International Soccer

Heroes And Villains Of The World Cup: Matchday One

No event escalates individuals to the status of national hero or global villain as dramatically as the World Cup. The idolatry that follows success and the stigma that follows failure are woven into the fabric of history, and the repercussions will typically follow footballers for the rest of their lives. Daily, we’ll take a look at who played the role of hero and who played the role of villain at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Heroes and Villains of the World Cup: Matchday One 

Hero: Denis Cheryshev (Russia)

Denis Cheryshev Scores The First Great Goal Of The World Cup. Just Look At This Touch

If every country has it’s own lesser version of Lionel Messi (“The Alpine Messi”, “The Egyptian Messi”, etc.) then Russia’s is certainly Denis Cheryshev. The 27-year-old has spent his entire career in Spain (including coming through at Real Madrid and making two appearances for the club before joining Villarreal in 2016), and he demonstrated his talents Thursday after coming on as a 24th minute substitute for the injured Alan Dzagoev.

19 minutes after coming on, Cheryshev doubled Russia’s advantage with a sweet strike in the 43rd minute. 

Russia Opens The Scoring At The 2018 FIFA World Cup

To the delight of 80,000 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia has opened the scoring against Saudi Arabia in the 2018 World Cup’s curtain raiser. CSKA Moscow midfielder Aleksandr Golovin provided some excellent service from the left wing, and FC Krasnodar’s Yury Gazinsky directed his header beyond Abdullah Al-Mayouf to give Russia the lead in the 12th minute.

The World Cup Drinking Game To Play With Your Friends

There are a lot of games at the World Cup, people. There are 64 to be precise. And I’m willing to bet (and really hope) that at some point you’ll have a nice cold brewski in your hands during one of these games. So why not play a World Cup drinking game?

Mohamed Salah Injury Update: Attacker ‘Almost 100 Percent’ Certain For Uruguay

After being spotted training alongside his Egypt teammates at yesterday’s training session in Grozny, manager Hector Cuper has today revealed that star forward Mohamed Salah is almost certain to feature against Uruguay on Friday in Yekaterinburg. 

The18’s World Cup Predictions (Coupled With Some Truly Fascinating Insights)

“Let there be light: and there was light.” That’s what God said when he sat down to start crunching out the Bible after a long period of crippling writer’s block, but it easily could’ve been what you said after finally getting your hands on The18’s World Cup predictions. Here you have all your favorite soccer niños trying their damnedest to captivate, stimulate and prognosticate for your reading pleasure.

Who are you cheering for?

The United States, Mexico And Canada Win The 2026 World Cup

In the end, we did it. The joint bid of the United States, Mexico and Canada has been voted co-hosts of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, edging out a Morocco bid that caused everyone to nervously throw up in their mouths for a little while there. Apologies for the unpleasantness, but good grief. After losing out to Qatar in 2022, the worst was certainly feared here.

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