round thoughts | on the beautiful game

 

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Here’s the coolest video of the week, coming from the coolest team in Europe, Borussia Dortmund, with Midfielder Nuri Sahin and goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller starring:

Usually, when a team keeps losing its chances during the game, it ends up conceding a goal and a loss. This is not the case of Dortmund, not this year. Michael Rensing, Koln’s goalkeeper, saved at least six certain goals and Dortmund hit the goalposts twice, but still managed a 1:0 victory thanks to a goal by Robert Lewandowski.

But the biggest story of the Bundesliga, of course, is Bayern Munich which, for the first time in a decade, lost three games in a row:

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The last loss, 1:3 to Hannover, might turn to be costly, as the two teams are fighting for third place that leads automatically to the Champion League. Hannover’s win extended its lead over Bayern to five points, and now it is clear the Louis Van Gaal days as Bayern coach are numbered, with Matthis Sammer and Ralf Rangnick as the leading candidates to replace him.

On the other hand, coach Mirko Slomka and Hannover are the greatest surprise of the season.

Bayer Leverkusen still in second place after a 3:0 victory over Wolfsburg. All three goals were scored in the first half, and all landed at the same point of the goal. Pay attention to Sidney Sam’s assist in the first goal.

After Udinese’s Alexis Sanchez and Feyenoord’s Georginio Wijnaldoom had scored four goals for their teams last week, FC Nurnberg’s Cristian Eigler did the same in his team’s 5:0 victory over St. Pauli.

Department of statistics: Frankfurt haven’t scored once in its eight matches in 2011, an eye browsing stat when considering in the fact that the leading scorer of the Bundesliga’s first round, Teofanis Gekas, is playing for the team.

2) Serie A:

It took Gennaro Gattuso 30 games this season to score his first goal of the season. And what a goal that was: the lone goal in Milan’s 1:0 win over Juventus:

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These are hard days for Juventus. It was the team’s sixth loss in the last eight games, and third consecutive game that the Bianconeri lost without scoring a goal. Juventus, almost as it always been, is the face of the pathetic state of the Italian game.

Roma won 2:1 over Lecce after it was awarded a penalty kick in the 90th minute, but pay attention to the first goal by Mirko Vucinic, “the Maradona of the Balcans”:

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And here’s another goal by the same Vucinic, two months ago in a friendly match against Atletico Roma:

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3)

We take a break from football in order to step the all around violence in the world of football.

We begin with an incident that took place last week in Columbia. Deportivo Perreira’s Luis Moreno kicked an injured and helpless owl. The bird is Atletico Junior’s mascot, and it flies regularly inside the stadium.

Poor Moreno who is from didn’t know all of that, and was quite surprised to hear the opposing crowd shouting “murderer” toward him. In following interview he has expressed his regrets and was quoted saying that he received threat for his life over the phone.

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Some Colombians even asked that Moreno will be sent to jail, but on Saturday his punishment was announced: suspension from two games and a fine of $560, after he was found guilty for provoking the crowd.

At least he acquitted from the murder charge, as the owl died two days after the incident.

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A world record in a game in Argentine’s fifth league where a referee showed the red card 36 times in a game between Claypole and Victoriano Arenas. During the game, before the brawl started, two players have already been sent off.

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And this is Twente’s Douglas who completely lost it before, during and after he was ejected from the game against Alkmaar.

But it was Foggia from Italy’s third league that topped the athletic misconduct of the week, with this disgusting act in the 86th minute of the team’s game against Gela:

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Referee James Adcock made his professional debut in a game between Macclesfield and Wycombe from the English League Two (fourth division). 21 players were involved in a huge scramble in the extra time period, and three of them were ejected:

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In other disgusting news: a man tried to stab Jose Mourinho at La Coruna’s airport last Friday, causing minor injuries to his bodyguard; Celtic defeated Rangers 1:0 in the Scottish Cup, after two Rangers’ players were ejected. Fans violence after the game resulted in the arrest of 34 people; Galatasaray fans continued their protests in light of the team’s worst season in history; the beginning of the season in Ivory Coast was delayed in light of political corruption and lack of budget for stadium security; a Czech player kicked his opponent in the gentle area; Karlsruhe coach got fired after showing his fans the middle finger, and Real Madrid 7:0 win over Malaga was as close a thing as there is to necrophilia.

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4) Premier League. Arsenal started its most important stretch of the season with a disappointing and scoreless tie at home against Sunderland.

Last-place Wigan played equally to Manchester City, and only a horrible mistake by its goalkeeper,Ali Al Habsi, allowed David Silva to score the only goal of the match.

Another David Silva scored yesterday, this time it was Kilmarnock’s portuguese midfielder .

West Ham was impressive in its 3:0 victory over Stoke City, but so did the Hammers’ triumph began thanks to a mistake by Stoke’s goalkeeper, Asmir Begovic in the first goal.

On the other side, Bolton’s goalkeeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen saved a penalty kick when his team was behind 1:2 to Aston Villa. Bolton came back to win 3:2.

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5) Can you name the team that won its last couple of games by the score of 1:0, and won three of its last four games with a one-goal margin? That team is Barcelona.

After Accumulating seven games of five goals (and another one with eight!) from the end of November to the end of January, Barcelona didn’t score more then three goals in its recent ten matches. Tiredness? we’ll see on Tuesday in the Champions League rematch against Arsenal.

This time Leo Messi’s brilliant assist to Seydou Keita gave Barca a 1:0 win over Zaragoza:

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But to the real important news: ten days ago it was announced officially that Gerard Pique and Shakira are a couple. Both by the way were born on February 2nd so the Columbian singer is exactly 10 years older.

 

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In a game of only beautiful goals Atletico Madrid scored a 3:1 victory over Villareal. Even Diego Forlan scored after an eight game stretch that he went scoreless.

6) Celtic’s Kris Commons is on fire. Today he scored twice in his team 2:0 win over Hamilton, including this beauty:

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7) And here’s Ukraine side Zorya’s Maksym Beliy scoring directly from a corner kick:

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8) The French league went binary with four 1:0 wins and three 0:0 ties. Rennes who are aiming at thier first championship ever won 1:0 at Montpellier thanks to a beautiful goal by AbdulRazak Bukari.

Frederic Antonetti, Rennes’ coach agreed to appear at the post match show of Canal Plus, after three years that he refused to do so.

9)

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Whom do you award this goal to, the goalkeeper or FC Zwolle’s captain Albert van der Haar?

10) Ronaldinho keeps scoring for Flamengo this time in a 3:2 win over Olaria.

11) Goal of the week belongs to Cristian Chavez from Atletico Tucuman in Argentina second divison:

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Unless you are counting in indoor football (Futsal), because then the goal of the week belongs to Santos’ Falcao:

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