Tricks

Not all overhead kicks are created equal. The greatest differentiator has to be that moment of posterization — when the foot meets football at its absolute zenith and the body’s parallelism with the ground seems to foreshadow certain death. 

On one end of the scale there's the footballer who’s simply throwing their leg at the chance and falling over. The result is still a great goal, but the lasting effect isn’t much more powerful than watching a somersault. 

We have a Puskás Award contender from Ghana after Mizak Asante, age 15, split three defenders, left another on his backside, dribbled past the keeper in the tightest of spaces and roofed a finish over two defenders on the goal-line.

It's a slow burn that gets better and better as it goes.

Every great solo goal needs its Jérôme Boateng.

Joel Campbell has always been my greatest muse at The18, from polls wondering if he’s CONCACAF’s next big thing to tales of Arsenal sending him out on loan seven times to conjectures over whether he’ll be able to eclipse Kristine Lilly’s all-time in

Patterns of play dictate how an attack goes about breaking down a defense. Whether it’s neat passing triangles to keep possession, an overload to gain the numerical advantage or a cross-field switch to disrupt a static backline, these predetermined moves are all integral to match-winning play.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been at the top of the game so damn long that it’s impossible to remember it otherwise. His first Ballon d’Or was 13 years ago while he’d already claimed the Premier League Player of the Season the year before that, so for many millennials he’s been king for half a lifetime. 

But there wasn’t always a consensus around what sort of footballer he’d become, mainly because of the singular uniqueness of his early stylings.