Bobby Wood spent an anonymous 56 minutes on the pitch last weekend in Hamburg’s 2-1 defeat to Hertha Berlin, consigning the club to 16th in the 18-team Bundesliga and opening Wood to fierce criticism from manager Markus Gisdol. Wood has started nine league matches for Hamburg this term, but he’s only managed a single goal. That was back in August.
Kicks are spectacular. Especially in martial arts. Also in movies. I mean, just think about Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee. However, every now and then soccer players can be seen kicking their colleagues in pretty spectacular ways. This week Champions League highlight is no doubt Diego Godin kicked in the face by Qarabag's Pedro Henrique.
Henrique and Godín were both in the air, having jumped to reach the ball. Somehow, Henrique managed to get his foot all the way up to Godín’s face. Now, this certainly wasn’t one for fair play, but no doubt it was a memorable image.
Han pasado dos semanas desde que el portero de Benfica, Mile Svilar, hizo historia en la Liga de Campeones al convertirse en el portero más joven en participar en la competencia, rompiendo el récord de Iker Casillas con la tierna edad de 18 años y 52 días. Lo que fue más memorable fue el terrible error de Svilar en un tiro libre de Marcus Rashford, cuando el joven belga atrapó la pelota, pero llevó la pelota a su propio arco. El error le dio una victoria de 1-0 a Manchester United.
Eden Dzeko cushions a perfect header that sets up a Stephan El Shaarawy volley for the ages. What a strike! Roma are up early in Champions League group stage play.
Roma's El Shaarawy with a SCREAMER on Halloween! https://t.co/QBWkj52HqH
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) October 31, 2017
Happy birthday to legendary Dutch striker Marco van Basten, who turns 53 today. Van Basten was obviously born on Halloween, giving us a reasonable explanation for how frighteningly good he was, LOL! Seriously, he was really good.
This should have been a fun article to write. This should have been an article in which Lazio were praised and evangelized; the remarkable rehabilitation of striker Ciro Immobile after years in the wilderness; the astounding performance of manager Simone Inzaghi, only appointed after Marcelo Biesla refused to show up for work on his first day; the way in which the entire team has blown away opposition this year, propelling themselves all the way up the table and sitting, right now, level with Juventus. It should have been a fantastically positive article.
But it’s not.