March 2012
189 posts
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REVIEW: 100th La Liga match in which Messi scores
FOOTBALL - Lionel Messi converted a penalty against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, thus promoting this match to the 100th in the Premier League in which he has scored at least once. Tonight’s was his 206th La Liga match meaning that he has not scored in 106 league matches. FC Barcelona’s track record in the 100 matches in which he nets at least once is 91 wins, eight draws and one defeat...
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REVIEW: Real Madrid tally 100th goal of La Liga...
FOOTBALL - The good people from Pamplona are used to being chased by stampeding bulls but the red home jerseys served as the proverbial red rag in Madrid’s chase to absolutely shatter the single season La Liga goalscoring record tonight. The visitors won 5-1 and brought up 100 goals with eight matches remaining.
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The following campaigns tallied at least 100 goals in a Spanish top...
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REVIEW: Robben's March Hare Madness saves Bayern
FOOTBALL - It was not Bayern’s turn to slam in seven goals, but it was Arjen Robben’s March Madness that saved the day. Since his arrival in 2009, no Bundesliga player has scored more league goals in matches played in March than the 12 by the Dutchman in that month. Click ‘Read More’ to see Robben’s monthly distribution.
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3 - August
1- September
1 -...
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OFF THE MARK - Cannot hit the side of a barn
FOOTBALL - Queens Park Rangers’ Adel Taarabt finally scored his first PL goal of the season and it was not for lack of effort. Before today, his 61 attempts without a goal led the Premier League. He has now passed the torch to Stewart Downing. Click ‘Read More’ to see the rankings at the start of the day.
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Most shots fired without scoring in 2011/2012 PL (not including...
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PREVIEW: Boonen can join Flanders Tour elite...
CYCLING - In-form Tom Boonen will be among the favourites to win the ‘Ronde van Vlaanderen’ (Tour of Flanders) tomorrow. This race is one of the most important one-day races of the season. If Boonen (or countryman Stijn Devolder) claim their third win they will join the record holders on three career wins. Click ‘Read More’ to see who they are.
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3 - Achiel Buysse...
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ON THIS DAY: 1975: Wooden wins 10th title...
BASKETBALL - Precisely 37 years ago, John Wooden won his 10th and last NCAA crown with the UCLA Bruins. In a way, it is ironic that a man who never spoke about winning or losing is one of the most successful at all time. Click here for a tribute to Coach Wooden, whose virtues embody everything that this website, and its makers, stand for. Character, consideration of others, personal preparation.
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BIRTHDAY - 31 March: Gordie Howe (Ice Hockey)
ICE HOCKEY - Only very few athletes manage to get a statistic named after them. Gordie Howe is such a person and the ‘Gordie Howe hat-trick’ would involve scoring at least once, providing at least one assist and winning one fight in a single match. Howe became a legend of the Detroit Red Wings and a six-time NHL MVP. He was the childhood hero of Wayne Gretzky, who, when he found...
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ODDS AND ENDS - Oddschanger's best bets
FOOTBALL - The stand out fixture in England sees out of form Liverpool (11/8) head to Newcastle (85/40) for Sunday’s early kick off. An incredible statistic shows that Kenny Dalglish’s side would be in 18th position if the Premier League had begun at the start of January.
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The title race is really heating up and in just their second 15:00 kick off since January 1st, Manchester City (2/9)...
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INFOGRAPHIC: Premier League woodwork analysis
FOOTBALL: Our own Mark Montvai researched all 209 Premier League shots this season that hit the woodwork. Precisely 109 hit the post and 100 hit the bar. Liverpool is the most woodwork happy PL club this season with 22 hits. Mark has even figured out how the PL table would look like if goals came out of everything that has ‘crawled from the woodwork’. Click ‘Read More’ and...
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INFOGRAPHIC: Football clubs in seventh heaven
FOOTBALL - One of the people helping us to regular Infographics has pointed out to us that there are three teams from the Euro Club Index Top 20 that are riding seven-match winning streaks in their domestic leagues. As championship races are heating up, find out here who those three teams are. They are ‘en fuego’.
