[Archived] Best Free Kick Ever ?

[brfcshabba]

Mikael Nilsson

I quite like this freekick, you do have to put up with Townsend describing it though

[Lathund]

I came in here to post that Juninho complilation, damn you whoever it was that posted it! Might not make the individually most spectacular free kicks, but noone hits them that well with that kind of consistency.

You don't seem to get the clever passing free kicks these days, the ones were the taker would dummy a shot and pass the ball starting off a one touch passing move that led to somebody having an easy shot at goal.

Saw a Youtube compilation of such goals once, some fantasticly clever oens in there, but can't find it now. I have one that I have very fond memories of.. Now obviouly only one pass, but being Swedish I obviously love it

[LeftWinger]

I like this one....

[CircoWill]

Some belters here:

Redknapp's against us in 1995 has to be one of my favourites, just because of the celebrations that followed! Never seen so many grown men cry in my life!

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Some belters here:

Redknapp's against us in 1995 has to be one of my favourites, just because of the celebrations that followed! Never seen so many grown men cry in my life!

I like the one at 2:24

[LeftWinger]

Some belters here:

Redknapp's against us in 1995 has to be one of my favourites, just because of the celebrations that followed! Never seen so many grown men cry in my life!

Cracking find that mate. Some of them were so baffling I was left wondering where the hell the ball had gone. I'd love to see more goals like those in the Prem.

[krislu]

The special bit about Ronaldo's free kick is the way he hits the ball. If he can get the ball to move like that on regular basis when taking free kicks, then he will be unstoppable.

[rog of the rovers]

I like this one....

Andy Todd what a kn*b!!

My favourite Hugo Almeida

[Claytons Left Boot]

Who is that Celtic player that scored the winner against United in recent years? That was a better free-kick.

And speaking of Juninho....

Juninho Compliation

I was in an Irish bar in Torrevieja, Spain that night. Just ordering my Guinness when the ball hit the net. The place went ballistic.

[Yorick]

Ronaldo's free kick was as good as any that I have ever seen. Miles better than Bentleys, better technically than Carlos's. To move a ball from side to side with the instep is quite easy, to do it with the outside of the foot is more difficult but to make a ball travelling at that speed rise over a wall and dip at the other side in the room that he had beggars belief and screws up the laws of physics at the same time. If he can do that on a regular basis then it is almost unbelievable.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

It's to do with where he hits it, not how he hits it. They showed how it is done on SSN a few months ago.

Although his technique is good and he is a great free kick taker, hits them with power and they dip brilliantly, it doesn't account for the weird swerve it does.

[Exiled_Rover]

Ronaldo's free kick was as good as any that I have ever seen. Miles better than Bentleys, better technically than Carlos's. To move a ball from side to side with the instep is quite easy, to do it with the outside of the foot is more difficult but to make a ball travelling at that speed rise over a wall and dip at the other side in the room that he had beggars belief and screws up the laws of physics at the same time. If he can do that on a regular basis then it is almost unbelievable.

They think he kicks the valve on the football, which makes it act strangely.

[den]

He'd never have done it with a waterlogged leather football.

Pansy.

[broadsword]

Are ball manufacturers making it easier to score these type of free-kicks, or are players' skill levels just getting better?

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

He'd never have done it with a waterlogged leather football.

Pansy.

Link: The word "pansy" is deemed unacceptable by the Broadcasting Standards Commission

Clearly this counts as a highly offensive homophobic insult from you Den - surely a yellow card offence in these PC times...

Going back to football related matters.....

Arsenal "very close" to signing Christiano Ronaldo

Liverpool also apparently had the chance of signing him when he was a teenager in Portugal - but the French buffoon Gerard Houllier decided in the end against a move for Ronaldo - or to give him his full name, Christiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.

How fortunate for Man United that they had a partnership with Sporting Lisbon five years ago, with Carlos Queiroz joining the club as coach just at the right time for them. Had Ronaldo gone to a different club like Arsenal or Liverpool, I think it's fair to say that the Premiership table would be looking quite different now.

[den]

Are ball manufacturers making it easier to score these type of free-kicks, or are players' skill levels just getting better?

I can't think of any reason why skill levels should be higher today, rather than 40 years ago.

[American]

Better training, nutrition, coaching, ability to do nothing but practice. No need to get a job in the offseason.

[LeChuck]

I can't think of any reason why skill levels should be higher today, rather than 40 years ago.

It happens in every other sport, world records get continuously broken, of course the skill levels are higher today.

Had the players of forty years ago had the benefits of the things American outlined however, then they would probably be equal.

[broadsword]

But that's not god-given talent, that's practise.

We're seeing a lot more decent free-kicks these days. Go back 10 years and you never used to see it so often. The balls are constantly being modified ... they want to see them go flying into the net so they're being modified to the players' advantage.

Whether it's all down to the ball is debatable.

Better nutrition, how would this affect striking the ball? Although I suspect training wasn't as intensive in those days. And boots were hardly designed for taking whippy top-corner free-kicks. And the ball was just a wee bit heavier.

[philipl]

One very clear indication of technological change has come in goal keeping technique. In my youth, goal keepers would catch a driven shot. Now, because of the ball being completely different (and with slightly different inflation allowing it to distort slightly more on impact from the boot), keeping technique is all about compensating for late movement of the ball in flight and getting the rebound from a punch or parry to somewhere away from on-rushing opponents.

This is a brilliant thread and I have really enjoyed watching the clips. My favourite is the Roberto Carlos goal that Bundesliga banana shot was absolutely astonishing. It is like snooker- striking the ball in absolutely the right place.

In that regard, C Ronaldo is becoming a master and that strike absolutely stunning. Tugay did the same thing to the ball for his goal against Newcastle- ok he didn't have a wall to get it over but then he hit a moving ball rather than a stationary one.

[den]

Better training, nutrition, coaching, ability to do nothing but practice. No need to get a job in the offseason.

None of those are skills. Remember, we're talking about the ability to hit a free kick around or over the wall.

Sports do advance, but more down to fitness and equipment technologies, rather than skill levels.

I can think of many reasons why the Rovers team of the sixties, would get hammered by the Rovers team of today, but that's nothing to do with the skills of the individual.

[rover6]

I am lead to believe that goalies are, on average, taller and better than decades back - which goes a little way to balancing things up with the lighter footballs and 'slipper' football boots.

(I remember hearing Mike Parry on a benighted radio station arguing that the goals should be made bigger to compensate for human physical evolution...)

[den]

Goalies are, on average, taller and better than decades back -

Evidence?

[rover6]

Well, definitely taller. The average height of humans is gradually increasing. Someone tell me this is not some warped theory of evolution that I have picked up from somewhere but is actually true.

I would assume goalies today are more agile because they keep their bodies in better shape through good nutrition and all the hi-tech, science-assisted, training they do. Although, again, no evidence, just an assumption. World records in athletics continue to be broken (drug free one would hope), so I think it is a fair assumption.

Although, I recognise that a lot of football is down to psychology - eg. self-belief, concentration, mental toughness - which will not necessarily improve as generations pass. In fact, as things get easier for people, it could decline.

[Al]

Are ball manufacturers making it easier to score these type of free-kicks, or are players' skill levels just getting better?

Just before I retired I did some work for a company who needed to buy a lot of footballs and met a guy from a well known manufacturer. He told us that his company could make balls to perform in lots of different ways to suit different tecniques for different players. He demonstrated some of this by rolling different balls along the board room table and predicting the behavior of each before he rolled them. Apparantly clubs order them to suit their players and you need to know where to place the valve to get the effect you want. He told us he could talk balls all day.

It's probably part skill and part ball.