Andrija Novakovich is a 21-year-old forward for Dutch club Telstar. He’s not exactly a household name among U.S. fans, but his debut for the USMNT on Tuesday was one of the best moments for U.S. soccer in months.
France defeated Russia 3-1 on Tuesday in a friendly at Saint Petersburg’s Krestovsky Stadium (the most expensive World Cup stadium of all time) with a brace from Kylian Mbappe and a wonderfully struck free kick from sometimes Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba.
There is a massive divide in how different generations have come to view and use the video-sharing network known as YouTube. I’m an old man geezer kind of content boy, and when I first learned that people were using YouTube to do things besides watch Ronaldinho highlights, I stared off into space for 17 straight hours and whispered the word “vlogger” until my temporal lobes exploded in a cacophony of new age understanding.
We all know Messi has infinite magic in his left foot. However, not many of us are aware that ‘La Pulga’ also possesses some hypnotic verbal abilities.
FC Barcelona’s Paulinho has recently revealed in an interview with El Periódico that a few words uttered by Messi were enough to prevent him from taking a free kick in an international friendly against Messi’s Argentina.
There was a truly frightening moment during yesterday’s 2018 King’s Cup Final (an annual international tournament in Bangkok) between Slovakia and Thailand when Slovak captain Martin Skrtel went down in the 28th minute after being struck in the face by the ball.
The 33-year-old Fenerbahce defender was immediately knocked unconscious by the impact, and a quick-thinking teammate did the right thing by ensuring that Skrtel hadn’t swallowed his tongue, an action which could potentially be fatal because of the resulting airway obstruction.
Nobody expected a 36-year-old Landon Donovan (who’d really been out of the game for a few years) to tear it up with Club Leon following his shock return to soccer, but we certainly expected more than just four league appearances totaling 37 minutes after joining back on Jan. 12.
Minutes have been hard to come by for Donovan as manager Gustavo Diaz monitors his progress. However, with a match against Tigres looming next Saturday, Donovan might’ve forced himself into the conversation with this instinctive finish against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Here’s an argument against the Video Assistant Referee: having assistant referees that are 100% infallible. During Uruguay’s friendly against the Czech Republic today (it’s technically the China Cup), Edinson Cavani scored an absolute banger that, when watching live, looked miles offside.
We never give assistant referees enough credit when they greatly contribute to positive, attacking football, but the linesman absolutely nailed one of the most difficult calls in the game here, and now we have a memorable goal that stands to show for it.
For the last four days, Argentina’s national team has been training at Manchester City’s Etihad Campus in preparation for tomorrow’s friendly against Italy at the City of Manchester Stadium. Accordingly, resident Citizens Sergio Aguero and Nicolas Otamendi have been showing the likes of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano around.
The Manchester City social team has been all over it.
Get ready for Friday!