England went over 37 years without scoring directly from a free-kick

 

Everyone loves a free-kick; a moment of pause and tension in a game that's often played at breakneck speed, and one that requires an exquisite level of skill to execute. And it's this difficulty in actually hitting the back-of-the-net that's the subject of this very article, as amazingly the English National Team failed to score directly from a dead-ball situation for almost four decades.

In their first 66 (really) years the Three Lions managed to put the ball past the keeper straight from a set-piece half-a-dozen times, but between the 2nd December 1936 and the 29th May 1974 they failed to add even on more to their tally.

Even after they broke this particular duck pickings continued to be slim with only a further 4 over the next twenty years. 

Indeed, it wasn't until the emergence of David Beckham, England's top-scoring free-kick taker of all time (although arguably not the "greatest" as second place man Eric Brook had a far better return), that things really took a turn, although the average is still around one every four years, and still only three English players in history have achieved more than a single goal from un calcio di punizione diretto (as they call it in Italy):

1. David Beckham (1996-2009, 115 caps) - 6
   
2. Eric Brook (1929-1937, 18 caps) - 3
3. Wayne Rooney (2003-2018, 120 caps)- 2

The most recent (as of writing) was Kieran Trippier in 2018, which is already four years ago, but not to worry, that leaves us another 33 until this article needs to be updated... Which is a relief given the rate I write at!

"Safety Trousers" with Carles Busquets

 

There are a lot of good reasons to wear trousers; comfort, fashion, the desire to avoid arrest for indecent exposure, but protecting the wearer from harm is not one you'd normally expect outside of some kind of hazardous area scenario. Nevertheless, former Barcelona FC backup goalie Carles Busquets (father of current Barca player Sergio Busquets) claimed this as the exact reason for his choice of attire when the Spanish shot stopping substitute superstar spoke straightforwardly with Mundo Deportivo back in May 1991:

"I got used to playing in training with sweatpants and in the end I decided to wear them also in the official matches because I felt safer and more secure. This way, there is less danger of my leg being injured.” 

And he adds jokingly: “I was one of the first goalkeepers to play with long pants and now many imitate me”.

 Great joke Carles, great joke...