MADRID — LaLiga basement side Leganes snatched a 1-1 draw at fellow strugglers Real Mallorca thanks to a sensational late free kick from Oscar Rodriguez as they earned their first point since the season returned after the hiatus forced by the new coronavirus.
Veteran midfielder Salva Sevilla, 36, put Mallorca in front after nine minutes with a free kick which he slid under the wall and past flummoxed goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar.
Schalke slumped to a shock 3-0 home loss to relegation-threatened Augsburg on Sunday, their fourth defeat in five games dropping them to eighth place in the Bundesliga.
Augsburg's Eduard Löwen curled in a sensational free kick from 25 yards in the sixth minute and Nigerian winger Noah Sarenren Bazee slotted home in the 76th before Sergio Cordova added the third in stoppage time.
6’: Eduard Löwen Free Kick
Messi was coming.
For the first and only time — barring a grizzled move to Inter Miami — the greatest footballer ever was going to play competitive matches on American soil. The fact that it was the Copa América — a grand old competition summoning the specters of Zizinho, Javier Zanetti and Carlos Valderrama — made it all the more fantastic. By all rights and definitions, the tournament didn’t even belong here.
Defending Lionel Messi free kicks is one of the most terrifying experiences for a soccer team. If he strikes it the way he wants, which happens more often than not, there’s likely nothing an opponent can do to prevent a goal on a free kick from within 20-25 yards. Messi has scored 19 free kicks since the start of the 2017-18 season.
You can’t blame Real Sociedad for its tactics to defend against a Messi free kick on Saturday at the Camp Nou.
While the men’s Champions League Round of 16 begins this week, the women’s competition doesn’t return until the end of March with the staging of the quarterfinals. The question — on the back of four straight titles — is can anyone disrupt Lyon’s recent hegemony of the competition?
One potential answer is Wolfsburg.
The club won back-to-back European titles in 2013 and 2014, but in the five tournaments since, they’ve been bounced by Lyon four times (twice in the final, twice in the quarters). This season, the two clubs won’t possibly meet until the final.
Wayne Rooney has found his shooting boots less than a month into his stint as Derby County player-coach.
Rooney left D.C. United for the EFL Championship (England’s second division) after the 2019 MLS season, though he couldn’t play for his new club until the opening of the January transfer window.
If he continues like this, Martin Ødegaard will be playing for Real Madrid next season. It’s been nearly five years since he made his first and only LaLiga appearance for Los Blancos at the age of 16 years and 157 days, but now aged 21, Ødegaard is finally shining in Spain’s top division while on loan at high-flying Real Sociedad.
When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus, he immediately became the team’s No. 1 free-kick taker, despite the fact the Old Lady already had a couple world-class free kick takers.
Ronaldo has proven himself to be one of the best at spot kicks, but the numbers show he hasn’t brought that prowess with him to Italy.
Oh, so that’s how you beat Newcastle United. Aston Villa nullified the attacking threat of Newcastle’s high-scoring defenders on Monday, instead forcing them to actually defend, and utilized a couple of bumbling fouls on the effervescent Jack Grealish to twice unleash dead-ball specialist Conor Hourihane in a 2-0 victory at Villa Park.
This is a public service announcement to all LaLiga clubs not named Barcelona:
Do not foul Barcelona anywhere near the goal. Lionel Messi will take the ensuing kick and he will score on you.
That is all.