He's baaaaaaaack. In his first start since injurying his knee back on September 26th, Lionel Messi found the back of the net with a classic chip over the goalkeeper. The Messi goal vs Roma came after 29 straight touches from Barcelona, with the final 6 coming in no surprising fashion: Neymar-Messi-Neymar-Messi-Suarez-Messi-GOAL. Neymar and Suarez were already in perfect form while Messi was gone, combining for 21 goals and 10 assists.
If you watched the Liverpool-Manchester City match on Saturday, the one thing you were probably thinking was, "what is going on?" A Kompnay-less Manchester City defense was shredded by Jurgen Klopp's bunch en rout to a 4-1 victory in the Etihad. All of Liverpool's goals vs Manchester City were beauties aside from the own-goal by Mangala. The Brazilian's for Liverpool were who stole the show though. Philipe Coutinho and Roberto Firminho each registered a goal and an assist to one another.
David Beckham, formerly known as a pretty good English footballer, is now mostly known for being really good looking. And now he's even more known for that.
Beckham was named People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive," to the surprise of approximately no one. Except for maybe him. Like Derek Zoolander, he evidently feels "there's more to life than being really really, really, ridiculously good-looking."
Are there better goals out there than Zlatan goals? Sure, lots of players score epic golazo's, but Zlatan Ibrahimovic has this flare that is just so....Zlatan. There are three things that are certain in this world. Death, taxes and that Zlatan will do something cool every time he steps on a football pitch. The Swedish star scored two Zlatanesque goals en rout to a 2-0 victory over Denmark and then after the match, the dude said that he sent the entire country of Denmark into retirement. It's Zlatan's world and we are just along for the ride.
Fans stood with heavy hearts across the globe as England and France took the pitch today for an international friendly to momentarily allow people to take their minds off of the horrid events that occured last Friday in Paris. As red, white and blue lights glowed across the Wembley arch before the match, the old rivals set aside their footballing hate to stand united with one another. Then, it was the Three Lions show. Wayne Rooney and Dele Alli scored two beauties to give England a 2-0 victory over France.
Messi is so good he’s automatic. When he plays you know that no one is going to really be able to stop him; sure he might mess up, but the amount of times he’s going to be tackled, have his pass intercepted or take a bad shot are too few to mention. It’s hard to balance incredibly ability, unpredictability, and consistency in the way Messi has. That balance is what has made Messi the player he is today, and that balance is manifested in Messi’s signature pass.
Rayane Bounida is ridiculously good at soccer. It’s comical. He’s 9-years-old and makes you wonder if he is even aware of the level of embarrassment he puts defenders through on what seems to be a daily basis. Honestly if someone told me that this kid jumps out of bed in the moring and nutmegs his teddy bear I would believe them. He’s the most amazing youth soccer player I’ve ever seen.
Was there a more entertaining footballer to watch than Ronaldinho? Sure you could say Messi or Ronaldo, or plenty of other players. But honestly, are they really more exotic or creative on the pitch than Ronaldinho? Do they have that unmistaken flair? I don't think so. Obviously those two players are in a class of their own, and do things on the pitch that no one else can (I have to say this so people don't think I'm taking a knock at Leo or CR7. You know how the internet is). But looking at Dinho, he did it all, and this video shows that. He had speed, strength and finesse.
Injured shoulder? Psh. This Sergio Ramos bicycle kick shows that the Madrid captain care more about scoring epic golazo's then some ailing shoulding. Ramos had already missed six games due to the injury and has played in a handful of matches (Atlético, Celta, Sevilla and Champions League games against PSG) thanks to taking cortisone shots before matches. That only makes this goal more badass considering Ramos the fact that it sounds like Ramos should is about to fall off.
Lionel Messi hasn't played for Barcelona since September 26th. But in that time, Barcelona has rallied off a 7-1-1 record in all competitions, and it's thanks to the performances from Neymar and Luis Suarez. This past weekend illustrated just that, and it wasn't hard to see after watching Neymar's ridiculous goal to give Barcelona a 1-0 lead vs Villarreal. The comparisons of Neymar and Ronaldinho have long been going on in the soccer community, but this goal really showed that Neymar could be as special as the former Barcelona #10.