31 January 2011 - All Those Pounds Brought A Lot Of Pressure

On 31 January 2011, the last day of the British transfer window saw a flurry of activity that resulted in two records being broken for the sales of strikers Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll.

The transfer domino was started by Chelsea, who bought Spanish striker Fernando Torres (center) from Liverpool. Torres, who joined Liverpool in 2007, had scored 65 goals in 102 league appearances for the Merseysiders. His performance drew the attention of defending league champions Chelsea, who made a bid of £35M which Liverpool rejected, even though Torres had submitted a transfer request. But faced with an impending release clause due to be triggered in the summer, they eventually accepted Chelsea's second bid, reported to be approximately £40M--a record amount paid by a British club.

In order to fill the void left by the departure of Torres, Liverpool acted quickly to sign strikers Andy Carroll (right) from Newcastle for £35M and Luis Suárez (left) from Ajax for £22.7M, to reach a grand total of £94.7 spent on the three players. Carroll's fee was the highest ever paid for a British player.

But although Torres and Carroll set the records, Suárez turned out to be the best purchase of the trio, going on to star for Liverpool while the other two struggled at their clubs.

30 January 2008 - Eto'o Takes The ACN Scoring Title

On 30 January 2008, Samuel Eto'o scored twice in Cameroon's win over Sudan in the African Cup of Nations. In the process, he became the tournament's all-time leading scorer.

The striker had just recovered from a lengthy injury the previous month, but took little time to recover his form, scoring both of Cameroon's goals (including one penalty) in their tournament-opening loss to Egypt on 22 January, then converting another penalty in their 5-1 win over Zambia four days later. That was his fourteenth career goal in the competition, bringing him level with Côte d'Ivoire's Laurent Pokou for the top-scorer honor.

Cameroon returned to the pitch on 30 January for their last group-stage match against Sudan. A crowd of approximately 10,000 watched as Eto'o took sole possession of the scoring title with a 27th-minute penalty that put Cameroon up 1-0. An own goal by Sudan in the 33rd minute extended the lead to 2-0, then Eto'o added another for good measure in the 90th minute to push the all-time record to sixteen and end the day as a 3-0 win.

Unfortunately for Eto'o, it was his last goal in that year's tournament as Cameroon fell to Egypt in the final. But he returned in 2010 and scored twice more to set the current record of eighteen. He was denied the opportunity to extend it even further in 2012, as Cameroon did not qualify for that year's edition.

29 January 2011 - Geographically Speaking, It Was The Right Result

On 29 January 2011, Japan won their fourth Asian Cup, beating Australia with an extra-time goal from substitute striker Tadanari Lee.

It was only the second Asian Cup for Australia, who previously played in the Oceania Football Confederation. In 2006, they switched to the Asian confederation in the hope that the stronger competition there would improve their World Cup fortunes by improving their team. They took their first crack at the Asian Cup in 2007, but fell to Japan on penalties in the first knockout round. Japan, meanwhile, were old hands in the competition, winning it in 1992, 2000, and 2004.

They played the final before a crowd of 37,174 at the Khalifa International Stadium in the Qatari capital of Doha. Although it featured two of the tournament's top scorers in Australia's Harry Kewell and Japan's Ryoichi Maeda, goals proved difficult to find. At the end of regulation, the match remained stuck in a scoreless draw.

In the first period of extra time, Japan manager Alberto Zaccheroni subbed Lee in for Maeda. Lee had made only one other appearance in the tournament, coming on for Maeda in the 46th minute of Japan's opening match against Jordan, and had not scored a goal. But he rewarded Zaccheroni's faith by scoring from a cross in the 109th minute. Japan held on for the remainder of the match to claim the cup.

28 January 1967 - The Great Scottish Cupset

On 28 January 1967, Second Division Berwick Rangers delivered one of the greatest upsets in Scottish football by knocking Glasgow's Rangers out of the Scottish Cup.

At the time, Rangers were the defending Scottish Cup champions and were sitting in second place, while Berwick, playing under manager Jock Wallace, were in tenth place of Division Two. Rangers had won all three of the teams' previous meetings by comfortable margins of 3-1 (twice) and 4-0.

Still, a club record crowd of 13,365 turned out at Berwick's Shielfield Park and were rewarded with an unlikely result. The visitors dominated the early going and earned an overwhelming ten corner kicks by the 30-minute mark due to their attacking play. But Berwick claimed the advantage just two minutes later, with inside forward Sammie Reid scoring off the post.

