Columbus' Justin Meram was hoping to equalize against Dallas after he entered the match just before halftime on Saturday, but instead he ended up delivering a failed overhead kick to the throat of an opponent in the 51st minute.

Meram thought he was set up nicely for an emphatic finish right in front of goal, but instead of making contact with the ball, he caught Dallas' Hernan Pertuz in the neck with the toe of his boot. Meram was shown a yellow card for the dangerous high boot, but eventually scored in the 67th to start Columbus' comeback and eventual 2-1 win.

Pertuz was able to play on despite having his Adam's apple moved to the back of his skull.

This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.

Real Madrid beat Mallorca 4-1 in their final match of the season to become the first club in Europe's four biggest domestic leagues to reach 100 points for a season. After reaching such an impressive milestone, the club held a lavish title celebration on the pitch at the Bernabeu that was a cross between the final scene in Star Wars and the closing ceremony for the space olympics.

Near the end of the celebration, Jose Callejon took the microphone and announced that he needed to do "one last thing before the season ends." He then got off the podium, took Jose Mourinho by the hand and jumped on his manager's back for a piggyback ride just as Mourinho had spontaneously done to him during a match against Valencia back in November.

When Mourinho was first introduced for the celebration, he bowed before his players. Video of that moment, plus some photos right this way...

Manchester City beat a 10-man QPR 3-2 with two goals in added time to make Manchester United's 1-0 win over Sunderland irrelevant and win their first league title in 44 years. It was an ending so incredible that it will probably take a few months of intense analysis to make sure it actually happened, but in the meantime, Mario Balotelli has a message for his critics.

"A lot of people talked bad about me, so now they have to shut up and watch me," said Balotelli with his winner's medal around his neck.

From having his bathroom set ablaze with fireworks to being told he wouldn't play for the rest of the season by Roberto Mancini after he was sent off for violent conduct in a loss to Arsenal, Balotelli has been under a tremendous amount of scrutiny this season. And while much of it was brought on by himself, Mario was still the guy City brought on for Carlos Tevez with their final substitution when they were losing in the 76th minute. And when he left the pitch, he had that winner's medal.

Mario also told how he predicted City's comeback after they went down 2-1 and that he preferred winning this way than to winning by a wide margin.

"For United to suffer a little bit is better for us," he added with a sly grin.

That said, here are some photos of Man United suffering and City celebrating...

Alessandro Del Piero lifts the Scudetto. (Getty)

One of the classiest footballers to ever wear a Juventus shirt (or any shirt) got the send-off he deserved at his final home match. Juve finished off their undefeated season -- the first in a 38-match Serie A season, according to Paolo Bandini -- with a 3-1 win over Atalanta in which Del Piero scored Juve's second goal.

After he was subbed off in the 58th minute to a standing ovation, Del Piero turned his attention to the tearful fans who have supported him for the last 19 years, signing autographs and waving goodbye before lifting the Scudetto and taking a lap of honor after the final whistle.

With just the Coppa Italia final against Napoli in Rome left to play before his Juve career ends, the 37-year-old made it clear that there's still some joy he needs to squeeze out of the game. From Football Italia:

"There's a lifetime ahead of me to work as a director. I am in good shape, I was born to play football and as long as I can do that, I'm happy.

"Would I like to play in England? I've always said you experience football in a fantastic way there. However, I haven't discussed a transfer for 19 years, so I'm a bit out of the loop on what to do!"

Better to be born to play football than to talk about transfer, I'd say.

Joey Barton after being a pacifist on Carlos Tevez's face. (Getty)

Manchester City's final match of the season against QPR was intense enough before Joey Barton once again reverted to his old criminality in the 55th minute. QPR equalized in the 48th minute to stun City fans just as they were starting to develop the smirks of champions. But then the QPR captain and Guardian art critic responded to Carlos Tevez hitting him by elbowing Tevez in the face to earn a red card with his club's Premier League survival on the line.

"Why do people always want to solve any conflict with a fight?" Barton, who was imprisoned for assault in 2008, wrote on Twitter back in December. "As a pacifist I find it incredible."

Though it was meaningless in terms of the Serie A table, Milan's season finale against Novara was an emotional one. Alessandro Nesta, Rino Gattuso, Pippo Inzaghi and Clarence Seedorf all announced they would be leaving the club at the end of the season prior to the match, forcing Milan to finally let go of their aging favorites all at once.

Before kickoff, many of the players were in tears as the departing legends were honored, put it wasn't until the 82nd minute when Inzaghi proved the most fitting of send-offs. On the receiving end of a lovely long ball from Seedorf, Inzaghi fired a shot over the Novara keeper and into the top of the net to score the goal that gave Milan a 2-1 win. It was Inzaghi's 300th appearance for Milan and his first goal of this season. And it was the perfect way to end his 11 years with the club. Well, it would've been more perfect if he was actually offside when he scored, but we can't be that picky.

Here are some photos from the day...

In front of more than 60,000 people on the LA Galaxy's first visit to Montreal, David Beckham dusted off his old free-kick brilliance to equalize in the 62nd minute against the Impact. Montreal got off to an early lead with a goal from Davy Arnaud in the 8th minute, but Beckham proved that he cannot be out-Dave'd.

Beckham launched one of his trademark set pieces past former teammate Donovan Ricketts and into the top corner for his second goal of the season. And he did it while wearing a special pink and white pair of Adidas' new Predator LZs with all four of his kids' names written on them (photo below). Unfortunately, the TV cameras didn't capture his shot from the best angle, though.

[Podcast: 'Survival Sunday' preview; Simon Kuper visits with Martin Rogers]

Beckham's first goal, you might remember, was similarly placed and just as lovely.

It's been a difficult season for the Galaxy as they struggle to rise above the bottom of the table, but at least Beckham is ensuring they have something for the end-of-season highlight video.

Shakhtar Donetsk won the Ukrainian Premier League for the third time in row by beating Oleksandria 3-0 on the final day. Immediately after the final whistle sounded and Shakhtar's four-point lead over Dynamo Kiev was cemented, several Shakhatar players celebrated by joyously squirting manager Mircea Lucescu with water bottles. And despite just winning the league title and the fact that he was wearing my grandpa's old clothes, this made Lucescu miserable.

While everyone in Shakhtar's Donbass Arena rejoiced, Lucescu just stood there in disbelief. You know league titles aren't what they used to be when you're more upset about your shirt getting wet than you are happy about something that took eight months to accomplish.

This has been the Dirty Tackle of the Day: a chronicling of unfortunate events.