Golaço Stories

Auckland City is best described as a big fish in a small pond. Ever since Australia moved to the AFC in 2006, Auckland City from New Zealand became the dominant club in the Oceania region. The OFC is almost entirely amateur, so naturally a club who already dominates its domestic league in the richest country of the region also dominates the continent. As a result Auckland City is almost a guaranteed participant of the FIFA Club World Cup, holding the record of the competition of 12 participations as of 2024. The number could actually be 14 if it wasn't for two...

In 2014 Romania received alarming news, the country had one of the highest school drop-out rates in the European Union: 18%. From that point on multiple campaigns were made by the local government and non-profits to raise awareness and try to keep those numbers as down as possible. In 2016 Geometry Global Bucharest had a very creative idea along with the Romanian Football Federation that was welcomed by every with open arms. First they came out with a textbook with soccer themed math problems to show children how math is used everywhere. The second step was that the Romanian National...

In 1970 the second ever edition of the Argentinian Cup was held. After Boca Juniors lifted the inaugural trophy, the second final was a clash between San Lorenzo and Velez Sarsfield. The first leg ended in a 2-2 draw and the second leg did not have a set date. The cup had already bled into the 1971 season and there were few dates available to be played in. Also, because the cup had just recently been created and had no historical weight, it was not high on the list of priorities for any Argentinian club. To add to the lack of urgency,...

The tragic occurrence in the Heysel Stadium in 1985 is very well known and often remembered. What is not often remembered is how the English soccer calendar was reorganized after the 5 year ban that was given to all clubs from European competitions. With many open slots available, 2 domestic cups were created. The first one was only held once in 1986 called the Football League Super Cup, where the teams who had qualified for the 1985/86 European competitions (Everton, Norwich, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Southampton) would play against each other. Liverpool lifted the trophy defeating city rivals Everton...

It is almost impossible to imagine that in a place that is home to some of the worlds most fanatic soccer fans today, the sport used to be banned all together. In the Ottoman Empire during the late 1800's the conservative Muslim regime saw the sport as foreign to the local culture and in order to maintain the empire's traditions and identity soccer was forbidden for the Turkish people. Even though the local population was not allowed to play the prohibition did not apply to the non-Muslim immigrant communities, making soccer extremely popular amongst the Brits, Jews, Greeks and Armenians. Despite the oppression,...