Opinion

Japan's professional leagues only began play in mid-February, but there's already a strong contender for goal of the season in the J2 League after Matchday 3 of the competition.

Shimizu S-Pulse (relegated from the top division last year) traveled to V-Varen Nagasaki on Friday and earned a 1-1 draw with one of the greatest late equalizers you'll ever see.

I've seen enough. I'm declaring 17-year-old AZ Alkmaar phenom Kees Smit the winner of the 2023 Golden Boy Award, and there's nothing some preciously talented La Masia graduate at Barcelona can do about it. 

Over a month ago, the Netherlands youth international came to my attention with an incredibly inventive goal during an indoor match. It's as beautiful as a Rembrandt.   

Domestic action returns to the fore with the FA Cup, Copa del Rey and Coupe de France dominating the midweek action, but the Champions League is set to return with the Round of 16 second legs on March 7/8-14/15. 

We've got some dynamite return legs brewing with five of the eight matches separated by one goal or less, and who knows, maybe Liverpool can finally deliver some excitement now that nothing's expected from them. 

The expectations for the United States women’s national team are about as high as they get for any team. The best evidence of the astronomically high bar for the USWNT is the coverage of their 2023 SheBelieves Cup triumph.

Despite getting three-straight wins against No. 6 Canada, No. 11 Japan and No. 9 Brazil while only conceding once, the consensus is that there’s still lots of work to do and roster spots to figure out.

Polarizing soccer pundit Alexi Lalas ruffled feathers in the USMNT sphere after sharing his opinion about the midfield duo of Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie. Lalas doesn’t seem to be a fan of their physical approach in the Premier League.

Adams and McKennie have only played four EPL games together at Leeds United and have already earned a name for themselves. We at The18 refer to them as the ‘Premier League Bad Boys’ due to their hard tackles and how they never back down from a fight.

Major League Soccer's ambition of being a true player in the world's club game by the 2026 World Cup is slowly being realized. 

The league's 28th season kicks off Saturday with a new team (St. Louis City SC), a new 10-year partnership with Apple TV (worth $250M per season) that's available in over 100 countries and Tuesday's announcement of a three-year extension with Audi that pays a multimillion-dollar fee annually.

This is becoming an annual occurrence. Every so often, a bit of "kasi flava" in South Africa goes viral and people go off with the power of a thousand Roy Keanes — "IT'S A DISGRACE!" "IT'S NOT PROPER FOOTBALL!" "I'D BREAK THEIR LEGS!"

Now that almost every team has released its new jerseys, it's clear that this year is going to be special. From California to Chicago and DC to Dallas, every single team has produced some magic making a list like this almost impossible. Honorable mentions must go out to Columbus, New England and Real Salt Lake who all just missed out but undoubtedly deserve recognition for creating spectacular kits for their cities. These ten were just a step above.