“Young Liverpool keeper Kai McKenzie-Lyle scored on his international debut for Guyana in 2016,” tweets Nathan Eaton. “Have any other keepers scored on their debut for club or country?”
Chris Page can answer that. “One of the greatest goalscoring goalkeepers of all time, José Luis Chilavert, scored on his international debut for Paraguay in 1989,” he writes, “netting the winner from the penalty spot in a World Cup qualifying match against Colombia. That would be the first of eight international goals.”
Before this game, Chilavert had never actually scored, so quite why he volunteered to take the penalty – awarded, of course, for a ludicrously reckless challenge by René Higuita – and quite why his captain entrusted him with it – even the Knowledge cannot answer. But he maintained his composure – no small accomplishment given a kerfuffle involving players, officials and riot police – to drive home what turned out to be the winning goal.
Anyway, Chris continues: “A couple of less familiar names who accomplished a similar feat are Danny Cepero, New York Red Bulls’ eighth-round draft pick, and Jörg Siebenhandl, whose goal for Wiener Neustadt against Mattersburg came approximately 80 seconds into the match on the opening day of the 2011-2012 Austrian Bundesliga, making him the first goalscorer in the entire league that season.
“As an added bonus, Bruce Grobbelaar for Crewe Alexandra and, very famously, Jimmy Glass for Carlisle United, both scored a goal in their last appearance for their respective clubs.”
Summer frolics
“The tackle by Sevilla’s Joris Gnagnon on Liverpool’s Yasser Larouci got me thinking: what’s the longest ban a player has received for an offence in a pre-season game?” asks Trent Duvall.
Andrew Newcombe has a suggestion: “Current Heart of Midlothian boss Craig Levein was banned for 10 matches during his time as a Hearts player following an altercation in a pre-season game at Raith Rovers. Following a disagreement over defensive duties, Levein punched and broke the nose of fellow Jambo Graeme Hogg, in retaliation to a head-butt. Hogg was also handed a 10-match ban and this was added to an existing three-match ban, so he was effectively suspended for 13 matches.”
At the time of the rammy, Hearts were losing to Rovers, whose striker Gordon Dalziel remembers it well. “It was just before half-time,” he told the Daily Record’s 10th anniversary piece, “and I got in between Craig Levein and Graeme Hogg and got an effort in on goal at the Raith end of Stark’s Park. Henry Smith turned it round the post for a corner but an argument then broke out between Levein and Hogg about who was meant to be marking me. I was winding them up and laughing and saying that I was having a stormer and I was a difficult player to mark at the best of times. The last thing I said to the pair of them was: ‘I don’t want you falling out over me.’ I then told them to calm down.
“But Hogg then squared up to Levein. I think he threw the first punch or a shove in Levein’s direction and then they had a set-to. Levein threw two haymakers which I can only describe as a superb effort that Mike Tyson would have been proud of. I was killing myself laughing and jokingly gave Hogg the count of 10 as he was flat out. I didn’t realise the severity of the blows or the fact that Levein had actually broken Hogg’s nose. It was a couple of dull ones that Levein hit him with and, to be fair to him, it was his own teammate. It was a stupid argument over nothing in a pre-season friendly. It was typical of me during my career. I was a cheeky-chappy-type striker and I started banter with defenders and many an argument. But when trouble started I just ran like fuck.”
Dan Ryazansky, meanwhile, emails to remind us that, while with DC United, Hristo Stoitchkov broke the leg of a college player in a pre-season match. He was banned for only two games.
Though he was sacked not suspended, Dennis Wise earns a mention in this section. In the summer of 2002, Leicester took their players to Finland for a training camp, where Wise became embroiled in argument with Callum Davison over a game of cards. Wise then went to Davidson’s room and fractured his cheekbone for him … while he was sleeping.
And depending on your definition on the status of the Charity Shield, the 1974 stramash involving Liverpool’s Kevin Keegan and Leeds United’s Billy Bremner resulted in each missing the first 11 matches of that season.
Teams managed by their all-time leading scorer (2)
Michael Ward emails to note that, in last week’s Knowledge, we omitted Jimmy McGrory, player and manager of Glasgow Celtic, while Rob Mildren cites Heart of Midlothian’s John Robertson.
Meanwhile, Martin Davies emails on the topic of Arthur Rowley, “who became Shrewsbury Town’s leading goalscorer whilst he was player-manager. Arthur came to the Shrews in 1958, leaving Leicester – for whom he had beaten season records – when only eight short of their all-time record. He scored 152 league goals at Shrews, finishing with a career tally of 434.”
Knowledge archive
“I am interested in learning the origins of the expression that a defence was at ‘sixes and sevens’ in dealing with an attack,” wrote Eric Willis in 2005. “Can you help?”
Off to Word Origins to answer this one, Eric, which states: “‘At sixes and sevens’ is a very old catchphrase and relates to gambling. It first appears c.1374 in Chaucer’s Troylus. The original phrasing was ‘set upon six and seven’. It referred to betting one’s entire fortune on one throw of the dice [this, it transpires, being a game called ‘hazard’, more commonly known as craps]. It connoted carelessness, and over time the phrase came to mean confusion, disorder, and disagreement.” Apparently a plural form, ‘to leave at sixes and sevens’, was developed in the 1800s; it was still based on the same gambling metaphor, but the idiom was now used to signify a kind of confusion or neglect, rather that pure risktaking.
• For thousands more questions and answers look through our archive.
Can you help?
“Has a player been sent off for committing a bookable offence, with the referee then playing advantage to the opposing team, and then committing a second bookable offence before the phase of play ended?” asks Dean Graham.
Opening day of the 2001/2 season and Tony Thorpe scored in the 6th, 22nd & 28th min for Bristol City away to Northampton. Has anyone racked up a hat-trick less than 28 mins into a new season?
— Oscar Felix Ramirez (@Oscar_MexiCali) July 30, 2019
“This month, Colorado Rapids’ Sebastian Anderson had both a goal and a red card against NYCFC,” mails Jason Maxwell. “He’s about a month short of his 17th birthday. We’re pretty sure he set a record for the youngest player to get a red card in MLS history. Who is the youngest player to receive a red card in a first-team game and who was the youngest player to have a goal and red card in the same first-team game?”
“Who is Jim Ramsey, and what the hell is Clough up to here?” asks Rob Smyth, having watched this video.
Earlier this month Eric Molloy, a free agent, played against Chelsea twice in four days with two different clubs (Bohs and St Pats from Dublin). While they were friendlies, is this the shortest period in which a player played agains the same club with two different clubs?
— Jerry Higgins (@JerryHiggins86) July 30, 2019
Who has been loaned out more by their parent club the most while continuing to resign contracts with their parent club. / Who played the fewest games (while fit) for their parent club over the longest period of time?
— Rob (@RW_OD) July 30, 2019
Has anyone ever been booked or sent off for a celebration, and then had their goal disallowed?
— William Mata (@journowillmata) July 30, 2019
Football players, like anyone else, can have colours for surnames e.g. Rob Green, Julian Gray, Steven Black, Wes Brown, Morgan Gibbs-White, Danny Rose...What's the most different colours that have appeared in a single competitive match?
— John Bruce (@johnbbruce) July 30, 2019
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