Nike has unveiled the new away kit for both the U.S. men’s and women’s teams and it looks like their printer ran out of blue ink just as it reached the shoulders. But instead of going out and paying stupid money for more color ink cartridges, they decided to just go with it.
Marco Reus recently signed a contract extension with Borussia Dortmund despite the club’s struggles this season and serious interest from bigger clubs abroad. Now we know why: because he doesn’t want to have to learn a whole new set of secret handshakes with new teammates somewhere else.
Following Dortmund’s win against Mainz, Reus carried out a series of handshakes and embraces that seemed to be specific to certain teammates (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ilkay Gundogan, and Nuri Sahin). The smoothness and ease with which Reus carried out this ritual must have taken some practice, so the thought of starting over with other players who might not be as adept in the secret handshake game must have been upsetting.
When Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored in PSG’s 2-2 draw against Caen on Saturday, he solemnly removed his shirt to reveal that his body appeared to be covered in more tattoos than usual. The new body art was all names and the sheer amount of them prompted jokes from some viewers. Others, meanwhile, scolded him for getting a yellow card for the seemingly frivolous offense, since it earned him a suspension from PSG’s upcoming match against Monaco for yellow card accumulation. But it turns out Zlatan did this for a good and selfless cause.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver was interviewed by the BBC during the league’s All-Star weekend festivities and he took the opportunity to once again express his admiration for European football.
PSG have been able to buy a lot of things, but successful banter apparently isn’t one of them. Up 2-0 in the 87th minute of their Ligue 1 match against Caen, the club’s official English language Twitter account decided to prod upcoming Champions League opponents Chelsea with a reference to parking the bus.
Liverpool came from behind to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals, with their first goal coming from Daniel Sturridge, who had teammate Alberto Moreno as a guest back-up dancer on his trademark celebration.
This wasn’t a spontaneous expression of tandem joy, though. Moreno had to audition for his part during Liverpool’s training session on Friday.
Cristiano Ronaldo recently drew the ire of Real Madrid fans by brazenly celebrating his 30th birthday hours after the club lost 4-0 to Atletico Madrid. But Cristiano is sorry about this, as well as his poor run of form. The following is his apology to all of those he has offended.
Freddy Adu is once again without a club after a six-month stint with Serbian team Jagodina in which he didn’t really play. So the 25-year-old “American Pele” turned cautionary tale used his notoriety and free time to host an evening at a nightclub in Washington, DC, where he began his professional career at 14 years old.
Several international media outlets picked up on this event and misinterpreted it as evidence that the former U.S. international is now a nightclub promoter.
Everything is finally coming up Klopp again after a nightmare start to the season for Borussia Dortmund. Jurgen’s boys recovered from conceding a goal to Mainz in the first minute on Friday to win 4-2, giving them two consecutive wins and helping them jump out of the relegation zone to finish a week that also saw Marco Reus turn down bigger money elsewhere to sign a contract extension with the club. Naturally, all of this has Klopp very fired up.
Following the dismissal of Paul Lambert, Aston Villa are in need of a new manager and FA chairman Prince William has apparently notified his first choice. Even though he has no official affiliation with the club (aside from being their most powerful fan not named Tom Hanks).
Fresh off losing the African Cup of Nations final in a shootout ended with a penalty scored by a goalkeeper, Ghana coach Avram Grant tells Sky Sports:
“I met Prince William and he asked me ‘why don’t you come to Aston Villa?’. I said ‘when you become the chairman, I will come’.
“As long as my name is mentioned, I feel good with this, but not more than that. I want to continue with Ghana.”
It’s probably not a good sign that the future King of England can’t even convince someone to take the Villa job.
