
Because soccer is unpredictable and fun and joyful and compelling- because it's a very good thing- it attracts the amoral, cynical, and outright awful people, who seek to capitalize on our interest in it.

There is a unity between Jurgen Klopp’s philosophy of pressure and his ability to shape raw material, to turn the potential of Cody Gakpo into something tangible and match-winning at a Premier League and Champions League level.

The same drumbeat that carried Eden Hazard to Real Madrid will try, in a syncopated cadence, to push him out. It is the peculiar thing that Madrid does.

El Gran Derbi is the best rivalry hardly anyone outside Spain cares about. Given that Sevilla and Real Betis have both been pretty good over the past half-decade or so, their matches are intense and well-played.