Last Friday, Istanbul Basaksehir slipped to a disastrous 1-1 home draw with Sivasspor, a result that almost certainly handed the Turkish Super Lig title to either Galatasaray or Fenerbahce with only two matches to play. Leading 1-0 heading into second half stoppage time, Istanbul Basaksehir goalkeeper Volkan Babacan surrendered this calamitous own goal to doom his club’s title hopes.
It’s official. Everyone hoping for a Zlatan Ibrahimovic World Cup can calm down now. The swaggering Swede announced on Thursday morning he will indeed be in Russia for this summer’s tournament.
But he won’t be playing with Sweden — he’ll be playing for Team Zlatan.
Kevin Tomlinson, a seemingly die-hard Bluenose fan, promised he’d tattoo Birmingham City manager Garry Monk’s face on his bum if they beat Fulham to escape relegation out of the English League Championship. Monk paid for the tattoo after the match.
In the end, of course, there was no major upset. Paris Saint-Germain defeated third-division club Les Herbiers 2-0 in the 2018 Coupe de France Final. But the lasting image of Tuesday’s match between giants and minnows was the awkward moment of PSG captain Thiago Silva lifting the Coupe de France trophy alongside Les Herbiers captain Sébastien Flochon.
On Sunday, in a pivotal relegation match for his side, Florentin Pogba, Paul’s older brother, injured his knee. Pogba then decided to limp off the pitch in the 85th minute, only to be angrily confronted by his Genclerbirligi teammates.
The Stanley Cup playoffs took a blow on Sunday when Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins were knocked out in the second round. The NHL, hockey fans will note, reprimanded Marchand after he twice licked opponents during the postseason. But it got us thinking, who in the soccer world is most likely to be asked to stop licking players?
Beşiktaş is one of Turkey’s greatest clubs, having won 15 Turkish Super League titles, most recently in 2017. The Black Eagles have won nine Turkish Cups and eight Turkish Super Cups. But the club chose to throw away a chance at the next two Turkish Cups by choosing not to show up for a match on Thursday — and many have applauded the Beşiktaş forfeit.
Poor Sven. All he wanted to do was hang out on the Bayern bench and rack up trophies, but then Manuel Neuer had to go and get injured in September. Now, after another Sven Ulreich howler against Real Madrid on Tuesday, the Bayern Munich backup is making a name for himself in all the wrong ways.
In today’s youth sports, there exists a certain type of parent, the parent we know all too well. The asshole parent. Soccer parents gone wild.
The asshole parent comes in three varieties. The raging critic, whose sole objective is to criticize his or her child until he or she runs off the field in tears. The argumentative screamer, spewing insults at the other team. And finally there's the hostile screamer, provoking brawls with anyone on the opposing side, whether parent or coach.