How fast is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang? The FIFA video game ratings aren’t infallible, but when the fine folks at EA Sports say that Aubameyang is the fastest footballer on the planet with a pace rating of 96, well, they’re trying to tell us something — namely that he’s an excellent option to send a through ball towards and pray.
Arsenal beat Paris Saint-Germain 5-1. That was the least interesting thing about the Arsenal vs PSG match.
The Gunners are in the midst of their first preseason without Arsene Wenger since before the 1996 season. With Unai Emery coaching the club now, it’s anyone’s guess as to how Arsenal fares in the upcoming Premier League season. Do they plummet precipitously as Manchester United did when David Moyes took over for Alex Ferguson? Do they stay in place as the sixth-best team in England? Do they return to the top like Chelsea whenever Roman Abramovich hires a new manager?
Mesut Ozil has retired from international football at the age of 29, citing “racism and disrespect” from the German football federation (DFB). Ozil had 92 caps for Germany and helped the nation capture third place at the 2010 World Cup before lifting the trophy in 2014. The Arsenal playmaker issued a detailed statement on Twitter with the main contents concerning the fallout of his meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip before the World Cup.
Here are his statements in full, read them (click/tap) before commentating:
Arsenal fans are in a weird place right now. Longtime manager Arsene Wenger is gone after 22 years, but a strong roster has been supplemented by positive moves in the summer transfer window under new coach Unai Emery.
There’s the hope new management can propel the talented team back into contention in England and Europe, but also the fear of slipping into irrelevance just as Manchester United struggled after the retirement of Alex Ferguson.
In May, Arsenal's former boss Arsene Wenger bade farewell to the English club after 22 years, seven FA Cups and three Premier League titles. Now, in a lengthy interview with France’s RTL, Arsene Wenger shed some reflective light on his journey with the Gunners.
Unai Emery made his debut on the Arsenal bench as the Gunners routed Boreham Wood 8-0 on Saturday at Meadow Park in London. The match kicked off at the same time as the England-Belgium World Cup third-place match, but the Emery Arsenal debut provided far more action than the Three Lions in Russia.
HAO is coming home. This past week, the North Carolina Courage announced that they had made the move for Heather O'Reilly, who has been in England with Arsenal for the past year and a half.
The World Cup has less than two weeks left, and I’m just about ready to curl up in a ball and cry in the corner for the next four years until Qatar 2022 rolls around. But alas, noone can stay away from the sport for that long. After the World Cup ends (sad, I know), the attention then becomes on the club scene again, particularly the International Champions Cup schedule.
European teams travel all over the globe for some preseason training camps and friendlies. The biggest set of friendlies, however, often happens in the United States.
There’s something in the water in Uruguay. There’s something about the nation of three million people, winners of the first ever World Cup, which allows them to produce some of the most magnificent bastards in the history of football.