Germany and England don’t always see eye to eye on the football pitch after decades of contentious football matches. But even with all their history, that Ruben Loftus-Cheek double nutmeg was just nasty.
Sweden registered a famous 1-0 victory over Italy in their World Cup qualifying playoff first leg in Stockholm thanks to a deflected effort from substitute Jakob Johansson. The return leg is on Monday in Milan with Italy’s hopes of a 19th World Cup appearance in serious jeopardy.
Johansson’s 61st minute strike was vital, but Sweden’s ability to successfully keep Italy off the scoresheet was just as big. An away goal in Milan would almost certainly be enough to send Sweden through, and this Swedish side has enough talent to go toe-to-toe with the four-time world champions.
Senegal qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia by beating South Africa 2-0 in a World Cup qualification replay on Friday. For the second goal, South Africa capitulated in perhaps the most painful way possible: the shambolic own goal.
Senegal get their second thanks to an own goal by Thamsanqa Mkhize. Cruel. #whatahowler pic.twitter.com/EJLNFooJIR
Many of us are not fans of international friendlies. One often gets the feeling that the soccer world stops spinning in order for some meaningless and frequently boring matches to take place.
However, there are times when friendlies feature some impressive plays, skills and goals.
A friendly between 2018 World Cup participants South Korea and Colombia in Suwon reached utterly deplorable levels in the 62nd minute with the Koreans leading 2-0 following a brace from Tottenham forward Son Heung-Min.
Northern Ireland's World Cup hopes were all but dashed Thursday as the hosts lost 1-0 to Switzerland in the first leg of their World Cup playoff. The goal came via a Ricardo Rodriguez penalty in the 56th minute. Ricardo Rodriguez should not have scored that goal because a penalty should not have been called. Take a look for yourself:
Taylor Twellman is adamant that this is a penalty and you know what, reader? Taylor Twellman is wrong.
Of the four UEFA World Cup qualifying playoffs, few would have expected this sort of entertainment from the Croatia vs. Greece match. Greece, a team that once turned winning while attacking as little as possible into an art form, were away to a resolute Croatia with its star striker on the bench in what is usually a cagey first leg. But the match was refreshingly exciting.
Qatar actually won some soccer and all it took was a field player making an impressive save in a penalty shootout. After the goalie was sent off with a second yellow card for coming off his line during the shootout, a field player came in and saved the retaken shot to lift Qatar’s U-19 team over Iraq.
For almost an entire year, Argentina’s national team refused to speak with the press. The boycott was the result of a terrible run in qualifying which led to extremely harsh criticism from the media, including an unfounded substantiation that Ezequiel Lavezzi had been dropped for smoking pot after training.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has come through on his promise to make the World Cup bidding process more transparent and open to scrutiny after the fallout following the 2010 vote which saw the 2018 and 2022 World Cups handed to Russia and Qatar.
On June 13, 2018, 211 member federations and the 38-person FIFA council will decide who’ll win the right to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and all of those votes will be open to public viewing.