18 yards - soccer news

Here’s some video highlights of one of this week’s big matches.

With five weeks still left of the Portuguese league, Porto have wrapped up their third straight title at home against Estrela Amadora. They unleashed a 6-0 drubbing on their visitors to really kick off the celebrations. Check out the highlights below, great stuff!

Atalanta hosted Inter this week and the Nerazzuri knew they couldn’t afford another slip up following Roma’s win over Genoa to close the gap to just one point the night before. Inter’s huge injury list continued but at least it allowed 17 year old Balotelli aka “Super Mario” to start. At least Cambiasso was back to work the midfield as only he can (Thanks again Real! you guys just love giving away excellent defensive midfielders don’t you?).

There was plenty of action early and after 21 minutes Vieira rose up to nod in Maicon’s corner kick. Crespo also scored but saw his goal disallowed for offside. After the break Inter wasted a few good chances to increase their lead but Balotelli was doing well and setting up the rest of the team with many good plays. Finally he took charge and doubled Inter’s lead, scoring his first Serie A goal. He beat the offside trap and picked up Stankovic’s pass, leaving the keeper for dead and slotting into an empty net.

In the dying minutes there was some controversy as Materazzi went on a tug fest with Inzaghi’s shirt in the area but the foul actually went the other way and then Doni saw two yellows in quick succession when he got a bit shirty with the ref himself for not giving a free kick after Vieira bowled over Pellegrino. So Inter restored their advantage at the top to four points but are still definitely feeling Roma’s pressure and unrelenting surge to nab the Scudetto at the death. Anyone remember 2002? Let’s not see a repeat of that!

In other matches, AC Milan defeated Cagliari at home 3-1. Highlights below.

Also Roma defeated Genoa 3-2 but not without a fight and an entertaining battle. See highlights below too.

Check out this nice Zico compilation I found on who ate all the pies. The man was a legend and just simply amazing with his free kicks.

Inter had to travel to Rome to face Lazio for round 31. After Roma’s draw to Cagliari they had a good opportunity to increase their lead at the top once again but ended up stumbling also. Crespo was able to put Inter ahead after only 11 minutes when he tapped in a low pass from Maicon but it wasn’t to last. Rocchi left the Inter defense out to dry as he beat the offside trap and slotted past Julio Cesar in the one on one confrontation just before the hour mark. Inter were lucky enough just to come away with a draw and should thank the crossbar for saving their necks not once but twice in the remaining minutes. Hopefully they can get back on track and not throw away their good work like they did in 2002. Highlights below.

Brazil played Sweden at the Emirates stadium in England last night and it was the youngster, Alexandre Pato that came off the bench to score the winning goal for his country in his first game for the Selecao. The game was to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1958 world cup final that was played in Sweden.

During the first half both teams had a lot of chances but nothing that was troubling either keeper all that much. There were a lot of substitutions throughout the match as expected for a friendly but two of them proved decisive. Shabaan replaced Sweden’s keeper at the restart while Pato came on after 60 minutes and and 12 minutes later the ball was in the back of the net. Shabaan had cleared the ball only as far as Pato who was able to snatch it then lift and curl it into the open goal.

Dunga was cautious about all the hype surrounding Pato and insists that he is not a starting member of the squad yet. He still has very little experience as a player and although Dunga admits he is very similar to a young Ronaldo aka The Phenomenon, at 18 years of age he shouldn’t have too much pressure on him. The youngster has been humble and asked for comparisons to Ronaldo and Pele to stop as he still has everything to prove.

Just some video highlights of the best from round 30.

Milan only beat Torino 1-0 but truly assaulted their goal during most of the match.

Roma vs Empoli 2-1. Inter’s lead at the top has been cut short to just 4 points now. Although Giovinco was causing all sorts of problems for Roma, a couple of goals from Tonetto and Panucci were enough to settle this match.

Ronaldo gave an interview recently and the footage is below (although unless you can understand Portuguese, it might be best to read the translation below). It follows his unfortunate and possibly career ending injury and continues from my last post which updated his condition.

He’s stated that is heart desires to continue and he has a strong desire to do so but his body is giving off signs that it’s really tired, has suffered a lot and is asking to rest. He said that he will try to recuperate in the best manner possible and upon it’s completion, if his body is without any pain and he is without doubts, then he will continue to play.

We can only hope for the best and wait to see what happens.

Just a quick post for the matchday 29 highlights of the derby of Rome. Lazio left it late but defeated Roma in a five-goal thriller. Check out the highlights below.

I stumbled upon this cool compilation recently and just had to post it. It’s just all amazing ball control, think Berkamp and Zidane. I think it’s the most important skill to have, when you can control any ball you give yourself so much extra time to do things even if other parts of your game are lacking. Enjoy!