Do you know what is better than a first division soccer team? A team of superheroes. Even if that team of superheroes is actually a fourth division soccer team dressed up like superheroes, superheroes always win.
Argentinian fourth division side Sacachispas know this, which is why they dressed as superheroes before their Copa Argentina match against first division club Arsenal de Sarandi.
With four points from the opening four matches of their debut Copa Libertadores campaign, Chapecoense traveled to Argentina to face Lanus, the 2016 Primera Division champions, needing perhaps the most famous result in the club’s history to continue their improbable quest for the competition’s round of 16.
After Wellington Paulista, on loan from Fluminense, gave Chapecoense an unexpected early lead, Lanus equalized from the spot with only 10 minutes remaining. But the moment of magic arrived for Chape through Luiz Otavio, a defender who’s on loan from Luverdense.
Goalkeepers, to paraphrase a popular saying, are insane. It’s the forwards that get the glory, and it’s more often than not the goalkeepers that have to shoulder the blame. It’s a thankless, lonely task that hardly ever favors the man or woman between the sticks. However, these individuals have dazzled with their ability to keep the opposing team off the scoreboard. These are the goalkeepers with the most clean sheets in different respective competitions.
Losing a World Cup final in extra time is brutal and tough to come back from. Losing a Copa America final on penalties the subsequent year is a kick to the teeth. Losing yet another Copa America final the following year, to the same team and in the same manner, is practically a kill shot to any footballer’s professional hopes and dreams.
Folks associated with Brazilian club Chapecoense haven't had something to smile about in a long time. In November, more than 70 players, training staff members and journalists were killed when the plane taking the team to a Copa Sudamerica match crashed in Colombia.
On Sunday, Chapecoense won their first trophy since the dreadful accident, picking up the Santa Caratina state championship. Although it's just a preseason tournament, the trophy no doubt put smiles on faces that hadn't hosted that particular facial expression in quite some time.
Lionel Messi's four-match ban for allegedly insulting a referee has been overturned by FIFA. Messi sat out one match, a 2-0 loss to Bolivia in La Paz, before the FIFA appeals committee made its ruling.
This is good news for Argentina, for whom qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia is still up in the air. La Albiceleste sitting fifth, in the play-off spot, one point behind Chile and Uruguay and two points ahead of Ecuador. They cannot afford any slip-ups, which are much more plentiful when Lionel Messi is not in the lineup.
You know that scene in various movies in which a character either fakes his or her own death or is otherwise presumed dead but actually alive, and that character watches his or her funeral from behind a tree while wearing sunglasses? Ricardo Oliveira came about as close as you can get to that experience in real life.
Like Tata Martino before him, Edgardo Bauza has been dismissed of his role as manager of Argentina’s national team after failing to get the most out of Lionel Messi’s supporting cast. The next manager for Argentina will be Messi's 8th since joining the Albiceleste.
The next manager for the Argentina will be Messi's 8th since joining the Albiceleste. #AFA pic.twitter.com/nVs7ETh9qq
Corinthians defeated Universidad de Chile in the first leg of their Copa Sudamericana matchup, but the real story was a heroic ball man inside the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo.
An overzealous Universidad de Chile player was eager to get the ball back with his side losing 1-0 and halftime fast approaching. The valiant ball man, in his own way, eventually obliged.
But then he got brutally touched right in the heart. We don’t know what happened then. Judging by his facial expression it looks like his heart simply broke.
Lost in all the column inches about Lionel Messi’s four-match ban, Argentina’s horrific performance in their 2-0 defeat to Bolivia and their subsequent falling to fifth-place in CONMEBOL qualifying was the passing of the belt to Bolivia in the Unofficial Football World Championships.