Let’s set the stage here: On July 1, 2010, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is officially unveiled as a Manchester United player. After scoring against the MLS All-Stars, Chivas and the League of Ireland XI in consecutive preseason friendlies, England is abuzz with ChicaGol mania.
If Reiss Nelson played for Monaco, he’d probably be worth $60 million. But Nelson, 17, is on the Arsenal books and hasn’t seen much first-team playing time. Until this preseason.
Nelson impressed during preseason friendlies and sent Emirates Stadium into a frenzy on Thursday during an open training session. The winger scored an absolutely filthy goal that included a nasty nutmeg.
Easy 1-2 pic.twitter.com/72sfwHitf5
He came, he saw, he conquered (in the name of global peace). Ronaldinho partook in a friendly match for peace in Honduras on Sunday, and the 37-year-old played a remarkable role in the buildup to one of his side’s goals. While his ability to get up and down the pitch is gone, his preposterous touch and sense of invention remains world-class.
It was a peaceful, all-conquering trip to Central America for the Great ‘Dinho, expect for when one crazy stole his classic over-sized beanie.
You can’t teach the art of goalscoring and that natural instinct to be in the right place at the right time, but what we have here is an example that transcends the art of making something out of nothing — there’s no explanation for this.
This could only be classified as an instinctual finish, but that’s underselling this goal pretty heavily. This isn’t the mark of a goalscorer, this is the mark of a madman. This goal should be investigated, brought before the FIFA Ethics Committee and either be given the All-Time Puskas Award or outlawed.
It probably goes without saying, but Rivaldinho is the 22-year-old son of Brazilian legend Rivaldo. The two even managed to play together for Mogi Mirim in the Brazilian Serie B in 2015, actually scoring in the same game in July of that year.
Now, little Rivaldo plays for Dinamo Bucuresti in Romania, and his side were handed a difficult draw in the third qualifying round of the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League against Spanish side Athletic Bilbao.
Chances are, if you’ve done soccer, you’ll know about goals. But what are they? How does a goal become a goal and not something else? When will you know if you’ve actually seen a goal?
These are all good, valid questions. You see, all goals are created equal, but not really. Goals come in all shapes and sizes, and you never really see the same goal twice.
At the most basic level, a goal is a goal when the ball crosses the goal line in its entirety. That’s really what a goal is. That’s really the science behind it in a nutshell, I guess.
Now, some shenanigans from the Brazilian lower leagues.
Jaja, a forward for Tupi, danced around the America Miniero keeper and instead of a simple toe poke, he went for glory, winding up for a back-heeled finish. Fellow forward Flavio Caca-Rato had other ideas, however, and decided to completely steal his teammate’s thunder. Watch him ruthlessly rob poor Jaja of a goal.
In a playing career that included stints with Roma, Sampdoria, Lazio and Inter, Serbian Sinisa Mihajlovic built a reputation as one the world’s finest dead-ball specialists. Alongside Andrea Pirlo, no player has scored more goals from direct free kicks in Serie A history than Mihajlovic with 28.
He was named Torino manager before the start of last season and guided the club to a ninth-place finish in Italy’s top flight. For a goalkeeper, playing under Mihajlovic is obviously a nightmare.
On one hand, preseason friendlies definitely do not matter. On the other hand, preseason friendlies between teams like Chelsea and Bayern Munich definitely matter.
Not for any competitive reason, of course. When Bayern and Chelsea met in the International Champions Cup Tuesday, Munich's 3-2 win wasn't predictive of anything. No, the Chelsea-Bayern friendly definitely mattered because we hadn't seen elite soccer in a while and missed players doing things like what Thomas Muller did.