🌍 Seismic Sunday at WAFCON, Uruguayan clearance causes car crash, Peruvian shirt with 1,000 sponsors | VAR
🚀 U20 CONCACAF rocket | 🇧🇷 Brazilian scorer disappears | 💦 Puddle assist
Sunday was a day to remember at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations!
Tournament debutants Malawi beat Ghana to make the semi-finals and qualify for the Women’s World Cup for the first time in their history. What a fortnight it’s been for The Scorchers!
On top of this, 10-times WAFCON winners Nigeria crashed out to Cameroon. The tournament is wide open!
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Elsewhere, there was confusion over Cristiano Ronaldo’s supposed wedding, a Brazilian goalscorer disappeared down a hole and a parachuter had a painful experience in the Eredivisie.
Let’s take a look at everything 👇
Something at WAFCON 🌍
Only two nations not called Nigeria have ever won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, but The Super Falcons won’t get their hands on the trophy for an 11th time this summer.
Cameroon pulled off a shock 1-0 victory over the defending champions to secure a spot in the WAFCON semi-finals - and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
Something else at WAFCON 🌍
Morocco took another step towards their ultimate ambition by beating South Africa to make the semi-finals of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Sakina Ouzraoui Diki scored this stunner of a goal to send The Atlas Lionesses on their way to the final four. They have lost in the final of the last two WAFCONs.
They have never won the tournament before and want to change that on home soil this summer!
Something on the road 🛣️
Uruguayan football has a certain reputation and I’m not sure this incident will do anything to dispel that reputation.
Not only did this clearance in a lower league game leave the stadium, it bounced on to a road and caused a car crash. Uruguay’s World Cup campaign was a bit of a car crash too…
Something promotional
Sponsors have been on football kits for decades going all the way back to Kettering Town in the 1970s.
Peruvian league team Deportivo Municipal, however, have taken the concept to an entirely new level with a new shirt featuring no fewer than ONE THOUSAND sponsors!
Each little square is enough space for a local business to promote themselves.
Something top bins 🎯
This might be one of the goals of the season and we’re only in August!
Owen Graham-Roache scored this belter for Canada against Mexico in the CONCACAF U20 Championship. That thing stayed hit all the way into the top corner!
Mexico ended up beating Canada and overcoming USA in the final to win the competition.
Something welcoming
Mohamed Salah completed a surprise move to Trabzonspor last week and it’s fair to say the Egyptian winger’s new fans are excited about it. Some of the scenes have been sensational!
Trabzonspor invited Salah over to a traditional Turkish family home for a meal. It now makes more sense why he’s gone there because this looks delicious!
Something mistaken
Word spread that Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez were getting married in Madeira on Saturday.
Thousands of well-wishers turned up expecting to see the former Real Madrid superstar on his big day. Instead, they succeeded only in crashing the wedding of local couple Fabio Ramos and Fatima Nicole Cunha Teixeira.
Something in ASEAN 🌏
The semi-finals of the 2026 ASEAN Championship are set!
This goal by Pavithran Gunalan gave Malaysia a 1-0 win over the Philippines to set up a meeting with defending champions Vietnam in the final four. In the other semi-final, Thailand will face Singapore.
Another Thailand-Vietnam final feels inevitable.
Something in Scotland 🏴
New Celtic striker Kasper Høgh is up and running for his new club after scoring a hat trick in the Scottish champions’ 5-1 win over Kilmarnock.
The Hoops broke the bank to sign the former Bodø/Glimt forward who caught the eye in the Champions League last season. Høgh faced criticism for his debut display last week, but made amends in his second appearance.
Something 15 years old
At just 15 years old, Gabriel Rajkovic became the youngest scorer in Norwegian league history!
The teenager found the back of the net for the first time in Valerenga’s defeat to Bodø/Glimt on Saturday. Remember the name! The kid looks to have a big future ahead of him.
Something acrobatic
Whenever there’s an acrobatic throw-in that leads to a goal, you better believe you’ll read about it in this newsletter!
Check out this effort in the Russian second division where Spartak Kostroma found the back of the net in unique fashion. The best bet is when the shirt goes over the head of the throw-in taker.
Mikel Arteta has just bid £100m for him.
Something flooded 💦
There’s never any shortage of chaos in the Brazilian lower leagues!
In this game, a puddle was deservedly given an assist. This clip has everything - torrential rain, a waterlogged pitch, a farcical goal and a commentator who doesn’t seem to know what’s going on!
Something painful
Go Ahead Eagles thought they had a great on how to mark their first home game of the new season.
They hired a parachuter to fly into the stadium with the match ball. Not everything, however, went to plan. Just watch. Ouch!
Something unveiled
Vozinha’s transfer to Colo-Colo was quite a saga, as regular readers of this newsletter will know. It was on, then it was off, then it was on again!
Finally, the Cape Verde hero was presented to his new supporters in Chile ahead of Colo-Colo’s match over the weekend. They’re going to be disappointed when they realise the World Cup was only a flash in the pan…
Something down a hole
All Jacy wanted to do was celebrate his goal for Cortiba. Next thing he knew, he was down a hole. Why is there a hole behind the goal in the first place?!
To make matters worse, Cortiba had the goal disallowed. That’s quite literally adding insult to injury!
Something limbsy
Hibernian scored a breakaway winner in the final few minutes of Sunday’s match away at Rangers and there were some serious limbs in the away end.
This newsletter has stood in that away end at Ibrox before. There are home fans on either side of you and on top of you. A late winner as an away supporter there must be glorious.
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