All About The Beautiful Game
Virgil van Dijk, Arjen Robben, and Luis Suarez: all three of these players have lifted the UEFA Champions League. Other than that, they don’t have a whole lot of similarities. All of them play different positions. Two of them represent the Dutch national team, with Suarez representing Uruguay. Only Robben has appeared in a World…
Read More “FC Groningen Threatened With Relegation For The First Time This Century” »
Well, that was exciting. The World Cup group stage is officially over, with 16 of the original 32 teams moving to the knockouts. Many of those 16 teams were not expected to advance: just look at Australia, who stunned Denmark to advance. South Korea advanced over Uruguay, Japan over Germany, Morocco over Belgium: the list…
Read More “Five Winners of the FIFA World Cup Group Stage” »
The World Cup has long been a proving ground for football’s most exciting talents. In 2006, FIFA created an award acknowledging this: the FIFA Young Player Award (YPA). In each tournament, the best player under the age of 21 would be given the award. So far, there have been some notable winners. In 2006, the…
Read More “Best World Cup U21 Players on Every Team: Group A” »
In 2014, the Dutch national team faced Spain in the World Cup Group Stages. This was no ordinary match: Spain had defeated Netherlands in the final just four years earlier, preventing them from winning a first-ever World Cup. Eager for revenge, Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie helped the Dutch thrash the Spaniards 5-1 in…
The Gold and Bronze medal matches have been confirmed, and there are some surprising results–the United States failure to reach the final among them. Ranked first in the world according to FIFA, the United States struggled early in the tournament but thought their troubles were behind them after beating the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. Up…
Read More “Sweden Will Challenge Canada For Soccer Olympic Gold” »
If you missed my article yesterday, I reviewed the men’s Olympic Group Stages. Here is my analysis of the women’s Olympic Group Stage: Group A Technically the Olympics list this as Group E (a continuation of the men’s, I guess?) but that makes no sense. Great Britain topped the group with seven points, finishing as…
Read More “Going For Gold: The Women’s Olympic Group Stages Are Complete” »
Unlike the Champions League, the Euros (and World Cup) have only one leg in the knockout stages. If you win, you advance. There’s no room for error, as four teams have already found out. Austria, Wales, the Netherlands, and Portugal have been eliminated in the Round of 16, and four more will be eliminated in…
Read More “The Dutch See Red, Italy Advance, & More From Days 1 & 2 of the Knockout Stages” »
Twelve months after the Euro 2020 group stages were supposed to end, they finally have. The group stages had it all – trauma, heartbreak, relief, upsets, joy, heroics – and now it is time for the knockouts. Sixteen teams will be moving on, and eight teams have already gone home. But which sixteen, and did…
Following the conclusion of round one of Euro fixtures, I wrote this article about players whose values could go up after good performances. Just a few days later, the second round of fixtures have been completed. Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands already have now clinched spots in the Round of 16. Some teams, however, will…
Read More “Three Players Who Have Seen Stock Rise Following Round Two of Euro Fixtures” »
It’s hard to believe, but it has been only two years since France won the World Cup. More importantly, there are less than two years remaining until 32 teams head to Qatar to decide who are the new world champions. Because of coronavirus, these qualifiers will be unlike any others. With all of the qualifying…
