18 yards - soccer news

AC Milan beat Genoa last night, 2-0 with both goals coming from wonder kid, Pato.

The 18 year old placed a well cushioned header in the back of the net for his first goal and the second was pure class. Displaying his incredible pace, he left his marker for dead and although the first shot was blocked by the Genoa keeper, he calmly collected the rebound and tapped it in to seal the visitors fate.

Check out the goal highlights below.

Just a quick post about another new up and coming star. Brazil’s hero of the under-17s south american cup. His name is Lulinha and he currently plays for Corinthians in Brazil. He’s also attracted the attention of Chelsea with a couple of scouts sent to watch him in league action impressed with what they saw! They’re apparently very keen to sign him in the January transfer window because they already missed out on another rising star in Alexandre Pato (signed by Milan).

He ended up scoring 12 goals during the south American championships which is highly impressive as a midfielder/second striker and considering that was in only 7 matches! Check him out in action below, as Brazil hand Bolivia a hefty drubbing.

It seems that Milan have finally got their Duck. The duck I mean is Alexandre Pato from Inter (Inter of Brazil). Pato means Duck in Portuguese and Alexandre was given this nickname as he is from a place near Pato Branco (white duck) in Brazil. It’s funny that he played for a team named after Inter Milan but ended up with AC Milan, oh well, all the best to him! He has many Brazilians there to help him accustom.

He’s probably got a little coverage over the last year as he was involved in Inter’s Intercontinental Cup. They defeated Barcelona in the competition that used to be the Toyota Cup that puts the Champions League winners up against the Copa Libertadores winner. Brazil has had a good run over the last couple years actually (Sao Paulo defeating Liverpool the year before).

Alexandre definitely has much potential and AC Milan can probably thank Leonardo for bagging them another Brazilian talent (who also signed up Kaka’ from Sao Paulo some time ago). In my opinion, I think they’ll probably loan him so he can get some European experience before they start using him but he could already make an impact for them. Problem is he can’t start playing for them until January 2008 anyways, after paying out a fair bit for his buy-out clause they must be betting on him for the future. He definitely will be one to watch out for very soon! Check out his current abilities below…