Aside from the more technical aspects of U.S. youth soccer development, there’s a very real and very obvious significance in having players worthy of serving as inspirations to young Americans in MLS. While Lionel Messi and Neymar will always be accessible via YouTube highlights, there’s something much more tangible and effective with regards to seeing an otherworldly talent live.
Sergio Ramos is a crazy man. This is not a secret, but it takes a very special type of crazy to produce a 10-minute video of bad tackles and late challenges and elbows and the like. Ramos is nothing if not special.
In December, Ramos set the Spanish Primera Division record for red cards in a career after receiving his marching orders for the 19th time. This was not exactly a surprise. Ramos has earned 24 total red cards in his Real Madrid career, and has collected nearly 300 total bookings.
So it’s Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich and Liverpool vs. AS Roma in the Champions League draw for the semifinals on Friday. What immediately jump out are all the storylines and relationships between the two sets of semifinalists. But there’s more to this matchup than player links.
Sure, Bayern’s James Rodriguez is on loan from Real Madrid and Toni Kroos once plied his trade for the Bavarians. And yes, Salah transferred to Liverpool from Roma last summer.
Clearly Gianluigi Buffon is not the biggest fan of Michael Oliver right now. The English referee sent the Italian goalkeeper off at the end of extra time during the Juventus-Real Madrid Champions League match Wednesday, after Buffon vehemently disagreed with a penalty Oliver gave. Juventus were eliminated after Cristiano Ronaldo converted the penalty.
Here's what Buffon said after the match:
Four minutes and 32 seconds elapsed from the time referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot to the moment the ball struck the back of the net from the force of another epic Cristiano Ronaldo penalty kick.
Cristiano Ronaldo is probably, no, scratch that, he is the most hated player in soccer right now. I challenge you to name me someone more polarising, I dare you. But, what makes him so easy to dislike?
Well, for starters, the guy has a body that looks as if the Greek god Zeus hand carved it himself. I mean, seriously, I know most of us are out of shape, but there’s no need for Ronaldo to continually take his shirt off in celebration to remind us all of how ridiculously jacked he is. It's not fair.
If we’ve just witnessed Gianluigi Buffon’s final UEFA Champions League game, it was somewhat fitting given the plethora of fresh hells this competition has provided him with over the years. For half an hour, it looked like the footballing gods were finally smiling upon Italy’s favorite son — Juventus had miraculously turned around a three-goal deficit at the Bernabeu, and Buffon had recorded five vital saves to make it happen.