When you sign your kid up for youth soccer, you should know that you're signing yourself up as well. Your nights will now include driving to and from practice and your weekends will be booked with various games and tournaments. You may be confused at the beginning of the season, but after a few weeks, you'll quickly understand why the sacrifices you have to make are worth it.
In seven World Cups, the USWNT has scored a staggering 112 goals. Those goals have resulted in three winners’ medals, one runners-up finish and three third place finishes.
Chief among the goal scorers are Abby Wambach (14), Michelle Akers (12), Mia Hamm (8), Kristine Lilly (7), Carli Lloyd (7) and Tiffeny Milbrett (7). While Lloyd’s exploits at the 2015 Women’s World Cup are still fresh in the memory, particularly her stunning hat trick in the final, there are some choice goals from as far back as 1991 that deserve a viewing.
It had been no secret within Argentina that Diego Maradona was a precocious talent from an early age. Appearing against Hungary as a 16-year-old, Maradona became the country’s youngest international ever.
When the 1978 World Cup came to Argentina the call to include him in the squad, now aged just 17, was resounding. But Argentine manager Cesar Luis Menotti abstained, believing that the pressures of a World Cup on home soil would be too much for the adolescent.
For those that are too young to remember Liverpool’s last title, which came in the 1989-90 season, there’s the ever-increasing danger of that triumph being cast as a footnote to the all-powerful Premier League, which began in 1992-93.
The names of John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen will always carry weight around the world, but we get to see their particular brilliance infrequently.
We’ve been treated to some spectacular Champions League football over the past week with the drama reaching a crescendo in Barcelona’s comeback against Paris Saint-Germain and Leicester City’s fairytale at the expense of Sevilla.
While those two matches provided everything you could hope for in football (high-stakes, improbable comebacks and a myriad of storylines), they also came with their share of controversy and pantomime villains.
Earlier this week, BBC Sport reported that five-year-old Bradley Lowery is set to be England's mascot at an upcoming World Cup qualifier against Lithuania on March 26, 2017. He will lead the team out onto the field ahead of their game.
Lowery is a huge fan of the Premier League's Sunderland football club, and he appeared as a mascot for Sunderland in their away game against Everton Saturday.
Eleven-year-old Samuel suffers from cerebral palsy and cannot walk without assistance, but he doesn’t let his condition stop him from pursuing his dreams. Manchester United inspires the young goalkeeper, but at the end of the day, Samuel is an inspiration to all of us.
Sam revealed, “Having cerebral palsy is very hard, and playing football is a bit difficult but I don’t really take that as a big issue, I just get on with it.”
Ellen DeGeneres welcomed back eight-year-old Kai Langer to her show this past Tuesday after he'd gone viral in 2013. He came to sing but encountered more surprises than he ever could've imagined. Not only did he get to meet pop singer Ed Sheeran, but he also left with a birthday gift no one saw coming.