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Infographic produced by @iSpeakFooty...
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MESSI STATS: Inside and outside the box
FOOTBALL - Our Twitter follower @SuperMik_ told us a story about Lionel Messi that we are sharing with you here. He is only 15 years old and has no data or writing experience. But he loves football and wants to share! So we helped him to all of Lionel Messi’s goals and he found out that 30 of Lionel Messi’s 235 official goals for FC Barcelona were scored from outside the penalty box!...
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OFF THE WALL - Is Marcus Camby Dude Perfect?
BASKETBALL - Check out this intercontinental ballistic missile from Marcus Camby, scoring a basket almost from his own baseline. Click here and be amazed. He reminds us of the guys from Dude Perfect, masters of the basketball trick shot. Click here. This idea came to us via our friends on Facebook.
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IN THE NEWS - Who is La Liga's premier provider?
FOOTBALL - We understand how much attention Xavi and Andrés Iniesta are receiving for being among the world’s best passers and providers. But the overlord of La Liga assists is someone that we have not seen for a while. Want to know who that is?
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Did you know Ángel Di María has more assists than Xavi and Iniesta combined despite playing 29 games less than both of them together in...
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ON THIS DAY: 1982: Shot that launched Air Jordan
BASKETBALL - Thirty years later, it might be easy to see how all panned out so well for Michael Jordan, one of the most celebrated and decorated basketball players in history. However, as he tells us in his video documentary ‘Come Fly With Me’ it is this shot that wins North Carolina the 1982 NCAA Championship that truly puts him ‘on the map’.
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BIRTHDAY - 29 March: Téofilo Stevenson (Boxing)
BOXING - Téofilo Stevenson is 60 years old today. The Cuban heavyweight is one of three boxers to win three Olympic Gold Medals (László Papp and Felix Savón being the others). He is also a three-time world amateur champion, with Cubans not being involved in the professional ranks at the time (the 1970s). Click here to read his profile on the Infostrada Sports Wall Of Fame.
Shares birthday with:...
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DEBATE - When did the Laser Games start?
FOOTBALL - In both of Wednesday’s Champions League matches, supporters of the home team employing laser pens made an attempt to distract visiting players. We are by no means saying that both home teams wore white, because dark colours attract more bright light, whereas the whites deter it. But what we want to know is, which was the first match influenced by Dr. Evil?
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What was the...
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EPIC BATTLES - Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal
TENNIS - Introducing a brand new category on this website: Epic Battles. We will pit great adversaries against each other and let YOU be the judge. The opening feature belongs to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the most gripping rivalry in tennis today. Click here for footage of their unforgettable 2008 Wimbledon final matchup. Retweet your favourite player in our Twitter debate.
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ON THIS DAY: 1992: Laettner's buzzer beater
BASKETBALL - The most famous moment in March Madness History? Maybe. One of the most lasting memories of a clutch shot in the history of basketball? Certainly. Twenty years ago to the day, there was ‘that shot’. Duke trailing Kentucky 103-102, a mere 2.1 seconds to go in the game. Grant Hill in-bounding from his own end. Hits Laettner. And then this! #epicstuff What is YOUR favourite...
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BIRTHDAY - 28 March: Sepp Herberger (Football)
FOOTBALL - Josef “Sepp” Herberger would have been 115 years old if he were alive today. Herberger is epitomised as the man who led West Germany to winning the 1954 FIFA World Cup. In the final dubbed “The Miracle Of Bern”, the Germans rallied from 2-0 down to beat Hungary 3-2, after having been pummeled by the “Mighty Magyars” 8-3 in the group stage of the same...
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REVIEW: CL frontrunner Benzema trumps even Messi
FOOTBALL - When all the smoke had settled on Cyprus, Karim Benzema had scored his 25th and 26th career Champions League goals, reaching the quarter century even quicker than FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. Karim Benzema needed 41 CL matches to reach at least 25 goals (26 in total). Only Filippo Inzaghi (30) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (30) needed fewer matches to reach this milestone. Lionel Messi...
