Pro Evolution Soccer, the Myspace to the EA Sports FIFA franchise’s Facebook, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and they’re doing it by bringing innovation back to the game. Namely in the form of including Francesco Totti’s selfie goal celebration.
To match the size of their record deal with new kitmaker Adidas, Manchester United will offer XXXXL shirts next season. Their shirts for the 2014/15 season, the last made by Nike, were only available to more rotund fans up to size XXXL. But thanks to Adidas, supporters can now spend the summer keeping hydrated exclusively by drinking melted ice cream and still fit into a top originally intended to be worn by a world-class athlete.
With Steven Gerrard on the verge of making the move from Liverpool to Los Angeles to play in MLS, he has to prepare himself for a very different environment with very different weather. So actor Chris Pratt, star of the new Jurassic Park film, has offered the former England captain some helpful advice.
Wasting no time after Barcelona’s treble celebrations, Xavi has already arrived in Doha for his presentation as an Al-Sadd player on Thursday. Normally when a player of Xavi’s caliber moves to a place unaccustomed to hosting superstars, there’s an untamable mob of giddy fans filling an airport terminal beyond capacity. But this is World Cup 2022 host nation Qatar.
Though there were some fans and club officials awaiting his arrival, it was all very orderly and far from overwhelming. Which is probably a sensation he should get used to over the next two years since Al Sadd have an average attendance of about 6,000.
Since I, Sepp Blatter, am the godfather of women’s football, there is no one more qualified to tell you everything you need to know about the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup!
Even though the tournament has not yet begun, people are already talking about it with so much excitement that you might think it started last Saturday. That’s how far I have brought women’s football! And that’s one of many reasons why the American authorities should not arrest me.
☺ just leavin this here pic.twitter.com/Eq6pXNs68Y
— The Beautiful Game⚽ (@fyeahsoccer17) June 9, 2015
Megan Rapinoe became the first United States player to score to score two goals in one Women’s World Cup match since 2007, helping her side overcome an ugly first half to beat Australia 3-1 in their Group D opener. She also burned the ref after getting booked in the 64th minute.
Six-year-old Benjamin Aguero, son of Man City striker Sergio, knocked down Grandpa Maradona’s shot in a little game of backyard one-v-one and then tried to show the old man how it’s done. But Maradona doesn’t believe in going easy on the opposition, even when the opposition is his six-year-old grandson.
So when the kid tried to cut past the portly 54-year-old World Cup winner, Maradona kicked him in the leg and brought him down. But Benjamin quickly popped right back up, leaving Grandpa Maradona in his dust before getting past the last man dog and scoring with a tidy finish.
And that’s why Benjamin isn’t getting any Christmas presents from his grandfather this year.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Barcelona completed a perfect end to the season by beating Juventus 3-1 in the Champions League final to win their second treble in six years and fourth European Cup in 10 years. For a club that has supposedly been in crisis every other week for the last three years, that’s quite impressive. But for a club with three of the best players in the world scoring goals by the bushel for them, it also makes complete sense.
Though that last fact might seem like enough to put Barca past Juve, there was actually much more to it. These are all the reasons why Barcelona won…
Zlatan Ibrahimovic famously said “A World Cup without me is nothing to watch” after Sweden lost their 2014 World Cup qualifying playoff to Portugal (he did later attend a World Cup match, though), and it seems he feels the same way about Champions League finals.
Zlatan, who has still never won the Champions League, spent one tumultuous season with Barcelona back in 2009/10. But as his former club prepared to face Juventus in the final, Zlatan posted photos of himself climbing mountains in Sweden to his Instagram account. Read more
Norway celebrated their third goal in their Women’s World Cup opener against Thailand by miming a group selfie. We’ve seen footballers celebrate goals by taking selfies with actual phones before, but this might be the first pretend selfie at a World Cup.