By Chris Wright

Seen here is an Emelec (of Ecuador) fan wearing a huge and really rather unsettling 'Chucky' head assuming it's not some terrible affliction in the crowd as his side takes on Paraguay's Olimpia in Guayaquil in the Copa Libertadores, putting the guy in front's feeble Janet Street-Porter mask, quite literally, in the shade.

By Chris Wright

Seen here is an Emelec (of Ecuador) fan wearing a huge and really rather unsettling 'Chucky' head assuming it's not some terrible affliction in the crowd as his side takes on Paraguay's Olimpia in Guayaquil in the Copa Libertadores, putting the guy in front's feeble Janet Street-Porter mask, quite literally, in the shade.

By Alan Duffy

Who Ate All The Pies indeed...

A fine striker in his time, and a winner of four Scudettos with Internazionale, Adriano Leite Ribeiro was always dazzled by the bright lights of the big city. Indeed, if it wasn't for his penchant for partying, he could have gone on to become one of his country finest exports of recent times.

By Chris Wright

Hirsute Colombian jester Rene Higuita has been up to his old trick again, re-enacting his infamous 'scorpion kick' save against England all those years ago for an Arabic television channel...

We'll forgive him as he's 45-years old these days, but that wasn't a patch on the original busted out to foil Jamie Redknapp on his top, top triffic international debut back in 1995.

World's worst room service Corinthians are keeping their biggest star (literally) under house arrest in a bid to halt the seemingly unstoppable expansion of his waistline. Former Inter Milan star Adriano is being kept under lock and key at a hotel after the club decided to show tough love to their striker to help his [.

Copa Libertadores 2012 Property of Brazil? is a post from: Just Football

South America's flagship competition, the Copa Libertadores, is up and running for another season with the group stages kicking off this week. 32 of Latin America's finest will compete to succeed Santos as champions, and thanks to the increasing strength of the Brazilian economy and the country's increasing ability to keep hold of and attract their finest countrymen, Brazil is once considered the trophy's most likely destination come the final in July.

Adriano is both one of the most gifted strikers of his generation and one of the most disappointing, ballooning to Ronaldo's late-career playing weight right smack in the middle of his prime, among other, non-gravitational-field-related issues (drinking, partying, shooting people, etc). Now at Corinthians and fresh off an Achilles injury and platter of Happy Meals, he's back in trouble for being fat.

By Chris Wright

WIND BANANA!*

(*I have absolutely no idea what a 'wind banana' is)

Video: 101GG

By Chris Wright

Here's a depressing fact for you: Neymar, who turned 20 yesterday, scored his 100th career goal in Sao Paulo's 2-1 defeat to Palmeiras over the weekend. That's 100 goals (82 for Santos, eight for Brazil, nine for the Brazil U20s and one for the U17s) in 186 appearances for the wee Cockatoo.

By Chris Wright

Nike have just launched the new home and away Brazil kits for 2012/13 and roped in a few of their young flock Neymar, Ganso and Pato (in photo form) to perform the ribbon-cutting duties...

◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 6

A few details worth noting: Each shirt is made from 13 recycled plastic bottles and contains a raft of 'hidden accents', including an 'inspirational statement' (lord, how I love marketing speak) for the players stitched inside the green cuffs reading 'Nascido Para Jogar Futebol' (Born To Play Football) in 'Pichacao' a type of scribbly Brazilian graffiti.

Last night the Rapids held a Supporters Forum at Fado's in Lodo. I was unable to attend, but the big news that came out of the forum was that Colorado is pursuing a young #10-style Argentine midfielder. No details have been leaked on his name or his background but there may be a new arrival from South America in Commerce City soon.

By Chris Wright

During his side's 4-3 win over Nautico in the Campeonato fifth round, Sport midfielder Marcelinho Paraiba had one of his pearly whites knocked out when he collided with an opponent.

Marcelinho understandably lost sight of the tooth as it pinged from his gums and has since offered a $1,000 (£635) reward to the stadium's grounds staff for it's safe return, seeing as though a replacement denture will cost him nearly four times as much.

