FIFA actually got something right on Monday when it awarded Cristiano Ronaldo The Best FIFA Men’s Player of 2017 at the FIFA award show. Lieke Martens was named The Best Women’s Player while Olivier Giroud claimed the Puskas Award for the best goal.
Ronaldo won the honor as best men’s player for the second year in a row and was also named to the FIFA FIFPro World XI alongside four of his Real Madrid teammates.
Almost 15 years to the day since Wayne Rooney announced himself to the world by scoring that goal against Arsenal, a now 31-year-old Wazza scored another beauty at Goodison Park, giving supporters another false dawn before the crushing reality set to follow.
Rooney was given far too much space and time at the top of the box in the 12th minute and sent a classy effort beyond Petr Cech, providing a huge sense of relief for both home supporters and Toffees under-fire manager Ronald Koeman.
Based on the evidence here, Sofiane Boufal’s Southampton career is something of a slow burn. The Moroccan attacker arrived last season for a club-record fee of over $21 million. He then scored one Premier League goal in 24 matches for the Saints. But Boufal has already matched that total this season thanks to a match-winner against West Brom that could ultimately stand as the EPL Goal of the Season.
Three minutes into Bradford City’s Football League One match against Oldham, Bantams’ striker Paul Taylor dropped an absolute bomb from 30-plus yards out. The whistling effort flew into the top-right corner, giving Bradford the early advantage and turning Valley Parade stadium into the best kind of sh*t show.
If we could turn this hit into a piece of music visualization — a little bit of animated imagery based off this specific piece — it would probably look something like a living version of Jackson Pollock’s No. 5.
Lost in all the furor following the USMNT’s disastrous 2-1 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago (and because the match was played on ESPN 8: The Ocho, so no one saw it) is the fact that the Soca Warriors’ Alvin Jones probably scored the best goal of the entire CONCACAF qualifying cycle, a sludge dating back to March 22, 2015.