If you follow college football, you’ve probably heard of 37-year-old University of Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck. He rose to prominence at Western Michigan after leading the unfancied program to a 13-1 record in 2016 and a trip to the Cotton Bowl, but it was his approach to coaching (hyper energy, hyper millennial-approved, hyper “elite”) that won him both fans and detractors in equal measure.
The Scotland women’s national team made history on Tuesday. A 2-1 victory over Albania saw it lock up the top spot in Group 2 and secure its place in the World Cup finals next summer for the first time ever.
Scotland’s WWC debut was made possible thanks to a little help from Poland. In one of the more surprising results of this qualifying series, Poland held 18th-ranked Switzerland to a 0-0 draw. A Swiss win would have put it in first to automatically qualify, but with points dropped, opportunity awaited Scotland and they seized the moment.
Calcetines: Nunca se han celebrado tanto. Ya sea que se trate de los calcetines graciosos que dicen "Esta reunión apesta" que tu padre usa discretamente en el trabajo o de futbolistas que arriesgan todo por una multa de 65.000 dólares por usar sus amadas pero prohibidas medias en la Copa del Mundo, se trata de cubrir tus pequeños dedos con el más fino nylon. Pero la forma en que los jugadores de fútbol usan sus calcetines se ha desarrollado desde los días en que se unían el cuero o el pelo de animales enmarañado.
There’s something about soccer players born in September.
While talent should in theory be equally divided throughout the world by players born in each month, soccer players born in September make up a hefty portion of some of the best players in the world right now and throughout history. In fact, nine of the following best soccer players born in September were born in 1989, apparently a great month in the history of the sport, which gave us the likes of Thomas Mueller, Daniel Sturridge, Alexandre Pato and Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Exactly 10 years ago Thursday, the Argentina national team won gold in soccer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It remains as Lionel Messi’s greatest triumph at the international level.
So what's happened to the players since?
The 2008 Argentina Olympics squad was absolutely loaded with talent. Youngsters like Lionel Messi, Sergio Agüero, Ángel Di María, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Éver Banega and Pablo Zabaleta were just starting their careers. They were joined by over-age player Javier Mascherano (then just 24 himself) and led by the serene Juan Román Riquelme.
The Arsenal U18 team took on Aston Villa’s U18 in the first game of the Premier League U18 competition. But it wasn’t the game itself that brought all the headlines but rather the 14-year-old who played the full 90 minutes for Arsenal: Remy Mitchell.
Remy Mitchell played 90 minutes for Arsenal U18s at the weekend as they won 4-2 against Aston Villa.
He's only FOURTEEN years old pic.twitter.com/YK4NpYQsCu
The football world was stunned and heartbroken last summer when promising Dutch midfielder Abdelhak “Appie” Nouri collapsed on the pitch during a preseason game for Ajax against Werder Bremen.
Alphonso Davies made his MLS All-Star Game debut a couple weeks ago. It’s likely to be his last, at least for a while, but it was a memorable one.
Tottenham scraped past Newcastle United 2-1 in its opening match of the 2018-19 Premier League season, but it wasn’t just the game, or the lack of transfers from Spurs, that had everyone talking. Instead, it was the goal celebration from Dele Alli, which has given rise to the Dele Alli challenge.
His goal restored the lead for Tottenham, and despite it being a pretty neat header, his celebration was the focus. Fans and footballers (and even managers) alike have tried to do it, and many have failed.