Raheem Sterling is good at everything except for shooting. He is extremely good at everything except for shooting. He dribbles like a wizard, passes like a maestro, defends like a honey badger, moves off the ball like someone who actually knows how to do that and shoots like a man with a cinderblock tied to his foot. He shoots almost reluctantly, like it's something he knows he has to do but doesn't actually want to do.
Alexi Lalas brought it up; we’re here to answer it. Is Tim Howard still the right man in goal for the U.S. Men’s National Team?
Three years ago Tim Howard was the meme king of the World Cup, dual-handedly keeping Belgium at bay for 90 minutes while his USMNT teammates flailed around defensively. Howard made a World Cup record 15 saves that day, ultimately allowing two goals in extra time in a 2-1 loss that would have been a 1-0 win had Chris Wondolowski been able to put a shot on target from six yards out.
There’s no fighting the feeling that the Champions League group stage has become more and more of a nonevent over the past few years. Over the course of this week’s action, we watched Chelsea hammer Qarabag 6-0, PSG pummel Celtic 5-0 and Manchester City put four unanswered past Feyenoord. Even the marquee matchup between Barcelona and Juventus had the feeling of an International Champions Cup match being played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
There’s an immediate hot take available here that I just can’t commit myself to: the departure of Neymar from Barcelona has had an uplifting effect on 33-year-old midfielder Andres Iniesta, and El Ilusionista is about to enjoy the consummate season because of a mixture of peak footballing intelligence and a proverbial unchaining on the left-hand side of Barca’s midfield.
Frank de Boer was let go by Crystal Palace this weekend after losing 1-0 to Burnley. It was just his fourth league match in charge, and his fifth overall. Granted, he lost all four of those league matches, only winning a Carabao Cup match against Ipswich Town. In memory of de Boer's time at Palace, we ranked his five matches in charge from worst to best. And no they weren't just all the worst.
The story of Sunday night’s 1-1 draw between Seattle and Los Angeles wasn’t Lamar Neagle’s 85th minute equalizer for the Sounders, nor was it Gyasi Zardes actually doing a goal for the Galaxy. It was provided by FS1 broadcaster Alexi Lalas after the match had concluded. Lalas has some opinions on the USMNT, and he brought them. He brought them hard.
Dejan Lovren is like a haunted doll. No matter how hard you try to get rid of him, he always finds a way to stay put. During Liverpool's last two summers, a main goal has been to replace Lovren in the starting lineup. Lovren is still in the starting lineup. Next summer they will try to replace him again, but will fail somehow. Dejan Lovren will keep his job.
With only a handful of matches remaining in World Cup qualifying, it’s become clear which nations are in serious danger of missing out on Russia next summer. While all will become clear in October, here are 25 global superstars who, if World Cup qualifying ended today, would either fail to appear at the tournament or would need to navigate a playoff to qualify.
Real Madrid's leading scorer so far this season is 21-year-old Spain international Marco Asensio, who has four goals in all competitions.
Asensio is the next great long-range shooter, having torn up Barcelona and Valencia for sagging off him. He's clearly an incredible talent and will be one of the world's best attackimg midfielders sooner rather than later, if he isn't that already.