By Chris Wright
Uruguay found themselves on the wrong end of a "Spaining" in the second of Sunday night's Confederations Cup group fixtures, but Luis Suarez did save a bit of face by wrapping his foot round a sweet freekick to pull one back for U-R-GAY in the last ten minutes which just tickled the post on the way past Saint Iker.
By Alan Duffy
Arsenal youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain netted himself quite the memorable goal on Sunday evening, firing home against Brazil at the Maracana after nice work from Frankie Lamps and Wazza Rooney.
John Barnes will no longer be the only port of call of English media outlets ahead of an England away game against Brazil.
By Chris Wright
With the ball played square and only Hugo Lloris to beat, Ramires done a bit of whoopsie tonight...
PWARP! The FAIL tastes grass-flavoured.
(Via football blogging's GIFmeister General, Feint Zebra)
By Chris Wright
By Allah, this Van Persie fella scores some bloody gorgeous goals...
Just can't quite get over how good that sucker was; the floated pass from Rooney, the ground RVP had to make up just to get there, the technique, the connection, the trajectory, Guzan's "WTF" body language after watching it ping past him.
By Chris Wright
It's a bit of a shame that it ended up in nothing more than a shanked shot, as Andres Iniesta's silky 'about face' 180° turn against PSG last night was a touch of sheer class...
(GIF via 101GG)
By Chris Wright
Ain't this just the weirdest-lookin' deflection you ever did see?
Anyone out there with a degree in physics/telekinesis explain how the ball can deflect right off the defender's toe and still curl to the left?
Unless, indeed, they playing with a Shoot 5 airflow, and then we understand perfectly.
By Chris Wright
Remember Ian Harte? From 1997? Well he's still playing in the Premier League somehow, for Reading no less, and despite being from a bygone era, he's still obviously savvy to the crazes of today's footballing youth take his attempt at "contact anticipation/simulation" against Villa for example.
By Chris Wight
Bumble bumble bumble *fart*...
Truth be told, Torres had a bit of a stinker all round last night, with the moment he decided to play as an auxiliary Steaua sweeper rather than lashing one home being a personal lowlight...
We still rate Torres rather higher than most but, Christ on a cocktail stick, it's getting harder and harder to defend him.
By Chris Wright
Another stonking piece of play from the darling of the Spanish U21 set up, Isco, who has been the square route of fan-friggin'-tastic at the European U21 Championship so far...
Again in GIF form...
+1 for the super duper toe poke finish. Textbook stuff.
By Alan Duffy
This game may have happened on Tuesday night but I thought it still worth popping up for your perusal.
Edinson Cavani, he of the long flowing locks and powerhouse goal-scoring, is one of the most wanted players in Europe right now, with Premier League big guns Chelsea and Man City after the 24-year-old's signature, although Real Madrid now look to be in pole position to purchase the player.
By Chris Wright
Holland are currently pottering round Asia on a friendly mini-tour, with their second game coming against China in Beijing having already beaten Indonesia at the weekend.
Playing with their names etched in Chinese on the backs of their shirts, the Dutch went 1-0 up early on through a Robin van Persie penalty in the 11th minute with Wesley Sneijder adding the second goal in the second half by way of a very swish spinning backheel.
By Chris Wright
Well, well. Looky here. Peru's veteran goal poacher Claudio Pizarro scored a really rather wonderful hooked reverse volley from an acute angle against Ecuador last night the only goal in his country's 1-0 win...
Was our Claudio happy with his handiwork?
By Chris Wright
Rather than your bog standard shuttle runs or piggy-in-the-middle, Brazil pair Marcelo and Hernanes instead went all "Eddy Gordo" during yesterday's pre-France friendly training session and showcased their finest capoeira chops before having a good old laugh at Neymar's pathetic attempts.
By Chris Wright
Like a ballet-dancing giraffe calf, here's Per Mertesacker yes, *that* Per Mertesacker dancing his way past Didier Drogba and out of trouble in his own goal area during Michael Ballack's testimonial game last night with a Zidane-esque "roulette"...
