Robin van Persie used to be good at soccer. No really, he did. That, however, seems like a long time ago, especially after the events of this past weekend. It seems he has scored what looks at first glance to be an intentional own goal, but in reality, he’s just a pitiful fool. Not sure if that’s any better.
This is a classic own goal, and it’s really unfortunate that that’s a thing. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen a goalkeeper go to clear a back pass only to find the ball hopping just above their foot. A piece of grass or turf is the culprit, and that almost makes it worse.
It just takes an unbelievable amount of bad luck for a kicked-up lump of grass to land in a spot where it could pop a ball in to the air. If the universe could talk, it would whisper “f*** you” every time it happens.
For a moment, Gonzalo Bueno on the Uruguayan U20 national team saw his dreams laid out in front of him. He got on the end of a perfect pass, played it brilliantly, got past a defender and a goalkeeper without even touching the ball. The net was gaping and it must have felt like something out of a childhood fantasy. Perhaps that thought was too mesmerizing, because instead of scoring, he made a fool of himself.
A phantom goal sounds like a power up in Mario Soccer (or should I say Super Mario Strikers), as in it sounds like the ball turned into some sort of ghost and diffused into the back of the net. It sounds pretty sweet, really, but sadly there are no ghosts involved in this real life phantom goal.
It was scored by Bayer Leverkusen’s Stefan Kiessling against Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, and while there are no ghosts, it certainly seems to defy explanation at first.
All of you remember Lionel Messi’s goal against Bayern Munich in last year’s Champions League semifinals. It was an absolute destruction of one of the world’s best teams, and arguably the greatest goal Messi ever scored. You might be surprised to find out that Ronaldo had a similar goal. It was the best Ronaldo goal ever scored, or it would have been, had it counted.
Here at The18, we are fully aware that most people who don’t like soccer can count the tendency of players to “make the most” out of contact among the reasons that they don’t like the game.
You know, someone gets a kick to the back to the leg — a foul definitely, but nothing crazy — and all of the sudden they are rolling 10 feet along the ground. It’s annoying, even for a seasoned fan. So, the following video probably won’t convert many people to the game…
Sergio Aguero is a frustrating striker for Manchester City fans. He’s ridiculously good when he’s on form, but he just isn’t on form all that often. Injuries have often been to blame, but that doesn’t make him any less inconsistent.
Roberto Carlos might be the greatest free-kick-taker of all time in the hostory of soccerdom. This is neither an unpopular opinion nor an uncommon one.
But Roberto is gone, plying his trade in football exile in India, his skills eroded by the winds and sands of time. And so, as these things go, we must search for an heir.
So Viktoria Plzeň's David Limbersky is a class A idiot, and he absolutely does not give a single f***. We’re about to find out how that last part is going for him real soon. Limbersky is apparently attempting to see how much he can try the patience of the Prague Police Department, or at least that’s what it seems like.
This…is unfortunate. I am absolutely sure that during the 5 minutes immediately after the following ordeal, defender Helen Eke probably wanted to crawl into the nearest small dark space and stay there until the laws of physics and the slow crawl of inevitability transported her to the other side of the planet.