As the World Cup looms closer, a growing level of frustration in the United States soccer community would be understandable. But even though the U.S. national team will not be in Russia, the country can take some comfort from the role it played in shaping the road to the World Cup, especially as far as the South American teams are concerned.

Nowadays the Copa America is played every four years, kicking off a new cycle of competitive action. In the year after the World Cup there has been nothing...

Both their summers ended in tears. Lionel Messi, devastated after losing to Chile in the Copa America Centenario, his third straight loss in an international final; Cristiano Ronaldo, stretchered off the field in the 25th minute of the Euro 2016 final, only to see his agony turn to tears of joy as Portugal defeated France to lift the trophy.

Portugal's success and Argentina's defeat means that Ronaldo now looks likely to take back that Ballon D'Or from Messi. He has achieved the one thing that...

It is around the late stages of a tournament when you hear the football truisms: "It doesn't matter how you got there," "The results don't record performance." What matters -- the only thing that matters -- is that you pick up the trophy at the end, or so the argument goes. But there is one tournament award in which this argument isn't so straight forward: the Golden Boot.

At the 1994 World Cup, for example, both Hristo Stoichkov and Oleg Salenko won the Golden Boot. But did their six strikes apiece...

Football always inspires debate, and this weekend was no exception. Here are five burning questions -- have your say!

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The semifinals are set at Euro 2016, with Wales set to face Portugal on Wednesday, July 6, and Germany playing France on Thursday, July 7 (both at 9 p.m. CEST/3 p.m. ET on ESPN). 

The coaches and players will say Portugal-Wales is not all about Cristiano Ronaldo against Real Madrid teammate Gareth Bale,...

At around midday on Monday, the offices of the Asociacion de Futbol Argentino (AFA) received an anonymous phone call to inform them that there was a bomb in the building. The identity of the caller is still as yet unknown but such a chaotic scene was entirely in keeping with the situation within the institution over the past few weeks and months, a situation that, until the bomb threat, seemed to reach its most dramatic head with the apparent international resignation of Lionel Messi after Sunday...

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo: you can't have a debate about their greatness without comparing them to each other. Much like the Joker and Batman, polar opposites who are defined in each other's image, we've come to assess Messi and Ronaldo against each other, not in a vacuum but as a tandem. It's the privilege and curse that comes with being the two best players on the planet right now.

We were reminded of this dynamic at the start of Euro 2016, when Iceland defender Kari Arnason pointedly...