Outrageous

Riyad Mahrez scored an absolute stunner in Algeria’s 2-2 draw with Zimbabwe to ensure his country’s qualification for the African Cup of Nations on Monday. The Mahrez goal vs Zimbabwe even has some people daring to utter the word “Puskás.”

This goal might not be the best of 2020, but you won’t see a better goal scored this week.

With Algeria leading 1-0 midway through the first half, the Desert Foxes only needed one long ball to their star player to spring the counterattack. The rest, and one Zimbabwe defender’s ankles, is history.

We have ourselves a potential Puskás candidate. An insane moment took place in the Danish Cup on Wednesday when Lyngby defender Nicolai Geertsen scored a goal that words can not describe.

OK, maybe words can describe this goal. Geertsen defied all the odds as he self-assisted himself with a bicycle kick that hit off the crossbar which he then volleyed into the goal. Quite a mouthful, no?

Croatia’s captain and center back Domagoj Vida was surprisingly substituted at halftime during Wednesday’s friendly match against Turkey. It was only later revealed why Vida was taken out so early. His COVID test from that morning had come back positive.

Vida was quickly isolated from the team and further testing revealed he was indeed positive. This means that he played a full 45 while potentially spreading the virus to teammates and opponents.

An Israeli striker put on one of the most impressive displays in modern history of being so bad that he’s good. 

Eli Elbaz had the most ridiculous five minutes of his career on Monday in the second division of Israeli soccer. With his team Sektzia Ness Ziona, which he had just joined on Nov. 2, leading 1-0, Elbaz was brought on as a substitute in the 81st minute to put the nail in the coffin.

Corner kicks are a nightmare in youth soccer games. Half of the time the ball is sent into the penalty box a wild game of pinball ensues. After several missed headers, seven failed clearances, 10 deflections and five whiffs, the ball eventually lands right at the feet of an attacking player who pokes it in with their toe.

There is no rhyme or reason for how corner kicks will play out at the youth level. As long as the corner delivery makes it into the box then only the soccer gods will know how things will play out.

There's been a conspiracy theory making its way around the information superhighway lately suggesting that Premier League club Burnley never wears its away jerseys because it does not have an away kit.

Football Conspiracy Theories:

Burnley does not have an away kit pic.twitter.com/ZxQ8zKlXDK

The Édgar Méndez red card that took place in the 34th minute between Alavés and Levante will be a strong contender for the oddest sending off of the season.

Méndez was shown his first yellow card in the 24th minute. Then, ten minutes later, he was bizarrely booked a second time and given a red card after retrieving a ball that went out of bounds and passing it onto the field.

Reports out of England this week suggest the Premier League will do away with selling $20 pay-per-view matches. Hopefully NBC follows suit, but don’t hold your breath based on what it’s doing to the biggest match of the year this weekend.

Conceding immediately after kickoff is a FIFA video game tradition unlike any other. For some unholy reason, opponents will slice through your team like a hot knife through butter after a kickoff. Every so often this event of a fast kickoff goal takes place in the real world.

No kickoff goal will be faster than that poor Spanish goalkeeper scoring a late goal and then immediately getting lobbed from kickoff. We have found a close second though.

Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron has been a major focus of the nation this week. As eyes converge on Atlanta votes coming in to see if Georgia flips from red to blue in the U.S. presidential election, Barron has appeared on TV to explain the process to media such as CNN.

And he’s done so with some soccer paraphernalia adorned around his neck.