Tag: Dirty Tackle

DTotD: Maradona kicks his grandson

Six-year-old Benjamin Aguero, son of Man City striker Sergio, knocked down Grandpa Maradona’s shot in a little game of backyard one-v-one and then tried to show the old man how it’s done. But Maradona doesn’t believe in going easy on the opposition, even when the opposition is his six-year-old grandson.

So when the kid tried to cut past the portly 54-year-old World Cup winner, Maradona kicked him in the leg and brought him down. But Benjamin quickly popped right back up, leaving Grandpa Maradona in his dust before getting past the last man dog and scoring with a tidy finish.

And that’s why Benjamin isn’t getting any Christmas presents from his grandfather this year.

This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events. 

All the reasons why Barcelona won the 2015 Champions League final

Barcelona completed a perfect end to the season by beating Juventus 3-1 in the Champions League final to win their second treble in six years and fourth European Cup in 10 years. For a club that has supposedly been in crisis every other week for the last three years, that’s quite impressive. But for a club with three of the best players in the world scoring goals by the bushel for them, it also makes complete sense.

Though that last fact might seem like enough to put Barca past Juve, there was actually much more to it. These are all the reasons why Barcelona won…

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic climbed mountains instead of watching his former teammates win the Champions League

Climbing mountains 1.

A photo posted by IAmZlatan (@iamzlatanibrahimovic) on

Zlatan Ibrahimovic famously said “A World Cup without me is nothing to watch” after Sweden lost their 2014 World Cup qualifying playoff to Portugal (he did later attend a World Cup match, though), and it seems he feels the same way about Champions League finals.

Zlatan, who has still never won the Champions League, spent one tumultuous season with Barcelona back in 2009/10. But as his former club prepared to face Juventus in the final, Zlatan posted photos of himself climbing mountains in Sweden to his Instagram account. Read more

Thomas Vermaelen gets a Champions League winner’s medal for playing one La Liga match this season

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When we last left injury plagued defender Thomas Vermaelen, he was celebrating Barcelona’s La Liga title even though he hadn’t played a single minute for the club to that point. In the three weeks since then, a lot has happened though. He played 63 minutes in Barca’s meaningless final La Liga match of the season and for his considerable trouble, he got to celebrate their Copa Del Rey title and he collected a Champions League winner’s medal after watching his teammates beat Juventus 3-1.

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Luis Suarez scores Champions League winner, Andrea Pirlo cries

Because this is real life, the winning goal of the 2015 Champions League final was scored by a serial biter coming off a four month ban from all footballing activities for a team with a long impending transfer ban, leading a universally beloved figure to cry in front of the whole world. In other words, Luis Suarez scored the decisive goal in Barcelona’s 3-1 win against Juventus.

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Champions League final superlatives: the individual standouts you need to know (and some you don’t)

The Champions League final is upon us once again, pitting two of Europe’s legendary clubs — Juventus and Barcelona — against each other in Berlin. Both clubs have already won domestic cup and league titles this season, so this match will decide who will win a historic treble. But the most important honors are being decided here right now by me.

These are the 2015 Champions League final superlatives…

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Dani Alves prepares for the Champions League final by being weird on an escalator

The day before the Champions League final is an important and nerve-wracking day for the participating players. It’s their chance to make their final preparations before the most important match of their season. Or, in Dani Alves’ case, work on a pre-match intimidation routine that will ensure that no one wants to ride the escalator with him.

Dani Alves: Master of the game before the game.

What just happened?! Netherlands v USA

(AP)
(AP)

The US came back from 3-1 down to beat the Netherlands for the first time ever in a friendly at the Amsterdam Arena that was roughly equivalent to a derailed train crashing into a helicopter. Before getting into the match itself, there are two key pieces of information that need to be stated.

1. Since Guus Hiddink replaced Louis van Gaal after the Nethelands finished third at last summer’s World Cup, the Dutch have decided that defending is morally wrong.

2. The US have been blowing leads by conceding late goals like that’s the object of the game.

So with that established, here are some match facts:

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Cristiano Ronaldo tells the press and his shirt to get off his back

Cristiano Ronaldo posted a video thanking fans for supporting him while lounging without a shirt on before segueing into a message to the press, whom he points out, he does not talk to.

“Just leave me alone,” he says. “Let me do my work properly like I do every year. Don’t try to damage my image, because it’s not going to happen.”

So that should take care of that.