Not content to sit on their lead, Berwick exchanged attacks with Rangers for the remainder of the match and nearly extended the margin with a handful of close chances. Rangers, for their part, scrambled forward in desperation but could not find the equalizer they needed and fell, 1-0.

It was a humbling loss for the Glasgow giants, marking their first defeat to a Second Division side and their first opening round elimination from the Scottish Cup in thirty years. Unfortuately for Berwick, they failed to capitalize on the win, losing to Hibernian in the next round.

In 1970, Wallace moved to Glasgow as an assistant coach for Rangers, then took over as their top man from 1972 to 1978, winning three Scottish Cups in the process, then again from 1983 to 1986.

27 January 1976 - "Ruined" May Have Been Overstating Things A Bit

On 27 January 1976, South Korean World Cup hero Ahn Jung-Hwan was born in Paju. He was once described as "the man who ruined Italian football."

He started his professional career in 1998 with Pusan Daewoo Royals, but moved to Italy in 2000 to play for Perugia, where he made a total of 33 appearances in two seasons and scored five goals. But it was the summer of 2002 that made him an international name, as he scored the golden goal for South Korea that eliminated Italy in the World Cup Round of 16. The day after the match, Perugia owner Luciano Gaucci cancelled Ahn's contract, reportedly saying "I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian football."

Gaucci later had a change of heart, but Ahn was so offended by the slight that he refused to consider a return. He moved instead to Shimizu S-Pulse for a season, starting a series of short stays that included spells at Yokohama (2004-05), Metz (2005-06), and Duisburg (2006), before returning to South Korea with Suwon Bluewings in 2006. Most recently, he played for Chinese side Dalian Shide from 2009 to 2011.

In the meantime, he continued to play for the South Korean national team, scoring 17 goals in 77 appearances before retiring in 2010.

26 January 1992 - It's Almost Like Nobody Wanted To Win It

On 26 January 1992, every player on the pitch at the end of extra time in the African Cup of Nations Final got to take a penalty kick as Côte d'Ivoire beat Ghana, 0-0 (11-10).

Ghana entered the tournaments as favorites, based on the presence of their star midfielder and captain Abedi Pele, the reigning African Player of the Year. He was the team's high scorer through the earlier rounds and provided the match winner against Zambia in the group stage, but was suspended for the final after picking up a second yellow card against Nigeria in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Côte d'Ivoire advanced to the final on the back of their outstanding defense, having not conceded a single goal in the tournament. On offense, the team was well-balanced, with each of their goals scored by a different player.

In the final, the day's best chance fell to Ghana, as striker Tony Yeboah chipped the ball over keeper Alain Gouaméné (pictured) and into the path of Ghana midfielder Prince Polley Opoku, but Opoku sent his shot over the bar. The match remained scoreless through extra time, setting up the penalty shootout.

There, the balls flowed into the goal until Ghana's Isaac Asare missed his shot, but Côte d'Ivoire's Joël Tiéhi did the same with the next attempt. The teams went through twelve kickers each, with the last shot taken by Ghana defender Anthony Beffoe. He drove the ball into the waiting hands of Gouaméné to end the match at 0-0 (11-10).

25 January 2010 - The Shooting Of Salvador Cabañas

On 25 January 2010, Paraguayan striker Salvador Cabañas was shot in the head during a confrontation at a bar near Mexico City. Miraculously, he survived the shooting and continues to play football.

At the time, the 2007 South American Footballer of the Year was in his fourth season with Club América and had gotten off to a strong start, with 18 goals in 24 matches. He was enjoying a night out with friends and family at the Bar Bar nightclub when, at approximately 5:00 am, he was shot by José Balderas Garza, later identified as a Mexican drug lord. According to some witnesses, including Cabañas's wife, the assault began as a robbery, while others claimed the two men had been involved in a heated exchange of words.

He was rushed to the hospital and remained in intensive care until early February, with doctors saying his survival had defied overwhelming odds. His career, however, appeared to be over.

Then, in late 2011, he appeared in a testimonial match held in his honor between América and the Paraguayan national team. 

He later signed a contract with his former club 12 de Octubre and another with Tanabe Esporte Club, but did not play in an official match for either team. In 2014, after a brief retirement, he joined Independiente FC of Pedro Juan Caballero, where he made four appearances.