Goalkeeper showed amazing smartness by letting the indirect free-kick go straight in
Three years ago today, goalkeeper Cassio caught everyone’s attention with an impressive display of football smarts during Corinthians’ match against Atletico Mineiro in the Brasileiro Série A.
Cassio, who moved to Cruzeiro in 2024 after spending 12 years at Corinthians, has played a total of 815 games for clubs like Gremio, PSV Eindhoven, Sparta Rotterdam, Corinthians, and Cruzeiro. The 39-year-old has had many great moments throughout his long career, including his one match for Brazil in a friendly vs. Japan in 2017. But few moments are as unforgettable as the viral clip where he showed off his brilliant understanding of the game.
Knowing the rules inside out is a big part of football, and Cassio proved this during the November 2023 game with Atletico Mineiro. When Mineiro got an indirect free kick 74 minutes in, Cassio surprised the crowd by stepping aside and letting the ball go into the net. Many thought he was cheating, but he was actually using his deep knowledge of the rules.
According to the official Laws of the Game, a goal can’t be scored directly from an indirect free kick — if it goes in without touching anyone, the defending team gets a goal kick. But if the ball had touched Cassio first, the goal would have counted. The game ended 1-1, and Cassio received praise for knowing the rules better than anyone else.
Another little-known rule is that players get a yellow card if they take their shirt off to celebrate a goal, even if VAR later cancels the goal. Under Law 12, removing your shirt is a bookable offense as soon as it happens.
Arkadiusz Milik learned this the hard way during Juventus’ 2022 Serie A game against Salernitana. Milik scored a late goal and took off his shirt in celebration, forgetting he was already on a yellow card. The referee gave him a second yellow and sent him off. VAR then disallowed the goal for offside, but Milik’s red card still stood, and he missed the next match.
There’s also a rare rule about free kicks or throw-ins passed back to the goalkeeper that end up in the goal. If the ball goes in without being touched by the keeper, it doesn’t count as an own goal — instead, the other team gets a corner kick.
This happened in the 2002 Midlands derby between Birmingham City and Aston Villa. Villa’s Olof Mellberg accidentally threw the ball into his own goal, but because goalkeeper Peter Enckelman touched it on his laces before it crossed the line, it counted as one of the most famous own goals in Premier League history.