On-pitch dentistry Marcelinho Paraiba, of Brazilian side Sport, has offered a R$1,000 cash reward to anyone who can find his tooth after it was knocked out during his side's match against Nautico. The video above shows the collision and Marcelino's gnasher flying through the air. But once it landed, the tooth went missing.

Close the polls, it's already over the goal of 2012 has landed.

It comes way of Bolivia and Erlan Mealla of Nacional Potosi, and it's so good you'd half expect it to be a viral. Maybe the graininess is a purposeful attempt to evoke a sense of legitimacy?

It seems punishment for such a fantastic goal, but he needs to be put on camera and deprived of sleep until he can do it again.

By Chris Wright

The tail-end of the Bolivian league farted back into life at the weekend and the first goal of the Clausura stage, during Nacional Potosi's 1-0 victory over The Strongest (ace name!) was a bit of a belter and came courtesy of Señor Erlan Mealla, who improvised when a cross was slung in slightly behind him to flash this pearler into the sack of onions with some outrageous technique.

By Chris Wright

In which, during a training session yesterday, Boca Juniors striker Dario Cvitanich runs into and then through the pain barrier in quite the most literal sense largely courtesy of a helpful shove from an over-zealous teammate.

(Warning: there's a wee bit of spilt claret in the video, so if you're of a squeamish disposition it's perhaps better to stare at this picture of kittens for the next few minutes instead.

By Chris Wright

To commemorate his jinky goal against Flamengo winning the 2011 Puskas Award for Goal of the Year recently, 19-year old Neymar has been immortalised with an exhibition in the Santos club museum a display which includes this rather handsome/hideously ugly <delete as applicable> tin statue of the Brazilian urchin himself, complete with a razor-sharp mohawk which is presumably fabricated from old Fanta cans.

Liverpool is leading the chase to sign Udinese defender Mauricio Isla.
Isla, 23, has been impressive for the Italian club and has caught the eye of Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish, who is looking to strengthen his squad in January.
The Chile international has also been linked with several big clubs in Italy but reports in South America suggest that Liverpool is winning the race to clinch his signature.

When you're a Brazilian club of the third division and you're starved for hits on your website, there are only two possible options:

i. Hire a spammer.
ii. Porn.

Brasiliense has opted for choice number two, decking out their club website with adult-oriented imagery of females in various states of undress.

Challenging the mascot's child-friendly image In England, mascots are cuddly, blundering buffoons with a penchant for winding up opposing fans and scoring penalties. In Mexico, mascots are Satan's pets. At least if you happen to support Club Tijuana, who used their club mascot to scare supporters into buying their new kit.

By Chris Wright

Paging Mr M. Al Fayed. This fantastic statue of Carlos 'El Pibe' Valderrama outside the football stadium in his hometown of Santa Marta, Colombia is a lesson in carrying off hero worship with a dash of panache...

I can't believe this 22-foot tall bronze beauty has never invaded my consciousness before.

Unlikely transfer for Brazil great As retirement homes for formerly great footballers go, Angola is probably a new one. But having already attempted the ex-Soviet state and return to South America routes, Brazilian World Cup winner Rivaldo is blazing a new trail. He's signed for Angolan side Kabuscorp.

Unlikely transfer for Brazil great As retirement homes for formerly great footballers go, Angola is probably a new one. But having already attempted the ex-Soviet state and return to South America routes, Brazilian World Cup winner Rivaldo is blazing a new trail. He's signed for Angolan side Kabuscorp.

After becoming an internet sensation courtesy of Paraguay's 2010 World Cup Quarter Final run, lingerie model Larissa Riquelme has had a successful year and a half modeling around South America...

This is what looks to be just any half-football/half-other sports (heavily football, they say) pitch in any neighborhood in the world, lacking all of the requisite quality for anything but a casual game. It is remarkable only in its unremarkability.

And then it got an umbrella.

By Chris Wright

It wasn't a particularly strong field for one reason or another but, after whittling their 10-strong shortlist down to a final three, FIFA saw fit to hand their Puskas Award for the best goal scored during 2011 to Santos wunderkind Neymar for his fine fleet-footed 'slalom' effort against Flamengo back in July.

