It wasn't that Arsenal lost to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final. That was to be expected. It was how they lost. At least, that's what the folks who get paid lots of money to unleash Hot Soccer Takes are saying. No word on what their Hot Soccer Takes would be if Arsenal had gamely hung in there and lost a close one.
Goalkeepers are a peculiar folk. For all the glory field players conquer, goalies made the choice to stay behind and save goals instead of scoring them.
Did something go wrong? At what point in one's life does one abandon the ideal of becoming the league's top scorer in order to become the player with most clean sheets?
Now enough with the joking. To be fair, goalkeepers play a fundamental role in soccer.
Most kit sponsorship deals in soccer are dumb, bad, boring and unimaginative. Frankly, with so many brands clamoring for real estate on the front of big football clubs' shirts, we should be seeing kit sponsorships that are a lot more creative. With that in mind, we have some suggestions.
Arsenal
Instead of Emirates Airlines, let’s go with a different airline: Frontier. Put one of the animal mascots on the shirt.
Manchester City
Endorsing products is a great way for footballers to earn money in addition to their salaries. Most players take advantage of this in some way, some more than others. Some players, though, are not taking as full advantage of the product-endorsing racket as they could be, The18 has decided. Specifically, these 15 (or so) players need to endorse these 15 products/brands RIGHT NOW.
Alex Morgan-Disney World
Last week, there was a horrific moment in the Champions League when Real Madrid left back Marcelo shattered his arm while unleashing a blood-curdling scream that was captured by live television cameras. Millions of viewers at home thought they were going to be sick.
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled weeping about the U.S. Men's National Team failing to qualify for the World Cup with a startling bit of information that could turn out to be good news.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Ana Ivanovic are about to have a baby in Chicago, and that kid will be USA-eligible
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) February 23, 2018
Maybe you’ve never heard of John “Budgie” Burridge. That’s understandable, because although his career lasted nearly 30 years, he spent that time bouncing around 29 different clubs. However, he did make over 50 appearances for eight different teams: Blackpool, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Sheffield United, Southampton, Newcastle United and Hibernian.
The powers that be in the National Basketball Association apparently decided that the annual All-Star Game and surrounding weekend activities were not Fergalicious enough for their liking. So, they enlisted Fergie (of Black-Eyed Peas fame, not of Manchester United fame) to sing The Star-Spangled Banner prior to Sunday's game.
It went . . . interestingly.
Sometimes The18 editorial meetings are productive and sometimes they degenerate into discussions about which football club is the most like Olive Garden. This week, we somehow managed to do both. Football clubs are a lot like restaurant chains: shiny, consumer-pandering and people often have bad opinions about them. But which football clubs correspond to which restaurant chains, specifically?
Liverpool - Chipotle
It’s great up front but there are serious problems on the back end.
Arsenal - Red Lobster
Liverpool are reportedly sizing up a move for Roma's bearded Brazilian goalkeeper, Alisson Becker.
(Please ignore the reports from today that the move is off. We will be over here pretending they do not exist.)