The Run of Play is a blog about
the wonder and terror of soccer.

We left the window open during a match in October 2007 and a strange wind blew into the room.

Now we walk the forgotten byways of football with a lonely tread, searching for the beautiful, the bewildering, the haunting, and the absurd.

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Roberto Carlos Sings a Lullaby to Fabien Barthez, Then Promptly Stabs Him in the Throat

A more-hectic-than-expected bit of holiday travel has put a dent in the side of my usually scrupulous blogging schedule, which is perfectly fine with you, thanks for asking. Normal service will resume at the start of next week. In the meantime, why not enjoy one of the ugliest free kicks ever to become surpassingly beautiful? This is Roberto Carlos, lulling Fabien Barthez into an utterly unwarranted sense of security in Brazil’s match against France in Le Tournoi, 1997, and this is your historical goal of the week.