Players in Brazil have been known to summon the spirit of popstar Michael Jackson into their performances from time to time, but it has probably never been used in protest…

PRESTON NORTH END 2-2 CHARLTON ATHLETIC

40-year-old Scottish midfielder Graham Alexander, currently the player-coach of Preston (who he has been affiliated with for 8 non-consecutive seasons), came on with 5 minutes remaining for a ‘farewell’ playing appearance against Charlton, who were winning 2-1.

In stoppage time, though, Preston had a free-kick which Alexander, a veteran of over 1,000 professional competitive club games in his career, stepped up to take, with possibly his last kick of professional football. If the movies have taught us anything, there can only be one outcome from this situation…

This goalkeeper for Italian club Hellas Verona showed a novel way of creating a late goal, possibly a tactic that could be more successful on a regular basis than first imagined?

BARCELONA (2)2-2(3) CHELSEA

While many commentators could be seen as exaggerating at calling Chelsea’s performance on Tuesday against Barcelona ‘heroic’, it was still a good showing (coming from behind to draw 2-2) involving a lot of defensive work which got the job done and saw them progress to the final, which they later learned will be against Bayern Munich.

However, a number of players conceded fouls that were enough to warrant a yellow or red card, which in many cases has seen them suspended from the showpiece occasion in Munich, with one of them being Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic. Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves ‘tactfully’ attempts to ask him to share his feelings on that realisation, a move which has seen the YouTube community give him unfavourable comparisions to Lisa Simpson…

HJK HELSINKI 3-1 IFK MARIEHAMN

The first game of the Finnish league (Veikkausliiga) season for HJK Helsinki saw them take on Aaland Islands expatriate club IFK Mariehamn at home, and appeared to be heading for defeat, until this near-literal 3-minute flurry from 17-year-old Joel Pohjanpalo, who was playing in only his second (league) game for the club:

PANATHINAIKOS 0-1 OLYMPIACOS

Games between big Greek rivals Panathinaikos and Olympiacos are often heated encounters, but records have never shown it to be an ‘eye-bulging’ affair, until Olympiacos player Giannis Maniatis stepped in to try and stare down the referee…

This futsal player in Russia was celebrating what would seem to be a routine goal, until an opponent decided to take out his frustration on the man that was too quick for him in open play… Red card offence?

INTER MILAN U19 p1-1 AJAX U19

The final of this season’s NextGen Series (2011-12 being the youth competition’s inaugural running) saw the U19 teams of Inter Milan and Ajax face off at the Matchroom Stadium in London (England), and while the game itself ended 1-1, there was enough time in the following penalty shootout for a dose of unusual drama, as Ajax’s fourth kick (from Nick de Bondt) was missed, and would have been an instant winner for Inter (and celebrated as such), until the referee called off the celebrations in order to order a re-take (which was scored).

The Italian club (who continued to make their NextGen mark the unorthodox way (after calling off their last group stage fixture with FC Basel U19 on account of any result not having an impact on the standings)) converted their next effort, though, sealing a win that they may have felt should have been celebrated one kick earlier (earning a red card for defender Simone Pecorini in the process). The goals and shootout from this match can be seen below:

In terms of aggressive behaviour, what happens on a football pitch should generally stay on a football pitch, though the #15 in this girls’ high school game in the USA proved to be one of the exceptions to the rule, with the police getting in on this red-card offence by later arresting the girl on account of assault.

She was only demonstrating in a constructive manner that she did not appreciate the bad tackle beforehand…

In the spirit of the ongoing Masters tournament of golf currently ongoing, below is footage from the end of the 1993-94 football season, when some of the Irish contingent at Manchester United (namely Roy Keane and Denis Irwin) took to the greens to unwind ahead of representing their country at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. While not much of note happens in the video itself, some comments have been made on Keane’s clothing (even for being on a golf course), despite it being the 1990′s…