Sport

Kylian Mbappé passes the audition but PSG spectacularly fail another test

While the word “narrative” has become something of a cinder block sitting in the intestines of sports, sometimes you just can’t avoid how much it’s beating you over the head. Kylian Mbappé lining up against Real Madrid in the round of 16 in the Champions League was one of those times. Mbappé is still widely […]

Sport

With Weston McKennie done for the season… now what?

For as much excitement as this batch of the USMNT has generated, most of that has been tempered by the fact that A) they’ve rarely actually played all that well together and B) they’ve rarely all been together and in anything near top form. There will be those, the most rose-colored glasses-adorned amongst us, who… […]

Sport

Whew… we need to talk about the Russian gymnasts

This morning, I woke up to the sight of a river of people, from the elderly down to the babies carried in their parents’ arms, trying to escape Ukraine. I watched my TV in horror as they slipped and slid uphill, some of them falling, wondering if they were going to get back up again. […]

Sport

FIFA doesn’t want to ask itself the hard questions [Updated]

It is so simple, at least to anyone not entangled in the middle of the mess. All of Poland, Czechia, and Sweden have said they will refuse to play Russia in World Cup qualifiers at the end of March. While a ban from FIFA isn’t going to end Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, there is no […]

Sport

USWNT settlement was 30 years in the making

The U.S. Women’s National Team has spent its entire existence not just battling opponents from abroad, but its own soccer federation. After a nearly three-year-long legal battle, U.S. Soccer settled in court with the U.S. women’s soccer team. The settlement, which was agreed to six years after five players, Megan… Read more…

Sport

Kylian Mbappé continues to bend Champions League to his will

Kylian Mbappé is only 23, but his plunge into the world soccer scene keeps growing. The French dynamo, playing for his home country’s most successful club over the last dozen years, Paris Saint-Germain, as well as being an integral member of France’s national team, keeps scoring critical goals. Two in the last week… Read more…

Sport

Automated offside is here, and it’s pretty damn cool

Even through its many, many bumps and hiccups (the kind of hiccups where you feel like you’ve pulled an oblique) I have been pro-VAR. It is hardly perfect, and far too much of it still depends on the whims and judgements of people. Except now being in the hands of whatever is floating between one […]

Sport

Olivier Giroud continues to just do the work

It is hard to look at Olivier Giroud and think “grafter. ” Because it’s not hard to look at Giroud at all. Ask Leslie Jones . It would be silly to suggest that people don’t make conclusions based on how a player looks. It’s difficult to reconcile him as a pure, old-school center forward. Strong, […]

Sport

Where does the USMNT stand in World Cup Qualifying?

Call this the Idiot’s Guide to World Cup Qualifying. The diehard American Outlaws probably know this information by heart. Casual fans may know some. Most general sports fans in America will only tune in to soccer should the United States men’s national team make it to the World Cup, meaning it’ll be more than eight… […]

Sport

Who are Tom Brady’s peers in other sports?

There’s no doubt Tom Brady won championships at a rate we’ve never seen before in the NFL, with no fellow football players lifting as many titles as the longtime Patriot and most-recent Buccaneer did. He alone holds the record for most Super Bowls won by an individual player. Read more…