Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Jugen Klopp reacted to Liverpool's shocking loss to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League 16th finals by criticizing Atletico's play style, saying they should play "proper football" instead of banking on counerattacks. Atletico beat Liverpool - the defending European champions - 3-2 after extra time in the second leg of their last-16 tie at Anfield. In the regular 90 minutes of play, Gini Wijnaldum gave Liverpool a 1-0 lead, requiring extra time to deterine which of the two teams would dominate on aggregate, given that Liverpool lost 1-0 at Madrid in the first leg. Four minutes into extra time, Roberto Firminio gave Liverpool the lead once more. Within a short space of time, Marcos Llorente fired two goals for Atletico, and Alvaro Morata sealed Liverpool's fate with a late goal, as Atletico won 4-2 on aggregate.  Atletico only had half as many shots on target as premier League chart leaders Liverpool and had less ball possession. They were however able ...

The winners of the 2019 World Soccer Awards have been announced in World Soccer's January edition. Messi was named World Soccer's Player of the Year, Jurgen Klopp - Manager of the Year, and Liverpool - Team of the Year. Messi edged out Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk by a slim margin, with just 11 more votes than the Liverpool defender (613 to 602). Messi has now won the World Soccer's Player of the Year award five times - 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, and now, 2019, matching Cristiano Ronaldo. The latter was ranked fourth best this year. Luka Modric who won the gong last year finished forty-fourth this year. Since 2009, the winner of the award has either been a Barcelona or Real Madrid player.  The World Soccer Awards being non-gender specific in nature saw the the USA's Megan Rapinoe - the leading female vote-getter - ranked 21st best player.  Jurgen Klopp won the Manager of the Year award, beating rival Pep Guardiola by a large margin - 67 votes to 2 votes. Guar...

It's no secret that Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp has a lot of admiration for Lionel Messi. However, when it comes to who deserves to win the Ballon d'Or this year, Klopp doesn't think it should be him as he believes Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was the better performer over the year.  "If you give the Ballon d'Or to the best player of this generation then you should give it always to Lionel Messi. That's how it is," Klopp said. "But if you give it to the best player of last season, then it was Virgil van Dijk. I don't know exactly how it will work but that is how I see it. "The best player of all? That's Lionel. Best player of last season? That's Virgil. We will see." Should Van Dijk win the Ballon d'Or in December, he'll be the first defender since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 to claim the honor. Lionel Messi last won the Ballon d'Or in 2015. Should he claim it again this year, he would be ahead of Cris...

Liverpool manager 52-year-old Jurgen Klopp beat Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino and Manchester City's Pep Guardiola to win the award for Best Men's coach at the FIFA The Best Awards in Milan this evening. Liverpool won the Champions League and came second in the Premier League last season, recording a tally of 97 points.  Jurgen Klopp made a heart-warming announcement upon accepting his award. He announced that he just joined the Common Goal Initiative set up by Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata. Joining CGI implies that 1% of his salary would be channeled to the charity which pledges to "generate social change and improve lives. Wow. It’s quite heavy! I have to say thank you to a lot of people, start with my family sitting at home watching. Nobody would have expected this 20 years ago, five years ago, four years ago. Mauricio, I won that game, that’s why I’m here not you. That’s just how football is. I say thank you to my oustanding club, LFC. Whoev...

FIFA has unveiled a list of finalists for all eight categories of its awards. The final list of hopefuls was unveiled at the iconic San Siro stadium in Milan. A new award was included - The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper. Virgil van Dijk who was named the UEFA Player of the Year last week, finishing ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, will go head-to-head with them again for the FIFA Best Men's Player award and probably the Ballon d'Or when it is announced later this year. Here's the list of finalists in all eight categories: The Best FIFA Men’s Player Cristiano Ronaldo  (POR) - Juventus Lionel Messi  (ARG) – FC Barcelona Virgil van Dijk  (NED) - Liverpool The Best FIFA Women’s Player Lucy Bronze  (ENG) – Olympique Lyonnais Alex Morgan  (USA) – Orlando Pride Megan Rapinoe  (USA) – Reign FC The Best FIFA Men’s Coach Pep Guardiola  (ESP) – Manchester City Jurgen Klopp  (GER) – Liverpool Mauricio Pochettino  ...