Defender Samuel Umtiti‘s first national team goal in official competition decided France’s 1-0 win over Belgium in the 2018 World Cup semifinal. The Cameroon-born Umtiti, who moved toFrance with his family at age 2, had previously scored in friendlies against England in 2017 and Italy in a pre-World Cup friendly June 1. Now 24, he […]
world cup 2018
Posted inStory, World Cup Watch
Luka Modric is eager to fulfill 'great expectations' placed on Croatia
A penalty kick that star midfielder Luka Modric failed to convert could have shattered Croatia’s World Cup campaign in the round of 16. As the players lined up for apenalty-kick tiebreaker with Denmark, only a few minutes had elapsed since keeper Kasper Schmeichel snuffed Modric’s weak effort to push Croatia in front. Instead, overtime ended,1-1, […]
Posted inStory, World Cup Watch
Vincent Kompany: Belgium's 'Master of the Castle' comes back just in time
Belgium’s golden generation is underachieving no longer, thanks to its leader, Vincent Kompany, who recovered from injury just in time for his team’s toughest games of the2018 World Cup. Kompany has spent the last decade at Manchester City,which last season stormed to the English Premier League title, while the Belgian played only half the games […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Watch: The final goal by surprise golazo man Denis Cheryshev
Denis Cheryshev, who hadn’t scored for Russia before the World Cup, struck four times, including this superb strike during the host’s quarterfinal exit to Croatia. He’s got no chanceto win the Golden Boot, but three of his four were golazos — and he finished crisply against Egypt. Cheryshev, who wasborn in Gorky, moved to Spain […]
Posted inStory, World Cup Watch
After stellar club season, Captain Kane fuels England hopes
As the weeks and months count down to a World Cup, anxiety of fans andfollowers of the national teams head to the tournament grow and grow. They worry mostly about injuries, of course, but they also wonder if their players will be among those too tired, toobanged up, or just too burned out once the […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Watch: World Cup's second handball own goal
Brazil found itself behind the eight ball early when Nacer Chadli‘s 13th minute corner kick deflected off Fernandinho‘s arm into Brazil’s net for the first goal of a2-1 Belgium quarterfinal win. It marked this World Cup’s 11th own goal — and second hand-ball own goal. In Mexico’s 3-0 loss to Sweden, EdsonAlvarez was the unlucky […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
From back in the USSR to 2018 surprise: 10 things to know about Russia
World Cup host Russia, which faces Croatia in the quarterfinals on Saturday, is considered by FIFA as the successor team of the Soviet Union, which split in 1991 when Russia was by far the largestSoviet republic by population and geographically. The USSR’s soccer records were allocated by FIFA to Russia, but not its Olympic medals […]
Posted inStory
Joe Machnik on watching every World Cup game and assessing the performances of referees such as Mark Geiger
How do you watch every game of the World Cup and play a role on how it is presented to a vast TV audience? You sit in a room at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Moscowwith a few screens and video operators and when cued by a producer you analyze and explain how […]
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Watch: England break its shootout curse
Eliminated by the spot kick tiebreaker at the 1990, 1998 and 2006 World Cups and 1996, 2004 and 2012 Euros, England finally won one — defeating Colombia to book its first World Cupquarterfinal spot since 2006. The entire shootout:
Posted inStory, World Cup Watch
Uruguay's Diego Godin makes strong case as world's best defender
Diego Godin briefly quit soccer at age 17. Now 32, he’s set to play in the World Cup quarterfinals and ranks among the world’s best defenders.