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Jiro Barriga Toyama: The Man Who Scored a Hat Trick Without a Contract
It’s January 29th, 2019, and you’ve just scored a hat trick. Your name is splashed across twitter, supporters declaring you, both seriously and humorously, to be the club’s greatest prospect in years. There’s one problem; you don’t actually play for the club you just scored your hat trick for. Your name is Jiro Barriga Toyama.…
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Ibrahim Sangaré: The Raw Ivorian Gem
There are plenty of countries that are associated with a specialized position. Brazil have been known to produce the finest right backs in the world, with the likes of Dani Alves, Maicon, and Cafu reaching world-class status after arriving in Europe. Slovenia, despite its relative paucity of renowned stars, have consistently produced top-notch goalkeepers, as…
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Top 10 talents to follow at AFCON 2019
Hamed Junior Traore – Empoli – Ivory Coast In recent years in Italian football, Empoli have been one of the most productive conveyor belts of talent. While it has mostly been on loan in the form of the likes of Piotr Zielinski, Matias Vecino and even further back with Claudio Marchisio. While they are not…
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Tactical Overview: Women’s World Cup Group Stage
The Women’s World Cup started on June 7th and has been a complete success. Full stadiums, broadcasting records, a lot of inspirational stories and the most important: quality soccer. In a competition whose consequences and effects go beyond the field and the actual games, fighting for gender equality and women’s rights, women’s soccer is growing…
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How does Zlatan’s LA Galaxy Journey Measure Up after a Year?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s current stint in MLS could best be described as vibrant. From a 40-yard volley minutes into his debut to choking NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson and only getting a yellow card, the Swede has constantly been in the limelight. As Zlatan goes past his 1-year mark in American soccer, I’ll take a look back…
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Paxton Pomykal: Dallas’s next star
The U-20 World Cup being played in Poland has brought us different emotions and feelings. Excitement, uncertainty, suspense, drama and pleasure, all of it in a competition played by young men who are trying to showcase themselves every day, while honoring and fighting for the colors of their country. I will emphasize a thing that…
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Toulon Tournament: Match 10: Brazil-Qatar
There was a moment during the match where, after lunging to make a tackle, Qatar’s Amro Abdelfatah Ali Surag tried to get back onto his feet, before his head met the sheer brunt of a Lucas Fernandes shot whilst in mid-rise. That was basically the jist of this game. With their qualification to the semis already…
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Toulon Tournament: Match 9: Brazil-France
Going into the most star-studded match of the group stage, we knew what we were getting into. We knew that the French side, despite their ferocious performance against Qatar, was still largely packed with precocious teenagers, many of whom were still cutting their teeth in academy football, few of which had actually managed regular minutes…
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Toulon Tournament: Match 7: Japan-Chile
Hours before England and Portugal gave us the best match of the tournament thus far, Japan gave us the best performance of the tournament thus far. The match took place next to Nostradamus’ former home in Salon de Provence, but as one witty commentator put it, not even Nostradamus could have predicted this. Whilst Chile’s…
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Toulon Tournament: Match 8: England-Portugal
If Monday’s second match gave us the dullest match of the tournament, Tuesday’s second match gave us the most exciting match of the tournament’s early stages. With both of Group A’s favorites having lost their opening games, and with Japan having already secured their first-place status with a 7-1 drubbing of Chile earlier on in…
