Apparently Daring to Zlatan means elbow opponents in the back of the head during preseason friendlies in Charlotte, North Carolina. Though, to be fair, John Terry didn’t seem bothered.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
With Iker Casillas out of the picture, Keylor Navas is getting his chance as Real Madrid’s No. 1 and he’s going hard to prove himself. Perhaps a little too hard.
During Real’s friendly against Man City in Australia, Navas attacked the ball, but ended up smashing into Yaya Toure instead. He then landed on top of Sergio Ramos. He seems to have taken the Miley Cyrus song “Wrecking Ball” a bit too literally.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Pablo Martel, manager of Union de Santiago, decided to take matters into his own feet during a match against Comercio in the Argentine fourth division after a hard foul on one of his players. The referee let play continue, though, and as the Comercio player dribbled down the touchline, Martel came out of his technical area and kicked his legs out from under him.
This led to a standoff between the two managers and the police had to intervene, but cooler heads prevailed. But the referee did act this time, sending Martel off for his vigilantism.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Newcastle claimed a 1-0 victory in their friendly against USL (the third division in the U.S.) club Sacramento Republic thanks to an own goal. They also provided a sideshow to the nearby California State Fair in the process.
Cristiano Ronaldo has only just rejoined his teammates in Australia to begin preparations for the new season, but he’s already learned a valuable lesson: don’t provoke Pepe. Even if you’re Cristiano Ronaldo.
In the first half of Chile and Argentina’s frenetic Copa America final, Gary Medel kicked Lionel Messi in the stomach. The surprise here was not that Gary Medel would do this, but that he was only shown a yellow card for it.
Chile beat defending Copa America champions Uruguay 1-0 in an expectedly feisty quarterfinal match. With Luis Suarez unavailable to lead everyone down the path of anarchy, the responsibility fell to everyone else. And in the 62nd minute, Edinson Cavani was shown a second yellow for slapping Chile’s Gonzalo Jara in the face.
But what the referee and the initial camera angle didn’t catch was where Jara’s hand was before Cavani slapped him…
Today in massive overreactions, we have the case of Alejandro Roncaglia, brother of Argentina national team defender Facundo Roncaglia. But while Facundo is representing his country at Copa America, Alejandro is playing in a regional league and taking out his aggression on match officials.
Roncaglia was shown a yellow card and responded by throwing a haymaker that caught the ref square in the jaw, knocking him out cold.
According to Clarin, the referee was taken to a hospital and has no memory of what happened. He did say that Roncaglia’s parents apologized for their son’s awful behavior, though. It’s just a shame they couldn’t teach their kid to use his words, too.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Video via Brasil Mundial FC
It was only a matter of time before it happened and on matchday five, it finally did. Copa America 2015’s first face kick came in Bolivia’s surprising upset against Ecuador. Naturally, the moment occurred once the frustration of falling behind 2-0 within the firs 20 minutes of the match and then missing a penalty in the 38th minute (Enner Valencia) set in.
Frickson Erazo attempted a kung-fu overhead clearance, but connected with Damian Lizio’s forehead in addition to the ball, earning himself a yellow card and gifting Bolivia with a penalty that would put them up 3-0 before halftime.
Ecuador went on to score twice in the second half, but lost 3-2 to allow overlooked Bolivia to take the lead in Group A (at least momentarily).
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Sergio Mota, a Brazilian midfielder for the Seattle Sounders’ reserve team, was sent off during his side’s 1-0 USL win against the LA Galaxy reserve team for kicking an unsuspecting opponent in the crotch with both his feet while lying on his back.
This move is frowned upon in most quarters, but Mota, who won two Brasileiro titles with Sao Paulo at the start of his career and just signed with Seattle at the end of May, was clearly far beyond caring about that.
This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.
Video via FTW
