ProSoccerTalk’s daily soccer re-set

Soccer birthdays:

Anyone who has ever seen German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher absolutely pummel poor Patrick Battiston in the 1982 World Cup knows who should have been the first goalkeeper ejected from a World Cup finals contest. For whatever reason, he wasn’t. Instead, that dubious distinction belongs to Gianluca Pagliuca, who was dismissed from the a World Cup 1994 match against Norway for handling a ball beyond his 18.

Pagliuca, who returned for Italy’s last three matches in that runner-up summer, turns 46 on Tuesday.

Speaking of turning 46: Les Ferdinand, whose best days came at Spurs in the late 1990s and thereabouts, also turns 46 on Tuesday. He had 17 full England caps.

Just for fun, though … let’s look back at Schumacher’s assult:

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Big Important Stories of the Day:

Lionel Messi, Xavi and Carles Puyol have agreed new deals with Barcelona.

RASNoD (Random American Soccer Name of the Day:  Richie Williams

*Ahead on the blog today:

Since U.S. final round World Cup qualifier venues seem to be topical, we’ll have more to say about that.

Twitter daps:

What you should watch on TV today:

Slim Pickins’. So watch this instead: It’s the Red Bulls video Christmas card. (Which you may have already seen; I posted it last night at ProSoccerTalk.)

We’ll leave you with this:

Noticed someone asking this randomly on Twitter this morning: Has Leo Messi offered the most return on investment for any player ever? Interesting question, eh?