Last week, during a Copa Libertadores match between Zamora (Venezuela) and Gremio (Brazil), a good dog just couldn't contain itself and ran on the field.
¡UN INTRUSO EN LA CANCHA!#LibertadoresxFOX | Un perrito se metió y quiso ayudar a Zamora a revertir el resultado ante Gremio. pic.twitter.com/ZP4qiMasqc
Chapecoense traveled to Venezuela to play their first-ever Copa Libertadores match, having qualified by virtue of winning South America’s secondary club competition, the Copa Sudamericana, in 2016.
Facing Zulia, the runner-up in Venezuela’s 2016 Primera Division, away and with a squad made up mostly of players on loan, players that did not board LaMia Flight 2933 and one survivor, defender Neto, Chapecoense entered the match as massive underdogs.
But Chapecoense took the lead off a clever free kick from Reinaldo, a defender on loan from Sao Paulo.
Brazil will travel to Montevideo, Uruguay for a clash between the top two sides in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying without David Luiz, the Chelsea center half and captain of Brazil’s 7-1 capitulation to Germany once again omitted from Tite’s latest squad announcement.
Luiz has been in great form for club this season, helping Chelsea to the top of the Premier League table with a defense that’s allowed only 19 goals in 26 matches. However, Luiz hasn’t appeared for Brazil since last March, and Tite has ignored him since being placed in charge of the Seleção last June.
Remember Ronaldo's really bad haircut at the 2002 World Cup? The one he would have never lived down if Brazil hadn't won the tournament and if he hadn't won the Golden Boot with eight goals? Apparently there was a reason for it.
Here's what Ronaldo told ESPN Brazil:
There are always a few things to look forward at the beginning of a new year; new-year resolutions, new season in some countries, new players for a lot of clubs and new data.
Yes, this is a soccer nerd kind of article, so if you are afraid of numbers, you better start running.
If you’re like me and can’t wait to see what keeps this machine that we call soccer clicking, get comfortable and ready yourself for some surprises because FIFA released its yearly transfer report and it is an interesting one.
Diego Maradona’s expulsion from the 1994 World Cup in the United States, for what FIFA executive committee member Michel d’Hooghe described as “a cocktail of drugs”, resulted in a 15-month ban from soccer, but the verdict also prohibited Maradona from visiting the US for 22 years.
Following the tragic events of LaMia Flight 2933, which took the lives of 22 Chapecoense players, 23 staff and board members and a total of 71 people, the club have now begun the difficult process of returning to the field with a new squad and manager.