Free-Kick Shenanigans Are The Shenaniganest

In America, we call this sort of thing "trickeration." You see it chiefly when discombobulated baserunners get tagged out, or when a grade-school quarterback announces to his coach from behind the line of scrimmage that, oops, we've got the wrong ball.

Per Marcus Kwesi O'Mard's rundown for NESN, this particular boot tied this fourth-division German match 2-2 late, for the final margin between Rot-Weiss Essen (in white) and Wattenscheid. The beauty of this little dance is not that it gave undue advantage to the perps. Rather, it allowed the striker just enough room to find the barely ball-sized space above the defenders' heads and beneath the bar. The beautiful game! Plus filthy, filthy lies.

Duplicity in the service of elegant domination — the Germans must already have a word for it, no? Google Translate says "victory prank" amounts to "seig streich" in German. Sub it in when your opponent is expecting blitzkrieg.

NESN