A lot has happened in both the men’s and women’s games in 2019. Here are the top 10 stories of the year in world football.
Coleen Rooney ran a sort of sting operation to catch Rebekah Vardy, wife of Leicester City forward Jamie, red-handed. By going public with claims that Vardy had leaked her stories to the press, Rooney became a folk hero, not so much for her shocking revelation, but for her savvy investigative skills.
Rooney made her Instagram account private and blocked all of her followers from viewing her stories – except for one person. Vardy’s account was the only one that had access to these “stories,” which were fabricated, and when they appeared in The Sun newspaper, Rooney had found her smoking gun.
Vardy, a reality TV star, denied the allegation, claiming many people had access to her account and that any one of them could’ve compromised her trust. She also expressed her disappointment in Rooney for making such a ruckus while Vardy was “heavily pregnant.” If nothing else, the headlines offered a reminder of the perils of social media. And laughs. So many laughs.
All hell broke loose when Maurizio Sarri attempted to substitute Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga in the League Cup final in February. With the game heading to penalties, spot-kick specialist Willy Caballero was called upon to replace Kepa in goal, but the Spaniard refused, leaving Sarri fuming.
Kepa was only ever going to look foolish for his stubbornness. He made just one save in the subsequent shootout, giving Manchester City a 4-3 win.
Sarri dressed the incident as a “big misunderstanding,” but his anger on the touchline seemed pretty pointed. Kepa had undermined his manager, and Sarri, despite winning the Europa League in May, left the club after just one season.
Earlier in December, Lionel Messi edged out Virgil van Dijk by just seven votes to win his sixth Ballon d’Or. It moved the Argentine one ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi scored 36 goals in La Liga during the 2018-19 season and led the Champions League with 12 tallies, often single-handedly deciding games for Barcelona.
Van Dijk had a solid campaign himself, winning the Champions League as one of Liverpool’s core pieces. His arrival stabilized the previously porous Reds and made players around him better. But even Van Dijk knew the writing was on the wall.
“I think Messi is the best player in the world,” the Dutchman said in June. “He deserves (the Ballon d’Or) as long as he plays.”
Liverpool scored four unanswered goals to erase a 3-0 first-leg deficit and upset Barcelona on an extraordinary night in the Champions League in early May.
The comeback was inspired by the unlikeliest characters. Divock Origi, who had made only five previous starts, set history in motion seven minutes in, and Georginio Wijnaldum scored twice in two second-half minutes after coming on for the injured Andy Robertson. Origi’s goal off a quick corner kick in the 79th minute finished off Barcelona.
For the second time in two seasons, the Catalan side was eliminated after wasting a three-goal advantage. Liverpool, of course, went on to the Champions League final, where they beat Tottenham.
When 28 players representing the United States’ women’s national team filed a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer in March over gender discrimination, their years-long battle for equality reached a breaking point.
The lawsuit claims the women get paid less than the men for winning the same number of games. U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro disagreed, saying the federation paid the women’s team $34.1 million in salary and bonuses, compared to $26.4 million for the men. A spokesperson for the women’s players said those figures were “utterly false.”
The USWNT is fighting for equal pay at a delicate point in the sport’s history. Norway’s Ada Hegerberg, widely considered the best player in the women’s game, boycotted the 2019 World Cup in protest of inequality.
Mauricio Pochettino had left hints that his time at Tottenham was coming to an end. He seemed irritated at the fact that he was now just a coach, not a manager with a say in the transfer market, and he called out his players when results were lacking. Pochettino, who had forged such a strong bond with the squad at his disposal, looked like a man out of ideas.
The run to the Champions League final masked some significant issues at the club, notably Pochettino’s decaying relationship with chairman Daniel Levy. There were players out of contract, too, and motivation was tough to find. Spurs finished the Premier League season with just three wins in their last 12 matches and began the next with just as little verve.
Pochettino was fired by Tottenham in November and replaced by Jose Mourinho. But Pochettino’s five-and-a-half years at the club changed its destiny. Tottenham challenged for trophies under Pochettino and qualified for the Champions League in each of the past four years – all while keeping a tight budget.
Art can be powerful, but we strongly disagree with the use of monkeys as images in the fight against racism and were surprised by the total lack of consultation. @SerieA_EN pic.twitter.com/M7wFjhsfj2
— AC Milan (@acmilan) December 17, 2019
Serie A failed on a number of occasions to deal with racism in an orderly and decent manner in 2019. The league continually dismissed racist incidents as nothing more than minor offenses and chose not to act when evidence was provided. Cagliari went unpunished despite their fans making monkey noises toward Moise Kean, then playing for Juventus, in April, and toward Inter striker Romelu Lukaku in September. They were, however, fined for throwing bottles on the pitch.
