Chelsea and Manchester United battled in the FA Cup final in the second-most pompous event in England on Saturday. For both clubs, it was the culmination of a season fans of neither club will remember fondly.
While Chelsea won 1-0, it’s tough to determine which club had the worse season.
Booze and soccer go together like wine and cheese, beer and nachos or rum and coke. The only thing that brings people together more than booze is the World Cup. So we thought it would be a great idea to compile the best World Cup cocktails for each nation competing in this summer’s tournament.
The final 23-man England World Cup squad was announced on Wednesday. But I’m not really sure if Gareth Southgate actually named any players to it or if those English kids were just spewing jibberish.
OK, so I admit I’m an American. I prefer American grammar to British grammar and sometimes need to turn the subtitles on to watch “Snatch” or “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.” But the England World Cup squad announcement video was just pure garbage to my ears.
The English Premier League is the richest group of teams in the world, with many of the best players from around the globe gathered in England (and Wales). The Premier League top scorers of all time therefore is a list featuring some of the best finishers to ever play the game.
The EPL has only been around since 1992, so unfortunately Jimmy Greaves’ record 357 goals from 1957-71 doesn’t make it on the list of the Premier League top scorers of all time. However, plenty of other giants of the game have graced the league, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Thierry Henry.
Marcus Hahnemann, Eddie Lewis, Carlos Bocanegra, Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, Kasey Keller, Eddie Johnson, Emerson Hyndman, Tim Ream, Luca de la Torre and Marlon Fossey — together, along with Fulham F.C., they are Fulhamerica.
When England players pull on the shirt they seem to shrink; in other countries the players seem to grow. England’s qualification has been like all the others — a stream of dross/shite fixtures and dross/shite performances.
The national team has no defined playing style, and no fluidity, like Germany, or Spain.
The last batch that came out of the academies of England, which made it big, was “Fergie’s Fledglings”. The current crop of Alli, Stones, Sterling, to name a few, are simply not good enough when measured against their counterparts, from say, Netherlands or Spain.
I’m not ashamed to say I’m an Arsenal fan and I’m not ashamed to say Sunday involved a few tears. Arsene Wenger coached the Gunners for the final time after nearly 22 years at the helm, leaving the club after a 1-0 win over Huddersfield Town.
Immediately the clichéd 2008 Harvey Dent quote comes to mind: “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Indeed, Arsene Wenger was a hero for Arsenal.
Kicking a ball hard can be a useful skill in soccer. Instead of tiki-takaing your way down a field, you can simply hoof the ball to the other side of the pitch with one strong-legged kick. With that in mind, a goalkeeper being able to kick the ball farther than anyone would be valuable, just like hitting a home run or shooting a 3-pointer. So what’s the Guinness World Record for the longest drop kick? The answer may surprise you.