Freddy Adu scored his first goal for the Las Vegas Lights on his 29th birthday on Saturday. And despite helping his team to a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, Adu was upstaged by some crazy antics by goalkeeper Ricardo Ferriño Treviño.
We here at The18 love great goals. We do our best to bring you, our dear readers, the best goals as they happen throughout the world. But we also know the appeal of watching some of the worst soccer goals in the world.
The beautiful game is at its best when the world’s finest athletes use skills honed over decades to score goals that make you leap out of your seat with glee (or sink into it in despair). But not every goal can be a Cristiano Ronaldo bicycle kick.
With Serie A coming to a close this past weekend, the name on everyone’s lips was that of Juventus legend Gianluigi Buffon. Buffon played his last match for Juve on Saturday and is set join a new club this offseason. The latest speculation has him linked with a switch to Paris Saint-Germain, although it was not too long ago that another Italian keeper named Gianluigi was being linked with a move to Paris.
Gianluigi Buffon played his final match for Juventus on Saturday after 656 appearances with the Old Lady. The legendary goalkeeper, among the greatest to ever play the position, said farewell to the Bianconeri fans at Allianz Stadium in Turin, and the tears were flowing from fans, the players and, of course, Buffon himself.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Italian shot-stopper Gianluigi Buffon confirmed that Saturday’s match between Juventus and Hellas Verona will serve as his final appearance for the club.
Kicking a ball hard can be a useful skill in soccer. Instead of tiki-takaing your way down a field, you can simply hoof the ball to the other side of the pitch with one strong-legged kick. With that in mind, a goalkeeper being able to kick the ball farther than anyone would be valuable, just like hitting a home run or shooting a 3-pointer. So what’s the Guinness World Record for the longest drop kick? The answer may surprise you.
Have you ever heard of the curse of Bela Guttmann? After defeating Real Madrid 5-3 in the final of the 1962 European Cup, Benfica manager Bela Guttmann asked the board of directors for a pay raise. He was denied and left the club, but not before saying, “Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champions.”
The club has since lost eight subsequent European finals.
Poor Sven. All he wanted to do was hang out on the Bayern bench and rack up trophies, but then Manuel Neuer had to go and get injured in September. Now, after another Sven Ulreich howler against Real Madrid on Tuesday, the Bayern Munich backup is making a name for himself in all the wrong ways.
Gianluigi Buffon is one of the greatest goalkeepers to have ever taken up gloves and played between the sticks. The Italian legend turned 40 in January and after nearly 200 appearances with the Azzurri and more than 500 with Juventus, everyone is wondering: Is Buffon retiring? It appears so. Probably. Maybe.