There have been some amazing occurrences in soccer matches worldwide this week, so sit back and enjoy these highlights.
'Imperfect' hat trick
Michael Duberry couldn't stop scoring Saturday.
Luckily, the Oxford United defender's final goal of the day actually counted for his own team.
Duberry scored two own goals to give Hereford United the lead in a English League Two match, the second one in the 86th minute, but came up with a 90th-minute equalizer as Oxford pulled out a wild 2-2 draw.
In his first 19 seasons, the 36-year-old former Chelsea and Leeds United center back scored just seven goals in 362 appearances, but has three in 21 matches for Oxford.
Duberry had some fun with his performance on Twitter, calling it the "imperfect hat-trick – left foot (OG), header (OG) and right foot."
Two teammates, two yellow cards, but only one ball
Everyone who plays for Bury knows captain Steven Schumacher takes penalty kicks for the English League One side.
Apparently, everyone except Giles Coke, that is.
When Coke was taken down in the box in the 35th minute of Saturday's match against Yeovil Town, he tussled with Schumacher over who would step to the spot. Both players ended up being issued yellow cards in the bizarre sequence.
Schumacher and other teammates finally convinced Coke to back down, and Schumacher converted the penalty kick as Bury went on to a 3-2 win.
"Steven Schumacher is the captain, I've given him the responsibility to take penalties and as far as I'm concerned the rest of the team know that," Bury manager Richie Barker told BBC Radio Manchester.
The 12th man: Mother Nature
Every once in a while, you'll see a player score an "Olimpico" goal – bending the ball into the goal directly off a corner kick.
How about the same player doing it twice in one half?
Coleraine's Paul Owens did just that in a 3-1 win over visiting Glenavon in an Irish Premiership match Saturday, playing the gusty winds to perfection with his left-footed corner kicks in the second half.
Owens nearly had a third in similar fashion, but Glenavon goalkeeper David O'Hare tipped it over the crossbar.
From way downtown
This was just a friendly, but Cristian Villagra of Ukraine's FC Metalist had a free kick, saw a goalkeeper off his line and fired away.
From 70 yards out.
The Argentine left back's strike got just under the crossbar and over the leaping Dinamo Moscow keeper for an impressive goal.
Premier League popularity
More than a million people watched Manchester United's 2-1 win over Arsenal on Sunday morning on Fox, the first live telecast of a Premier League match on a major U.S. network – more than double the previous record for a broadcast on cable.
The game, which kicked off 10 a.m. Central, drew 1.3 million viewers.
ESPN's best audience for a live Premier League match is 528,000 viewers for another Manchester United-Arsenal game in December 2010, while Fox Soccer's high of 418,000 viewers came last February for a match between Chelsea and Liverpool.
Fox will show another live match on Sunday, Feb. 5, as Chelsea faces Manchester United.
Speaking of which, many Arsenal fans were frustrated by some of manager Arsene Wenger's decisions in the match and the team's status in general – the Gunners are in fifth place, well out of the title chase and looking at the possibility of a seventh consecutive season without a trophy. Included in that group, strangely enough, is the president of Rwanda. On his verified Twitter account, Paul Kagame posted several comments about Wenger. "When a good team (players) and a good coach fail for long, to deliver, one of them has to change, or even both!" he Tweeted.
It's time for our semi-regular video tour around the soccer world.
A triple for Deuce
U.S. national team forward Clint Dempsey became the first American to score three times in a Premier League match, bagging a hat trick in host Fulham's 5-2 victory over Newcastle United at Craven Cottage.
Two weeks after scoring three goals in a 4-0 win over Charlton in an FA Cup third-round match, Dempsey found the net in the 59th, 65th and 89th minutes as Fulham scored all of its goals in the second half after trailing 1-0 at halftime.
Dempsey has a career-best 15 goals in all competitions this season and 52 since joining Fulham from Major League Soccer's New England Revolution in January 2007. His 42 goals in Premier League play are the most for an American, as he passed Brian McBride (36) earlier this season.
