Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former FIFA president who once suggested female players wear tighter shorts to promote “a more female aesthetic” in the women’s game, has dismissed Hope Solo’s claims of sexual assault at the 2013 Ballon d’Or award ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland.
In a league where parity reigns unlike any other, the tenure of Caleb Porter as manager of the Portland Timbers will go down as one of the most wildly successful in Major League Soccer’s 22-year existence. According to reports, that tenure has reached a shocking conclusion — by mutual consent — after a season in which the Timbers finished at the top of the Western Conference.
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.
There’s easy goals and then there is this abnormal, ghostly goal Chile scored in the 1973 World Cup Intercontinental Playoffs against the Soviet Union.
But why ghostly? Some context is required in order to understand how this came to pass. In the 1970s, the Cold War was in full swing. The USA and the Soviet Union were competing to achieve world hegemony in terms of political and economical influence.
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.
It’s the end of an era more shocking than the United States’ failure to reach the World Cup. Kyle Beckerman’s horrific hair is no more. The Real Salt Lake and USMNT player cut off almost all of the one distinguishable aspect of his on-field displays.
A lot of things can go wrong in a soccer match. Aside from the pain and suffering that accompanies losing, one’s physical well-being is constantly at risk. Injury is a part of the game, but typically it’s muscle strains, ligament tears and the occasional broken bone or concussion. Mariano Bittolo suffered an injury far more painful than anything one expects to suffer on the pitch. It may have been the most painful injury of all time.
This should have been a fun article to write. This should have been an article in which Lazio were praised and evangelized; the remarkable rehabilitation of striker Ciro Immobile after years in the wilderness; the astounding performance of manager Simone Inzaghi, only appointed after Marcelo Biesla refused to show up for work on his first day; the way in which the entire team has blown away opposition this year, propelling themselves all the way up the table and sitting, right now, level with Juventus. It should have been a fantastically positive article.
But it’s not.