It’s official. Everyone hoping for a Zlatan Ibrahimovic World Cup can calm down now. The swaggering Swede announced on Thursday morning he will indeed be in Russia for this summer’s tournament.
But he won’t be playing with Sweden — he’ll be playing for Team Zlatan.
The biggest battle in the soccer world this summer — at least from a U.S. perspective — will take place before a ball is kicked at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Prior to the start of the world’s greatest tournament, FIFA will determine the host of the 2026 edition. And the only thing standing in the way of the U.S. (along with Mexico and Canada) winning the vote is the Morocco World Cup bid.
If you’re looking for the 2018 Mexico World Cup schedule, you’ve come to the right place. Mexico is guaranteed three games at the event, playing Group F matches against Germany (June 17), South Korea (June 23) and Sweden (June 27).
The 21st edition of the World Cup kicks off in Moscow on June 14. It’s the most popular tournament for the world’s most popular game. But do you actually know how the World Cup works?
The World Cup has had dozens of different formats since its inception in 1930. Since the World Cup expanded from 24 to 32 teams ahead of the 1998 edition, the tournament has finally found a system it likes. FIFA has stuck with the same format of eight groups of four turning into a 16-team knockout playoff for six tournaments now, including Russia 2018.
With very few exceptions throughout the history of the FIFA World Cup, the vaunted group of death stigma has largely followed a self-same pattern: two extremely strong European nations and two heavy hitters from other confederations.
In 2014, we had two candidates for the group of death, both exhibiting the aforementioned makeup.
In Group B, Spain, the Netherlands, Chile and Australia just battered each other, kicking la Furia Roja to the curb despite their status as the defending world champions.
Starting on May 29 (16 days before the World Cup officially kicks off), you’ll be able to download a free update to FIFA 18 that focuses solely on bringing the 2018 FIFA World Cup to life. EA SPORTS just announced the content, which features a “2018 FIFA World Cup Russia” mode, a “Custom Tournament” option (let’s go, USMNT!) and “FIFA World Cup Ultimate Team.”
The Mexico vs Germany World Cup game will no doubt attract a great deal of attention worldwide. The defending world champions will make their debut against El Tri, and both teams will do everything in their power to make a statement showing that they mean business.
Donald Trump put the joint 2026 World Cup bid from the United States, Mexico and Canada in jeopardy on Thursday with an ill-advised social media post. The Trump soccer tweet was an overt threat to all nations who refuse to support the united bid — and a direct violation of FIFA’s code of ethics (if that still means anything).
Last weekend, Brazil secured their seventh Copa America Femenina title and direct qualification to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup after winning all seven of their matches while scoring 31 goals and conceding only two. This wasn’t a surprise, but a real feel-good story surrounds the second-place finishers at the competition, hosts Chile.
Fox gave a giant middle finger to all English-speaking U.S. soccer fans on Wednesday. The Fox World Cup coverage will be called almost entirely by announcers in Los Angeles — and in case you forgot, the tournament is being played in Russia.
Fox, which paid FIFA $400 million for the exclusive English-language rights to broadcast the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in the U.S., couldn’t be bothered to spend enough money to send its announcers to Russia, a huge insult to soccer fans in America.