The internet is divided right now over an incredible video of Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland stacking three balls on top of each other and then proceeding to shoot each one into the upper 90 of a goal. Is the Erling Haaland video real though?
I hate to be that guy, but this video probably isn’t real.
Before we debate, let’s watch the video.
This is real, trust uspic.twitter.com/UExs5LbKUi
Not all overhead kicks are created equal. The greatest differentiator has to be that moment of posterization — when the foot meets football at its absolute zenith and the body’s parallelism with the ground seems to foreshadow certain death.
On one end of the scale there's the footballer who’s simply throwing their leg at the chance and falling over. The result is still a great goal, but the lasting effect isn’t much more powerful than watching a somersault.
Liverpool and Manchester City stood toe-to-toe at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, exchanging haymakers and glorious bits of skill in an end-to-end classic that ended 2-2 after an exchange of four second-half goals.
City carved the best opportunities of the first half with Phil Foden tormenting stand-in right back James Milner and Bernardo Silva at his freakish best. This dribble from Silva in the 20th minute deserved a finish from Foden.
We have a Puskás Award contender from Ghana after Mizak Asante, age 15, split three defenders, left another on his backside, dribbled past the keeper in the tightest of spaces and roofed a finish over two defenders on the goal-line.
It's a slow burn that gets better and better as it goes.
Every great solo goal needs its Jérôme Boateng.
Joel Campbell has always been my greatest muse at The18, from polls wondering if he’s CONCACAF’s next big thing to tales of Arsenal sending him out on loan seven times to conjectures over whether he’ll be able to eclipse Kristine Lilly’s all-time in
Cristiano Ronaldo has been at the top of the game so damn long that it’s impossible to remember it otherwise. His first Ballon d’Or was 13 years ago while he’d already claimed the Premier League Player of the Season the year before that, so for many millennials he’s been king for half a lifetime.
But there wasn’t always a consensus around what sort of footballer he’d become, mainly because of the singular uniqueness of his early stylings.
To Poland’s Ekstraklasa we go for a goal that’s sort of like Zlatan Ibrahimović’s legendary individual strike for Ajax against NAC Breda, except if all of those drags, cuts and rolls were performed against one hapless defender.
On Saturday, Wisła Kraków defeated Górnik Łęczna 3-1 with the game-winner ultimately belonging to Yaw Yeboah. It was a goal fit to win any game.
Matías Zaracho and Atletico Mineiro booted River Plate out of the Copa Libertadores in style Wednesday night. This Zaracho goal vs. River Plate was the opening strike of the game and is one of the best seen in 2021 so far.
A silky move from Hulk, the Chinese Super League legend, gave him space to cross it in toward Zaracho, who pulled off one of the most amazing goals ever seen.
WHAT A GOAL!
This would be a preposterous goal in any situation and in any country on the planet, but the fact that this is a 93rd-minute game-winner in the Eredivisie only adds to the mystique of what you’re about to see.
The Netherlands’ top division began play this weekend with Groningen traveling to newly promoted Cambuur. The visitors opened the scoring through Ahmed El Messaoudi, but Robin Maulun responded for the home team with 22 minutes to play.
With one swift kick and a mighty finish, Norwich City has us ready for the Premier League to kick off already. Even though fans have had plenty of international soccer to enjoy recently, the August 13 start date of the EPL could not come any sooner.
This incredible Todd Cantwell assist was set up after the midfielder received a pass shortly after making his way into the 18 (eyy). With a defender pressing him from behind, in two quick taps and a moment of sheer brilliance, he launched the ball over his body with a bicycle kick and across the goal for a near-perfect one-timer.