A cringe-worthy miss
On the other end of the spectrum, many are wondering if Robbie Findley already has wrapped up the miss of the year competition.
The American forward seemingly had to score for Nottingham Forest, standing alone inches in front of the goal with the goalkeeper down during Tuesday's FA Cup third-round replay against Leceister City. But his shot somehow sailed over the bar, and Forest went on to lose 4-0.
Laduma
Dempsey and Findley were teammates on the U.S. national team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which is the topic of the new documentary "Laduma" – the South African slang word for goal.
Philadelphia filmmakers Ashwin Chaudhary and Jon Korn tell two parallel stories in the film, one of the U.S. team's journey to the World Cup and the other of South Africa's journey from Apartheid to playing host to the world's biggest sporting event.
Here's an interview with Chaudhary and the trailer for the movie, which was renamed from its original title of "One Goal:"
Assisted throw-in
Benfica's Maxi Pereira and Axel Witsel got a little crafty with this throw-in last week, finding a sneaky way to restart play quickly.
As Pereira grabbed the ball, Witsel knelt down to tie his shoe. Pereira tossed the ball off his teammate's back and promptly whipped in a cross.
Last month, we told you that Sunday's match between Arsenal and Manchester United would be the first live telecast of a Premier League game on a major U.S. network.
Unfortunately, though, that won't be the case for soccer fans in the Milwaukee area.
WITI (Ch. 6) isn't planning to show the match live and instead will air it on tape delay at 12:30 p.m. The station will show "Discover Wisconsin" at 10 a.m., "Into the Outdoors" at 10:30 a.m. and infomercials from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
According to EPL Talk, Milwaukee is one of six cities among the nation's top 56 markets where fans won't be able to see the match live.
The rest of Wisconsin's Fox affiliates – WMSN (Ch. 47) in Madison, WLUK (Ch. 11) in Green Bay, WLAX (Ch. 25) and WEUX (Ch. 48) in La Crosse and Eau Claire and WFXS (Ch. 55) in Wausau – are scheduled to show the match live, with a pregame show at 9:30 a.m. and kickoff at 10 a.m.
My apologies for falling behind on updates from the Wisconsin Soccer Central Fantasy Premier League, brought to you by Stefans Soccer and Keva Sports Center.
The November winner was Sachit Sondhi's team, CHAMP19NS, which racked up 200 points – edging Adrian Parrish's Soggy Buns FC by a single, solitary point.
In December, Parrish made the most of the extra games around the holidays and ended up on top with 351 points, ahead of second-place Big Pimpin of BALE and manager Brian Mechanick (342).
Mechanick ranked second in the overall race with 1,123 points heading into January, behind only Gaurav Sondhi's Canons ablaze (1,193) and one point ahead of Karun Sondhi's EICFC.
If your team is lower down the table or you haven't signed up yet, get in the game – there's still plenty of time left to win prizes, as the Premier League runs all the way into May. Just visit fantasy.premierleague.com and register for a team. Once you check out the rules and choose your team, click on "Leagues" and select "Join a league." To join the WSC private league, enter the code 6707-16059.
Our monthly awards are a $25 gift certificate from Stefans, with one location in Madison and three in the Milwaukee area, and a free haircut at SportClips provided by Keva Sports Center in Middleton, your place to play.
The top overall scorer for the season will receive a Premier League jersey of their choice, with name and number if desired, from Stefans. The runner-up will receive a free session of soccer at Keva, which can be used for a free-agent session or applied as credit to a team fee.
Let's take a hop across the pond to England for some fun soccer stories.
Offside explanation on the money?
In honor of this summer's London Olympics, England's Royal Mint issued new designs for the 50-pence coin, each highlighting one of the 29 sports in the Games.
The soccer coin features a graphical explanation of the offside law, one of sport's most challenging rules to simply explain.
