Hurley dropped a collection of board shorts of countries who are going to this year’s World Cup just in time for the upcoming summer. I’m not going to lie, I might have to buy a pair myself considering how nice they look. The range includes board shorts for England, France, Nigeria, Australia, Portugal and two different designs for the USA.
France wearing green? Argentina in bright yellow? How about Mexico wearing blue and white stripes? In World Cup kit history, there have been five instances of club kits being worn by national teams, often due to bizarre circumstances.
We are going to go on record here and say that democracy is, generally, a good thing. Voting for leaders, holding them accountable with a free press and repeating the process is probably the most effective way to run a government. But when it comes to deciding the greatest World Cup goal of all time, voting might not be the best method.
You can take the USMNT out of the World Cup, but you can’t take the World Cup out of the USMNT ... or something. We might not be creating any new memories in Russia, but at least we’ve got some historical moments that're always worth revisiting. I’m talking about the 2002 World Cup team.
The team’s run to the quarterfinals of that competition was no fluke — they didn’t Portugal Euro 2016 themselves into the history books.
Bruce Arena (with the help of Jurgen Klinsmann and some uninspired performances from the players) failed to qualify the U.S. for the 2018 World Cup. Now he wants to monetize that failure with a new autobiography. The Bruce Arena book is titled “What's Wrong with US?: A Coach’s Blunt Take on the State of American Soccer After a Lifetime on the Touchline,” a clear and obvious money grab revolving around a fiasco of his own creation.
The faded soccer ball, covered with scratches and thousands of signatures, is a testament to soccer's power to bring the world together. Kings, prime ministers, monks and professional footballers have knocked the ball around. The Ball has been kicked and headed all across the world. The Ball travels from Battersea Park in London to the World Cup every four years, and it started a new journey on March 25.
The World Cup has created many a legend, and many of those legends have gone on to legendary status outside of the World Cup. Some players, though, get 15 minutes of fame during the World Cup and that's all they get ever. Like these five.
Due to the dawning of the internet, increased globalization and the heavy concentration of players plying their trade in European club football, there are hardly any unknown quantities at the World Cup now. Years back, nations like Panama, Iceland and Peru would’ve left opposing managers scrambling for information, but in 2018, that’s hardly the case.