SoccerBlogs

By Gary Armstrong

The legends are leaving in droves. Owen. Scholes. Van Bommel. Metzelder. Carragher. Beckham. But at the age of 39, the career of Javier Zanetti goes on, despite a ruptured achilles tendon.

From the sponsorships to the movie star lifestyle, David Beckham always seemed on the cusp of his career as a professional athlete being less important than his life on talk shows or in photoshoots.

By Anthony Lopopolo

For once, David Beckham had nowhere to go. There was nothing left to conquer. Winning in four different countries, this 38-year-old, though still capable, got the chance to depart the game as a winner, on his own terms.

Tomorrow, David Beckham plays in the final match of his career. As he heads into retirement, he carries the pride of Great Britain. Typical Becks.

By Joel Sked

Small moments can have significant consequences. Like one 90 minute game of football – good or bad. The 2011 Chilean Primera División Apertura play-off final second-leg was one of those games; contested between great rivals Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica.

We could rattle off a list of all theachievementsthat David Beckham has won throughout the course of his career, but the truth is, you already know.

By Dominic Vieira

There's a curse in Lisbon known as the ‘Guttman curse', named after the Hungarian manager who led Benfica to back-to-back European titles in the early 60s.

The location. The two giant clubs clashing. The Europa League final promises to be a night to remember. Benfica have to pick themselves up after possibly conceding the Liga Sagres title in the 92nd minute in their 2-1 loss to Porto.

"The goalkeeper picks a side and dives 93.7 percent of the time and just stands in the middle only 6.3 percent of the time. There was a clear bias toward action."

TheJournal of Economic Psychologyrecently looked at the link between decision making and penalty kicks, and found, somewhat surprisingly, that goalkeepers might be better off doing nothing at all.

By Anthony Lopopolo

The numbers pop out of his resume like eyes out of a cartoon character: he won 27 major trophies with United over the same number of years; he outlasted 116 managers on seven major European clubs; and he's won 75% of his home games at Old Trafford.

Found in Buenos Aires. End of discussion.

Okay, fine. Here's some context: The KICKTV crew flew down to Buenos Aires for Boca-River, learned about why it's the craziest rivalry in the world, and our friends from the Buenos Aires Fútbol Amigos even set up a mini-Superclásico the morning of the real match.

We tend to have a habit of talking about a ‘football family;' a sort of community of fans, journalists, players and coaches who all interact to make our small corner of the world possible.

It's early May, which in footballing terms generally means one thing: it's business time. And AFR Voice is punching in for this week's audio shift with plenty to talk about. Whether it be a 33-man match in Norway, horror challenges on reporters in Denmark, or the hottest thing out of the Madrid branch of IKEA since someone burnt the meatballs, we've got it covered.

Editor's note: Our friend Nik Hak (aka The Footy Queen) is one of the biggest supporters of the beautiful game (not to mention AFR) around. She's embraced our #WhereIsFootball project, and has done an incredible job showcasing the game as it lives in her surroundings.

By Matthieu Labaudinière, a French Bostonian based in Montréal. Quotes collected by Eric Beard.

"This is a cosmopolitan city, a much more European city than most North American cities.