Men

Mexico’s final tune-up before their World Cup qualifying clash with the USA on November 11th ended in a 1-0 victory over Panama.

For spectators at Toyota Park in Illinois, it was a relatively uneventful night with a largely experimental Mexico side grafting out a victory.

The highlight of the beginning proceedings was probably a mariachi version of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Mariachi version of the US anthem.

Very well received by Mexico fans.

Julian Green is yet to play a minute in the Bundesliga this season. His only appearance for the Bavarian giants was as a substitute in the DFB Pokal. For the USMNT, Green’s last start prior to this October call-up was back in 2014 — the same year he’d scored his lone, albeit unforgettable, USA goal.

In celebration of Lionel Messi’s status as the greatest number 10 of all-time, sorry Maradona, Adidas have released an extremely limited edition boot in commemoration of his career.

The England National Team's Wayne Rooney era appears to be drawing to a close after interim manager Gareth Southgate announced the captain would be dropped against Slovenia.

After a performance from Rooney against Malta that involved a lot of standing around and not very much doing things, Southgate must have felt he had no choice in the matter, even though Sam Allardyce and Roy Hodgson had been cowed into keeping Rooney in their respective England teams. Southgate appears to have followed the example set by Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho in dropping the player.

With Spanish giants Valencia currently sitting in the relegation zone of the La Liga table, multi-billionaire chairman Peter Lim is reportedly set on bringing Mexican international Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez to the third largest city in Spain by triggering his £40.7 million release clause.

Valencia’s horrid start to the season resulted in the early firing of Pako Ayestaran, but Los Che have acted quickly to replace him with former Fiorentina and Italy manager Cesare Prandelli.

James Rodriguez has been the subject of death threats on Twitter as revealed by his mother. The Colombian international received a photo of a box filled with ammunition and a gun while a couple of other weapons are also visible in frame. 

“Do you want to see how James would look dead?” said the message from the anonymous user. “I’m coming to your house now, say goodbye to all your loves ones.”

The pre-match team photo is so innocuous and brief that it hardly even registers when watching it take place. Like players holding the hands of little child mascots when entering the field, it's just one of those things that happens. Don't question it, don't even think about it, let's just get it over with.

The starting XI gets in two balanced rows, the players in the back drape their arms over one another and everyone stares blankly into the camera for a moment. What’s the point of the exercise? Where does the photo end up? Who’s getting any joy from this photo op?

There's nothing we love more than a stupid transfer decision made by a team we don't support, which is why we were delighted to find out that in 2008 Newcastle tried to buy Bastian Schweinsteiger. Really.