Mirror: Welcome to the Copinha, home of The Wall, Rudigullithi and the future of Brazilian football

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Saturday is South America day, and here's I Like Football Me's Euan Marshall with his take on the week's big issues in the region.

Remember USA '94? Remember Brazil scoring goals and then acting out that rock-the-baby celebration? If your answers to the above two questions are yes then the video above is certain to make you feel old. It is currently the season break in Brazil, but football fans have been watching the Sao Paulo Junior Cup, trying [.

By Chris Wright

In which TYC Sports collate all of the Argentinian football's worst, most horrendous, shinbone-splintering, ankle-knackering, face-pummelling and crotch-bruising fouls from 2011 for us all to wince at in unison.

Note: the video starts with a highlight reel of a few nifty tricks and skills.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of days. Quite a bit going on in my world at that moment. Now, with the pleasantries out of the way, let's take a look at what's been going on since our much-needed win at Wolves. Turns out, this has been a relatively newsworthy day for the Chels.

CO approved transfer target

Source(s): Chelsea set to make second bid for Lucas Moura
• Lucas Rodrigues Moura da Silva is one of world football's elite young talents.

In most places, perhaps not the seedy underbelly of Bangkok, this type of treatment lying down will run you some cash and an adult worker willing to go a bit off book. This fine gentlemen from Brazil provides his goods and services free of charge.

And though this injury is of a different variety, there are probably less effective methods of snapping an unconscious player back to reality.

By Chris Wright

It's one that we've all seen a thousand-odd times before, the classic stretcher FAIL in which a prone player suffers a face-full of gooch at the hands of an utterly incompetent stretcher-bearer.

This time the poor unfortunate soul on the receiving end of an impromptu and unscheduled visit to Biffer's Bridge is Confianca (Brazilian youth side) midfielder Arthur.

Hold on tight and hold your nose Lifting a stretcher should not be one of life's more complicated tasks, and yet it catches out hapless stretcher bearers on a surprisingly regular basis. This incident comes Brazil and the match between Internacional and Confianca. The injured player should have known he was in for a rough [.

Liverpool face a major battle to sign Brazilian teenage sensation Lucas after the talented midfielder revealed he is happy to stay at Sao Paulo.
Lucas is rated as one of the best young talents in South America and has been linked with a number of big European clubs, including the Anfield giants.

19 year old Brazilian striker Neymar was named South American Player of the Year for 2011 after helping Santos to their 15th Copa Liberatores success and after watching the video above there can be few arguments he was the best in South America.

Universidad de Chile crowned a fantastic year by winning the Clausura championship final last night. Following a goalless draw in the first leg played last week, "La U" saw off final opponents Cobreloa with a 3-0 score line with all of the goals coming in the first half. Gustavo Canales, Eduardo Vargas and Matias Rodriguez scored the goals which settled the championship which was La U's 15th Chilean championship title overall.

Big football star has a disastrous off-pitch incident involving gun play in which a woman is shot (non-fatal, of course). Victim initially tells police the footballer fired the gun.

After a few days the victim changes her story and suddenly, she's the one who fired the gun.

And what exactly are you thinking?

2011 Year of the Neymar is a post from: Just Football

He struts with the cocksure swagger of a born star and not only that, he can play a bit too. 2011 can be seen as the year Neymar truly broke through on the world stage. Just Football's man in Brazil Paulo Freitas looks back at the year of the mohawked one:

Neymar has been hyped since he was a youth player, but he finally established himself as Brazil's new big star in the 2011 season, shining in most competitions.

The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) chief executive Gordon Taylor has rejected Luis Suarez's claim of innocence that the term he used against Patrice Evra is not racist in Uruguay as the fallout following the Liverpool striker's ban continues.
Suarez is alleged to have called Evra 'negrito', claiming it is not offensive in his native country, but Taylor believes the forward is still in the wrong.

In the last year we've been joined by Arsenal supporters from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America only Antarctica to go. Whatever your beliefs, it is a good time to remember and be thankful for what unites us.

We are united by our love of The Arsenal and have forged friendships with people most of whom we are unlikely ever to meet; all made possible by the magic of the internet.