TV

Trevor Noah is a soccer fan, this much we know. He made some great jokes about World Cup commentators last summer and followed it up with some powerful words on the Africanness of the French national team that won the tournament.

Founded in 1914, the U.S. Open Cup holds a special place in American soccer, both from a historical perspective and it today's ambition for the country's future in the sport. For the past few years, the competition has been available at varying levels across YouTube, the Open Cup website or club websites. But on Friday, ESPN added another layer to its commitment to U.S. soccer.

Back in 2001, Major League Soccer almost folded. After six seasons, millions of dollars in operating losses and with two clubs on the verge of contraction (the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion), the league was really only kept afloat by the vision of Lamar Hunt (who owned the Columbus Crew, Kansas City Wizards and Dallas Burn in his lifetime). 

With all of the changes in American TV soccer rights in the last few years, it can be daunting to keep track of what is broadcast on what channel, especially when it comes to European midweek matches, which are on in the middle of the workday in the U.S. Sometimes you don’t need to see the full matches or maybe you don’t have time to sit down for 90 minutes during the middle of the day. So this leaves a lot of us wondering: Are Champions League highlights on TV in the U.S.?

Winter is coming April 14 when the greatest show of all time returns for its eighth and final season. What better way to advertise the upcoming finale than giving a pair of Game of Thrones customized adidas trainers to one of the greatest football players of all time, Lionel Messi.

Messi getting hooked up with the Game of Thrones Ultra Boost pic.twitter.com/lUr4JDxeTp

Americans loves celebrities like apple pie and making fun of baseball. It’s why late night TV shows constantly barrage us with uninspired interviews of famous actors trying to get us to watch their new thing.

But occasionally, a late night show does something truly inspired. They bring on a soccer player, someone who can actually keep the viewers who aren’t in states where marijuana is legalized awake. 

Soccer lends itself to comedy. It is, after all, a game of failure and one in which supporters are required to accept a degree of fatalism with their fandom. Certain aspects of the game require us to adapt a gallows humor, while the overwhelming popularity of the sport also makes it an extremely suitable subject matter to lampoon. The funniest soccer comedy sketches of all time highlight the absurdity of it all.

The 10 Funniest Soccer Comedy Sketches Of All Time

#1. Monty Python — Philosophers’ World Cup