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OFF THE WALL - Bizarre: Borat's long tail lashes...
SHOOTING - This week, one of our long time friends from our international network pointed us towards an incident from the 10th Arab Shooting competition in Kuwait, in which Kazakhstan’s Maria Dmitrienko won gold for her country and lined up on the podium, expecting to hear her country’s national anthem. Bizarrely, she heard something else.
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The speakers blared Borat’s...
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ANALYSE THIS - Domestic plans not affected by CL
FOOTBALL - Eight out of 12 Champions league winners since 2000 had the lead of their national championship at the start of a CL quarterfinal first leg (Bayern München 2001, Real Madrid 2002, FC Porto 2004, FC Barcelona 2006, 2009, 2011, Manchester United 2008 and Internazionale 2011). Click to
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Champions League duties have no major effect on domestic title race
Real Madrid (2002) is the...
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IN THE NEWS - Cristiano Ronaldo is fastest to 100...
FOOTBALL - Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 100th and 101st La Liga goal last weekend, needing only 92 Spanish top flight matches to accomplish that feat. He is by far the fastest in La Liga history to reach the centurion status.
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Major record broken
The Portuguese protagonist even flew past the post-war record by former Real Madrid icon Ferenc Puskás. The Galloping Major needed 105 matches...
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BREAKING - Lionel Messi signs with French minnows
FOOTBALL - We were shocked to learn that Lionel Messi had signed with French second tier side Angers SCO. We then found out that this is not the world famous superstar, but a 16-year-old prospect from Cameroon going by exactly the same name. Want to learn a little bit more about our work and why we will never be confused between the two?
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We never get confused, because even though our...
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PREVIEW - Savchenko/Szolkowy can win 4th figure...
FIGURE SKATING - Germany’s Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy can equal the second-most figure skating world championship pairs victories of all-time with a fourth win at the 2012 edition in Nice, France.
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> Savchenko/Szolkowy have won the world title in three of the last four editions – 2008, 2009 and 2011. > Since the pairs competition began in 1908, seven pairs have won the...
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BIRTHDAY - 27 March: Toni Rominger (Cycling)
CYCLING - Toni Rominger is 49 years old today. He is quite possibly one of the best cyclists to never win the Tour de France. However, he has taken a record equalling three Vuelta a España overall victories. In the ascents and time trials, he was in a league of his own.
Shares birthday with: Ludwig Mies von der Rohe, Quentin Tarantino, Manuel Neuer
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OFF THE WALL - Water thicker than blood?
TENNIS - The Sony Ericsson Open in Miami has only just started and we have had our first shocker already. Watch this bizarre sequence as Bernard Tomic motions to get his own father and coach to be dismissed from a tennis match. Wow.
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INFOGRAPHIC: Zlatan to face army of Messis
FOOTBALL - On Wednesday, FC Barcelona take on AC Milan and former employee Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In 2009, the blaugranas bought the Swede for 69 million euros and sold him a year later for only 24 million. The 45 million euro deficit makes it the largest negative return ever for a player. Come to think of it, how much did FC Barcelona ever invest in Lionel Messi? Click below to ‘Read...
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LONDON CALLING: How many swimming medals will...
SWIMMING - The French swimming federation is targeting up to 10 medals at London 2012 following their national championships last week. Our Virtual Medal Table projection has them only winning four medals at the Olympics. Who’s right?
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France’s national swimming championships concluded yesterday and they have qualified 29 swimmers for London 2012. “We’re really...
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EURO CLUB INDEX: Premier League best in Europe?
FOOTBALL - Just recently, a debate arose on Twitter (@InfostradaLive) what Europe’s strongest league is. One of our followers took the Euro Club Index to see what the numbers say. Click below to read extensive analysis. Is it the Premier League? Click ‘Read more’ to find out.
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Premier League
The Premier League is widely considered the best league in the...
