18 yards - soccer news

There was only one goal in last nights friendly held in Dublin and it was the in form Robinho, given the nourishment to shine under Schuster’s Madrid. Brazil held most of the possession throughout the match but did not find the net until 67 minutes as Ireland held up to their attacks. A pin-point accurate finish as the ball was slotted through legs, defenders, keeper and far post. Check out the goal highlights below (excuse the dodgy music).

I found an amazing goal from Diego at the offside today which was voted the best goal of 2007 on a German Bundesliga TV show, Sportschau. I’ve included the video footage of the goal below. It’s just one small taste of why the Brazilian playmaker is such a sought after talent at the moment. Werder Bremen will do well to hold on to him, if they can.

He rose to glory at Brazilian club Santos where another young prodigy by the name of Robinho made up the league-winning side. His silky skills, brilliant passing and great shooting made him the perfect number 10. He was snatched up by Porto but was never really given a chance to shine after falling out with the coach at the time. He has since seen a revival at Werder Bremen and even Inter are watching him closely.

Brazil played against Uruguay a few days ago as part of the 2010 world cup qualification campaign. The match was played out at Sao Paulo’s Morumbi stadium and was a chance for several players to return to the grounds of the club that started it all for them (SPFC). Kaka’, Mineiro and Luis Fabiano all left SPFC to move on to other challenges but against Uruguay they were certainly less than spectacular.

Even though Luis Fabiano bagged a brace that won Brazil the match, it was a somewhat unjust result for Uruguay who were moving the ball well and were on the scoreboard after 7 minutes. Brazil’s goals were certainly not outstanding, the first a lucky deflection through the keepers legs and the second, a moment of poor clearing and marking to leave Fabiano mostly unchallenged to slap the ball in from around the penalty spot. Kaka’, Ronaldinho, Robinho and Gilberto Silva were playing well below par but luck favoured Brazil and 3 more points were collected.

See the goals below.

Brazil crushed Equador 5-0 in last night’s world cup 2010 qualifier. The festivities began after a characteristic burst down the right flank by Maicon, which left the Equador defense stranded, followed by a cut-back on the line to allow Vagner Love the easiest of tap-ins. Next Kaka’ took an optimistic shot from some distance which allowed Ronaldinho to put an evil deflection on the ball’s path and completely wrong-foot the keeper who, try as he might, just could not reach the ball in time. Seems the Kaka’/Ronaldinho partnership is paying off finally.

The third goal was a perfect strike by Kaka’ on the edge of the area. The ball landed well for him and he curled it precisely into the top-right corner to leave the keeper without a chance again. Four-nil came when Robinho turned on the flare right on the corner-line. He beat his marker with some outrageous moves in the tightest of spaces and eventually Elano blasted home the goal. The final goal to end Equador’s misery was again Kaka’s doing but it was hardly the most spectacular of goals. A simple shot hit directly at the keeper proved too much to hold on to and he let in a howler (or “frango” as the Brazilian’s like to call it). Watch the highlights below.