The Heart Affair: This story happened last Thursday – but in Australia. And it took some time before it spread to us in Europe. But what happened in Melbourne deserves a mention a few days later. The following happened: 28-year-old Raleigh Dobson played her last match as a footballer in the top Australian league, the W-League. With her team, Melbourne City, she competed against Perth Glory. Dobson is young, but her boyfriend Matt Stoneham has brain cancer and wants more time to take care of him.

Dobson scored 1–0 in this match against Perth. In the end, your team wins 2: 1 – the perfect farewell. But it gets better. When she runs to her boyfriend after the final whistle to express his joy, he turns her attention to something else, runs into his jacket and takes out a jewelry box. He gets down on his knees and proposes to marry his girlfriend. Dobson breaks into tears, her teammates stand behind her and delight the 28-year-old. This day couldn’t be much better than that. A story to the heart.

Dream portals: Qualifying for the World Cup is always a good stage in creating something great. Three forwards used their excellent shooting technique three finishes in good standing at the end of the week. Luke Gambin put Malta ahead in a 2-2 draw in Slovakia with a superb flick. Uzan Tovan also took the action almost from the edge of the penalty area and hit the far corner for Turkey to reach the final 3-0 against Norway. Third in the league: Stephen Burgess. In a 2–0 win in front of 5,000 spectators in Amsterdam over Latvia, the Dutchman moved from the right side to the middle and pushed the ball with his left foot and it felt a lot like the left corner. Country countryman Aryn Rubin couldn’t have done it better.

Standard Recorder: Aleksandar Mitrovic was the most successful striker for the Serbian national team even before his goal in a 2–2 draw against Portugal. But the 1: 2 straight after the break – his 39th international match – made the 26-year-old the only record goalscorer in FIFA stats. The successes of the Serbian, Serbian, Montenegro and Yugoslav teams are taken into account. And so far, Stepan Popek (38 years old), who passed away in 2010, was number one.

The surprise: Of course, the scorers’ list in World Cup qualifiers two days after the match does not make much sense yet. But one of the best forwards is Henri Anier from the club with the lovely name Paide Linnameeskond. Despite their three goals, Estonia lost 6-2 to the Czech Republic and 4-2 to Belarus.

First appearance: The name Stephanie Frappart is already known to male football fans. The French referee has already played in the UEFA Champions League and European Men’s League and made history. On Saturday, she led the match between the Netherlands and Latvia (2-0) and was the first woman to whistle for a World Cup qualifying match.

Super Bavarians: From one team to an entire team full of powerful women. Bayern Munich’s players beat Duisburg 6-0 yesterday, thus achieving their 25th victory in their 25th game of the season. Meanwhile, the Bavarian Super Women surpassed the Bavarian supermen, who won 23 consecutive matches from February to September 2020. (Bjorn Maher and Maximilian Pulao)