On the face of it, a 1-1 draw with bottom-dwelling, already-eliminated Venezuela in front of 60,000 at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires was a godawful result for Argentina, and it really was. But from a broader perspective there’s a lot more to analyze and discuss than simply draw = bad.
Booby Wood, on as a 73rd minute substitute for Darlington Nagbe, salvaged a point for the USMNT against Honduras by scoring his nation’s lone goal in the 85th minute. It took a superbly struck Kellyn Acosta free kick to trouble the staunch Honduran defense, and Wood was on hand to keep the U.S. in the automatic qualifying places — at least for now.
A Panama victory over Trinidad and Tobago later tonight would see the U.S. drop to fourth in the Hex, the spot that necessitates a dreaded inter-confederation playoff with Asia to determine who advances to Russia.
Everyone loves a good dog. Especially when he brings goals.
Moments after a dog wandered onto the pitch in the World Cup qualifier between Colombia and Brazil, Willian opened the scoring with a beautiful goal in a 1-1 draw between the two teams who came into the match atop the CONMEBOL standings.
A dog entering the field during Colombia - Brazil pic.twitter.com/abEH1bZnVB
Arturo Vidal is one of the best midfielders in the world. He can do pretty much everything on the field. There is no skill that escapes him, although we would struggle to describe any one skill of his as "great."
Except for rocket ship header own goals, of course. Check out this beauty from Chile's 3-0 loss to Paraguay Thursday.
Will done @kingarturo23
Super own goal pic.twitter.com/UJlLiqSyKx
What a moment this was: Philippe Coutinho, plagued by a back injury that, according to Brazil national team doctor Michael Simoni, “was something emotional” and simply required “a pep talk” to resolve, turned out for Brazil after missing Liverpool’s opening five competitive fixtures and scored a goal 16 minutes after coming on! Warrior.
Just like you and me, Ronaldinho was born and raised somewhere. But that’s where the similarities end.
There’s no explaining how, from the point of birth until turning 18, our paths and Ronaldinho’s diverged so enormously. While we were just starting to recognize our weaker foot, Ronaldinho was terrorizing the Brasileirao with Gremio and ending the career of Brazilian World Cup-winning captain Dunga.
Messi is an icon, so everywhere Messi goes, folks are trying to get close to him. One little lad in Montevideo, where Messi and the Argentinian National Team are preparing for a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay, tried to get close to the best footballer in the world, but was thwarted by security.
Or so he thought.
It’s do or die time in South American World Cup qualifying, and Thursday features some all-important matches between Uruguay-Argentina, Brazil-Ecuador and Chile-Paraguay. For Chile and Paraguay, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Paraguay’s World Cup hopes are hanging by a thread with only four matchdays remaining. Defeat at the Estadio Monumental in the Chilean capital of Santiago would essentially put an end to any hopes of participating in Russia, but Los Guaranies can take heart from the fact that they defeated La Roja 2-1 in their last encounter.
Up until their quarterfinal defeat to Brazil, no side was more thoroughly entertaining at the 2014 World Cup than Colombia. James Rodriguez was the tournament’s standout performer and plenty of additional firepower was provided by the likes of Juan Cuadrado, Jackson Martinez and Teofilo Gutierrez.
Russian hackers Fancy Bears dropped a complete non-story this week regarding the use of banned substances in soccer. You see, the typical SHOCKING TRUTHS UNCOVERED AND REVEALED that we’ve come to associate with hacking were nonexistent in this information dump, which is insane given football’s history of being corrupt to the core.