“Has anyone else ever celebrated a goal using a vehicle?” wonders Katherine Watson. “Or is Mariano Gorosito the first?”
Gorosito’s slightly ill-advised stint as an ambulance driver after scoring for FC Luján in the Argentinian third tier may have been the first goal celebration to involve an emergency vehicle but he’s not the first to get behind the wheel after scoring.
In 2010 the then 19-year-old Antoine Griezmann nodded home Real Sociedad’s second goal against Deportivo and made a beeline for a nearby sponsors’ car. He popped into the driver’s seat, his team-mates crowded in alongside him and a few jumped in the back. A few toots of the horn followed and then out they hopped to resume the game.
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ROUND THE WORLD WITH WAYNE
“There has been a lot of talk about Wayne Rooney becoming England’s leading goal scorer,” noted the magnificently named George Tough last week. “A few of these have been against a small number of teams. But who of England’s scorers has netted against the most different teams?”
Malcolm Warburton, Richard Finch, Adam Stevens and Richard Baum all emailed in to point out that Rooney and Michael Owen are joint leaders in this regard. Rooney’s 50 goals have come against 26 different teams, as did Owen’s 40.
FANS SUPPORTING RIVALS (2)
Last week we looked at the supporters who have cheered on the opposition and, as ever, several readers have been in touch to point out a few more examples.
“In May 2010 Lazio played Inter at home with Lazio still not being safe from the drop and Inter in the top spot feeling Roma breathing down their necks with only a few rounds to go,” writes Jörg Michner. “If Roma managed to overtake Inter and win the Scudetto it would obviously be a disaster of epic proportions for the Laziali. In the run-up to the match the Ultras told the Lazio squad in no uncertain terms they had to lose or face violent repercussions.
“From the very first kick the Laziali cheered on the Inter players and booed their own team the moment they entered the Inter half. Moves that even remotely resembled an attack were met with jeers and whistles. When Inter finally broke the deadlock the Laziali celebrated fiercely and held up a beautifully sarcastic banner.
“After the goal the match descended into a training exercise with both teams knowing the race was run much to the delight of the Lazio faithful who are historically twinned, ie best buddies, with the Interisti anyway. Inter doubled their lead and went on to win the title and eventually the triple. The Guardian’s very own Paolo Bandini offers a few more details in his match report.”
And, in a similar vein, here’s Pete McQue Jr: “In 1995 Blackburn and Manchester United were going for the Premier League title and it went down to the final day. Man Utd went to West Ham and Blackburn had to visit my beloved Liverpool at Anfield. If Blackburn lost and Man Utd won, we faced the prospect of handing the title to the Mancs.
“Gradually this idea spread that we should be supporting Blackburn. A lot of people took this seriously. On the final day a lot of people turned up wearing Blackburn shirts, including me, and this was actively encouraged among the fans. In the Kop there was a lot of blue and white, and it was not worn by Blackburn fans who had snuck in.
“The Liverpool players didn’t get the memo and from memory, Barnes and Redknapp scored to bring us a 2-1 victory. Fortunately West Ham kept Man Utd from taking advantage, and it ended up being the perfect day. Blackburn were champions, we’d beaten the champions and the Mancs had been frustrated by a result they never saw coming.”
And Robin Clarke points to this game at Brisbane Road in 1972, when Leyton Orient fans were none too disappointed to see their side lose to Birmingham and deny Millwall promotion from the second division.
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
“Over a few beers last week a friend regaled me with a tale that included the rather random fact that John Hartson once stole a sheep but I have no means to check the veracity of the story,” wrote a bemused Phil Sedgewood in 2007. “Say it ain’t so.”
Sadly, Phil, it isn’t just defenders, scales and Eyal Berkovic who have been given a fright during the Welshman’s career but also our woolly four-legged friends. “I was at Luton and two of my Swansea mates, Jason Wright and Kevin Davis, came up for some fun,” Hartson told the Sunday People in an interview. “We got absolutely lashed and, at about three in the morning, we found the minibus that was to take us back to my place. On the way we stopped beside a field and stole a sheep that was minding her own business, threw her in the back of the van and then drove on home for a sleep.
“There was understandable pandemonium in the morning. I had a hangover and I’d completely forgotten about the sheep, which was roaming around the back garden in a state of some distress. We bundled her back in the van and dropped her off in the first field we found with sheep in it. Somehow we got away with it.”
For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive.
Can you help?
“Last week a Shanghai Shenhua fan threw an iPhone at Diego Tardelli during a game,” writes Dean Carr. “Would that be the most expensive object ever launched at a player?”
“I have recently returned from a stint volunteering in a rural community in Nicaragua, Central America,” writes Alexander Marullo. “To pass time in the evenings I played a substantial amount of football with the locals. Despite the rather basic playing conditions (waterlogged pitches, rocks, stray cows etc) I got on pretty well due to the local standard not being especially high; baseball is of course more popular than football in a number of Latin American countries including Nicaragua. I was told the local teams such as Real Madriz of the Nicaraguan First Division often recruited from communities like the one in which I was based. While not being arrogant enough to believe I would be good enough to play in the local leagues it did get me thinking. Has any Englishman (or Brit) ever played professionally or semi-professionally in Central America or anywhere equally as obscure, the more obscure the better?”
“Here in Japan, 41-year-old defender Yukio Tsuchiya is still a regular for Ventforet Kofu in the J-League,” writes Alistair Bourne. “His squad number is … 41. Is Tsuchiya the oldest professional player to match his shirt number with his age?”
“My friend and I are connoisseurs of what we call the hat-trick race,” begins Sam Waller. “This is when two or more players from either team have scored a brace of goals and remain on the pitch – the race of course being who will get a third goal and complete their hat-trick first. We thought we’d spotted a three-way hat-trick race when Jay Rodriguez, Sadio Mané and Shane Long each scored twice for Southampton against MK Dons. However upon closer inspection, as Mané was substituted before Long’s first goal, this was actually two two-way races (Mané v Rodriguez and Rodriquez v Long).
“There have been at least two genuine three-way races in the Premier League in recent years. When my beloved Newcastle lost 7-3 at Arsenal in 2012, Demba Ba, Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott were all on a hat-trick and on the pitch at the same time. Walcott won the race by scoring his third in injury time. The feat was repeated last year when Liverpool won 6-3 at Cardiff, Luis Suárez winning the race with Martin Skrtel and Jordon Mutch thanks to a last minute goal. Has there ever been such an event, in any league, with four or more contenders?”
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