Tag: Belgium

10 best players (Lionel Messi! Cristiano Ronaldo!) at the 2022 World Cup who have never won it all

A look at some of the greatest to ever play the game who have never tasted ultimate international glory.

As the soccer world rolls through Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, there’s inevitably going to be a lot of discussion about “legacy” and superstars who have never quite broken through with a glorious moment in this competition.

I’m talking, of course, about some of the top dynamos in men’s soccer history who have never won the World Cup. To be clear, the players on this list aren’t necessarily to blame for their countries never standing on top of the international soccer world. This is still a team sport where everyone has to play in unison. And the best team — not the best player (awarded the Golden Ball at every tournament) — wins far more often than not.

From perhaps the greatest player in the history of the world’s most popular game to a prolific, talented striker with genuinely no realistic hope of ever winning the World Cup — here’s a look at the 10 best active players who haven’t won the prestigious championship, along with their respective odds to win this year’s Golden Ball. Note: We’re highlighting players who have been around for a good while but have still never made it to the top of the summit.

(All odds courtesy of BetMGM)

Alperen Sengun puts on a show as Turkey routs Belgium at EuroBasket

Rockets center Alperen Sengun had 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists on elite efficiency Tuesday, and it led Turkey to a big win over Belgium at EuroBasket 2022.

Second-year Rockets center Alperen Sengun, now competing for his native Turkey at the European Basketball Championship (EuroBasket 2022), reportedly had trouble sleeping after his squad took its first loss earlier in the week to Georgia. It was a relatively unexpected defeat, since Turkey is at No. 16 and Georgia at No. 36 in FIBA’s world rankings, and Sengun took it to heart as a team leader.

Two days later, Sengun made amends in a big way.

In Tuesday’s group stage matchup versus Belgium, Turkey won its game with relative ease, 78-63 (box score), and Sengun was the biggest reason why. The 20-year-old scored 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting (52.9%), including 1-of-2 from 3-point range (50.0%) and 3-of-3 on free throws (100.0%). Sengun also grabbed 8 rebounds and 6 assists, had only 2 turnovers, and Turkey was a team-best +27 in his 32 minutes.

It certainly wasn’t a Belgium side devoid of talent, either, since they were coming off a 10-point victory on Sunday versus Spain — the world’s No. 2 team, according to FIBA’s rankings.

Turkey is now 3-1 at EuroBasket, which leads Group A heading into Wednesday’s group-stage finale versus Spain (whose roster features its own Houston prospect in Usman Garuba). Scroll on for highlights and analysis of Sengun’s superb work versus Belgium.

Behold: This Belgian soccer league miss is so bad you will scream

Oh no. OH NO!

So yes soccer is referred to as The Beautiful Game but friends, I am here to make extremely clear that sometimes It Is Not.

The following clip is from KV Mechelen vs. KV Oostende in the Belgian league on Saturday, and features a run of play so humiliating, so downright silly, and capped off by such an impossible miss, it feels almost like a Buster Keaton film at times. Playing “Yakety Sax” to this is an insult to “Yakety Sax.”

(Still, you might want to cue up the “Yakety Sax.”)

What I love so much about the passage of play is that both teams cover themselves in shame. No one escapes the horror. One guy does something dumb, and then things multiply, build upon one another, a fugue of garbage.

Mechelen, the team in orange there, would end up losing the match, 1-0. Perfect.

I’ll leave it to Molly Hensley-Clancy to add the only commentary that is needed after a spectacle such as this:

[lawrence-related id=947287,947253,947218]