Qatar’s 2022 World Cup just can’t seem to stay away from controversy. First it was the allegations of bribery, then it was the deaths of workers building the stadiums (still an ongoing issue), and more recently it was the decision to host the 2022 World Cup during November and December.
It’s a commonly held belief in professional sports that visiting teams automatically have a disadvantage. They have to deal with rowdy crowds who often hate their guts, a dearth of supporters in the stadium, hotel living and sleeping, and the discomfort of planes and buses.
There are a lot of reasons as to why playing an away game is not ideal but just imagine having to play a road game that is 21,303 miles (for our non-American readers, I’ll spare you the mental math calculations and just tell you that’s a whopping 17,142km) round trip.
Ezequiel Barco, the 19-year-old Argentine phenom who became Major League Soccer’s most expensive transfer when he joined Atlanta United for $15 million back in January, was withheld from Saturday’s match against DC United and will miss this weekend’s game against Montreal for “an act of indiscipline.” Now, SB Nation blog “Dirty South Soccer”
What do R&B singer R. Kelly, plastic surgery-obsessed Los Angelenos and Cristiano Ronaldo have in common? For them, age is nothing but number. Certainly, the 33-year-old has shown he can more than hang with the the best of young bucks as he finished as Champions League top scorer this past season and helped to bring home the third trophy in a row for Real Madrid.
At this point, it’s hard to imagine Mo Salah being picked last for anything. He’s already a Liverpool hero having scored 43 goals in all competitions in his first season at Anfield. And, well, Egypt is so obsessed with him after he led the Pharoahs to their first World Cup in 28 years that schools have been renamed after him. If you want to win, if you need a clutch performance, Salah is probably your first choice.
Mesut Ozil has retired from international football at the age of 29, citing “racism and disrespect” from the German football federation (DFB). Ozil had 92 caps for Germany and helped the nation capture third place at the 2010 World Cup before lifting the trophy in 2014. The Arsenal playmaker issued a detailed statement on Twitter with the main contents concerning the fallout of his meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip before the World Cup.
Here are his statements in full, read them (click/tap) before commentating:
An Andrés Iniestra vs. Ronaldo duel may sound like a classic clash between two of LaLiga’s most historic figures.
But read carefully: It is not Barcelona’s Andrés Iniesta but rather Pumas UNAM Andrés Iniestra we are talking about.
Similarly, it is not Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo but Veracruz’s Ronaldo Prieto.
It’s the type of headline that sounds as if it’s from 1950s, but alas, here we are in 2018 and we face the reality that incidents such as these do indeed still happen.
Moscow club Torpedo Moscow decided to cancel Erving Botaka-Yoboma’s contract after supporter groups expressed their discontent with the new player. On signing day, which should be a positive one for any professional and club, Torpedo Moscow organization higher ups and Botaka-Yoboma were met with these words:
In her post-game interview on July 7 after playing former club Sky Blue, Chicago Red Stars forward Sam Kerr did not want to talk about her hat-trick or the satisfaction of clinching three points on the road. Rather, Kerr used the mic in front of her to say this: “I wish things were better here [at Sky Blue]. I’m just going to say the girls deserve better and I’m just going to leave it at that. These girls are great girls. They give everything of themselves for this club and this league and they just deserve better.
The 2018 Tournament of Nations is set to get under way on July 26. The competition consists of a series of friendly games between four of the world’s top women’s national teams. Like last summer, this year’s edition will feature the national teams of Australia (ranked 8th by FIFA), Brazil (7th), Japan (6th) and the hosts, the United States (1st).
Yesterday, USWNT coach Jill Ellis released her preliminary list of 25 players for the tournament.