Larry Brown Sports

Don’t ever tell Boubacar Barry what it means to go all out. You know nothing about it. The Lokeren goalkeeper gave a new meaning to the phrase “laying it all on the line” on Sunday toward the beginning of a match against Club Brugge.

As you can see from the video above that 101 Great Goals passed along, Barry dove to try to stop a shot in the fifth minute when he collided with the post and was knocked out cold. According to Belgian news site Knack.be, he suffered a concussion but was later released from the hospital following the horrifying injury. His team went on to lose 2-1.

When we think about goalie as being a dangerous position, we’re usually thinking about a person trying to stand in the way of a scorching shot. Unfortunately, Barry reminded us that blocking shots isn’t the only occupational hazard associated with tending the net.

H/T Dirty Tackle

Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho is one of the most well-known names in professional soccer, but no one person is bigger than a tight television schedule. Following a disappointing 4-3 loss to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semifinals earlier this week, a saddened Mourinho was discussing his future with the club. He was taking quite a while to put some of his thoughts together, which led to UK-based ITV having to cut him off.

“I want to be … I’d love to be where people love me to be…” Mourinho started saying.

“We’ll take that as England,” the reporter said abruptly. “I’ve got to go.”

And that was that. There has been speculation that Mourinho could move back to Chelsea, his former club, but we have no way of knowing if he was going to give any type of hint about that in this particular interview. Television truly is a cutthroat business.

Video via SI.com

Every time executives from the Chicago Cubs or Detroit Lions organizations grow tired of hearing their fans complain, they should just be grateful they have access to their offices when they show up for work. As a group of fans who support the Australian soccer club Rapid Wien reminded us over the weekend, that is not always a given.

According to Suedkurier.com, fans built a brick wall in front of the team’s office in Vienna over the weekend after a loss to rivals Red Bull Salzburg. They also attached a photo to of Rapid Wien manager Werner Kuhn to the cinder blocks with a caption that read “I’m not allowed in.”

Not exactly subtle, but this is the type of stuff we are used to seeing from soccer fans. Brick wall outside the team’s office, phone call to the police because of a bad call, violent protest against pink jerseys — what’s the difference?

H/T Deadspin

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has a biting problem. The 26-year-old has been at the center of a number of controversies throughout his career, but the biting seems to generate the most buzz. As you can see from the video above, Suarez appeared to bite Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic in the arm during a match over the weekend. In November of 2010, Suarez was given a seven-game ban by the Dutch FA for biting a different opponent.

As a result of his most recent incident, Suarez has been slapped with a massive fine from his club. An investigation from the FA will determine how long his latest ban will be, but it is expected to be quite significant.

Now onto the good stuff. Mike Tyson recently decided to start following Suarez on Twitter. See the connection there? During an appearance on “The David Glenn Show” on Monday, Iron Mike was asked about it.

“I just sort of got on the the Twitter thing and I said hey, um, this is an interesting guy, let me follow him, check him out, see what his journey’s all about,” Tyson explained, via The Big Lead. “You know, he bit somebody, you know it happens, you know what I mean? I’m sure he made amends with his guy, I made amends with Evander (Holyfield), and we go on with our lives.”

I’m sure Suarez can take comfort knowing that he’s not the only professional athlete in the world who can be classified as a “biter.” It does appear that Tyson and Holyfield have buried the hatchet judging by jokes like this, but Suarez’s incident is a bit more fresh.

For what it’s worth, Ivanovic has not accepted Suarez apology. Perhaps he will some day. If Holyfield can get over Tyson nearly costing him an ear, I’m sure Ivanovic will get past some bite marks on his arm. That being said, Suarez needs to go.

Manchester United lost a heartbreaker to Real Madrid on Tuesday, and a controversial red card could be to blame. Man. U took a 1-0 lead in the 48th minute when Sergio Ramos scored an own goal, but the lead did not last very long. In the 56th minute, referee Cuneyt Cakir gave Manchester’s Luis Nani a red card. Real Madrid went on to score two goals unanswered goals after Nani was disqualified and won the match.

Nani stuck out his leg to try to control a ball that was flying about chest-high, when Real Madrid’s Alvaro Arbeloa also came in to try and make a play. Nani wound up kicking Arbeloa in the midsection, but it appeared that both men were playing the ball. Despite the fact that the contact was clearly inadvertent, the referee gave Nani a red card and forced Man. U to have to play the remainder of the match one man down.

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The 911 tapes from the night of the altercation at Hope Solo’s home in November have been released. The call, which was placed by Solo’s brother Marcus Solo, helps paint a better picture of how confusing the situation was and why it led to Jerramy Stevens avoiding a domestic violence charge.

Toward the beginning of the 911 call, Marcus Solo explains to the dispatcher that there was a physical altercation inside the home and that a woman was thrown to the ground and may have injured her hip. He also said that a stun gun was used during the melee and that an “innocent bystander” was hurt. When the dispatcher began asking Marcus for names and specifics, he would not comply.

“Who was the person who was the instigator?” the dispatcher asked.

“We won’t go there,” Marcus replied. “Please get here.”

Toward the end of the phone call, Hope Solo can be heard lecturing her brother about how her husband (Stevens) is going to go to jail because he’s on probation. When police arrived at Solo’s house, they said Stevens “appeared to be hiding” upstairs. They also found Hope with a bloody elbow and Marcus with injuries to his head, eye and knees.

Kirkland Police have completed their domestic violence investigation and sent the case to prosecutors, who are still trying to determine if Stevens will be charged. After the incident, Solo told the media that she has never been hit before and that her life is great. While it’s tough to tell exactly what happened at her house in November, it’s obvious her brother did not help matters by being so vague.

Mario Balotelli may be Mario Balotelli’s biggest fan, which is why it is no surprise to hear that he has commissioned a statue of himself to be built in his hometown of Brescia, Italy. But not just any statue — one of Balotelli striking his signature flexing pose after scoring a goal.

“I received the commission, but have never actually met Balotelli, so I am working from photographs,” local artist Livio Scarpella told Il Giornale di Brescia newspaper, via Football Italia. “I presented various sketches, but Mario wanted to be immortalised in the pose after a goal: muscles in evidence and an expression to challenge the opponents.”

Yeah, so that’s happening. Scarpella described the statue further.

“I imagined him as an athlete from ancient times,” the artist said. “The statue will be between the classic and pop style, in platinum and coloured bronze with the eyes made of precious stones.”

This isn’t exactly a shocker. We’re talking about the same Balotelli who needs his teammates to muzzle him after he scores a goal and was once benched for missing an easy goal because he was too preoccupied with showing off. A statue of himself that he is providing the funding for simply adds to the legacy.

H/T Dirty Tackle via Extra Mustard