If the rumors are to be believed, Manchester United are in hot pursuit of Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann, and, judging by Paul Pogba’s interview with FIFA.com, United’s world-record signing could help lure him to Old Trafford.
Bayern Munich were only 20 minutes away from dropping points against Darmstadt 98 on Sunday, the team at the bottom of the Bundesliga. With RB Leipzig continuing their breakneck start to the season, Brazilian winger Douglas Costa’s 71st-minute strike was as sensational as it was important.
From all of 37 yards, the 26-year-old broke Darmstadt’s brave resistance with an absolute laser that crashed in off the underside of the crossbar.
Munich will now host Leipzig on Wednesday with both clubs level on points at the top of the table.
You don’t ever work on your toe poke, admit it. It’s not a skill you frequently pull off after telling your mates which corner your about to put your shot in during warmups. You’d be called a child and laughed off the pitch, your ambitious toe punt looking nothing like a clean hit off the laces or a swerving effort with the instep.
But contrary to accepted reasoning, the toe poke is actually the hallmark of a genius. Legends like Ronaldo, Romario, Ronaldinho, Andriy Shevchenko and Diego Maradona all had the infamous action down cold.
Check out what happened when Justin Bieber dropped in at Camp Nou to play some football with Neymar. He is actually pretty good (maybe not surprisingly after we uncovered this video of him juggling with Neymar earlier this year).
Given that Neymar and Bieber appear to be fast friends, we expect to see more Bieber soccer highlights soon.
It was always going to be difficult to match the success of his debut season with Bayer Leverkusen, but Saturday marked a new low in the professional career of Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez. The Mexican striker hadn’t scored a goal since October 1st, and he was looking for his first goal in seven Bundesliga matches.
With the scores level in the 88th minute of Leverkusen’s match with Freiburg, Chicharito stepped up to take the penalty that would end his goal scoring drought and reverse the fortunes of a Leverkusen club that had lost two consecutive Bundesliga matches.
We’ve seen players miss open goals before. Hell, even some of the finest strikers on the planet manage to put shots wide with the goal at their mercy. But this miss in a Serbian lower league match has no equal.
The rabona method of kicking the ball hardly ever results in anything other than a change of possession. While many ridiculously talented players have successfully performed a rabona in competition, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Arjen Robben, it’s extremely rare that the method leads to anything apart from a largely ineffective attempt at crossing the ball.
More than being an effective striking method, it’s generally utilized as a demonstration of personal ability and tekkers.