Category: USA

Hope Solo calls victorious Sweden “cowards” after U.S. women’s worst ever tournament finish

The U.S. women’s team lost to Sweden and former coach Pia Sundhage in the Olympic quarterfinals, marking the team’s worst ever tournament finish and the first time they have failed to medal at the Olympics. After losing the decisive shootout 4-3 on unlikely misses from Alex Morgan and Christen Press, goalkeeper Hope Solo decided the best course of action was to insult Sweden by calling them cowards.

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Referees trade shoes during MLS match

In the 19th minute of a match between Real Salt Lake and the Chicago Fire, play was halted and two of the referee’s assistants met in the center circle and began taking off their shoes. This, needless to say, is a strange occurrence.

Stranger still, the two men then put on each other’s shoes and returned to their positions. It seemed the linesman needed a bit more grip than his shoes were offering, so he swapped with the fourth official because, well, fourth officials could wear bunny slippers and it wouldn’t really matter. The match then continued without any further shoe swapping between the officials, who all apparently wear the same size by some remarkable coincidence.

There are many layers to the strangeness of this situation.

(Full video here)

If anything, Frank Lampard might be too good for MLS

At the start of the season, fans eager to stamp out MLS’s “retirement league” tag and impatient writers desperate for pageviews dubbed Frank Lampard the league’s worst ever signing. Now, after a loan (that wasn’t really a loan at all) to Man City and a nagging calf injury that has limited his time in MLS since being unveiled by New York City FC in 2014, Lampard has scored eight goals in his last seven matches, including the first hat trick in his club’s brief history.

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Will Ferrell takes penalties against Leicester’s Christian Fuchs

LAFC part-owner Will Ferrell visited with Leicester City during their summer tour of the U.S., giving him an opportunity to show some skills that would fit right in with the Italian national team.

Defender Christian Fuchs acted as goalkeeper against Ferrell’s penalty attempts. He didn’t have to do much on the first two, but on the third, Ferrell used the initial save as a distraction so he could throw a second ball into the open net.

A preview of what’s to come from LAFC, surely.

Inter’s Stevan Jovetic scores with backheel nutmeg to beat Real Salt Lake

With the score even at 1-1 late in Inter’s friendly against Real Salt Lake, Steven Jovetic unleashed a finishing move that even the creators of Mortal Kombat would deem too cruel.

Jovetic, a man who has now proven himself to have absolutely no chill, executed a backheel nutmeg on the goalkeeper to give Inter a 2-1 win.

Again, this was just a friendly, but Jovetic is now the owner of Real Salt Lake and all the players are legally obligated to call him “Daddy.”