Today marks the 36th birthday of Trivela King Ricardo Quaresma. Am I using the date as an excuse to watch Quaresma highlights before subsequently sharing them with you? Absolutely.
I believe that no player represents the gulf between professional footballers and amateurs better than the Portuguese wizard.
Lionel Messi made his first start of the season against Villarreal on Tuesday and normalcy was restored to Barcelona for 15 minutes. Barça raced to a 2-0 lead over that period, but then Messi went down and the Camp Nou went quiet.
It certainly didn’t appear to be a recurrence of the calf injury that’s plagued him so far, and he carried on through the remainder of the first half — just long enough to see Villarreal pull one back through Santi Cazorla.
Maybe Jürgen Klopp saw something on film, but I doubt it. I think Liverpool simply exploited the almighty power of the backheel on a whimsy, as is befitting of the European champions. Klopp’s prematch team talk probably went something like this (sung to the tune of Men at Work):
We can backheel if we want to, we can leave England behind
Cause Man United don’t backheel and Chelsea don’t backheel
And they’re no friends of mine
Fresh off blowing a two-goal lead in a draw with Atlético Madrid in the Champions League at midweek, Juventus conceded an early penalty kick back at home to Hellas Verona in Serie A. What then transpired was a ridiculous Miguel Veloso goal vs Juventus, the exact same type of bullshit that makes you hate and love the FIFA video game series at the same time.
The Brazilian women’s national team, while still dominant in South America, has fallen from among the elite on the global stage, passed up by European and Asian challengers. The 2007 Women’s World Cup and 2004/2008 Olympics runner-up needs a new crop of players to replace the aging Marta, Formiga and Cristiane.
The Canarinhas may want to look at Corinthians Paulista for the next group of stars.
Javier Hernandez has opened his account with new club Sevilla. Back with a LaLiga club for the first time since his loan spell with Real Madrid, the first Chicharito Sevilla goal was stunning to all involved.
Last night in Porto Alegre, Athletico Paranaense captured the 2019 Copa do Brasil with a 3-1 aggregate victory over Paolo Guerrero’s Internacional. After winning the first leg 1-0 in Curitiba, Athletico-PR captured its first-ever Copa by seeing things through at Inter’s home stadium.
Whatever you do, don’t show this to Joe Buck. Yesterday, Guadalajara registered a 1-0 victory over Atlas at Estadio Akron thanks to a 63rd-minute crack from Alexis Vega, who then exposed his crack. The 21-year-old Mexican boofed one from over 25 yards out to keep Chivas in the thick of the liguilla race, and then he fought off a strong desire to strip nude before settling for half-naked.
If I asked you to name the current leading scorer in Euro 2020 qualifying, who would you go with? Harry Kane? Cristiano Ronaldo? Kane is joint-second with six goals and Ronaldo has five to his name, so those aren’t bad guesses, but it's actually Israel’s Eran Zahavi.
The 32-year-old Zahavi isn’t exactly a household name — at least outside of Israel and China. The only time he's spent playing outside those two countries was a brief spell with Palermo, where he scored only two goals in 23 Serie A appearances.
Neymar returned to PSG for the first time this season on Saturday after a long injury layoff and nearly endless transfer drama. The Parisian fans jeered him relentlessly and viciously, angry he tried to leave. The response was an unbelievable Neymar bicycle kick in the 92nd minute to give PSG a 1-0 win over Strasbourg.