Austria’s Christoph Baumgartner scored six seconds after kickoff in Saturday’s 2-0 friendly win over Slovakia, the fastest recorded goal in international soccer, just before Florian Wirtz scored the fastest Germany goal ever in their 2-0 defeat of France.
The 24-year-old sprinted from the center circle and skipped past three challenges before firing a low shot from outside the box into the bottom corner.
As Slovakia’s home fans looked on in disbelief, Austrians in the away section at the Tehelne pole stadium in Bratislava celebrated as the RB Leipzig midfielder was mobbed by his teammates.
Photo: AFP
“We’ve done this variation before, sprinting away at full risk from the kickoff. Somehow the sequence of steps worked out so that I got the run,” Baumgartner said. “Of course it’s really cool, I’m very happy. The fact that I hit it like that ... it’s of course sensational.”
The goal came earlier than Lukas Podolski’s for Germany against Ecuador in 2013 when the forward pinched the ball from a defender and scored seven seconds into the match.
In Germany’s friendly against France Toni Kroos, coaxed out of international retirement for Euro 2024, wasted no time with a precise pass for Wirtz, who let fly from outside the penalty area to score in off the crossbar after seven seconds.
Photo: Reuters
The German Football Federation said it was the quickest goal ever scored in a national team game.
Wirtz’s goal took a little longer than Baumgartner’s, with his seven second strike still enough to replace Podolski as Germany’s fastest goalscorer, the Bundesliga Web site said.
“It will do a lot of good,” Germany sporting director Rudi Voller said. “We always hoped and tried, also in the last games, to spark a bit of euphoria and I think we achieved it with a game like that.”
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
In-form teenager Mirra Andreeva on Thursday crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, after going down in straight sets to fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 16. World No. 7 Andreeva, who already has two titles under her belt this season, lost 6-3, 6-2 against the 22nd-ranked Alexandrova in just over an hour. The 17-year-old Andreeva had defeated her elder sister Erika in the previous round on Wednesday, but Alexandrova quickly took control as she claimed her fourth win over a top-10 player this season. The 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in February became the youngest winner of a WTA
RSS