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England is known for it’s rough-and-tumble, all-action playing style. The Premier League is no stranger, for better or for worse, to crunching tackles and fierce 50/50 challenges. 

While officials in the EPL have been working to cutdown on the horror tackles, from behind and/or with the studs showing, that result in terrible injuries, there’s no denying that soccer is an inherently physical game and will remain so for the forseeable future.

Pachuca unveiled their latest signing Tuesday with a timely, yet bizarre, pop culture reference. Clad in Darth Vader’s getup and stepping to “The Imperial March,” Pachuca’s new arrival, Darth Omar, made his way to the podium along with a Sith Lord, Stormtrooper and an undersized Chewbacca.

With Star Wars fever firmly gripping the planet, who can blame Pachuca for catching the bug? It makes for an oddly captivating viewing experience.  

Sometime you just need a beer. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, the beer won’t drink itself. There are plenty of excuses when it comes to knocking back a cold one, most of them aren’t very good. “Just drink it." How about that? Anyway, any old excuse seems like it will fit with Massimo Maccarone’s beer drinking celebration. 

We're not going to lie. We here at The18.com are partial to any player who sports our digits on his or her back. (Note to Harry Kane: We liked your old number better.) So, it's only fitting that today we celebrate another #18 – Paul Scholes – and what many consider to be the Manchester United legend's finest goal. It came during a match against Aston Villa on this very day in 2006.

Ajax weren’t in crisis during Jairo Riedewald’s debut, just in danger of stumbling at a critical point. They had botched some critical games at the beginning of the season, but had turned things around with a 5-game winning streak that had seen them move from 6th to 2nd. Finally within striking distance of first place Vitesse – an Ajax win and Vitesse loss would see Ajax clear into first place, while a win and a tie would have Ajax in first place on goal differential – Ajax found itself down 1-0 to 14th place Roda JC. They were in danger of missing out on first place yet again.

Apparently, Manchester City and the Gallagher twins rubbed off on Edin Dzeko. The Bosnian striker, who spent from 2011-2015 at City and plays for A.S. Roma now, received his first red card ever when he told an Italian ref that he didn't like the cut of his jib. Well, actually he just told the ref to "f**k off, yeh?" Which apparently was not a suggestion the ref took very well. Or, if he did, then maybe he was trying to high five Dzeko when he accidentally pulled this red card from his pocket.

I want to believe in the integrity of the game. I really do. I want to believe that players go out every game with the intention of winning, that managers select players with the same intention, and that referees call a fair game. Sadly I know that this is not always the case, that across the world there have been numerous confirmed instances of bribery, match-fixing, and general corrupt behavior on and off the field. But this, this is on a whole different level. You are about to watch what might be the worst referee decision ever.