Two momentous matches, two heavenly touches.
In the 31st minute of Liverpool’s Merseyside derby with Everton, Divock Origi gave the Reds a 3-1 lead after cushioning a long ball from Dejan Lovren straight into his own path. His second touch was a looping effort over the despairing Jordan Pickford.
Origi’s first touch was softer than Charmin.
Divock. Origi. pic.twitter.com/ltWk97jtGb
The 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup came to a close on Sunday with Portugal lifting the trophy following a 6-4 victory over Italy in the final. The Azzurri’s Gabriele Gori finished as top scorer for the second-straight tournament with 16 goals in six games, but it was Japan’s Ozu Moreira who received the Golden Ball award as the World Cup’s best player.
Tuesday’s Champions League Group A encounter between Real Madrid and PSG at the Santiago Bernabéu was pretty much meaningless. Both teams entered the match with Round of 16 qualification secured, and even a Real victory would do little to wrest top spot from PSG due to the Parisians’ perfect record thus far.
Manchester United defeated Brighton 3-1 at Old Trafford on Sunday to move up to seventh in the Premier League table heading into November’s international break. A heavily deflected Andreas Pereira effort and a Davy Pröpper own goal got United off to a 2-0 lead before the 20th minute, and although Lewis Dunk pulled one back for Brighton off a corner, Marcus Rashford’s sixth goal in 12 EPL appearances guaranteed all three points for the home side.
Nutmegs — alongside cross-field rakers, back heels and an inordinate amount of step-overs — constitute one of the greatest forms of artistry in our beautiful game. The act of the nutmeg is equal parts illusion and imagination; it transcends the simple reality of moving the ball from Point A to Point B and replaces it with something sublime. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a nutmeg tells us of beautiful, untrue things. (After all, a nutmeg is rarely ever a decisive moment.)
Even by Lionel Messi’s ridiculous standards, the Barcelona captain’s 90 minutes against Valladolid at the Camp Nou on Tuesday constitute something outrageous. After the two clubs exchanged heavily deflected efforts in the opening 15 minutes, Messi sprang into action with a beautiful assist, stunning free kick (and two brutal nutmegs) to put Barcelona up 3-1 at halftime. In the second half, he scored another goal and added another assist to lift Barça to the top of the LaLiga table.
We’re a little over a month away from the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Asunción, Paraguay, but the defending champion has just delivered a timely reminder of its mastery of the sand. The World Beach Games wrapped up yesterday in Doha, Qatar, and it was Brazil that captured the men’s beach soccer title following a 9-3 victory over Russia in the gold medal match.
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.
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
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.