Barcelona have been lackluster this season. While a resurgent Antoine Griezmann and Lionel Messi duo is carrying the front line at the Nou Camp, they’re still a shadow of their former glory days. Could Memphis Depay be the answer to their strike woes? The answer appeared to be yes, that was until the transfer fell through last summer.
In 1979, Real Madrid won their 19th league title, beating Sporting Gijón by a mere four points. Ever since, a feeling of anti-Madrid sentiment has bled throughout Spain, following the Merengue club wherever they go.
Despite the pressure of the astronomical expectations placed upon his shoulders, Ronaldo performed night in, night out. As a result, he’s gained the reputation of a goal machine, having normalized the unthinkable: having more goals than games played. But things weren’t always this way.
Who would have known that on a scorching summer day in Brazil, Mexico would receive an icy bath of heartbreaking reality — a last gasp penalty kick that would eliminate them from the FIFA World Cup. The decision — and the dive that forced it — were heavily scrutinized on social media. Minutes after the match, chaos broke out on Twitter — giving life to a meme that would echo in the feeds of Mexican football fans for years. “No Era Penal,” was born.
Whether you’re a die-hard football fan or a casual bystander, each year, the world stops for 90 minutes to watch the biggest game in club football — El Clásico Español, a game between Spanish juggernauts Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Only this year, Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium wasn’t rocking. The teams’ 99,000 fans had to chant from home.
Irving and Neymar are similar in their diva personalities. They want all eyes on them and feed on the adulation of carrying their teams to victory. Their dribbling skills and flashy play draw crowds and their diminutive frames allow their agile, quick bodies to drift past opposing players with ease. But their lack of definitive success, mixed with their tendencies to showboat and reject teammates, make them luxury players who end up hurting their teams more than they help.
Muscle shrinkage takes three weeks to start taking effect, which could also affect the conditioning of players. Players who have been training for years can lose significant muscle mass in only a few months of quarantine.
For the casual viewer, watching grown men kick a ball into a net and earn millions of dollars is just another game. But for the die-hard fan, it’s life. And to be held in soccer purgatory until further notice is mindnumbing torture, solitary confinement — an isolation that might be the bitter pill to swallow that will get the soccer world out of this pandemic.
Stony Brook senior defender Hannah Groth sent a corner kick into the six-yard box that fellow senior forward Lindsay Hutchinson found. Hutchinson’s shot was cleared off but the ball came straight to midfielder Lea Kalmbach, who side-footed it, flying it…