We’re sorry to bring it up, but directly following the USMNT’s fiasco at Ato Boldon Stadium, a lot of talking heads entered the debate surrounding how to fix U.S. Soccer without offering much in the way of concrete, actionable plans. But it was hard to ignore the insight offered from two of America’s most prized European exports: Borussia Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic and Newcastle United’s DeAndre Yedlin.
One year on from capturing the Supporters’ Shield, setting an MLS regular-season points record and finishing with a convincing MLS Cup victory over Seattle, Toronto FC is in very serious jeopardy of missing the 2018 playoffs entirely. With only 27 points from 27 games and one of the league’s worst defensive records, a November spent watching instead of defending the Cup is probably deserved.
So what happened to Toronto in 2018?
#1. Failure To Push Forward (Mentally/Personnel)
September 1, 2018, marks just 279 days until the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off at the Parc des Princes in Paris. The competition at the event has never been stronger or deeper, and those who illuminate the tournament will rightly be elevated to the status of legend. Historically, the best female soccer players of all time have earned that moniker by dominating one of the seven previous editions of the tournament.
How fast is Christian Pulisic? The 19-year-old American is usually deployed on the right flank by club side Borussia Dortmund — although he enjoys a more central role when playing with the USMNT — so he’s certainly no slouch when it comes to pace. However, what makes him such a precocious talent is that he’s no one-trick pony — he doesn’t only rely on his blistering speed to create chances and take defenders on.
How fast is Sadio Mané? The Senegalese winger has harnessed his blistering pace to increasingly devastating levels while rising from France’s third division in 2012 to the heights of the Champions League final with Liverpool in 2018. His record of 10 goals from 13 appearances in the world’s premier club competition last season tells you everything you need to know about the 26-year-old: He’s now one of most feared wide men on the planet, and his pace has a lot to do with that.
When most people think of the great Premier League strikers, names like Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney spring to mind. But, Sergio Aguero is better than all of them. Yes, the speedy little Argentine is the GOAT of Premier League goal scorers.
OK, so he might not be at the top of the goal scoring list. In fact, he's only just broken into the Premier League all-time top ten. His hat-trick against Huddersfield nudged him past Dutchman Robin van Persie, with Aguero now sitting on 146 goals in the EPL.
How fast is Leroy Sané? The 22-year-old Manchester City winger experienced a somewhat subdued first season in England, but he exploded into life last year after scoring 10 goals and adding 15 assists in 32 Premier League appearances. The native of Essen, Germany, was named the PFA Young Player of the Year for his contributions to City’s march to the title, but he was curiously omitted from manager Joachim Low’s World Cup squad (we all know how that turned out for die Mannschaft).
ESPN released a Luck Index for the EPL, a joint project with tech company Intel that supposedly examines “how the Premier League would look if luck were not a factor.”
Conducted by England’s University of Bath, ESPN aims to both galvanize the beautiful game with this pseudo-scientific study and pollute the culture of football by turning it into a maniacal math project.
The index states the following metric as the definitive measure of luck:
Last season saw Mohamed Salah crack the 30-goal mark and steer Liverpool to a fourth place finish, as well as the Champions League final. He had already had a taste of Premier League action before as he was on the books at Chelsea but rarely got a proper look in at the club. He landed at Fiorentina and then Roma before making his return to the EPL last season. Boy did he return in some style.
And he’s going to do it all over again.
It’s already a few days after the 2018 World Cup, and if you’re like us, you're still hanging on to anything that's related to the best tournament in sports. Whether it be something about the team of the tournament, a debate about Griezmann’s dive or VAR, no one wants to forget the tournament that might have been the best World Cup ever.