Comment By Michael Osareme| Twitter: @MichaelImianvan
Sometimes when a beautiful goal is scored, it looks at first sight logical. The journey of the ball towards the goal is pretty straight forward in real time; it moves from the foot of the scorer into the net.
It’s only when you watch it again and again you realise the precariousness of the situation and appreciate all that could go wrong to interrupt that journey along the way.
Two that come to mind are Diego Maradona’s second goal for Argentina in the 1986 World Cup quarter final against England and Thierry Henry’s self-assisted volley for Arsenal against Manchester United in the Premier League in 2000. Maradona’s became all the easier to appreciate after speaking to one of England’s players from that day – Steve Hodge – who remarked that plenty of players would have had trouble simply dribbling that ball at pace towards goal on an empty Azteca field given the unpredictability of the bobbly surface. He was right. Maradona did it against a good England team and one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Peter Shilton.
Henry’s looked all the better after watching a video of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain trying to recreate it five times in a row at the Arsenal training ground and still being unable to do it.
When you get a second perspective on how hard it is to execute such a goal, it is only then you can appreciate the skill, dexterity and control required for that exact chain of events to transpire.
Mesut Ozil’s goal against Ludogorets on Tuesday was one such goal which belongs in that company.In real time you can see he pulls the ball down, lifts it back over the goalkeeper, sits two defenders downon their backsides and rolls the ball into the net.
Perhaps because Arsenal were expected to win the game, it might have looked a formality as soon as he went into the clear. Hundreds of players could have put the ball in the net from that situation but are there any more that could have done it like Ozil? The German World Cup winner has total mastery of the ball throughout and appears to be working in bullet time; he knows what will happen but nobody else has access to the script. Although Ozil receives a high proportion of criticism there are scarcely any players in the world that can play the type of football he can...
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