An Israeli striker put on one of the most impressive displays in modern history of being so bad that he’s good.
Eli Elbaz had the most ridiculous five minutes of his career on Monday in the second division of Israeli soccer. With his team Sektzia Ness Ziona, which he had just joined on Nov. 2, leading 1-0, Elbaz was brought on as a substitute in the 81st minute to put the nail in the coffin.
The rise of Sergiño Dest has been meteoric. After all, it’s only been 459 days since he made his league debut with Ajax and 380 since he committed his international future to the USMNT.
But this is a 20-year-old who forced his way into the starting 11 of a title-winning Ajax side before convincing Barcelona to part with $25 million. And early returns in Catalonia have been good — Dest was arguably Barça’s best player in El Clásico.
MADRID — Real Madrid and Serbia forward Luka Jovic has agreed to pay a fine in exchange for a six-month jail sentence after flouting Serbian's COVID-19 restrictions, according to a court statement.
The court said the striker, 22, has been ordered to pay a fine of 3.5 million Serbian dinar, equivalent to around 30,000 euros or $35,000 USD, within a month in order to avoid prison.
Corner kicks are a nightmare in youth soccer games. Half of the time the ball is sent into the penalty box a wild game of pinball ensues. After several missed headers, seven failed clearances, 10 deflections and five whiffs, the ball eventually lands right at the feet of an attacking player who pokes it in with their toe.
There is no rhyme or reason for how corner kicks will play out at the youth level. As long as the corner delivery makes it into the box then only the soccer gods will know how things will play out.
There's been a conspiracy theory making its way around the information superhighway lately suggesting that Premier League club Burnley never wears its away jerseys because it does not have an away kit.
Football Conspiracy Theories:
Burnley does not have an away kit pic.twitter.com/ZxQ8zKlXDK
The Édgar Méndez red card that took place in the 34th minute between Alavés and Levante will be a strong contender for the oddest sending off of the season.
Méndez was shown his first yellow card in the 24th minute. Then, ten minutes later, he was bizarrely booked a second time and given a red card after retrieving a ball that went out of bounds and passing it onto the field.
Russia's national football team said on Sunday it would not be calling up its captain Artem Dzyuba for upcoming international matches this month to shield him from negative publicity.
Its statement followed the leak of an private video online on Saturday, which TASS news agency said showed a man similar to the 32-year-old Dzyuba, who is also the striker for Zenit St. Petersburg. There was no suggestion of any controversial behavior in the video and it was not clear how it had leaked.
Reports out of England this week suggest the Premier League will do away with selling $20 pay-per-view matches. Hopefully NBC follows suit, but don’t hold your breath based on what it’s doing to the biggest match of the year this weekend.
Conceding immediately after kickoff is a FIFA video game tradition unlike any other. For some unholy reason, opponents will slice through your team like a hot knife through butter after a kickoff. Every so often this event of a fast kickoff goal takes place in the real world.
No kickoff goal will be faster than that poor Spanish goalkeeper scoring a late goal and then immediately getting lobbed from kickoff. We have found a close second though.
Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez has had a season to forget with the Los Angeles Galaxy. The man who was expected to fill the massive boots that Zlatan Ibrahimovic left behind has tossed said boots to the side and put on some flip-flops with socks still on instead.
Describing Chicharito’s performances this season as underwhelming is a massive understatement. Mexico’s all-time leading goal scorer had a major flop of a season. He only made 11 appearances and scored his second goal on Wednesday night in the Galaxy’s second-to-last game of the season against the Seattle Sounders.