What a beautiful man.
By Chris Wright
Awesome on toast: Formula One's resident football buff Fernando Alonso dinking a cheeky Panenka penalty past a guy who has once the most expensive footballer in the world...
Thanks to Pies fan @MadebRonny on Twitter for the nudge.
By Chris Wright
'Twas the annual International RVP Tournament in Rotterdam on Saturday and the man himself was in attendance. Indeed, Van the Man put on a bit of a skills showcase when he, freestyler Soufiane Touzani and Feyenoord whippersnapper Tonny Vilhena teamed up to freestyle the living bejesus out of three little kids in a horribly one-sided exhibition game.
By Chris Wright
The 2013 Toulon Tournament (a kind of international, invitation-only, unofficially-recognised U21 cup) began in earnest yesterday, with the French younglings soundly beating the United States in the opening match by four goals to one the first of which was this crazy Buckaroo-style volley from Lens midfielderAlexandre Coeff.
By Chris Wright
Pies number themselves among the slim cross-section of society who have never seen Soccer AM so we have little-to-no idea who this "Tubes" character is, though from what we can garner he's some kind of binge-drinking crew member/lackey that raps a bit and asks one question and one question only to the various guests on the show every week.
By Chris Wright
While they'll no doubt be question marks over the defence's offside trap, Ross Turnbull's wee sprong scored a slaloming, solo stunner at Stamford Bridge as his old man celebrated Chelsea's sort-of successful season on the grass at Stamford Bridge; charging half the length of the pitch and steering the ball across the line from close range.
By Alan Duffy
Actually, the second bit isn't true. It's a downright lie. Indeed, veteran midfielder Van Bommel, a player more renowned for kicking chunks out of the opposition, shows us the lighter, brighter and more skillful side of his game in this little clipette.
During a training session with PSV, the recently retired 36-year-old dinked a ball into a trailer from all of 30 yards.
By Chris Wright
In which veteran Deportivo Quito strikerWalter "Mamita" Calderon turns his man and volleys home to put his side 2-0 up over rivals LDU Quito in the Ecuadorian Primera A league a feat made all the more impressive once you factor in that he was actually sitting on his arse for roughly half of themaneuvre.
By Chris Wright
The Maracana re-opened yesterday with a "Friendsof Bebeto vs Friends of Ronaldo" charity game laid on especially for the workers who have been toiling away on it over the past three years, in which the latter Brazilian striker rolled back the years (and the flab) to score with a rinky dinky elastico-type thing in an 8-5 win for his side.
By Chris Wright
PSG beat Nice 3-0 at the weekend to put themselves on the cusp of winning their first Ligue 1 title since 1994, withJeremy Menez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (pen) andClement Chantome all notching to leave the Parisiens nine points clear of second-placed Marseille with five games to play.
By Chris Wright
After just three minutes of last night's South American U17 Championship final stage tie, Argentina's Sebastian Driussi decided he'd had just about enough of not scoring sensational long-range overhead kicks and immediately set about redressingthe situation.
By Chris Wright
Michael Laudrup was a little bit tasty in his day, and glimpses of the old silk were definitely visible when he took to the pitch as part of a Swansea City staff XI for the club's annual game against the "This Is South Wales" press selecao during the week.
By Chris Wright
Esbjerg fB forward Youssef Toutouh scored an absolute rasper of a turning, swinging volley from 20-odd yards againstRanders FC in the Danish Superliga at the weekend.
Don't believe us? Take a butcher's at this bombastic beaut...
Woof!
(Thanks to @ShanklyGamer for tipping us off!
By Chris Wright
In which Ajax trio Christian Eriksen, Siem de Jong andKolbeinn Sigthorsson do their own version of the Lionel Messi-Dani Alves "30-yard keepy uppy" warm-up routine that went viral last week.
That's right, a warm-up has officially become a meme.
