Sorry, I haven’t been able to post for a while but here’s a well balanced footballer who reacts with good grace to a booking from the ref. Featuring Paraguayan José Pedrozo from the Primera B of the Chilean league who later received a 27-match ban. Love the fact that the crowd are just laughing away as the riot police have to come on.

This is not World Cup 2010. As far as we know, the tournament in South Africa is not full of cocaine. Diego Maradona has been clean for years, Adrian Mutu isn’t there and Mark Bosnich, well who knows where he is. But the replica World Cup trophy, pictured below, is very much full of cocaine, and was seized on Friday by police in Bogota, Colombia. Airports anti-drug chief Col. Jose Piedrahita says that Colombian authorities found the unusual statue during a routine security check by anti-drug agents in a mail warehouse at Bogota’s international airport. The 14-inch-high statue was inside a box headed for Madrid, Spain. The statue was painted gold with green stripes on the base. Piedrahita said Saturday that laboratory tests confirmed the cup was made of 24 pounds of cocaine mixed with acetone or gasoline to make it moldable.

It looks like a choclate one doesn’t it, though it probably has a bit more of a kick to it.

It’s the day before the World Cup final in 1986 and ITV finish off their show with some of the commentary highlights of their coverage. Love the ‘Aztec Two-Step’.

Best side ever to grace a football pitch? Pffff

A superb little video of Brazil’s lighter moments and to whoever put this together the music just tops it all off brilliantly.

Thanks to ‘Lincoln Fan’ for sending this over.

Leo Messi’s full international debut on 17 August 2005 was against Hungary at the age of 18. He was substituted on during at the 63rd minute and lasted and entire two minutes before being sent off on the 65th minute for this:

This is Diego Dedone of Brazilian side Guaratingueta trying desperately to clear the ball off his own line with his head. Brave lad but unfortunately his team mate, Everton Luis De Paulo has other ideas and tries to belt the ball away but only gets as far as clumping Diegio in the skull with his shin. Someone tell me he is ok?

You want more Mexico 86? Here they are, the top 20 goals from the BBC. Dreamy stuff.

Not sure how Lineker’s tap-ins get in there mind.

Ok here we go again. After last week’s Italia 90 collection, here is the complete album from the greatest World Cup of them all.

What I really love about this, is if you look at the modern Panini albums all the players look pretty much the same to me, with their Tony & Guy haircuts, matching templated football shirts and well lit digital photos. Looking at this Mexico album brought the memories flooding back to a time when footballers were still ugly, had bad facial hair (yes you Poland) and more importantly looked like their national stereotype.

A few notes: Rogelio Delgardo looks like an absolute proper bastard, I would not fancy trying to get past him with the ball in a hurry. What is going on with Mark Wright’s neck, that can only be the result of growth hormones. Those two bearded gentlemen from Hungary, there is no way I would go up for a corner against those two. Rodolfo Rodriguez, he looks like he has turned up for the casting of Carlito’s Way and where is Josimar who scored those two amazing goals? Also missing is Belanov and Vasiliy Rats who smashed in that mega goal against France. Just looking at that Russian side in fact reminds me how good they were. Those boys knew how to play. So did the Danes, its good to see Michael Laudup in there, one of the great players of the tournament.

“Mass brawls” are often overstated but last week in Trinidad & Tobago armed police were called in when every player from River Plate of Puerto Rico and San Juan Jabloteh of Trinidad & Tobago was involved in a brawl, following their Caribbean Football Union Club Championship Second Round Group D decider, at the Larry Gomes Stadium. The Puerto Ricans were unhappy after going under to a Jason Marcano strike in the 75th minute, his third in two matches which secured a spot in the CFU Club Championship Final Round series, scheduled for Puerto Rico later this month. Marcano was punched in the face when he tried to shake hands with the visitors at the end of the match.

It is also alleged that San Juan Jabloteh goalkeeper Cleon John was spat on, which clearly didn’t go down too well with the Jabloteh players or the crowd and eventually led to the brawl with spectators joining in. The altercation was partially quelled by Campbell and his assistants while a gunshot was fired by a security guard in an effort to stop the melee.

The match itself was full of incident as four players were issued red cards. River Plate’s Maximiliano Vallejos, Raul Ruiz (78th) and Jorge Gonzales (85th), and Jabloteh’s Cyrano Glen (75th minute).

Jabloteh, 2-0 winners over Guyana’s Alpha United last Wednesday, needed only a draw to book a place in the Final Round four-team tournament while the Puerto Ricans needed nothing less than a victory after a 1-1 draw with Alpha United on Friday. With the win, the Terry Fenwick-coached Jabloteh stayed on course for a third CFU club title after it ended the three-team group with maximum six points. River Plate, named after one of Argentina’s top clubs and Alpha ended with a point each.

Fenwick said defiantly after the game: “River Plate had no one to blame but themselves. It was a poor display, indiscipline and unprofessional – typical Latin American traits. This was the first time I’ve experienced something like this. It was shocking and should not be seen again.”

We featured two bicycle kicks in one goal just here before but never two at the same time. This is from last Sunday’s match between Gimnasia La Plata and Boca Juniors After the ball deflected off a Boca defender, Gimnasia’s Sebastián Romero and Marco Pérez both had the same idea, and leapt into the air to pull off the circus trick and delight the commentator.

The the goal was eventually awarded to Pérez but it would have been good to see the scorers listed as “13th minute – Rome0 (half a goal), Perez (the other half)”