AC Milan and Roma are now urging Serie A officials to take racism more seriously. They lent their support to Lukaku and Chris Smalling after a newspaper featured them under the headline “Black Friday,” and condemned the league’s use of monkey artwork in a since-revoked anti-racism campaign.
When Megan Rapinoe announced to the world that, no, she wouldn’t go to the “f—— White House” if and when the USWNT were to win the World Cup, it set off a political storm. Donald Trump tweeted Rapinoe “should never disrespect our country, the White House, or our flag,” referring not only to her statement but her refusal to sing the national anthem before games.
It wasn’t the first time Rapinoe had taken a stand. She was one of the few white athletes to join Colin Kaepernick in kneeling during the national anthem in 2016. This time, though, she had taken on Trump and the U.S. office directly, using her newfound fame to enter the political arena and denounce the president for excluding people. After winning the World Cup, she appeared with politicians and on a segment with Anderson Cooper on CNN to air her views.
A lot of people love her for her activism and her willingness to take on public figures. A lot of people hate her for exactly that. But there’s no questioning her impact on the American psyche in 2019.
The football world grieved the loss of Emiliano Sala after his body was discovered among the wreckage of a plane crash that occurred off the island of Guernsey on Jan. 21.
Sala was on his way to Cardiff to complete a transfer from Nantes when the single-engine aircraft carrying the 28-year-old plummeted into the English Channel. Rescuers initially called off the search, but Sala’s family launched a fundraiser to restart the effort. His body was found more than two weeks later. Pilot David Ibbotson’s remains were never discovered.
Sala voiced concerns about the weather in a message he sent over WhatsApp, which was leaked to the press in the days after the crash.
“If, in an hour-and-a-half, you have no news from me, I don’t know if they are going to send someone to look for me, because they are not going to find me,” he said.
The tragedy soon devolved into a messy squabble about compensation. Cardiff City refused to pay the transfer fee that Nantes believed they were owed, arguing that the contract Sala had signed wasn’t legally binding. FIFA ruled Cardiff must pay €6 million as part of their first installment. The club has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Video Assistant Referees were supposed to eliminate controversy and ease the burden on officials. So far, neither has happened.
The Premier League introduced VAR at the start of the 2019-20 season, becoming the last of the top five leagues to implement the technology. A total of 58 calls have been overturned thus far, with 16 goals allowed and 32 disallowed, according to ESPN’s Dale Johnson. Many of those calls boiled down to a matter of millimeters on a screen.
Pundits like Gary Lineker routinely complain about VAR, which has ruled players offside by the tip of their toes and their armpits. Decisions have also taken an inordinate amount of time to reach. Referees are discouraged from using the pitchside monitor to assess the situation on their own, and fans in the stadium are often left wondering which play is under review and why.
Football fans are in for a treat if the next decade comes anywhere close to producing the type of extraordinary matches we’ve witnessed over the last 10 years. With the decade coming to a close, theScore takes a look at the top 10 matches from the 2010s:
The wild women’s semifinal at the 2012 Olympics may go down in history as one of the best matches ever played.
Canada and the United States put on a show for the crowd at Old Trafford, as the two sides battled for a place in the gold-medal game.
With Canada leading 3-2 with under 20 minutes remaining, a controversial series of events saw the Americans tie the match with a penalty. The Canadians were incensed, but it only got worse for them. U.S. star Alex Morgan’s dramatic extra-time goal in the 122nd minute helped the eventual gold medalists advance with a 4-3 victory that won’t soon be forgotten.
Mauricio Pochettino’s halftime speech during the second leg of this Champions League semifinal must’ve been epic; Tottenham went into the interval down 3-0 on aggregate against an inspired Ajax squad that was in the midst of a seemingly unstoppable Cinderella run.
After going down 2-0 in the opening 45 minutes in Amsterdam, Lucas Moura came to Tottenham’s rescue with a second-half hat-trick, securing the north London side’s passage to the Champions League final. As the Brazilian wheeled away in celebration, Ajax players crumbled to the pitch in disbelief.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic marked his arrival in Major League Soccer with a performance for the ages in 2018.
The Swedish forward, predictably, took center stage during the first-ever edition of El Trafico with a ludicrous goal from about 40 yards out to bring the LA Galaxy level with crosstown rivals LAFC. He wasn’t done there.
Ibrahimovic followed that up by winning the match with a header in stoppage time, capping an incredible comeback that saw the Galaxy overturn a 3-0 deficit in the second half.
All signs were pointing to Chelsea’s Champions League journey ending at the hands of a Barcelona side overflowing with talent in 2012.
