Humor

During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic with more people working from home, it’s not uncommon for house pets to join in on work meetings. My cat has jumped into my lap during countless Zoom meetings, either loving the attention or completely oblivious. Pets have also continued to pop up in soccer matches; we’re never upset to see a good boy or girl interrupt a game in search of a belly rub. 

But everyone has to get back to work eventually, and when an animal doesn’t leave you alone, drastic measures must be taken, as was the case as a dog was shown a red card this week in Serbia.

Imagine you took the Premier League and made some drastic changes: removed all the money, gathered the most random assortment of players, had every match played in unbearable wind and rain and turned up the patter by a factor of 10. Only then can you begin to imagine what goes on in Scottish soccer.

On Dec. 9, 2020, Emerson Carioca scored the goal that gave Sampaio Correa promotion to the Carioca Championship. To everyone's surprise, the player decided to celebrate it by TAKING OFF HIS CLOTHES! In front of the Maricá bench, the rival on duty that day.

It's Super Bowl week, which means it's that time of the year when you learn way too much information about two teams that you don't really care about (what don't we know about Tom Brady as this point?). 

How about learning a digestible amount of interesting information about some teams that you still probably don't care about — at least not yet. Because after you're done reading about some very unusual nicknames, you'll undoubtedly fall in love with one or more of these somewhat obscure soccer clubs.

The 2021 Super Bowl kickoff time is set for 6:40 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 7 with NFC representative Tampa Bay hosting defending champion Kansas City at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. You don’t want to miss it because a little birdie told me that The Weeknd is set to be joined by Daft Punk, Kendrick Lamar and Ariana Grande during his halftime performance, although maybe I’m just telling you what I want to hear.

Ángel Di María might never play another game for PSG, not after what he did to his new manager, Mauricio Pochettino, in training this week.

Pochettino, who replaced Thomas Tuchel at PSG on Jan. 2, took part in a training drill with players on Friday but probably wishes he hadn’t. His fellow Argentine, Di María, sent him flying to the grass with a ruthless nutmeg.

Even back to the early ages of the sport, football has always been a prevailingly mental game. Tactics, strategies, formations, players; all have been examined at length in order to uncover the next advancement in the sport.

While the discussion of soccer tactics has gradually transitioned from old men with pipes to young computer science graduates with laptops, it is club managers that still think they are the commanders of footballing thought — often to their own detriment...