With less than five minutes to play in extra time and Croatia trailing Brazil 1-0 in Friday's World Cup quarterfinal, it looked like Luka Modrić's 160th appearance in that famous checkered shirt would be the captain's last after an inspirational 17-year international career.
But only Modrić gets to decide when he's finished.
There was a humorous moment during Brazil’s World Cup press conference on Wednesday when a cat crashed the party while Vinícius Jr. was speaking. The Vini Jr. cat moment left the Brazilian superstar cracking up.
While talking to the press a cat decided that the podium looked like a great place to sit. The feline is most likely a stray. The person writing this article spent a week in Doha, Qatar, and will say that there are tons of stray cats that roam the streets.
DOHA - Samuel Eto'o, the former Cameroon striker and current president of the country's football federation, was involved in an altercation after Brazil's victory over South Korea on Monday, an American newspaper has reported.
La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper based in Los Angeles, posted a video on its Twitter feed in the early hours of Tuesday morning which it said showed Eto'o clashing with a man holding a video camera as he left Doha's Stadium 974.
After advancing from the group stage in seven-straight World Cups, Mexico crashed out of Group C on Wednesday. El Tri defeated Saudi Arabia 2-1, tied Poland on points but fell one short on goal difference in heartbreaking fashion.
Alexi Lalas is a polarizing character in the U.S. Soccer sphere. Beloved as player but not so much as a pundit, Lalas can rub people the wrong way. Despite this, the Alexi Lalas England pregame speech on FOX before kickoff could make his most vehement haters feel something.
The USA is about to play arguably its biggest men’s soccer game in recent history. This could be a defining moment for the program and Lalas emphasized this before kickoff.
Uruguay and Real Madrid star Federico Valverde almost had the highlight of his career on Thursday during his nation’s 0-0 draw vs. South Korea. With the score tied at in the 89th minute, Valverde ripped a shot from over 25 yards out that nearly brought the house down.
There’s an unwritten rule in soccer where players don’t celebrate goals they score against former club teams. Instead of celebrating the player will typically put their hands up in the air (like if a police officer told you to put your hands up).
This kind of thing happens all the time during club play. It’s extremely rare to see on the international level, especially at a World Cup.
Semi-automated offside technology is in use for the first time in FIFA World Cup history in Qatar this year. The system is more accurate than the lines that VAR used to draw, but it hasn’t come without controversy. A Lautaro Martínez offside call during Argentina’s shocking 2-1 defeat vs. Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest talking points.
Every World Cup cycle, the same question pops into the minds of soccer fans: why can't (insert player) do that for (insert club team)? These players pop into the national consciousness for a few short weeks in the summer, then return to obscurity as soon as the final whistle blows.