kick under the wall.
I just have a good feeling that we’ve never seen anything like this before.
Colombia will be without attacking midfielder James Rodriguez when it opens group play against Japan Tuesday. The latest James Rodriguez injury update says the 2014 Golden Boot winner is still struggling with a left calf injury that he sustained during training, and he’s since been omitted from Colombia’s starting eleven to face Japan.
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