By Chris Wright
We've all been there: buggering up a pass or a shot so badly that the only acceptable reaction is to turn away and grimace in pure disgust at your own ineptitude it's exactly what Phil Jones should've done after spluffing a woefully botched "header" in off Vinnie Kompany's back against Man City on Monday night, rather than celebrating like he'd just pinged in a 30-yarder off the underside of the crossbar.
By Chris Wright
It's a shame we couldn't source a better quality video but a couple of doughy pixels aren't going to reduce the majesty of Toto Di Natale's drop dead gorgeous volley against Chievo at the weekend...
Too right you better bow down mortals...
Udinese won 3-1 with Di Natale scoring twice; the second being the volley you've just been gawping at and the first coming from a truly colossal ricket being dropped by Chievo keeper Cristian Puggioni.
By Chris Wright
Spotted during the warm-up before Barcelona's Champions League tie against PSG on Tuesday evening, here's Lionel Messi and Dani Alves engaging in the longest-range game of keepy-uppy we can remember seeing...
Now that's bloody impressive!
(Via Reddit)
By Chris Wright
Chelsea pipped a often risible-looking Manchester United 1-0 to bound into the FA Cup semis (where they'll face Manchester City), with a truly outrageous stretching volley from Demba Ba proving the difference...
May the GIF live on, long after the Youtube video is stripped.
By Chris Wright
This following video sees former Manchester United strike partnership extraordinaire Andrew Cole and Dwight Yorke test the club's current batch of forwards, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez, to see just how telepathic their partnerships are.
Which is all well and good, but the real reason we're posting it is, a minute or so in, Rooney poleaxes himself by clouting a blindfolded kick-up into his own face (he also scores a pretty darn impressive volley to even things out).
By Chris Wright
Remember when we brought you a clip of a rather large chap putting on a solo freestyle masterclass last Saturday? Well, since his video went viral people have tried to pinpoint the bloke responsible (he's even done an interview with Sky Sports News) and more footage has now surfaced.
By Chris Wright
'Twas the Football League Awards in London last night, with on-song Watford striker Matej Vydra being named Championship Player of the Year and Blackpool's Tom Ince being named Young Player of the Year while Matt Ritchie and Tom Pope collecting theLeague One and Two Player of the Year awards respectively.
By Chris Wright
In which a decidedly corpulent chap hanging around in the Milford Docks area of Pembrokeshire in Wales (according to Twitter, at least) puts on a freestyle masterclass while no-one is looking well, no-one except a car full of guffawing Welsh lads in awe of what they are seeing.
By Alan Duffy
What a strike this is from Everton's pint-sized schemer, Leon Osman. Hit with Roberto Carlos-esque bend, the strile left Man City's Joe Hart with no chance.
Enjoy...
(video:101gg)
By Alan Duffy
Since moving back to Milan, albeit with AC rather than former club Inter, Mario Balotelli has rediscovered his mojo on home soil.
The former Man City man has been in superb form for the Rossoneri and against Genoa on Friday night, the striker netted a quality goal to help secure a vital 2-0 win for third-place Milan.
By Chris Wright
Oh Ambassador, you're really spoiling us with the own-goals this morning.
Following hot on the heels of Galatasaray 'keeper Fernando Muslera somehow managing to lob himself using the heels of his teammate, here's Xerez CD defender Ernesto Galan doing it all on his own, flicking a delightful backheel lob over his his 'keeper and into the back of the net against Sabadell in the Spanish second tier at the weekend.
By Alan Duffy
The former Southampton starlet can do no wrong these days, and at the Boleyn Ground on Monday night, he produced a magnificent strike which secured a precious 3-2 win for Spurs. Champions League football (surely) awaits the Lilywhites next season. But will the G-Man be there to enjoy it with the north Londoners?
You don't usually see defender's fooling striker's quite like this and despite Mertesacker lacking a bit of pace about his game the same con't be said of his repertoire of silky skills as he demonstrates at Didier Drogba's expense during Michael Ballack's star studded testimonial game.
