super hattrick

Two brilliant Saudi goals

2012-01-02T01:14:00.000+03:00

Last week witnessed two amazing goals from Saudi clubs. The first was from Al-Ittifaq vs. Al-Ahli in what we can say as an Olympic league (under 23 years old)

The second goal was from Emad Al-Hosani from Al-Ahli vs. Al-Ansaar

Emad is Oman national team star, and he is famous by his bicycle kicks, watch these ones when he was playing at Al-Rayyan from Qatar:

and this one with Omani national team vs. Malaysia

and this one with Oman vs. Saudi Arabia in 2014 WCQ

The skills theater

2011-12-26T00:03:00.000+03:00

A wonderful video showing some of the most wonderful goals and skills in 2011

And interesting display of skills by Neymar and Ronbinho in a charity game in Brazil

"The keeper is half of the team"

2011-12-16T23:59:00.002+03:00

This is a common saying about football in Arabic, and it has a lot of truth in it. When there is a trusted keeper in the team, he gives the whole team the confidence and balance to go forward and win. Spain is enjoying these days the fun of having the best keeper in the world. Everyone remembers the great saves Casillas did in the WC final, or the PKs vs. Italy in Euro 2008.

Do you remember Spain the old times? Here is a little tour:

Spain had what who was considered as a great keeper, Luis Arconada. He played in 1978, 1982 WCs and 1980, 1984 Euros. At the 1982 WC at Spain, Arconada made history when North Ireland won their first ever game in WC finals, against the host, Spain 1-0

At the 1984 Euro final, he did what a keeper should never ever ever do in any final, especially it was the second half,

Arconada did it again in the WC Qualifications vs. Wales when Spain lost 0-3, but was lucky enough to still quality to the Mondial. Just watch the first goal here:

At 1986 WC, Spain got, another brilliant keeper, Andoni Zubizarreta, I don't know how and why he made 125 Caps, and participated in 3 WCs and 2 Euros.

Seems North Ireland enjoyed the Spaniard keepers talents, watch this clip for what happened in that game, but Ireland lost that time 1-2.

Zubizarreta, never was really great keeper in my eyes, he was just normal. From time to time, he would do something like this friendly game in 1997 against France:

Then, he did it again : )
This time it was against Nigeria in 1998 WC, which they lost the game 2-3 and exited the WC from the group stages for the first time since 1978:

Compare those keepers with Iker Casillas roles in WC 2010 title:

Uruguay: the beautiful team

2011-12-15T14:58:00.000+03:00

One of the best things that happened in the recent years in the Football world is the return of the big giant, Uruguay. Personally, I was surprised but mesmerized with that strong return. I thought Uruguay football was only a history and will never make it again, especially with a very pale qualifying results to the World Cup. Remember the 0-4 defeat vs. the already qualified Brazil?

Uruguay is building its big fan base around the world again after the WC Semi-Final and the Copa America.

I found this wonderful video about the "Mundialito" competition which was held in 1980 in Montevideo. Mundialito means "The Little World Cup" and it was the 50th anniversary of the first World Cup tournament. All previous WC winners were invited. England declined, so the best team who didn't win the cup was invited, that is Netherlands, who reached the final in 1974 and 1978.

Uruguay did an amazing tournament, beating Netherlands 2-0, Italy 2-0, and facing the famous Tele Santana Brazilian team in the final. The final ended exactly like what happened in 1950th World Cup final, 2-1 for Uruguay.

Tiki-Taka Tactics

2011-12-15T14:42:00.000+03:00

It is the Barcelona and Spain team identity, "The Tiki Taka". It is what brought the World Cup and Euro to Spain and the big boom for Barcelona since 2010.

Here is a wonderful video explaining its tactical concept:

El Clasico: Guardiola beat Mourinho

2011-12-12T01:20:00.000+03:00

Till the start of Yesterday El Clasico I was naming Mourinho as the best coach in our planet today. However, after yesterday defeat, I am doubting that statement, and at least might give that title to Guardiola.

Coaches today play chess, and it was apparent that after the first 30 minutes, Guardiola touches on the game, and how he reacted to very difficult start was impressive. Iniesta often came in between the midfield and to the left. Messi much in the back to give some great passes and move the play left, right and deep forward. Cesc and Sanchez in the front to score from any mistake. At the same time, seems Mourniho didn't react well to the game and just lost it.

