Shinji Kagawa added two goals for Japan in a 5 - 0 romp of Syria in AFC World Cup Qualifying. The match against Syria was tight until Kagawa latched on to a flick from Keisuke Honda and with his back to the goal, chested it down, spun and fired home past Syrian keeper, Ibrahim Alba. Once Kagawa scored in the 66th minute, the flood gates opened as Syria allowed 3 more goals to be scored. Kagawa added another in the 90th minute.
Leicester City continue their Premier League dominance with a 1 - 0 win over Newcastle United. There was a lot of anticipation for this match up as this was Rafa Benitez's first match as manager for Newcastle. Unfortunately it did not go his way as Shinji Okazaki scored a wonderful bicycle kick to take a 1 - 0 lead in the 25th minute. The victory put Leicester City 5 points clear of 2nd place Tottenham. With only 8 matches left in the 2015 - 2016 EPL season for Leicester City, can they hold on to the 5 point lead or will another team get hot and overtake the top spot?
The Ping Ping Chinese Football Association Super League, that is, China's first division soccer league, began play on Friday with 16 teams playing 30 games from now until December.
China wants to be a powerhouse in this sport. This country has made some efforts to be recognized in world soccer.
In fact, Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a state plan for China to host the 2030 World Cup and win the World Cup before the end of the 21st century. And he also has taken selfies with players like Sergio Aguero.
Brazilian Luciano Pereira, also known as Chiba, scored an absolute wonder goal for Sepahan, an Iranian club, against Al-Nasr of the United Arab Emirates in their opening Asian Champions League group match. It took all of 14 minutes for Pereira to smash this 30 yard golazo and send Sepahan on their way to a comprehensive 2-0 victory.
This January’s transfer window was something of an oddity. Instead of the usual headlines involving the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain, the biggest story came out of China. The Chinese Super League, CSL, spent $278 million during the winter transfer window, outspending the $250 million dropped by the Premier League. So, we decided to take a look at the top paid footballers in China today.
Did we just see the Puskás Award goal scored? It is only February, but this goal will surely be a finalist come 2017 when the awards are handed out. Faiz Subri of Penang FA knuckle balled a free kick from 35 yards out and it truly defied physics. See for yourself.
OK, so the headline was a little misleading. The player who scored this ridiculous free kick curve goal isn't actually named Harry. His name is Faiz Subri. Harry isn't a super-common name over in Malaysia.
He is a wizard though. Just watch.
Six-one down with less than half an hour to go. That's what confronted Queensland NPL team Gold Coast City in their match against Holland Park Hawks. Most teams would completely capitulate. They would collapse like a budget themepark, fold like a cocktail napkin, wither away like my ill-fated flower garden, and probably some other similes as well. But not this team. This team was about to mount a great comeback.
Depending on your feelings about foreign kung fu movies and soccer, Shaolin Soccer may or may not be the greatest film of all time. The absurd Hong Kong martial arts comedy has it all: good guy Shoalin monks who use soccer to spread the art of Kung Fu to the world, bad guys who have a team called “Team Evil” that plays against the good guy monks, an evil businessman arch villain supporting Team Evil, and an American drug Team Evil uses to try and beat the previously unbeatable good guy monks.
If all of that sounds like too much, trust me, it is, in the best possible way:
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said the Premier League should be worried about the increased spending of China in the transfer market. In this last January window, Chinese clubs were responsible for three of the top four biggest deals.