Fernando Torres just finished his time at boyhood club Atletico Madrid, and he's now a free agent. The world is his oyster. Torres is 34 years old, and he's obviously coming to the twilight of his career. But, as he showed for Atletico this past season in La Liga and the Europa League, there's still life in him.
After expert divers rescued four members of the Wild Boars soccer team yesterday during a dramatic operation inside the Tham Luang cave complex in Northern Thailand, Thai navy seals confirmed that an additional four boys had been rescued Monday. A further four boys and their coach remain, but the threat of monsoon rains re-flooding the cave has been downgraded as the chance of rain over the next couple days is low, according to forecasters.
Four members of the Thailand youth soccer team that’s been trapped in the Tham Luang caves have now been rescued, but eight boys remain along with their 25-year-old coach. But why was the soccer team in the cave to begin with, and how have they spent more than two weeks inside the sprawling complex?
Four of the players from the Wild Boar soccer team in Thailand have been successfully rescued from the Tham Luang caves in Chiang Rai province, but eight boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach remain underground with the operation set to resume in 10 to 20 hours.
Rescuers found the missing soccer team in Thailand late Monday local time after a nine day search and rescue operation. Twelve members of the Wild Boar soccer team, ranging in age from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach had not been seen since June 23.
Some of the team's belongings were spotted outside the cave the day they disappeared. The boys and their coach were exploring popular caves in the Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand. They navigated beyond warning signs that are posted deeper inside the cave network.
Japan’s entire 2018 World Cup cycle was something of a bitter complaint. Yes, the Samurai Blue qualified for a sixth straight tournament, but manager Vahid Halilhodzic was fired ten weeks before the finals for doing things like losing to the UAE and drawing with Iraq. To begin World Cup play, Japan recorded a 2-1 win over Colombia but somehow managed to look second-best despite playing 87 minutes with a man advantage.
You know in FIFA when you strike the perfect ball and the goalkeeper really shouldn’t even have time to react but instinctively leaps sideways and backwards and claws out your shot with a preposterous bit of animation that makes your blood curl? Well that just happened to Poland’s Kamil Grosicki but in real life.
The Polish attacker really should’ve scored with this perfectly placed header, but Japan’s Eiji Kawashima sprinted across his goal-line, went full extension and pawed it out with a monstrous right claw. This is what’s referred to as slamming the door shut.
Mexico’s deserved 3-0 spanking at the hands of an exceptional Sweden side doesn’t matter. El Tri’s through to the Round of 16 thanks to one of the greatest upsets in the history of the World Cup. The defending champions are out, and they’ll long have nightmares of South Korea goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo, who made six saves on the day.
Mohamed Salah's goal was leading Egypt to its first-ever World Cup point, but a late Saudi Arabia goal denied the Pharaohs.
With both Egypt and Saudi Arabia eliminated prior to the match, it was clear the game would be more about honor and statistics than actual glory.
Nevertheless, both teams were eager to get the victory that would send them back home with some degree of consolation.
After registering somewhat surprising victories over Colombia and Poland on matchday one in Group H, Japan and Senegal played to a thrilling 2-2 draw in Yekaterinburg on Sunday. Sadio Mane opened the scoring for Senegal early in the first half, only for Takashi Inui to equalize 23 minutes later.