This picture shows it all:

Iniesta, Messi, Casillas, Xavi, Dani Alves (with that order) were the stars of the game. There is a very nice video showing Iniesta touches in the game:

WILL BE BACK :)

2011-12-08T11:31:00.000+03:00

THIS BLOG HAS BEEN VERY SLOW FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS
IT WAS TAKING A NAP, AFTER A LOT OF HECTIC DAYS.

WILL BE BACK SOON :)
For now, something old and nice, from the 1990 friendly before the WC festival, Uruguay beat England at Wembly 2-1.

All goals were very nice, especially that John Barnes goal for England, I was looking for it since very long time,

Great new talent from Saudi

2011-11-26T23:49:00.002+03:00

I always stated that the decline of the Saudi football was never because of lack of talents but because those talents don't get enough attention to develop and polish their skills. Also, because of lack of the team plays and discipline in general.

Here is one new promising star named Salem Al-Dosari from Hilal, he is 19 years old only, and just up to last January he was not playing for any team, he was a player in "Hawari", that is district teams.

In 7 months, he was in Colombia with the national team for the Youth World Cup U-20 where he scored a goal and qualified to the second round.

and just few days ago, he scored the third in a 3-0 victory in the famous Saudi derby

I think if that player was born in Italy, he will be media super star already and the next new thing as Roberto Baggio or Bruno Conti. Every few years we get great talented player, who stars a lot, then start to decline in 3 or 4 years maximum.

The best art in football since Maradona

2011-11-24T12:43:00.000+03:00

As the clock is ticking towards the FIFA annual award, and seems Messi will win it (though there are little doubts that Ronaldo will compete), it is great just to relax and watch the magical touches of this phenomena. This is a great video, more of artistic camera angles than actions from the normal cameras, the one who collected these clips got very good taste of football.

Referee awards two yellow cards

2011-11-13T00:19:00.000+03:00

Yesterday Saudi Arabia managed to beat Thailand 3-0 after very weak referee performance from Hong Kong. The referee gave two yellow cards to a Thai player #16

what I liked most is the way the Thai player was acting too polite in front of the ref at the second yellow card. Other players, go directly outside the pitch when they see the second yellow, but this player was smarter :)

The ref also didn't award a Saudi player for a deserved red card,

The whole refereeing performance showed its results at the end when he lost control of the game

Saudi players were also to be blamed for the loss of control, and today the Saudi Football Federation decided to punish those players by deducting their winning compensations.

Suarez: player of the week with a SuperHattrick vs. Chile

2011-11-12T23:57:00.000+03:00

Luis Suarez deserved to be named player of the week after scoring all the four goals for Uruguay vs. Chile in the WC Qualifications. Not just he scored all the goals, but he also missed two other nice goals.

What I liked most is his second goal, the way he spotted the chance, and he ran for the ball and fought for it was really special.

Watch Uruguay vs. Chile 4-0

Little of Brazil 1990

2011-11-12T23:46:00.000+03:00

Brazil 1990 had an average appearance in the World Cup despite that they won all of the 3 games at the groups stage. The team itself that won Copa America 1989 was not bad at all, but was missing the extra effort at the critical moments. May be they were missing Romario whose leg was broken few months before the World Cup. He managed to play only one half against Scotland.

The coach Sebastião Lazaroni was not popular at all for his defensive style as he played 5-3-2, with three center defenders, Mauro Galvao, Ricardo Gomez and Mozer. The main reason why Lazaroni selected this style was this game vs. Denmark. It was about a year before the world cup and he lost 0-4 to Denmark. After that game Lazaroni said that he thought he needed to do something more in defense:

Last friendly before the world cup, Brazil played with a collection of players from Umbria, which is a region Northern of Italy. He lost that friendly 0-1 with a magnificent goal:

The team was not that bad, as sometimes they had memorable moments like this one:

Worth mentioning that the two favorite strikers for Lazaroni were Romario and Bebeto, the other two strikers were the dual, Careca and Muller. With the injury of Romario, there were rumors that Careca pressured Lazaroni to make Muller play next to him.

Ironically, Brazil played their best game vs. Argentina in the second round, but that was the only game they lost in that World Cup, and for a very obvious reason:

1990 team was a delightful one, but not a champ, but many of its players matured and won the WC four years later: Taffarel, Jorginho, Ricardo Gomes (injured just prior to 94 WC but was key player in qualifications), Dunga, Branco, Romário, Aldair (was sub in 1990), Müller (played few minutes in 94 WC), Bebeto, Mazinho (was sub in 1990), Ricardo Rocha (was important in 94 qualifications).

