Human Interest

Francesco Caputo was thrilled to finally pull on an Italy shirt at the age 33 but there was also a tinge of regret at what might have been after a career spent largely in the lower divisions of Italian football.

The Sassuolo forward became Italy's second-oldest debutant when he started Wednesday's friendly against Moldova and needed only 23 minutes to score his first international goal in the 6-0 win.

Landon Donovan and his club’s vow to fight discrimination in soccer captured a small victory as the USL announced a ban against the Phoenix Rising player that used a homophobic slur during a game in September. The hateful language was directed at San Diego Loyal’s Collin Martin, who is openly gay. Donovan and the club chose to forfeit the match in response.

Czech footballer Antonin Panenka, whose cheeky winning penalty technique against Germany in the 1976 European Championship has been copied by some of the game's greatest players, is in intensive care at a hospital, his former club said on Wednesday.

Panenka, 71, led the Czechoslovak national team to their only international title after he lofted the decisive penalty past a surprised and sprawling German goalkeeper Sepp Maier in the shoot-out of the final.