This World Cup year has been particularly tough on the American soccer fan.
While fans from other countries are preparing to watch their teams compete in the international tournament, those who support the United States have to be reminded of their side’s failure to make it to Russia.
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A lack of Yankee representation should not be seen as a loss, but rather a new opportunity to get behind a different nation's colors in the hope of achieving global soccer supremacy. The question still remains: How does one go about picking a new country to support?
One option is to follow the disturbing suggestions that some genealogy companies have put out and discover one's heritage by sending a swab of DNA to a privately owned facility for testing.
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A more sane approach might be to watch Saturday's Champions League final — the apex of the European club soccer season — between Liverpool (England) and Real Madrid (Spain). Each team is loaded with talent that will represent their respective countries at the World Cup.
For those who only watch soccer when the United States is in the World Cup, this article will help point out which players to look out for, which side they’ll be playing for on Saturday and which country they’ll be representing in June.
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool/Egypt)
Salah just finished one of the greatest debut seasons in Premier League history. He became a one-man scoring machine for Liverpool, smashing a host of records, including most goals in a 38-game Premier League season. The Egyptian international also took home the Premier League Player of the Year and PFA (Professional Footballers Association) Players' Player of the Year awards, and he has positioned himself to be in the conversation for the Balon D’or — the award for Europe’s best player. He'll likely end up on the scoresheet Saturday as the leader of Liverpool’s famous scoring trio and will certainly find the net in June. Salah is Egypt's most talented player by a considerable margin, so the team will go as he does. That will either prove to be too much for this new global superstar, or make for one of the greatest stories in soccer history.
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Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal)
Ronaldo has been arguably the greatest player in the world for about a decade, but his game is starting to show some wear from all those miles. This will likely be CR7’s last World Cup, which means he'll be pushing his team hard for the one trophy that has somehow eluded him in his career. Though he hasn't quite been his stellar self this season, Ronaldo does have a knack for scoring goals on the biggest stages, and there are few bigger than the Champions League final. As for Portugal's chances for success in June, Ronaldo's side seems likely to make it past the group stage, and seeing as how it got past stellar teams in a tournament setting just two years earlier in winning the European Championship, it could make a deep run this year.
Isco and 'The Spanish Delegation' (Real Madrid/Spain)
The unfortunate reality about international soccer matches is that they usually aren't played at the same level as club matches because of the limited practice time national teams receive. Spain has been the exception to that rule; it won the 2008 Euros and the 2010 World Cup with a team made up mostly of Real Madrid and Barcelona players. On Saturday, you’ll be able to catch six Spanish national team players take the field against Liverpool: Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal, Nacho, Marco Asensio, Lucas Vazquez and Isco. The standouts will be Isco, one of the world’s most talented midfielders, and Sergio Ramos, who was on the 2010 World Cup team and who also has a knack for scoring dramatic goals, even as a defender. Spain crashed out of the World Cup in Brazil four years ago in uninspiring fashion; a younger side, with Ramos as one of its veteran leaders, will look to make a deeper run in 2018.
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Marcelo and Roberto Firmino (Real Madrid and Liverpool/Brazil)
Brazil will always be a standout side in international competition, and all of its players are able to put the beauty in the beautiful game. Marcelo and Roberto Firmino are fantastic examples of that. Though he's a left back, Marcelo plays with the confidence of someone who believes he's the best player in the world. He uses turnovers as opportunities to score solo goals or carve his way through opposing defenses. He'll likely be charged with preventing Salah from doing too much damage to Real Madrid’s backline. Firmino is the third, and longest-serving, member of Liverpool's record-scoring trio, and he's adept at both finding the net and setting up Salah and Sadio Mane. He has 28 goals and 14 assists through all competitions in 2017-18. Brazil is listed as one of the favorites to win the World Cup, so if you want to pick a side that likely won’t disappoint you until the later rounds, these are the guys to watch.
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Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool/England)
These two Reds players on opposite ends of the experience spectrum will represent England in June. Henderson, 27, has served as team captain and been the rock the Reds have needed, on and off the pitch, to reach European heights. Alexander-Arnold is a promising 19-year-old defender who will add badges on Saturday and in June. They'll play for a country that has been starving for international success for the better part of the last half-century. There’s no middle ground with England: Every World Cup win is cause for premature celebration, and every loss is grounds for firing the manager. If a talented, yet dysfunctional, team with an unstable fan base is of interest to you, then pay attention to these two.