Antes del duelo con Italia, por las semifinales de la Nations League, el técnico de España, Luis Enrique, estaba siendo linchado por la prensa local. Porque otra vez no había convocado a jugadores del Real Madrid, porque había omitido a otros de buen presente, porque su convocatoria estaba llena de jóvenes que no sabrían hacer frente a la experiencia de la Azzurra y porque no era capaz de hacer lo necesario como para salvar al planeta de su sexta extinción masiva. OK.

The Reggae Boyz knew they would be without some of the big names like Leon Bailey (Aston Villa), Michael Hector (Fulham), Amari’i Bell (Luton Town) and Cory Burke (Philadelphia Union) heading into the second window of Concacaf World Cup qualifying. However, another bombshell was dropped on Wednesday when Michail Antonio, the Premier League’s third highest goal scorer this season, announced he was withdrawing from Jamaica’s next three games.

The decision to host Euro 2020 across multiple European cities brought some truly memorable moments in Copenhagen, Budapest and London, but let’s never do that again. There’s nothing like the staging of a month-long carnival in one country, so it works to maximize the confluence and mingling of fans from different nations as they converge on one shared home base. That's the best sort of party.

STOCKHOLM — AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been ruled out of Sweden's upcoming World Cup qualifiers with Kosovo and Greece and will be replaced by Viktor Gyokeres, the Swedish football association (SvFF) said in a statement on Saturday.

Truppändring

❌ @Ibra_official lämnar återbud och missar herrarnas oktobersamling

✅ Viktor Gyökeres från Coventry City kallas in istället

MADRID - Barcelona's 17-year-old midfielder Gavi has been handed a surprise call up by Spain coach Luis Enrique for the Nations League Final Four tournament in Italy next month.

Gavi, who has only featured for Spain at junior levels previously and turned 17 in August, has made just two LaLiga starts for the Catalans this term. However, he has done enough across his six appearances in all competitions to impress Luis Enrique and earn a spot in the 23-man squad.

LISBON - Leaving her homeland Afghanistan was painful, says 15-year-old Sarah. But now safely in Portugal, she hopes to pursue her dream of playing soccer professionally — and perhaps meeting her idol, star striker Cristiano Ronaldo.

Sarah was one of several players from Afghanistan's national female youth soccer squad who fled their country in fear after the Taliban hardline Islamist movement seized power in August. Portugal has granted asylum to the young footballers.

I heard once, I can’t remember from where, that the greatest measure of your time remaining on this planet was in how many more World Cups you could reasonably expect to witness before death. Instead of saying “I am 30,” you could say “I hope to see 12 more World Cups.”

That struck me as a reasonable philosophy. 

Birthdays start to come and go with an increasing desire to make less of what starts to seem like a doomsday countdown, but the World Cup — with its quadrennial rarity — stands out as a month-long celebration of the best of our outward reality.  

Argentina vs Italia. Italia vs Argentina. Hoy la CONMEBOL y la UEFA anunciaron la disputa de un partido único, una especie de súper final entre los campeones reinantes de la Copa América 2021 y la Euro 2020 para el mes de junio de 2022.

Ambas confederaciones hicieron el anuncio en sus redes sociales, confirmando que después de esta habrá otras tres definiciones similares en el futuro.

CONMEBOL y UEFA amplían su cooperación