Amazing

In 2015, EA Sports bragged to anyone and everyone who would listen about how FIFA 16 would be the first video game of its kind to feature women’s soccer players. 

Given the popularity of women’s soccer — especially in the U.S., where the women are actually successful compared to the men — it seemed an odd omission for the FIFA franchise to not have included women for so long. It took the 2015 Women’s World Cup (being played in Canada, where the FIFA series is developed), to spur EA into actually including women in its best-selling sports franchise. 

The growth of soccer in the United States has been incredible over the past decade. Not only have we seen growth domestically within Major League Soccer, but just walking down the street you can pick out multiple different soccer jerseys being casually worn. It has become one of the most popular sports in the country.

Last night in Amsterdam, Tottenham’s Lucas Moura scored the latest-ever match-winner in the history of Champions League regular time (90+6’) to transform the scene inside Johan Cruijff ArenA from that of full-fledged euphoria to utter devastation.

Everything and everyone contrived against Vincent Kompany scoring the winner with a 30-yard bomb against Leicester City on Monday night. First off, the man’s own muscles, which have contrived to deprive him of less than 20 league starts in each of the last four campaigns. Monday marked his 12th appearance in an EPL starting 11 this term.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney may grab the headlines, but Major League Soccer is seeing noticeable growth from the other side of the career timeline. Efrain Alvarez, Paxton Pomykal and Gianluca Busio have already had tremendous starts to their 2019 campaigns and should continue to be regular contributors for the Galaxy, FC Dallas, and Sporting Kansas City, respectively.

There are moments in a match that can go unremembered by the final whistle. Sometimes these are simple misfired shots or dubious fouls, forgotten over the course of a long match. Other times, as it was on a sweltering day in Southern California in 1999, they are significant in the moment but largely overshadowed by events later in the game. 

In the competition for the cutest thing you’ll see today, Argentinian newspaper La Capital has published a photo of a 10-year-old Lionel Messi alongside wife-to-be Antonela Rocuzzo, age nine, at the holiday resort of Punta Mogotes in Argentina.

According to the article, Messi was there for a youth tournament in a nearby city and Antonela was there to watch her cousin, Lucas Scaglia, who was Messi’s teammate. Scaglia now plays for the Las Vegas Lights in the USL Championship.

After Manchester City and Tottenham played one of the most thrilling Champions League matches in recent memory on Wednesday, the two clubs were always going to struggle to match the intensity and entertainment value in their Premier League matchup on Saturday. 

A couple months out from the 2019 Women’s World Cup, Alex Morgan has been named to the Time 100.

Morgan is one of two footballers named to the list of the 100 most influential people put together by Time magazine. That list includes everyone from Taylor Swift to Donald Trump, Michelle Obama to Ariana Grande, Dwayne Johnson to Emilia Clarke (Daenerys). 

Mohamed Salah joined Morgan on the list as the only other soccer player chosen. Other athletes included Caster Semenya, Naomi Osaka, LeBron James, Tiger Woods and (kind of) Ninja.