South America

The Argentina national team's training facility has been renamed after talismanic captain Lionel Messi in recognition of his World Cup heroics and star-studded career, the country's football association (AFA) said on Saturday.

The Casa de Ezeiza in Buenos Aires, which houses the national team set-up, will now be known as Lionel Andrés Messi "in tribute to the best player in the world," AFA president Claudio Tapia wrote on Twitter.

"Welcome to the world champion's house," Tapia said at the unveiling ceremony attended by current and former Argentina players.

Being an experienced player doesn't mean you are immune to making a rookie-looking mistake. And proof of this sentence is Paolo Goltz, a 37-year-old center back, who recently gave away what people are calling "the dumbest penalty ever" in a game between Independiente and Colón in the Argentinian first division. 

Dumbest penalty ever

The embarrassing moment for Goltz came in the 74th minute when the scoreboard was 1-1 and Colón was getting ready for a routine goal kick.

If you’ve played enough of the FIFA video game series with friends, then you’re probably familiar with randomizing the teams before a game. Sometimes you’ll get a strange matchup where one player gets a national team and the other gets a club. 

That would never happen in real life, right? 

Friday will see a situation just like that as the Argentina national team announced it will play a friendly against Primera División leaders River Plate. The game is part of a national celebration for Argentina’s triumph in Qatar.

Argentina worships Leo Messi. It always has been the case, but after the World Cup title, the adoration only multiplied. The love, the obsession, it's so unleashed that when people found out he was eating at a steakhouse in Buenos Aires on Monday night, hundreds gathered around the restaurant to chant his name and police had to come to keep everybody safe.

Stoppage time in soccer is getting out of control. At the World Cup in Qatar, we saw how the customary three to five added minutes went right to the 10+ zone, while FIFA — through the International Football Association Board (IFAB) — recently suggested leagues worldwide follow suit as a way to "increase the net playing time and reduce time-wasting."

Every day there's a goal that illuminates our lives. And on Sunday, that light came from Brazil thanks to Léo Reis, who got himself out of a tough spot by scoring a nasty, wonderful bicycle kick while lying on the ground.

1-0 down against Céara in the first leg of the Cearense Championship semifinals, Reis was trying to find an equalizer for his club Iguatu when reaching for an aerial cross, but he ended up on the grass with his back to goal.