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BIRTHDAY - 26 March: John Stockton (Basketball)
BASKETBALL - John Stockton is 50 years old today. Arguably, the greatest point guard the NBA has ever produced, John Stockton is the NBA’s career leader in assists and steals, leading the rest of the field by a fair margin in both categories. Reminds me of myself when I was young: dishing, stealing and giving the rest a fair bit of mouth. He is not on our Wall Of Fame. Should he be? Hit the...
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REVIEW: Tom Boonen's resurgence explained
Tom Boonen can’t lose. Or at least that’s how he feels when he mounts his bicycle these days. The Belgian cyclist won the Gent-Wevelgem classic on Sunday after already finishing first in the E3 Prijs on Friday. For a Belgian cyclist, that’s the equivalent of winning the Europa League in football on home turf. There’s only one thing bigger and that awaits him next week: the Ronde van Vlaanderen...
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BIRTHDAY - 25 March: László PAPP (Boxing)
BOXING - Growing up in a time that Hungary fielded the best national football team of its era -some will argue the best team of all time- this little boy chose boxing as a way to defend his nation’s colours. László Papp became a three-time Olympic champion and to this day remains the only person to have won a gold medal in three different weight classes of Olympic boxing. Click here for his...
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EPIC BATTLES - Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi
It was already a classic, but is has now become an epic battle. Ronaldo vs Messi. Good vs Good. The Best of the Best. Both players have now scored 70 goals combined in La Liga this season: 35 vs 35. What’s more in store for us, mortals, in this Clash of the Titans?[[MORE]]Ronaldo scored his 100th and 100st league goals for Real Madrid in their 5-1 win vs Real Sociedad today.
> Having...
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REVIEW - Masterclass by Europe's goalscoring elite...
Europe’s goalscoring elite gave another masterclass today. Check out what the goals of Messi, Ibracadabra, The Hunter and SuperMario implied.[[MORE]]> Messi scored in Barcelona’s 5th match in a row to reach 55 for the club this season.
> This was the 150 match in which Messi scored forBarcelonaand the 99th league match.
> Mario Gomez scored for Bayern München. This was his...
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REVIEW: Oldies do well at WCh Speed Skating
Speed skater Bob de Jong (NED) won his fifth gold medal in the 10.000m event at the World Single Distances Championships. Claudia Pechstein won her 26th medal in total.[[MORE]]
> De Jong equalled the most golds in a specific distance in men’s events. Japan’s Hiroyasu Shimuzu won the 500m distance on five occasions. > Bob de Jong became the oldest gold medallist at the WChSD at...
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ON THIS DAY - 1946: Chess colossus Alekhine passes...
CHESS - Precisely 66 years ago to the day, chess playing legend Alexander Alekhine passed away. With the exception of a two-year period (1935-1937), the Russian-born Frenchman held the world title in chess from 1927 until his death in 1946. Click here to read his profile on the Infostrada Sports Wall Of Fame.
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BIRTHDAY - 24 March: Darren Lockyer (Rugby...
RUGBY LEAGUE - Today, Rugby League legend Darren Lockyer is 35 years old and since only very recently, is getting used to what retirement is like. In Australia, his departure from the game kept newspapers buzzing for months. Click here for highlights of him in the ‘State of Origin’ one of the most fiercely contested rivalries in the world of sports.
Shares birthday with: Harry...
ODDS AND ENDS: Oddschanger offers hot betting tips
Our friends from Oddschanger are back with another round of predictions! Here goes….They have studied the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, you name it. Get that little betting edge which could return big dividends right here. Click here to visit their website.
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One to look out for
The stand out fixture in the Barclays Premier League sees fourth place Tottenham (33/10) head to...
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REVIEW - 'Tornado Tom' wins E3 Prijs record five...
CYCLING - Tom Boonen won the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen today. It marked Boonen’s fifth win in this race, breaking the record set by his compatriot Rik Van Looy.