The week that brought fame to Roberto Baggio

2011-11-09T02:43:00.001+03:00

It is well known history to Baggio fans that he started playing with Vicenza then moved to Fiorentina where he was very talented. Then, he became the most expensive player in the world in 1990 when Juventus bought him. However, there is a certain week, where it might be his best week at his young age, that week declared him as the next big thing for Italy.

Let's go back little bit to Baggio first internationals, he played 8 friendlies before the 1990 World Cup:
- 1988: Italy vs. Netherlands 1-0 Baggio did the assist for Gianluca Vialli in his debut game..
- 1989: Italy vs. Romania 0-1
- 1989: Italy vs. Uruguay 1-1 Baggio scored a very nice goal..

- 17 September, 1989: Fiorentina vs. Napoli 2-3.
It was Napoli at his best with Maradona at his best. The first half was 2-0 for Fiorentina, both goals scored by Roberto Baggio. The first goal was a 'Maradonian' style, it was the goal of the season without any doubt.

The game had many dramas. Maradona was in the substitution bench. He played the second half and missed a penalty kick. Later Napoli came from the back to score 3 goals:

Watch the super goal from a better angle here.

- 20 September, 1989: Italy vs. Bulgaria 4-0
Baggio was magical, he scored the first two goals, and he assisted the other two goals:

After that September week where Baggio was directly involved in 6 goals, there was one super star for Italy: Roberto Baggio.

Roberto played four other friendlies before the world cup but didn't score. Then, it was the beginning of the world cup. The Italian coach, however, decided not to start with Baggio. He stayed in the substitution bench for the first two games. The third game was less important as Italy qualified to the second round already, Baggio was given his first chance in the world cup.

Baggio did a great game scoring goal of the tournament for the World Cup, just after he scored the goal of the season in Serie-A.

Italy didn't win the world cup, nor Roberto Baggio was the player of the tournament, yet, it was pretty good world cup for him. It was not a disastrous one like for Maradona 1982 or Messi 2010.

I think the rest is a known history : )

Here is something worth watching:
- Very nice goals for Roberto Baggio with Juventus + some great solo goals.
- 5 goals scored by Roberto Baggio vs. Udinese in 1992
- 20 best goals by Roberto Baggio
(note that some of the goals will be repetitive)

Picks of the week 4 November

2011-11-05T14:58:00.000+03:00

Starting from this week, I will embed only few videos of my picks, and post links to other great goals. First, to allow the page to load faster, second, to give more focus to the best goals:

I have three videos to embed: the first is from Egypt. The goal was wonderful, but it becomes to special when you know it was scored in the 95th minute, with one second left to the 5 minutes given of injury time, to give his team a 1-0 victory.

The goal was scored by the talented Egyptian star Shikabala from a wonderful free kick for Zamalek vs. Samouha in the Egyptian league:

My second pick, is from Taison Freda, a 23 years old talented Brazilian footballer who plays in Ukranian league. I was impressed by this goal, not for the very nice run, but for the very cool finish, kinda of Romario type of finishing:

The player is really talented, which these videos for him:
In Brazil, In Europe

This week was full of acrobatic goals, my favorite pick was from Algeria, for Molidya Wahran goal vs. Shabibate Qabael,

Other great goals:
These three videos are either bicycle kicks or volleys:
Ukrain: Roman Bezus for Vorskla Poltava vs. Metalist
This was really wonderful by Rapid Vienna in Austrian league
Andrew Johnson great foal for Fulham in Europa League

and much more great goals:
Solo goal by Milan Petržela from Czech league
Another solo goal from Turkey
Neymar shows his great scoring ability, vs. Atlético Paranaense
Amazing long range goal from Ecuador league
Similar but more impressive goal from Romania
Really great save by defender in MLS
Back heel goal from Egypt for Enby vs. Ismaili
Another wonderful back heel (offside) goal by Ittihad from Saudi

And I got three funny and controversial picks:
Player passes to his substitute teammate
Fan attack player in Romanian league (this put a question if soccer needed stronger punishment for such fans?)
and here is my favorite, I just want to watch the coach face at this incident :)
Samuel Inkoom from Ghana silly red card in Ukrainian league

Do you know the Fenomeno (Ronaldo) well? (Part2 of 2)

2011-11-04T03:10:00.000+03:00

I decided to make part2 just entertaining, only interesting goals of the magical kid (not sure how you see him, but for me, till he retired, he always looked like a kid).

