Mexico take on South Korea Saturday, June 23 at the Rostov Arena on the second matchday of Group F action at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The match begins at 11:00 a.m. ET on FOX and Telemundo with South Korea desperate for a result following a 1-0 opening defeat to Sweden, whereas Mexico is riding high following a 1-0 victory over defending champions Germany.
I’m making this up — this could’ve happened at the 1934 tournament or something — but I’m pretty sure that Tuesday’s match between Colombia and Japan is the first-ever World Cup game in which a player has been sent off in the third minute, resulting in a successfully taken penalty, only to be followed by a 39th minute equalizer in which a player strokes a free kick under the wall.
I just have a good feeling that we’ve never seen anything like this before.
Colombia will be without attacking midfielder James Rodriguez when it opens group play against Japan Tuesday. The latest James Rodriguez injury update says the 2014 Golden Boot winner is still struggling with a left calf injury that he sustained during training, and he’s since been omitted from Colombia’s starting eleven to face Japan.
If every country has it’s own lesser version of Lionel Messi (“The Alpine Messi”, “The Egyptian Messi”, etc.) then Russia’s is certainly Denis Cheryshev. The 27-year-old has spent his entire career in Spain (including coming through at Real Madrid and making two appearances for the club before joining Villarreal in 2016), and he demonstrated his talents Thursday after coming on as a 24th minute substitute for the injured Alan Dzagoev.
19 minutes after coming on, Cheryshev doubled Russia’s advantage with a sweet strike in the 43rd minute.
To the delight of 80,000 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia has opened the scoring against Saudi Arabia in the 2018 World Cup’s curtain raiser. CSKA Moscow midfielder Aleksandr Golovin provided some excellent service from the left wing, and FC Krasnodar’s Yury Gazinsky directed his header beyond Abdullah Al-Mayouf to give Russia the lead in the 12th minute.
Back in January of 2016, Tottenham attacker Dele Alli announced his talent to the world by scoring what BBC Match of the Day would later vote Goal of the Season against Crystal Palace. Alli controlled a Christian Eriksen knock-down with his thigh, flicked an audacious sombrero over the head of an onrushing defender, swiveled and struck a 22-yard volley inside the post.
It wasn’t the style that the USWNT will be looking to impose on nations exactly one year from now in France (qualifying willing), but a set piece delivered by Megan Rapinoe and finished by Alex Morgan, who now has five goals in her last three international appearances, was enough to see the U.S. over China in Sandy, Utah on Thursday night.
A strong crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium also got to see the return of Amy Rodriguez and watch Crystal Dunn play in pretty much every position on the field.
Andres Iniesta has made his next move official, signing with J1 League side Vissel Kobe. He's undoubtedly one of the J League's greatest imports, so in his honor, we've decided to assemble a list of the 18 best foreign players in J League history.
Newcastle Jets midfielder and most Australian-sounding man in the world Riley McGree just scored an incredible scorpion kick goal. For those of you who have never seen a scorpion kick goal, it's the equivalent of an NBA player turning around at the 3-point line, moonwalking its perimeter and scoring a no-look basket while doing so.
Our feelings about this goal are summed up nicely by the eloquence of this Twitter user:
Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta appears set to join Chinese Super League (CSL) team Chongqing Dangdai Lifan next season.