South America

For anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention to Argentina throughout the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying cycle, Spain’s resounding 6-1 defeat of La Albiceleste comes as no surprise. Without Messi, Argentina has zero business being at this World Cup. The statistics, again, bear repeating:

Without Messi, Argentina played eight matches in qualifying. They won one. They scored 0.75 goals per game. They lost to Ecuador, Paraguay and Bolivia. They drew with Venezuela. Tata Martino was sacked and so was his successor, Edgardo Bauza. 

Historically speaking, things look pretty bleak for the five South American nations set to compete in Russia this summer. Over the history of the World Cup, the event has taken place in Europe 10 times. Collectively, if you break those tournaments down by how things finished, European nations have accounted for 34 of the 40 top four finishes (85%), leaving South America with only six success stories:

We all know Messi has infinite magic in his left foot. However, not many of us are aware that ‘La Pulga’ also possesses some hypnotic verbal abilities.

FC Barcelona’s Paulinho has recently revealed in an interview with El Periódico that a few words uttered by Messi were enough to prevent him from taking a free kick in an international friendly against Messi’s Argentina.

For the last four days, Argentina’s national team has been training at Manchester City’s Etihad Campus in preparation for tomorrow’s friendly against Italy at the City of Manchester Stadium. Accordingly, resident Citizens Sergio Aguero and Nicolas Otamendi have been showing the likes of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano around.

The Manchester City social team has been all over it.

Get ready for Friday!

Imagine this: it’s July 15, 2018. It’s the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. 81,000 spectators are collectively holding their breath while more than one billion are tuned in across the planet. After 120 minutes of action in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final, we’re all square between Argentina and Germany. It's penalties.

Argentina now has a chance to lift the trophy with their fifth and final spot kick. It’s Lionel Messi — the perennial international runner-up — approaching the spot with German No. 1 Manuel Neuer staring him down. 

Lionel Messi interviews are an exceptionally rare thing, but the Barcelona star recently spoke on “La Cornisa,” an Argentine show on América TV. The 30-year-old, who’ll turn 31 during the summer’s World Cup, answered questions regarding the continuing evolution of his game. 

The Supercopa Argentina is a relatively new competition pitting the winner of the Argentine Primera División and the Copa Argentina, first played in 2012. Wednesday night’s edition was by far the best one yet, with a River Plate vs Boca Juniors Supercopa Superclásico. 

It’s rare for the Superclásico to be a part of a cup final. The only other River Plate vs Boca Juniors match in such an event was 1976, a Boca victory. 

Given the rarity of such an event, the scenes were epic, even for a match that doesn’t hold too much weight, kind of like the Community Shield in England. 

With FIFA set to begin the general sales phase of tickets for the 2018 World Cup in Russia today, two previous phases have resulted in an allocation of 1,303,616 tickets for the 64 matches — knocking two matches entirely off the docket: the final at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and June 16’s Group D opener between Argentina and Iceland at Otkritie Arena in Moscow. 

“Hey, I got a hockey record. I took my skate off and tried to stab somebody. I’m the only guy who ever did that.” - Happy Gilmore

A Copa Libertadores U-20 semifinal match between Uruguay’s Club Atletico River Plate and Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle did not pass without incident yesterday. No, it did not.

If not for Brazilian international Lucas Moura — making his first start for Tottenham following a January transfer from PSG — Spurs would’ve been knocked out of the FA Cup by third-tier side Rochdale on Sunday. There were the late dramatics of Dele Alli winning a penalty and Harry Kane converting from the spot, only for Rochdale to deservedly earn a Wembley replay with a 92nd minute equalizer, but Lucas was the only real positive for Tottenham on the day.