Opinion

Being an American fan of a Premier League club or other European team has its ups and downs. On the positive side you get to watch some elite soccer in the morning/afternoon and watching games is extraordinarily simpler today than say 10 years ago.

The downs are still in existence. Rarely (if ever) getting to see your favorite team in person isn’t any fun, having to pay the NBC overlords to stroke their Peacock sucks and still having to deal with Americans that hate soccer is annoying to say the least.

It’s about time. After 18 episodes of doing his own thing in the background as Ted Lasso’s selfless assistant coach, Coach Beard, played by Brendan Hunt, finally got his chance to be the focus on an episode of “Ted Lasso.” While Season 2, Episode 9 “Beard After Hours” probably wasn’t the best episode — some might argue it was the worst — it was certainly the most unique, and I guarantee many will say it was their favorite.

Warning: The following contains “Ted Lasso” spoilers through Season 2, Episode 9.

Another year, another FIFA game where it’s obvious EA Sports paid no attention to women’s soccer. The FIFA 22 women's ratings are somehow even worse than last year, once again proving the WoSo portion of the franchise is merely lip service to try to appease women without actually putting in any effort.

The FIFA 22 ratings are being revealed ahead of the game’s release on Oct. 1, providing us with some largely agreeable rankings mixed with Alexis Sánchez still ruling the world. 

It’s an unenviable task that usually ends with Thomas Müller being as effective as a wind-tossed plastic bag and Shakhtar Donetsk playing like ’82 Brazil, but maybe this is the year it all comes together.  

RB Leipzig is the king of the third kit. The RB Leipzig third kit 2021/22 was released on Monday and boy did it deliver. The club might be the most hated in Germany, but Leipzig will look damn good regardless.

RB Leipzig Third Kit 2021/22

Tragt den Beat der Roten Bullen auf die Straße, ins Gym und in die Clubs

We need to talk about the Kanye West Messi lyric on his song “Off The Grid” from his new album, Donda. While it’s special to see one of the world’s largest artists nod at the planet’s most popular sport, the bar about Lionel Messi is subpar.

Before I continue, I would like to make it clear that I actually quite enjoy “Off The Grid.” My bone to pick is with this Messi lyric.

The Panama World Cup qualifying campaign is smooth sailing after the first three games. This is the exact opposite of what we predicted here at The18.

In our Concacaf World Cup qualifying predictions, six out of seven people predicted the Panamanians to finish dead last in the group of eight teams. Only one person had Panama finishing higher than eighth. That individual had the Central American country finishing seventh.