Inspiring

Having not named an outright NWSL champion since the North Carolina Courage in 2019, it’s time to get down to business with the 2021 NWSL playoffs beginning on Sunday. It’s win or go home from start to finish, and the final at Louisville’s Lynn Family Stadium should provide a spectacular setting for the final on Saturday, Nov. 20.

Can Carli Lloyd lead Gotham to glory on her swan song? Can anyone stop that OL Reign attack? Is this the beginning of a Portland Thorns dynasty? What about a side like North Carolina or Chicago upsetting the odds? 

As the world’s game, soccer is an unending cycle that serves to provide its fans daily entertainment. Between club play, international play and whatever FIFA is dreaming up next (intergalactic play?), the football is officially going on forever. But the easiest answer to how many games do soccer players play in a season is 38.

An incredible Portland Timbers bicycle kick goal from Dairon Asprilla rocked Providence Park on Wednesday night as his side defeated San Jose 2-0.

Asprilla’s goal instantly went viral. A bicycle kick from outside of the penalty box is a rarity in soccer and quickly was featured on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays.

Incredible goals by young talents are frequently accompanied by the phrase “remember the name,” and that’s the case here for 21-year-old FC Groningen winger Cyril Ngonge.

The Belgium youth international’s star has been steadily rising over the last few years, beginning with a successful loan spell with Jong PSV in the Dutch second division to engineer a move to the Eredivisie’s RKC Waalwijk for the 2020-21 campaign.

Take a look at a list of Belgian First Division title winners and you'll find some familiar names at the top. Anderlecht leads the way with 34 league crowns, followed by last year's winner Club Brugge with exactly half as many titles.

But in third place is a club that even ardent fans of European soccer will struggle to recognize: Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (Union SG for short).

Located on the outskirts of Brussels, Union SG won six straight Belgian First Division titles between 1903 and 1910, plus another five over the ensuing two decades or so.

No slouch herself, Tobin Heath has played with some giants of the game. She’s called the two greatest goal scorers in the history of international soccer teammates, plus a few of the most iconic USWNT players of all time. But this week she revealed the best footballer she’s ever played with, and her answer might surprise you.

The 2009 Confederations Cup was simultaneously the closest the USMNT has come to a major international trophy and a near abject failure. Bob Bradley’s Americans were extremely lucky to escape the group stage but then came within a Lucio header of global glory. A dozen years later, where are those USMNT players? Many of them remain fixtures on our TVs — not all as players, but as pundits. Others now fill the ranks of coaching and technical staffs at clubs around the world.

For more than three decades, Coventry City was one of the cornerstones of the English top-flight. The Sky Blues were consistently a lower mid-table team (think Crystal Palace), but they were FA Cup winners in 1987 and an inaugural member of the Premier League in 1992.