I like more to focus on his old goals, where many of people forgot them or never seen them, especially the non famous ones:

I will start with this one: I still remember that day, I was watching the sport news in 1994, and heard the reporter saying, a new skillful Brazilian player scored a great goal. The goal was for Cruzeiro 2-1 victory against Boca Juniors:

Next in 1996 with very much interesting goal vs. Lithuania

Same year, he scored a remarkable goal vs. Denmark

Then, at the Atlanta Olympic Games he scored a wonder one vs. Ghana. Notice the silence of commentator as he thought the ball might go out, I recall the same silence from the Arabic commentator

- A very interesting goal vs. a very great Italian keeper in a friendly tournament in 1997
- And in 1997 Copa America, he was awesome, almost did everything in football.
- I recall this cool goal vs. Costa Rica: Speed, scoring, accuracy, skills, and confidence
- After winning Copa America, 1997 Confederations Cup was a piece of kick, like this goal vs. Australia
- in 1998, he was unstoppable, watch this goal in 2-1 victory vs. Germany in a friendly game prior to 1998 WC. It was just at the end of the game, with a great run, speed and control

When I saw that friendly, it was obvious that Ronaldo will be WC top scorer and win the WC.
But, No :) that is one of the beauties of the game, it rarely goes with the "obvious"!

And this one in the 1999 Copa America final vs. Uruguay, it was after a return from injury. That might be the last time he was almost full flexibility

Then, two months later, a similar combination or Rivaldo-Ronaldo but vs. Argentina

Well, I don't intend to cover the famous 2002/06 parts, as they are too consumed, but I like to share one more goal, from one of the all-stars-games. Don't recall which year exactly, but it was towards the end of his career, he proved that he still got a magical touch:

After that, Ronaldo started to gain weight, and Ronaldinho too. They started to have other priorities over football, watch this funny clip:

Bonus Material:
- Ronaldo reportage on his time with Cruzeiro when he was young.
- His great time with PSV Eindhoven
- All of his 47 goals with Barcelona. This is his the real peak of his career.
- 4 hours YouTube movie, everything about Ronaldo. No spelling mistakes, Four hours.

Pele too had his HeadButt

2011-11-03T22:17:00.001+03:00

Zizou was not the only one with Headbutt. Yes, Eto had one after him too, but, even a player like Pele got one, a very good one : )

However, he didn't get a red card,

I saw it when I was a kid, in a famous movie about Pele, but just could not find it anywhere in the net. Today I found it the full movie, which is about one hour, and here you go with the headbutt

CLICK HERE TO WATCH PELE HEADBUTT

From the clip, it is clear that the game was for Brazil, but it was not clear against whom, I could not know the other team, especially with the black and white colors.

Oh, by the way, this movie is a great one, worth watching it.

Do you know the Fenomeno (Ronaldo) well? (Part1 of 2)

2011-11-02T18:25:00.002+03:00

Most of the people remember the great goals of the Ronaldo Nazario in WC 2002, or in CL with Real Madrid and some moves and goals with Inter Milan. These memories are mixed with the over-weight Ronaldo, with the lazy Ronaldo, with the Corinthians Ronaldo, where he will score once in a while, but he was not really that efficient.

Dad, he ate the ball?

For me, there was two phases of Ronaldo, before 1998 WC and after 1998 WC.
Zico mentioned once that Ronaldo got an injury above his knee vs. the opening game vs. Scotland in 1998 WC and he was never the same again. That was not the serious injury, as he completed the World Cup and despite the upset in the final, Ronaldo was named as player of the tournament.

After the World Cup he suffered a serious injury in his knee with Inter and disappeared for six months, and made his come back in the Italian Cup final against Lazio. The five minutes after he entered the field was one of the most emotional things I seen in the game:

I remember that game, and I thought that moment, that his career is over and he will never come back. Whatever he did after that, especially in the 2002 WC was a miracle to me. This image tells too much stories of Ronaldo career:

When I remember Ronaldo, I remember the magical player before the 1998 WC, he was a true legend. And in my little opinion, he was ready to compete with Pele on his fame. However, the knee injuries put limits of Ronaldo potentials.

I saw this video recently and it shows many moments of the "true" Ronaldo, and most important, not the famous ones, could be the most entertaining clips I seen for Ronaldo:

So, what is the difference of Ronaldo before and after the injuries:
- Before: he was an explosive player, who managed to do everything you expect in football. Enormous flexibility, turns, moves, speed and very skillful in every part of his body. That gave him the FIFA player of the year award for 1996 and 1997.

