It's a Beautiful Game

Come and appreciate everything there is to love about this beautiful game

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Cristiano Ronaldo invites is to meet his shoes in his cr7footwear campaign ——————– #modelmadness #cristianoronaldo #soccer #football #cr7footwear #Repost @cristiano with @repostapp ・・・ The time has come for you to meet us in #cr7footwears16 | cr7footwear.com

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The touches that make this: the earring and the adidas badge ——————– #mesutozil #soccer #football #arsenal #Repost @m10_official with @repostapp ・・・ ✏🖌👏😊 #art #drawing

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What others see:

What I see:

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Your USL Primer

Some of you may have heard of the USL but find yourself wondering - what the hell is it? This primer will give you a rundown of the league’s origins, its place in US Soccer’s hierarchy, and a list of clubs participating in the 2016 season.

Origins, Briefly

The United Soccer League (USL for short) is a professional soccer league in the U.S. with 29 teams (!) from both the U.S. and Canada. 

Prior to it’s current form, the USL operated as two leagues - USL First Division (USL-1) and USL Second Division (USL-2) - and functioned as Division II and Division III leagues in the U.S. respectively.

However, in 2009 several teams from USL-1 broke off to form the North American Soccer League (NASL) with the intent that their league would also be Division II. This news was not received warmly and lawsuits were filed by USL against the NASL teams. In an attempt to mediate, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) oversaw a season of handholding in 2010 as both leagues operated together as the USSF Division 2 Professional League.

In 2011 the split was made good and the NASL became the U.S. Division II league and USL-1 and USL-2 were merged to form the Division III USL Pro, renamed in 2013 to USL.

Relation to the MLS

In the U.S. there are three leagues operating at three different division levels - MLS is Division I, NASL is Division II, and USL is Division III. Fans of the English Premier League might be familiar with the concepts of ‘relegation’ and ‘promotion’ but we don’t have those here. In England (as in Germany, Spain, and Italy also) a team’s participation in a league is dependent on how well the team plays in a given season. If they are a Division II team and finish top of their league then the team is ‘promoted’ to the Division I league and play a higher caliber of team.

This structure doesn’t exist in US Soccer - if you top the NASL table you’re still playing NASL teams next season. That’s why you never hear the term ‘relegation’ applied to an MLS team - there’s nowhere for the Colorado Rapids them to go.

However in 2013 MLS clubs began to initiate partnerships with USL clubs as well as create teams to participate in this league (ex: Red Bulls and Red Bulls II). These teams often act as reserve teams for their MLS counterparts.

Teams Involved

Here’s a rundown of the teams in the USL for the 2016 season:

Western Conference

Arizona United SC

CO. Springs Switchbacks FC

LA Galaxy II+

OKC Energy FC*

Orange County Blues FC

Portland Timbers 2+

Real Monarchs SLC*

Rio Grande Valley FC*

Sacramento Republic FC

Saint Louis FC*

San Antonio FC

Seattle Sounders FC 2+

Swope Park Rangers*

Tulsa Roughnecks FC

Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2*

Eastern Conference

Bethlehem Steel FC*

Charleston Battery*

Charlotte Independence*

FC Cincinnati

FC MontrealI+

Harrisburg City Islanders

Louisville City FC

New York Red Bulls II+

Orlando City B*

Pittsburgh Riverhounds*

Richmond Kickers*

Rochester Rhinos

Toronto FC II+

Wilmington Hammerheads FC

* Teams which have a partnership or affiliation with an MLS team + Teams which function as reserve teams

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When you’re expecting a healthy baby but it’s a soccerball instead...

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Mauro Zarate, Bond Villain

In an alternate universe Zarate still doesn't have eyebrows and tortures Daniel Craig's Bond instead of Premier League defenses

This is part of a series called ‘Alternate Universe’ that asks that age old question “If football players weren’t playing soccer, what would they be doing?”

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Diego “Mad Dog” Costa

In an Alternate Universe Costa plays the role of the Wild West villain bent on disrupting peaceful citizens anytime, anyplace. He will rob your train, he will get your player sent off - nothing comes between Costa and fighting.

This is part of a series called ‘Alternate Universe’ that asks that age old question “If football players weren’t playing soccer, what would they be doing?”

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Danny Ings

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The sharp cupid's bow, the hooded eyes, the wrinkles that come from squinting - all here on these near-twins. One gets paid to stand around on the field and give his opinion on how the game should go while the other is a referee. 

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Doppelgängers - Arturo Vidal and Dimitri Payet

Is it the dark eyes? The identical facial hair? The large, well-groomed eyebrows? Or is it their quick attacking play style which wins games in Germany for Vidal and games in England for Payet? No, it's the hairstyle that really sets these two up as brothers from another mother.

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Doppelgängers - Kevin de Bruyne and Opie Taylor

Gingers with the same light eyebrows, the same button nose, and feminine lips. I typed in 'kevin de bruyne scandal' and all that came up was a 'he cheated she cheated' scandal. Pretty tame considering what Premiere League players get up to these days, so maybe they're alike in personality too.

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And every time you talk to the team after the game when they play Giovinco they look like they've been through a car wash.

Taylor Twellman (NYCvTOR)

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I swear Manuel Lanzini is Disney’s Aladdin IRL. Well, Aladdin with tats. He’s known as ‘The Jewel’ so perhaps he really is a diamond in the rough?

Source Arfa Griffiths

Source WHUFC

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When he beat us 6-3 last season he was such a nice man. I prefer him like that.

Roberto Martinez after Jose Mourinho uttered an expletive in his direction (Martinez handled it like a pro: SOURCE)

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So Euro qualifiers are again upon us. I wasn’t paying attention when they were running back in March and June so let’s get a quick rundown of how things played out:

The former darlings of the International Soccer-scape Spain beat Ukraine and Belarus by scoring 1 goal per game. Yaaaaay. #notimpressed

England, everyone’s favorite team to hate defeated Lithuania 4-0 and beat Slovenia 3-2. Goals! Yay! Go England! #EnglandEuro20122016

Surprise Team Awesome goes to Iceland this time around as they handily defeated Kazakhstan and nudged out the Czech Republic as well. Good on ya Iceland. #youngblood

Netherlands (yes that serial World Cup #2 team) drew with Turkey and beat Latvia by 2 goals to 0. Am I the only one who remembers the Turkey team of 2002? #rusturecberftw

Former powerhouse Italy drew with Bulgaria and Croatia. Bulgaria and Croatia. I’m just gonna leave that one there. #10goalssofar

World Cup winners Germany defeated Georgia 0-2 and creamed the hell out of Gibraltar 0-7. 7 goals for Germany reminds me of a game in 2014 with a similar scoreline... #brazil2014ringabell

Portugal (the country that Cristiano Ronaldo plays for if you’re only half paying attention) defeated Serbia and Armenia which are... countries, I’m assuming? Ah yes. Serbia and Armenia. #geographylesson

So now that we’re all caught up, I’m writing a second post to go over the updated Euro qualifiers. Stay Tuned!

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Muhamed Bešić - Everton

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Kevin-Prince Boateng - Shalke 04

We pay homage to the tattooed gents of footballing world in our  #tattoo appreciation posts.