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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2934 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Anybody watch the AFCON final? What a game. Spent 90 minutes as the sort of high-energy 0-0 football Americans love to hate, lots of missed chances, very physical, literal blood on the pitch. Then, in the last minutes of the game, well, I'll give some background, first - I was in Morocco for a couple games, and a common sentiment among fans of black African teams was that "the Arabs" have bribed the refs to favour North African teams, particularly Egypt and the hosts Morocco. Any bad call was met with mutterings about "the Arabs" and their nefarious plans. To be fair, Morocco are just really a very good team, causing much better teams a hell of a lot of trouble at the most recent World Cup.

So first, second minute of extra time, Senegal score a quality goal from a corner, which is ruled out by the ref a second later. A Senegal player and a Morocco player were running at each other in the box, both with their arms up (Morocco player raised his first), the Moroccan falls over, a very soft foul. Ref had been easy-going up until this point. The ball goes up the other end, probably the last play of extra time, comes into the Senegal box, and as the players are jockeying to jump for it a Senegal player puts his hand on an attacker's shoulder and the guy goes down like Bambi on ice. A clear dive to me, no attempt to stay on his feet, but just enough of a tug that the ref could call a penalty kick (for reference, about 75% of penalty kicks are scored. This is likely a death sentence for Senegal).

However, as they're lining up, a "security incident" is announced in the stands. No other information given on the TV feed, but the players are ordered off the pitch for safety. My experience was that the Moroccan organizers went in very hard on security (while fucking up every other aspect of the fan experience), understandable given the region and the threat of terrorism. Looking today, it seemed to be Senegal fans fighting with the cops. There's all kinds of pushing and shoving on the pitch, too, ref is giving yellow cards to Senegal left and right, but they storm off into the dressing room. A Senegal player posts on snapchat "Peace, we're getting robbed." Eventually they're told to come back, but either nobody's told the Senegalese team or they don't want to come out. Sadio Mane, Senegal legend, two-time and soon to be three-time African Player of the Year runs off the pitch, into the dressing room, and gathers his boys to face defeat with dignity.

The teams line up around the goal. Morocco gives the kick to Brahim Diaz, the tournament's top scorer. The hopes and pride of his nation ride on him, you can see it in his eyes and hear it in the crowd. Diaz steps up, Diaz kicks, and - well, let me tell you about the Panenka. Named for Czech player Antonin Panenka, it's a type of penalty kick where you fake out the goalkeeper so he dives to one side, and then bobble a light chipped ball right through the centre of the goal. It's a power move, the ultimate humiliation for a keeper if you pull it off. Diaz Pankenas. The Senegalese keeper, Mane, stands stock still. The ball sails gently into his hands. . The stadium roars, Sengal goes mad, you can see the light leave poor Diaz's eyes. Commentator on African TV shouts "This is not the time to play Panenka!"

Extra time (in knockout football tournaments, a draw often leads to an extra 30 minutes to break the tie). Just two minutes in, Mane gets the ball, Senegal plays it to Papa Gueye running up the left wing. Gueye runs with it to the edge of the box, one Moroccan player behind him and one positioning to block in front, but in a moment of space on the edge of the box he unleashes a gorgeous, gorgeous shot right into the top corner of the net. Rig that, "the Arabs." Madness erupts all round, including in our family living room. Senegal hold the lead, close out the match, victory. This is the magic of AFCON: it's not just that anything can happen. Anything will happen. If you have any interest in sports, internecine African rivalries, get bit by the "soccer" bug over this year's World Cup, or just like to see bizarre things happen on TV, I recommend catching AFCON summer 2027. Peace, we didn't get robbed.

Thanks for the write up, I completely missed AFCON.

It's a power move

I disagree, it's about as much of a power move as gluing a gold coin to the pavement and then laughing at a person who tries to pick it up. Sure, ""teckhnically"" it's a power move because the subject was coaxed into a snafu which left them empty handed but it's a lazy, schoolboy tier trick. The goalie nonchalantly catching the ball is the equivalent of someone picking up the coin and lifting the paving stone with it.

Staring down the keeper is the real penalty taker's power move.

There's an art to baiting the keeper into diving, I'd call it a power move if it works. But it rarely works with modern keepers and is generally a silly thing to do.

In the plainest terms it's poor sportsmanship. It's purposefully choosing to use means other than skill to force an advantage, and by implication admitting a lack of conviction in one's skills.

On the subject of lack of conviction in football skills I'll mention another tournament match, Scotland's World Cup qualifier against Denmark a couple of months ago. In a close game that went to extra time Scotland went 1 goal up. With scant minutes left to equalise Denmark reacted by throwing everything at Scotland, leaving the Danish goalkeeper off his line as he moved up the pitch to support the attack. The ball broke to Scotland, who quickly moved it to the midfield where one of their team was faced with nobody but the goalie and a golden opportunity to lob the ball over the keeper to go 2 goals up and seal the match. If you've seen the match you're probably thinking "yes, that's what he did!". It is, but on the second opportunity. Scotland had had the exact same opportunity a few minutes before but instead of lobbing the keeper and securing personal glory from his nation this player looked up, then decided to carefully guide the ball to the corner flag where he cynically kicked it out of play and started imploring the referee to check his watch and blow the whistle to end the match. The referee ignored him and then, with seconds left to play and holding a match winning 1 goal advantage, then his teammate successfully lobbed the ball from the halfway line over the hopelessly backpedalling goalie. And the crowd went mental.

If I was the Scottish manager the guy who turned down the ball to favour the clock would have been off the team.

I'm sorry, I simply disagree that it's poor sportsmanship. If you can fake out the keeper - through skill in misleading him, as Panenka did - it's a good play, if you can't, it's a bad play (if anything, a Panenka is usually having too much confidence in one's skill). That's like calling dummying a pass or nutmegging a defender bad sportsmanship.

Agree with you on the Scotland example, though.

With most rules of sportsmanship or unwritten rules, the question is who has escalation dominance on the field. People rarely ask this question well.

True, but escalation dominance in football is basically "will this make the guy mad enough to flatten me on the next tackle." This is why you don't see a lot of the street-football tricks to really style on your opponent - sometimes you see it in peripheral leagues in South America and Africa. Penalty kick stuff is kind of apart from that. I recall one game in the South African league where a player on the dominant team tried doing keepie-uppies and such to get round his defender, and then it got ugly from there.

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