After recording a somewhat fortunate 2-1 victory in the first leg of the 2018 Liga MX Clausura Final, there was a sense that Santos Laguna could be walking into a bear trap at La Bombonera on Sunday night.
Over 31,000 were on hand to support los Diablos Rojos, but the home crowd couldn't have been happy with the start they witnessed.
There’s a lot to like about this Moroccan side at the World Cup, and I’m not just talking about hunky French manager Herve Renard.
Marcus Hahnemann, Eddie Lewis, Carlos Bocanegra, Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, Kasey Keller, Eddie Johnson, Emerson Hyndman, Tim Ream, Luca de la Torre and Marlon Fossey — together, along with Fulham F.C., they are Fulhamerica.
If you think you know who will win the World Cup, then put your money where your mouth is. World Cup futures odds are widely available, and the top value bets feature the World Cup favorites with a few surprising teams sprinkled in.
We looked at the most recent odds published by Bovada, and 17 of the World Cup's 32 teams are listed at 100 to 1 or better. We assigned a value rating of bad, fair, good or great to each of those teams.
Germany +450: Good Value
Last weekend, Brazil secured their seventh Copa America Femenina title and direct qualification to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup after winning all seven of their matches while scoring 31 goals and conceding only two. This wasn’t a surprise, but a real feel-good story surrounds the second-place finishers at the competition, hosts Chile.
The focus of the World Cup will inevitably be on the big teams, but what about the teams that everyone might forget about, the World Cup underdogs? Everyone wants to see a team do well that isn’t initially expected to go very far. In the 2002 World Cup, we saw South Korea make it all the way to the semifinals under the guidance of Guus Hiddink. Who would have seen that one coming?
For the first time since 1982, 36 years later, Peru will be playing in the FIFA 2018 World Cup. But we all know that story and, frankly, defeating New Zealand isn’t that special. Sorry, Kiwis. What is more shocking than that is Peru’s latest streak of record-breaking success which, despite the country’s current political climate and doping national team captain, might earn them a decent spot in the World Cup. Or they could win it, why not?
Here’s Peru’s World Cup qualifying goal against New Zealand by Jefferson Farfan:
Liverpool and AS Roma have made this the most exciting Champions League in recent years (at least as far as the semifinals are concerned). Here's why a Liverpool versus AS Roma UCL final would be the best thing that could possibly happen to us.
There's a good reason powerhouses Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus always feature in the most definitive rounds of Europe's most important competition, and yet, even though these teams never cease to amaze us, there's something refreshing and exciting about teams like Liverpool and Roma making it so far.
If you would’ve offered AS Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco a Camp Nou first leg in which Lionel Messi is limited to naught, Di Francesco probably would’ve broken your hand in agreement. And then you’d have to inform him that his side would still lose 4-1.
Roma still have an opportunity to shock the world at the Stadio Olimpico in the return leg thanks to Eden Dzeko’s conciliatory away goal, but the club from the Eternal City is more realistically doomed after conceding four goals to a superior opponent.
When Barcelona drew Roma in the Champions League quarterfinals back on March 16, many penciled the LaLiga leaders straight through to the semis. This is, after all, Barcelona’s 11th consecutive appearance at the quarterfinal stage. For Roma, it’s their first in 10 years. If you want to place a bet on Roma winning the first leg at the Camp Nou, you’ll get 14-1 odds on that punt.