All referees get a lot of flack from fans, but one ref in England got so much flack he actually cancelled a match.
From The Guardian under the headline "Referee abandons game after 13 minutes in response to moaning fan" (phrasing):
Most of you out in soccer land, we are willing to bet, watched Manchester City vs. Barcelona this afternoon. We do not begrudge you one bit for that, as it was a fun game. However, if you did watch Manchester City vs. Barcelona, you missed out on this Thomas Meunier rocket volley winner for PSG, which we think is the goal of the Champions League so far.
So much of the prematch hype for Barcelona versus Manchester City centered on the 4-0 hiding Barca had administered the Citizens only two weeks previously. If Guardiola’s new side ever aspired to reach the levels of his former protegees, that scoreline demonstrated how much work still remained.
The return match in Manchester started brightly for City. An early penalty appeal from Raheem Sterling saw the attacker booked for simulation, an extremely harsh reading of what looked an almost certain penalty.
If you're a Bastian Schweinsteiger fan, please don't get your hopes up.
The German is back in Manchester United training, ending his strange exile from the first team. This doesn't mean he's going to play in a game any time soon, in fact some have speculated that Jose Mourinho is just letting Schweinsteiger train with the first team so he's fit when United try to sell him in January, which is sort of like the "fattening him up to eat him" of the footballing world.
A little over a week after Neymar put pen to paper on a new five-year deal with Barcelona, Real Madrid have announced that Gareth Bale has committed his future to the club by signing an extension running until June 30, 2022.
When Neymar first burst onto the world stage, he was only 18. So we gave him a pass for his actions, assuming he would grow up and stop flopping and starting fights as he got older.
However it seems that he might never grow up, as, despite playing internationally for six years now, he is still apparently doing things like this:
Neymar pushes Granada's player down the stairs while approaching tunnel. pic.twitter.com/DjQWR8yYms
Both the American Football and EPL versions of Monday Night Football have been largely awful so far this season.
But hey, there was hope this week, at least in the EPL! Swansea manager Bob Bradley, the first American to manage in one of Europe's top leagues, was in action! Surely Bradley, as an American, understands the importance of Monday Night Football being good more than anyone else!
The good: the game was wildly entertaining.
The bad: the game was also wildly awful.
Last week, we implored the lot of you to look at Cristiano Ronaldo.
This week, we are imploring the lop of you to keep looking at him. He really wants you to.
Good night pic.twitter.com/v9aHmCggSz
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) October 30, 2016
Warning: please do not continue reading this article or scroll down if you do not want to see a gross soccer fan butt. Thank you.
Cristiano Ronaldo continued his run of good form Saturday against Alaves, scoring three goals in a 4-1 victory.
One Alaves fan wasn't impressed, or maybe was really super impressed, or not impressed at all with his side's defending, or just really hot, or hot for Cristiano Ronaldo, or really confused and didn't know what else to do.
Pep Guardiola went six matches without a victory for the first time in his career. It started to become a concern for Manchester City, as their form dipped after starting the season with ten straight wins.
Saturday, Manchester City beat West Brom 4-0, so it appears the worst of it is over.