Production journalist Neil Wolfson came up with the design, which uses triangles to represent the attacking team and squares for the defending team.
Arrows show potential passes for the attacker with the ball; the teammate level with the second-to-last player from the defensive team is listed as "not offside," while the other between the two defensive players is shown as "offside."
As if to underscore the confusing nature of the law, some referees criticized Wolfson's design – which was selected over nearly 30,000 entries – as inaccurate as it doesn't point out the 1995 revision that it is "not an offense in itself to be in an offside position." Wolfson responded by noting that there is no mention of any offense on the coin.
"Neil Wolfson designed his coin in the hope that it would encapsulate football in a simple image," according to the Royal Mint website. "As the offside rule is a perennial talking point, the image is designed to provoke discussion, which was what he was aiming for."
Something borrowed and blue
Longtime Manchester City supporter Karen Bell didn't follow all of the wedding traditions when she got married to a fellow Blues fan last month, but she certainly met two of them.
The 38-year-old made her own wedding dress, using her husband's old City jerseys.
"We wanted to do something different because we have both been married before," Karen Bell told the Manchester Evening News. "It was a labour of love. I was at the sewing machine six nights a week."
After the ceremony on Dec. 21, the happy couple rushed off to Etihad Stadium, where they watched Manchester City thump Stoke City 3-0.
Fabulous FA Cup goals
Premier League teams enter the FA Cup in the third round, and this weekend's matches produced two stellar strikes by Frenchmen.
Midfielder Arnaud Mendy came up with an impressive volley as Macclesfield Town of League Two, three levels below the Premier League, tied Bolton 2-2 to earn a replay against the Premier League side.
Meanwhile, Hatem Ben Arfa showed off his considerable skills on a tremendous run and thunderous finish to help Newcastle United oust fellow Premier League side Blackburn Rovers 2-1.
Just thought I'd share a couple of bizarre moments from soccer fields across the world the past week.
First to Hong Kong, where Festus Baise scored an incredible own goal last Friday as Citizen AA topped host Sun Hei 3-2 in an HKFA First Division match.
The Nigerian defender tried to clear out a cross from Sun Hei's Jack Sealy, but his acrobatic attempt went awry – in spectacular fashion.
Next we're off to Holland for Wednesday's fourth-round Dutch Cup match between host Ajax and Eredivisie leader AZ Alkmaar.
With Ajax up 1-0 in the 36th minute of the game, a fan ran onto the field and attacked AZ goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado, who responded by kicking the 19-year-old twice while the supporter was on the ground.
Alvarado was red carded by referee Bas Nijhuis, a decision that prompted Alkmaar manager Gertjan Verbeek to pull his team off the field.
On Thursday, the KNVB – the Dutch soccer governing body – overturned Alvarado's red card, but didn't issue a ruling on the abandoned match. Ajax, meanwhile, said the fan already had been banned from attending games and should not have been allowed in the stadium.
Manchester United's visit to Arsenal on Sunday, Jan. 22, will be the first live telecast of a Premier League match on a major U.S. network.
Fox Sports will air the match at 10 a.m., preceded by a 30-minute pregame show. The network also will show the match between Chelsea and Manchester United live at 10 a.m. on Feb. 5 – Super Bowl Sunday.
Fox has aired three Premier League games this season on tape delay on Sundays before or after NFL games, and saw increased viewership from match to match. The most recent of those, Liverpool's 2-1 win over Chelsea on Nov. 20, drew 1.67 million viewers.
"We see a tremendous opportunity to broaden exposure in the U.S. for the world’s best soccer competitions," Fox Sports co-president and Chief Operating Officer Eric Shanks said in a news release. "We've broken viewership records with each subsequent Fox broadcast and we are thrilled audiences are responding as we make matches more widely available."
Fox holds the U.S. broadcast rights for the UEFA Champions League and all FIFA events from 2015 to '22, including the 2018 and '22 World Cups and the 2015 and '19 Women's World Cups.
