Four years is a good amount of time for a person to change.
So I decided to take a look at players who have played in a lot of World Cups and see their evolution every time they played in the world’s greatest competition. I picked welll known players in football (and DaMarcus Beasley for the USMNT fans) and what I learned was this:
In one of the biggest controversies in U.S. soccer history, Jurgen Klinsmann infamously left out USMNT stalwart Landon Donovan from his 23-man squad for the 2014 World Cup. Donovan, who was 32 years old at the time, would have been looking at participating in his fourth World Cup, but sadly it was not to be.
With very few exceptions throughout the history of the FIFA World Cup, the vaunted group of death stigma has largely followed a self-same pattern: two extremely strong European nations and two heavy hitters from other confederations.
In 2014, we had two candidates for the group of death, both exhibiting the aforementioned makeup.
In Group B, Spain, the Netherlands, Chile and Australia just battered each other, kicking la Furia Roja to the curb despite their status as the defending world champions.
Starting on May 29 (16 days before the World Cup officially kicks off), you’ll be able to download a free update to FIFA 18 that focuses solely on bringing the 2018 FIFA World Cup to life. EA SPORTS just announced the content, which features a “2018 FIFA World Cup Russia” mode, a “Custom Tournament” option (let’s go, USMNT!) and “FIFA World Cup Ultimate Team.”
The U.S. is not going to the World Cup and that is very sad and not at all cool. That said, one must still watch the World Cup. It's the dang World Cup, after all. But what team should one root for while watching the World Cup? One must have a rooting interest in order to properly enjoy the tournament. Objectivity is not only boring as hell but also impossible, many journalism professors would tell you.
When the World Cup comes around it’s always fun and sad at the same time to look at the unreal stadiums being built for the event. Fun because these structures really are a sight to be seen. Sad because is it really necessary to spend billions of dollars and risk lives for Russia World Cup stadiums that could possibly be abandoned after the tournament?
How long is halftime in soccer? Well, as stipulated by Law 7 of the FIFA Laws of the Game, “the halftime interval must not exceed 15 minutes.” Halftime in soccer lasts for 15 minutes, although the duration of the halftime interval could possibly be altered with the consent of the referee. Here is the law as outlined by FIFA.
Law 7 — The Duration Of The Match
Halftime interval
The Mexico vs Germany World Cup game will no doubt attract a great deal of attention worldwide. The defending world champions will make their debut against El Tri, and both teams will do everything in their power to make a statement showing that they mean business.
When the World Cup rolls around, new kits are being released, new cleat models are coming out and even board shorts for countries makes an appearance. You obviously know about the kits for each country, but what you didn’t know is that there has been a ton of awesome new World Cup gear released over the past few weeks and months in the lead up to the tournament.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has looked a new player since moving from Arsenal to Liverpool. Playing as a box-to-box midfielder, he's provided some energetic displays in the Liverpool midfield, as well as scoring some absolute screamers against Manchester City.