Golaço Stories

       2023 marks the 100th year anniversary of the "Camisas Negras" (Black Shirts), the most important Vasco da Gama squad of all time. Vasco had been promoted for the first time to the Rio de Janeiro State Championship first division in 1923, and was crowned champion that same year.What was notable about that team was that it was composed predominantly of black and working-class citizens, who split their time between being athletes and construction workers. This bothered the city's elites who controlled the federation as well as many of Vasco's rival clubs, to the point where Vasco was...

       Many soccer jersey fanatics know about Cameroon's infamous, and banned, sleeveless kit from 2002. However, many don't know that just two years later Cameroon entered the field during the 2004 African Cup of Nations with a one-piece uniform. That's right, the indomitable lions played an official match where their jersey and shorts were part of a "onesie".Much like their first experiment with Puma, FIFA did not approve. Joseph Blatter, FIFA President at the time, simply stated that it was against the rules and such a design was never used again.

        In 1971 CONMEBOL organized the second, and last, edition of the Copa Ganadores de Copa. After the inaugural edition, the cup was struggling to build momentum and clubs seemed disinterested.Brazil and Colombia had announced ahead of time that they would not send representatives. Argentina wanted to, but failed to find a club willing to participate. Chile and Uruguay determined who their representatives would be but the teams withdrew before the cup even started. Oriente Petrolero, from Bolivia, who had been drawn in a group with these countries, was left without opponents to face and would never enter...

       Following Pele's death in December of 2022, 2023 was filled with numerous homages and tributes to the greatest of all time all over the globe. Out of everything that was done to praise The King, something special happened in the small Brazilian city of Londrina.Pele's eldest son, Edinho, was the head coach of the local team who decided to make a special jersey for the celebrate Pele's greatness. They put Pele front and center on their jersey, with an image of his famous goal celebration punching up in the air.The jersey was only used once on the...

        In the spirit of Formula 1 racing in Las Vegas for the first time this past  weekend, we wanted to share our personal favorite racing competition: Superleague Formula.It started in 2008 in the UK and used the slogan “The Beautiful Race: Football at 300 km/h”. As the slogan suggests, the idea was to bring soccer passion onto the racing track by having major soccer clubs such as Milan, Sevilla, Rangers, Sporting Lisbon, Liverpool and many others, sponsor the cars.Despite some immediate success, over time many clubs pulled away from the project and major sponsors were dropped. By...