Despite winning the first leg 1-0, Chelsea’s hopes of reaching the final were beginning to fade when Barcelona jumped out to a 2-0 first-half lead at the Camp Nou.
Ultimately, Chelsea managed to hold off Barca’s potent attack before Fernando Torres scored the game-winner in a match that ended up being Pep Guardiola’s final Champions League game as manager of the Catalan giants.
Admirers of attacking football got their fix when Manchester City hosted Tottenham in the quarterfinal of the Champions League last season.
The contest got off to a blistering start, as the two sides were level at two apiece after just 11 minutes of action. But after Sergio Aguero gave the hosts a 4-3 lead on aggregate, City looked as though they were on their way to the penultimate round of the tournament.
In the end, it wasn’t meant to be for Pep Guardiola’s men, as Fernando Llorente capped off the thriller with a tally that gave Spurs the edge on away goals. In a game that offered constant drama, VAR ruled out a last-gasp Raheem Sterling goal that would’ve won the tie for City. Fitting, really, that video review played a prominent role in a defining match of 2019.
Quick-thinking. Precision. Big game player.@trentaa98 ???#UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/Mz0KAbuuY9
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 27, 2019
Liverpool’s miracle comeback at Anfield will go down as one of the greatest moments in Champions League history.
All signs were pointing to Jurgen Klopp’s men bowing out of last season’s competition after getting battered by Barcelona in the first leg of their semifinal clash at the Camp Nou. However, in a match that defied all logic, Liverpool overcame the odds to erase the 3-0 deficit before Divock Origi got on the end of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s clever corner, knocking out a shell-shocked Barca team.
Although Liverpool went on to hoist their sixth European trophy after beating Tottenham in the final, it was the mesmerizing night at Anfield we’ll remember most from their title-winning run.
Atletico Madrid were seconds away from winning their first Champions League title while simultaneously extending their bitter rivals’ wait for the 10th European crown they so desperately wanted.
And then disaster struck for Atleti in the 2014 final.
After Real Madrid’s efforts to find an equalizer were denied, Los Blancos finally broke through in the third minute of stoppage time courtesy of a Sergio Ramos header.
The goal seemed to light a fire under Carlo Ancelotti’s men, as they went on to dominate Atletico, scoring another three goals in extra time en route to winning La Decima. The 4-1 scoreline flattered their performance, but Ramos’ goal paved the way for the historic triumph.
Nobody gave Barcelona a chance after the Catalan giants were drubbed 4-0 in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tilt against Paris Saint Germain in 2017. How could they possibly come back?
Luis Suarez opened the scoring just three minutes into the second leg before an own goal and a Lionel Messi penalty restored hope at the Camp Nou. But after an Edinson Cavani goal, the task once again seemed impossible; Barca had less than 30 minutes to score three times.
That’s when Neymar – not Messi, for once – took over. The Brazilian scored a stunning free-kick in the 88th minute, jolting Barcelona back to life. He made it 5-5 on aggregate with a stoppage-time penalty, and then teed up Sergi Roberto for the 95th-minute winner, completing a comeback that will be talked about in the Catalan capital for generations to come.
Lifting football’s most coveted trophy on home soil was Brazil’s only objective during the 2014 World Cup. In the eyes of Selecao fans, it was their destiny.
But Germany had other plans in a surreal semifinal in Belo Horizonte, as Joachim Low’s side absolutely dismantled the five-time champion to produce one of the most shocking results in World Cup history. Seven goals. You couldn’t make it up.
As the German goals continued to flow, so did the tears from Brazilian fans, who were equal parts stunned, crushed, and angry. It ended up being the most emotional of nights in Brazil, just not quite the way the nation expected.
Manchester City – Agüero vs QPR (2012) pic.twitter.com/atijBaF8By
— • (@Beardamendi) July 19, 2016
Hollywood’s finest couldn’t have scripted a more gut-wrenching and dramatic end to the 2011-12 Premier League campaign.
The stage was set for Manchester City to clinch their first top-flight crown since 1968 when they hosted a Queens Park Rangers side battling relegation on the final day of the season. However, Roberto Mancini’s men found themselves in danger of letting the Premier League title slip away to rivals Manchester United when QPR appeared to be on the verge of a massive upset.
But a relentless attack eventually wiped out fears of a collapse for the ages, as Sergio Aguero followed up Edin Dzeko’s equalizer with one of the most dramatic moments in football history – in the 94th-minute, he scored the game-winner to send the Etihad Stadium into a state of delirium.
Martin Tyler’s iconic commentary of the goal – “Aguerooooo” – still gives you goosebumps.
