Kobe Bryant’s sudden passing at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash shocked the world on Sunday. The man’s impact and influence on the game of basketball needs no explanation, but Bryant was also a massive soccer fan having grown up in Italy (where his father played professional basketball).
The Super Bowl is around the corner, a time when all Americans gather around a TV to shovel nachos into their mouths while drinking copious amounts of beer, all under the guise of watching that abating sport called American football. Of course, all anyone really cares about, besides the food and beer, is the commercials, and we got our nacho-covered hands on the latest 2020 Budweiser Super Bowl ad on Thursday.
Matthew McConaughey, famed for his portrayal of Vilmer Slaughter in the 1995 American slasher film Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, took on a different role Wednesday as he appeared on The Men in Blazers show to discuss soccer and his work as co-owner of Austin FC.
At the office of The18, we take our foosball pretty seriously. Although the incessant banging of ball against High Pressure Laminate walls isn’t conducive to maintaining a train of thought (don’t blame me for all the nonsense I write), the call of the 2-5-3 formation is too strong to ignore. For some, that call has turned into an obsession — these are the professional foosballers among us.
Though they’re third and fifth in the Premier League, the gulf between Manchester City and Manchester United is vast. City is 15 points ahead of its rival in the league and now two goals ahead after a 3-1 victory over United in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semifinals on Tuesday at Old Trafford.
Crystal Palace defeated West Ham 2-1 on Thursday thanks to an incredible solo effort from Jordan Ayew at the death. Ayew had provided the assist on Cheikhou Kouyaté’s equalizer for Palace in the 68th minute, but he saved his ultimate contribution for last.
Last season’s Champions League semifinals were a romantic’s dream. Such was the scale of the attacking ambitions of the last four clubs remaining that almost all of the tournament’s top providers were on display: With five assists each, Ajax’s Dušan Tadić and the Barcelona duo of Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba finished as joint-leaders (along with Manchester City’s Leroy Sané). Just behind them with four assists was Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Injuries, a contentious World Cup and the personal admission of a desire to abandon the PSG project have all adversely affected Neymar over the past two years — so much so that he found himself omitted entirely from the 30-man list for the 2019 Ballon d’Or.
The fifth goal of Son Heung-min’s 2019-20 Premier League season was perhaps the finest he’s ever scored for Tottenham. Beginning at the edge of his own area, the 27-year-old attacker took off at a brisk pace before roaring through the gears and leaving eight Burnley defenders in his torrential wake.
Sports are often divisive in nature. It’s your team vs. my team, us vs. them, Messi vs. Ronaldo.
But sports can also bring people together like nothing else in the world.
Son Heung-min can bring people together.
Son, Tottenham’s 27-year-old dynamo, plays on a team that many in London would rather discount, Arsenal fans in particular. But it’s impossible to ignore this player’s charisma and, more importantly, endlessly impressive footballing ability.