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Five victories in a specific race is also a new personal record for ‘Tornado Tom’ in terms of editions won. He has won the final classification of the Tour of Qatar four times.
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OFF THE WALL - What in the name of....???!!
BASEBALL - Arizona Diamondbacks outfield prospect Adam Eaton could not believe his eyes when looking at his salary check receipt. 120,000 US dollars to his name. That is right. To his NAME. Click here to read this bizarre and very funny story!
Know of a similar one? Share it with us and we may credit you on this website! And click on our ‘Off The Wall’ tag to see more weird, funny and...
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BIRTHDAY - 23 March: Steve Redgrave (Rowing)
ROWING - “If anyone sees me going anywhere near a boat, you have my permission to shoot me.”. The toil, the sacrifice, the arduous path on the way to Everest. The mere onlooker sometimes cannot grasp what four years of blood, sweat and tears are like. And another four. And four more. Into eternity. Dear Steve, thanks from us all for rowing on. Your profile on the Infostrada Sports Wall...
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OFF THE WALL - Dude Perfect shot from rafters
BASKETBALL - It is time for one of those insane clips from Dude Perfect again. This time they have snuck into the under construction Reliant Stadium in Houston. They are attempting to make this incredible shot from the stadium’s rafters. Click here to watch them roll!
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ON THIS DAY - Lipinski (14) youngest world...
FIGURE SKATING - It is 15 years ago, to the day, that Tara Lipinski became the youngest ever world champion in figure skating at the tender age of 14. A year later, she would true on the promise she had created for herself by becoming the youngest figure skater to win an Olympic gold medal.
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BIRTHDAY - 22 March: Mario Cipollini (Cycling)
CYCLING - Never a dull moment with Mario Cipollini, one of the best sprinters the world of cycling has ever known. He is 45 years old today. Part speed devil, part gentleman, part joker, part entertainer, part womanizer, you just had to love Cipo. He loved all of life, except maybe mountains. Who knows what year it was in the Tour de France that he had suddenly ‘disappeared’ in the...
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REVIEW: Cristiano Ronaldo makes it Sweet 16
FOOTBALL - It was Sweet 16 for Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday, the Portuguese making Villarreal his 16th victims of the 2011-2012 La Liga season. He equalled his personal record from his debut season at the club. In 2009/2010 he also netted against 16 different teams within the same seasons. In the last 10 years the high mark is 17 by Diego Milito whilst playing for Real Zaragoza (2006/2007).
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RECORD: Sergio Ramos sees red in the face
FOOTBALL - Sergio Ramos was sent off for the 11th time in a La Liga match representing Real Madrid. The away match at Villarreal CF was marred with misconduct as four players were sent for an early bath, including Madrid’s Mesut Özil. Ramos beat the unwanted club record of 10 expulsions by Fernando Hierro.
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ANALYSE THIS - Fed-Express, new spring in his...
TENNIS - Last week former world number one, 30-year-old Swiss Roger Federer already won his third title of this early in the season. It was if someone had turned back the Swiss clock by at least six years. It was not since his peak years (2004-2006) that he had also claimed three ATP titles by March. By March, when spring had yet to begin.
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Spring is in the air
The years after his heyday...
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IN THE NEWS - Lionel Messi's secret formula
FOOTBALL - Still mesmerised by Lionel Messi’s record breaking performance on Tuesday night, Infostrada Sports Group quickly got in touch with their Argentina-based liaison to find out what makes Lionel Messi stand out so much. His reply overwhelmed us. Messi owes much of his success to a hybrid sport, the quickly emerging ‘Footminton’.
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Click on this clip to see Lionel...
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ANALYSE THIS - Di Natale – World’s Greatest...
FOOTBALL - Is Antonio Di Natale the world’s most lethal goalscorer among ’mortal’ football players? As you might understand, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are omitted from this debate, because they -quite frankly- seem to operate in a galaxy of their own. Allow us to show you why Antonio Di Natale is the most lethal goalscorer in ’this world’.
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Capocannoniere Part III?
Despite being...
