Russian hackers Fancy Bears dropped a complete non-story this week regarding the use of banned substances in soccer. You see, the typical SHOCKING TRUTHS UNCOVERED AND REVEALED that we’ve come to associate with hacking were nonexistent in this information dump, which is insane given football’s history of being corrupt to the core.
Here’s your football fact of the day: the England Blind team is a force to be reckoned with. The IBSA Blind Football European Championships kicked off last week in Berlin and the English side has made it known that they are the team to beat after 6-0 and 7-0 whoopings of Romania and France, respectively.
They’re just as much about quality as they are about quantity as Daniel English proved, however. Against Les Blues on Monday, the England player went on this brilliant solo run to score in just the first minute of the game.
The United Bid Committee, the organizers of the joint 2026 World Cup bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico, announced the 49 stadiums and 44 cities across the three countries that are currently being considered for the event. With 20-25 venues anticipated in the final decision, there’s certainly a lot for the committee to consider before submitting their final bid by March 16, 2018.
Friday was the deadline for FIFA to accept bids to host the 2026 World Cup, the first to be awarded since scandal rocked the organization following Russia and Qatar controversially winning the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively. The U.S. had already turned in a joint bid with Mexico and Canada that’s expected to win easily, but at the last minute Morocco decided to throw its hat into the ring.
Anyone who ever watched a match with Edgar Davids knows he’s one of the most recognizable players to ever grace a pitch. With his magnificent dreadlocked mane and iconic goggles, Davids was steam punk before steam punk was cool. He was a pretty damn good footballer too, playing for clubs like Ajax, AC Milan, Juventus, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Tottenham while representing the Netherlands 74 times and making some kickass commercials. Paul Pogba’s got nothing on Davids.
Newly appointed Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli has wasted no time putting his own stamp on the national team by recalling once-exiled Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi and dropping the oft-criticized Gonzalo Higuain for crucial upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela.
Icardi is joined in Argentina’s attack by Lionel Messi, Paulo Dybala, Joaquin Correa and Sergio Aguero, who was left out of Sampaoli’s first Argentina squad for friendlies against Brazil and Singapore back in June.
Iran is one of three clubs to have qualified for the 2018 World Cup, but that could be in jeopardy.
According to the latest FIFA World Rankings, Switzerland will approach the 2018 FIFA World Cup bracketed amongst the traditional favorites of Brazil, Germany and Argentina. Those are the only three nations above them in the latest August rankings. It’s easy to laugh at the Swiss opening up a sizable gap over the traditional European powers of France, Spain, Italy and England, but there’s no reason to not have them pegged as dark horses in Russia.
After a tournament that was the opposite of the 2016 Men's Euros in terms of entertainment value, the Netherlands have come away from Euro 2017 victorious. A six-goal thriller is exactly the type of thing we like to see in an international final, and Holland and Denmark did not disappoint.
Two goals after halftime put the 4-2 scoreline in the Netherlands' favor after falling behind 1-0 in the sixth minute and entering halftime tied 2-2.
It was an especially sweet victory for the Dutch, as it came on home soil.
The U.S. women faced off against Japan on Thursday in their last game of the Tournament of Nations. Japan-U.S. has become a particularly heated affair in recent years with the two meeting in three of the last four major finals. USWNT fans will not easily forget the heartbreaking loss to the Japanese at the 2011 FIFA World Cup nor Carli Lloyd’s rampage to win the trophy four years later.