Amazing Goals

Portugal struggled to break down the stout defense of Team Melli for about 45 minutes. Then came the absurd Ricardo Quaresma goal vs Iran to flip the tie on its head.

In February, we crowned Quaresma the King of the Trivela. The Besiktas winger brought his beautiful technique with him to Russia and scored what may be the most sumptuous goal of the World Cup thus far.

Who wants to play Russia? Who wants to play Uruguay?!

Not Morocco. The already-eliminated side has been one of the better looking teams at the World Cup, but the Atlas Lions had yet to score or get points at this World Cup heading into its final group match. That’s soccer for you.

But after all the misfortune, Morocco finally had some luck go its way.

A rare fib between former El Clasico rivals Andres Iniesta and Sergio Ramos led to a break away for Khalid Boutaïb. David de Gea was looking to make his first save of the tournament, but Boutaïb finished with poise.

Rumors have been swirling around the Egypt camp that Mohamed Salah could quit international football after the World Cup. The Liverpool star, according to reports, has been unhappy with the way he’s been singled out surrounding a photo he took with the leader of the Chechen Republic. After the Mo Salah goal vs Saudi Arabia on Monday did not elicit any celebration from the Pharaohs’ star man, there may be some truth to the rumor. 

This was not the start Russia was looking for against the grizzly bear trap that is Uruguay. 10 minutes into Monday’s match, Luis Suarez buried a free kick from just outside the box by going low around the wall and just inside Igor Akinfeev’s far post.

The goal was greatly aided by Russian T-34 tank Sergei Ignashevich. You can tell that the 38-year-old was only trying to aid his keeper by clearing Edinson Cavani out of his sight lines, but it really just made an almighty clusterfuck in front of goal while Suarez curled in his precise finish. 

England’s putting on a finishing clinic versus Panama to begin Sunday’s World Cup group play. John Stones sent a precise downward header beyond Jaime Penedo to open the scoring, Harry Kane added England’s second with an emphatic penalty and Jesse Lingard added the third with one of the best goals of the tournament so far. A second from Stones and another Kane penalty has England up 5-0 at the half.

Here’s the opener from Stones.

Toni Kroos had an awful game for 90 minutes. But holy hell did he come through when his team needed him most. The Kroos goal vs Sweden saved Germany from near certain elimination, shooting from an impossible angle to give Die Mannschaft a 2-1 victory on Saturday. 

I’m making this up — this could’ve happened at the 1934 tournament or something — but I’m pretty sure that Tuesday’s match between Colombia and Japan is the first-ever World Cup game in which a player has been sent off in the third minute, resulting in a successfully taken penalty, only to be followed by a 39th minute equalizer in which a player strokes a free kick under the wall.

I just have a good feeling that we’ve never seen anything like this before.

Three inch-perfect free kicks from Cristiano Ronaldo, Aleksandar Kolarov and Aleksandr Golovin are among the best World Cup goals of the tournament thus far. Each free kick cleared the wall from roughly 25 yards out and left the goalkeepers no chance of making a save.

Kolarov's free kick was all Serbia needed to earn three points from its opening Group E match against Costa Rica. Serbia's captain and 32-year-old left back could not have hit this one any sweeter.