- After: he lost a lot of his flexibility. He cannot control every ball he receive, or do every turn he wants. He became too cautious of his turns, sometimes he preferred to let go the ball. However, he kept his scoring senses, his speed, and his skills (when it does not involve extreme moves). That was still enough to give him one more time FIFA player of the year award in 2002 and to break the WC top scorer record of six goals for the first time since 1970.

How do you imagine a football?

2011-11-02T01:00:00.000+03:00

On Goal Scored blog collected 100 football from many football clubs and associations and put it in one picture to see how the football is depicted in a 100 different way:

Here are some of them, the first ball (from left) is for Chelsea and that was my favorite, it reflects classic history, authenticity, and heritage for the club, also, remind the English fans about the ball that were played in 1966 World Cup.

And these two footballs caught my attention:
the Slovakian ball is wearing the country flag colors, and the Spanish Association got a Picasso type of art, and it was the ball going into the net, a very neat one

Click here to watch all of the 100 footballs

Pele proves again that he is disconnected from Football

2011-10-31T21:04:00.000+03:00

"I would love to play with Lionel Messi. But Messi is an incomplete player because he can't use his head. Also I played football for 20 years, Messi has only played for several years.", Pele, last week.

Only a person who follows football from a distance, and really into the details of the game would say such a comment. One of the very impressive things about Lionel is his ability to score goals by his head in many different situations and games, even vs. the best English team in the most important final in Europe.

The wonderful allasFCB2 Channel directly prepared a wonderful video replying to Pele smart comments:

I say in the title "again" as Pele got a very interesting history with his comments that shows how much he is following the game:

- in 1990: Pele said that Italy will win the World Cup. Italy lost in the Semi-Final.
Also, he criticized Brazilian team so much in the first two games.
After winning their 3 games in the group stages, he praised a lot the team saying he was wrong.
The next thing: Brazil lost to Argentina in the next game.

- in 1994, he always mentioned that Colombia will win the World Cup. Colombia was out from first round.

- in 1998, Pele was so sure that Spain will win the World Cup. Spain left the world Cup from first round for the first time in 20 years.

- 2000: Pele mentioned that an African team will win the World Cup before the end of the century.
Well, so far, we are still waiting for the first African team in the Semi-Final.

- in 2002: Pele always mentioned that Argentina and France will play the final. Both teams left World Cup too early, from the first round !!!!!!
- Also, for 2002, he said that China will qualify to second round. China was out too early, without scoring a single goal, conceiving 9 goals and losing three games.
- Also, Brazil will not pass the group stages. Well, Brazil won 7 games out of 7 and the world cup too.

- in 2006, he mentioned few teams, non won: Argentina, Brazil, England and France. Well, France made it to the final and lost to Italy.

- 2010: Nigeria will play the Semi-Final. Nigeria was the last in the group.

Well, don't blame Pele, but don't listen to his football opinions too. For him, all of his comments are to please the interviewer to keep building up his name and his brand

Brilliant Ghana player that never made it

2011-10-28T23:37:00.000+03:00

In 1996 Olympic Games, Italy played its second game against Ghana. Both lost their first game 0-1: Ghana lost to South Korea and Italy to Mexico. It will be a definite disaster for the team that will lose this game. Italy had some great names like Gianluca Pagliuca, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro. Ghana had Samuel Kuffour, the player that became one of Bayern Munich most important defenders in the future.

Ghana in the 1990s was one of best teams in the world that never made it to the World Cup for a reason or another. Players like Apedi Pele and great performances at the Youth WCs left great memories.

In this game, there was a brilliant 17 years old player called Christian Saba. He scored a stunning goal with a very nice move by his right foot. And then when it was 2-2, he scored the winning goal with a brilliant (half volley) with his left foot, in what I consider as the game of the tournament in 1996.

(goals are at 0:19 and 2:38)

Saba was a promising player as he was purchased by Bayern Munich team 2 and stayed there till now, with different loans. He never made it really big in any other club, I never knew why . . and I always waited to see his name in the national team but never found it.

I was looking for these two goals for so long on YouTube till they were uploaded like a week ago.

What happened next to Ghana?
They were the second in the group and played against Brazil in the QF. Brazil was full of big stars like Dida, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Bebeto and many more. Ghana did a great game and scored 2 wonderful goals, but could not prevent the Brazilian tsunami from scoring 4 nice goals.
Watch the goals here.

