Informational/Did You Know

National Women’s Soccer League champions Gotham FC are the talk of free agency. The Bats have their eyes set on several high-profile players and have so far confirmed the signings of two USWNT stars.

Crystal Dunn and Tierna Davidson are the first two players set to take their talents to the east coast for the 2024 season.

Gotham FC announced the signing of Dunn on New Year’s Eve and then revealed Davidson as a new player on Tuesday.

Gotham FC signings

We here at The18 are suckers for a good downtown soccer stadium in the United States. Whether it’s MLS, NWSL or USL, a shiny stadium in the heart of a city hits the same.

Oklahoma City looks to be the latest major U.S. metro area ready to add the beautiful game in the downtown area.

The 1-1 draw between Liverpool and Arsenal on Saturday, Dec. 23, brought in more viewers than any other Premier League game in U.S. history, announced NBC.

A total of 1.96 million viewers tuned in to NBC, Peacock and other NBC Sports Digital platforms to see the top of the table clash.

The mark of 1.96 million English-language viewers surpasses the previous record held by a game between Arsenal and Manchester United on Jan. 22, 2023, which hit viewership numbers of 1.92 million.

Liverpool vs. Arsenal game breaks U.S. viewership records

LaLiga club Real Betis officially announced the transfer of United States men’s national team midfielder Johnny Cardoso on Wednesday. 

The 22-year-old defensive midfielder became a regular starter for Brazilian club Internacional where he made 144 appearances. Cardoso mostly played as a defensive midfielder but still managed to tally seven goals and five assists with Internacional.

Real Betis paid $6.3 million for the American according to ESPN as Cardoso signed a five-year contract.

Johnny Cardoso Real Betis transfer

One unwritten rule of soccer that doesn’t really exist in other sports is the art of players not celebrating if they score a goal against a team they formerly played on.

Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood took that unwritten rule to heart on Boxing Day when netted a hat trick against his former club, Newcastle. 

The New Zealand forward was the hero in Forest’s massive 3-1 victory but hardly celebrated as he followed the unwritten rule of not celebrating after scoring against a former team.

Chris Wood not celebrating vs. Newcastle

The European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that European soccer's governing body UEFA and its global counterpart FIFA breached EU law when they prevented 12 clubs from forming a European Super League (ESL).

WHAT IS THE EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE?

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus plus nine other European major clubs announced the breakaway ESL -- a closed league -- in April 2021.

Sports development company A22 assisted with creating the ESL.

Gotham FC are the talk of NWSL free agency as the reigning league champs are in advanced talks with multiple big names. This latest era of Gotham FC free agency could be one for the books.

No free agents have officially signed yet, but the Bats are in contact with the likes of Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett, Crystal Dunn and Tierna Davidson.

Gotham FC free agency targets

FIFA announced on Sunday that its revamped Club World Cup, to be held for the first time in 2025, will feature 32 teams and will be played from mid-June to mid-July.

Following are details of how the tournament will work:

- The United States will host the 2025 edition of the expanded event, which will be held every four years thereafter.

- The tournament will have eight groups of four with the top two teams from each group going through to the knockout stages -- the same format as the 2022 World Cup.

We apologize for the extra clickbaity headline, but we’re serious when we say few people can explain the disallowed Rennes goal vs. Villarreal from Thursday’s Europa League action.

For complete transparency, the author writing this story wasn’t part of the 5% of people who could correctly explain why this goal wasn’t counted upon first viewing. Not even CBS’ commentators understood the Rennes’ stoppage time equalizer mystery.

Before we give you the answer, watch the clip for yourself.

Rennes disallowed goal vs. Villarreal

Inter Miami and Lionel Messi are going worldwide in 2024 with the preseason schedule taking the Herons to El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and who knows where else. The Inter Miami preseason travel will be intense.

The idea of Miami touring the world and fans getting to see one last Lionel Messi vs. Cristiano Ronaldo game is exciting on paper. When you start adding up the miles that the club will travel you start to feel a little bad for the Miami players.

Here are the dates and opponents announced so far.

Inter Miami 2024 preseason schedule