Wisconsin's Fox affiliates are: Madison, WMSN Ch. 47; Milwaukee, WITI Ch. 6; Green Bay, WLUK Ch. 11; La Crosse/Eau Claire, WLAX Ch. 25/WEUX Ch. 48; and Wausau, WFXS Ch. 55.
Just a few weeks ago, Norwegian Jone Samuelsen scored on a header from 62 yards out, believed to be the longest headed goal in world history.
Now it's not even the longest of 2011.
Defender Ryujiro Ueda bettered Samuelsen's effort by a yard on Sunday, scoring the lone goal in Fagiano Okayama's 1-0 victory over Yokohama in a Japanese J-2 League match.
What a strike
You know you wish you could score a goal like Fulham's Andy Johnson scored in Thursday's 4-1 win over Polish side Wisla Krakow in the Europa League.
Ugly scenes in Romania
There were bizarre scenes in a Romanian match between Steaua Bucharest and Petrolul Ploiesti as a fan ran onto the field and punched a player in the head.
The Petrolul Ploiesti fan, upset that Steaua Bucharest had been awarded a penalty kick, blindsided Steaua defender George Galamaz and kept running. Steaua players eventually took him down and kicked him, leading to red cards for both Novak Martinovic and goalkeeper Razvan Stanca.
The match resumed, only to be stopped again and abandoned after Steaua backup goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu suffered burns when he was hit with a flare.
Galamaz suffered a broken cheekbone and was having hearing problems. The Romanian Football Federation announced that Petrolul Ploiesti will have to play its next six home matches with no fans in the stands, and the team said it would ban the fan or fans responsible for the incident for life.
Best of the MLS
And the final four is set for the Major League Soccer playoffs, with both conference finals set for Sunday. Here's a look back at some of the top goals of the regular season, from ESPN.
All the top teams in the Wisconsin Soccer Central Fantasy Premier League for October had something in common: Red-hot strikers Robin Van Persie of Arsenal and Demba Ba of Newcastle United.
pj's dreamers, managed by Pranjal Bhawal, ended up on top of the league for the month with 234 points. FC Epikoinos, managed by yours truly, finally got going and scored 232. But since I'm not eligible for prizes, third-place GBSanta and manager Anthony Santaga claimed the second prize.
Wisconsin Soccer Central staffers are doing well in the competition, as Tom Ziemer's Dairyland Mags side leads the overall season standings with 550. But the table is packed, with w9875t (Nick Spry) second with 545, Offensive (Ken Murphy) third at 537, pj's dreamers fourth at 534 and Big Pimpin on BALE (Brian Mechanick) and Team Name (Rocky Ogle) tied for fifth with 529.
If your team is lower down the table or you haven't signed up yet, get in the game – there's still plenty of time left to win prizes, as the Premier League runs all the way into May. Just visit fantasy.premierleague.com and register for a team. Once you check out the rules and choose your team, click on "Leagues" and select "Join a league." To join the WSC private league, enter the code 6707-16059.
Our monthly awards are a $25 gift certificate from Stefans Soccer, with one location in Madison and three in the Milwaukee area, and a free haircut at SportClips provided by Keva Sports Center in Middleton, your place to play.
The top overall scorer for the season will receive a Premier League jersey of their choice, with name and number if desired, from Stefans. The runner-up will receive a free session of soccer at Keva, which can be used for a free-agent session or applied as credit to a team fee.
Mexican soccer club Jaguares de Chiapas can't be accused of not embracing social media.
The club took player names off their jerseys and replaced them with the players' Twitter handles. The new-look shirts also include the Twitter account of their sponsor, beer company Sol.
"Conscious of the age we live in, where we can all stay in touch through the Internet no matter how distant, (Jaguares) launched a campaign and carried out various activities linked to Twitter," the club statement read.
"In football as in life, 140 characters are enough to decide which side you're on."
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