Picks of the week 28 October

2011-10-28T23:07:00.001+03:00

My pick for the play of the week is not a goal, it is for Sevilla goal keeper Javi Varas great save vs. Lionel Messi in the last minute of a 0-0 tie. The save was excellent in technical measures. But, what made me pick it is the tremendous pressure as it was 0-0 and in Camp Nou .... and it was against Lionel Messi. Many other keepers would not be able to take the challenge, and just surrender.

I picked this video in specific, as it was from camera fan from stadium, and it shows how the atmosphere inside the stadium became just after the miss, a scary silence:

And here is the TV version

Next, is a great goal by Cristiano Ronaldo by his heel, it was more of one of those football cartoons

Don't ask me where was this goal scored? All what I know it was a creative bicycle kick :)

Remember Falcao of the indoor soccer with his brilliant goal that went so viral? Here he did another great goal

I loved this goal a lot, I would not call it a goal by Luis Suarez, yes he scored it, but it was a Liverpool goal, great team work and very elegant finish

I love simplicity in football, and this goal is so complex, and not my favorite types, but worth watching

Finally, something wonderful from Argentina

When players have no idea about their rights

2011-10-28T14:25:00.000+03:00

When performing the penalty kick, all players should be outside the penalty box apart from the keeper and the kicker till the ball is kicked. If a team broke the rule, penalty is repeated only if that team took advantage of it:

- A defender enters the penalty box and his keeper saved it, is repeated. If it is a goal, then no action.
- A teammate enters the penalty box and a goal was scored, it is repeated. If it is saved, then no action.

This rule creates so much controversial incidents in the game, like the Paraguay penalty kick miss vs. Spain the last WC Quarter Final. It should have been repeated as Spain defenders entered the penalty box before the ball was kicked.

Or some players find a trick to make while following the rules 100%, like the famous Johan Cruyff penalty with Ajax and the trick with Jesper Olsen.

However, there is nothing I ever seen in the world like this penalty from Mexico:

Seems the ref, and even the players, had nooooooo clue so whatever on what's right and what's wrong when performing a penalty kick. It was a GOAL and seems no one from the red team is upset :)

Flashback: Copa America at its best 1993

2011-10-26T01:16:00.002+03:00

One of my favorite World Cup tournaments was that of 1994 where we saw the return of the beautiful football with many great teams, including Brazil and Argentina, Mexico even Colombia despite their big upset. It is a lot of fun to watch the performance of the great performing teams just few months or one year before the big tournament. Many times it shows how the big team is building up their momentum.

So, let's go to 1993 Copa America which was a great preparation for the big 1994 WC. The tournament was so competitive and I think one of the best in the history of Copa America. Just watch the goals and you will realize the quality of football at that time in South America:

I will start with the first round of Argentina vs. Colombia. Game ended 1-1 with two amazing goals. Diego Simeone was the first Argentinian player to wear the #10 shirt after Maradona. He was nothing compared to Maradona but still was a brilliant player. The equalizer came from an explosive kick by Freddy Rincon

Another game with wonderful goals was Brazil losing to Chile 2-3. Brazil entered the tournament with mainly a second team, which was very important to prepare them to the World Cup next year. Cafu was a big star for Brazil. Chile had a very nice team but due to being banned by FIFA we didn't see them in WC 1994.

In the second round Argentina managed to beat Brazil by PKs after a very tough game, when the second team of Brazil was closer to the victory, especially with Cafu talent.
Watch the video here.

Another team that played beautiful and passionate football was Mexico. This is one of their best goals vs. Peru in a 4-2 in the QF:

The right foot of Messi

2011-10-26T00:42:00.000+03:00

If you watch the following video and you don't know anything about Messi, you would never thought that this player is a left-footed footballer. This video is a collection for all Messi goals so far for Barcelona with his right foot:

In many occasions, the left footed players find it more difficult to use their weak foot compared to the right footed players. I remember reading once about Puskas that he only kicked by his left foot, and his right foot was only used in football for the balance and running.

Messi usage of his right foot when he needs to do so, comes very natural and comfortable. His famous goal vs. Getafe really shows that comfort, compared for example with Maradona goal vs. England as he decided to go the difficult way and use the outside of his foot. (by the way I prefer Maradona goal).

And I think there are more goals for Messi with Argentina with his right foot, I recall one of them at least in the 2006 WC:

Manchester City 6-1 Shirt in Dubai

2011-10-25T01:37:00.000+03:00

The game was yesterday, and today afternoon (less than 24 hours of the game), Dubai Session blog posted a picture taken from Marina Mall with Manchester City shirt written in it 6-1. It is a very very fast world :)