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Must-See Juke: Heath Pearce

HeathPearceRBNY (ISIPhotos)

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

You have probably gotten used to seeing videos of Brazilian star Neymar embarrassing defenders with tricky moves, but you don't see those kind of ankle-breaking moves in MLS often enough. On Sunday, New York Red Bulls defender Heath Pearce showed that he too can put a move on a defender that can send them flying. The victim in this instance is D.C. United defender Danny Cruz.

Is it truly a "Must See"? I'm sure the usual suspects will argue that, but you can't deny that it wasn't a sweet move.

Enjoy:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKLzB0K59Uo]

Comments

  1. So I saw the video, and wasn’t really impressed. Then I read some of the comments, and decided to watch the move again, thinking I missed something. It was bad defending all around.

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  2. I agree….good move, but God….Pearce and his inconsistent performance!

    He does one thing well…and then serves a cross like THAT ! No wonder Bob Bradley grew tired of his National team B.S.!

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  3. I did a move almost exactly like this in my indoor game in front of a defender and then scored.. Thought back to this video as the defender was in front of me and it worked! Good little move to use.

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  4. The reason he was able to pull that off so well is because he normally gets a front-row seat to that sort of thing happening to him on a weekly basis.

    Also, his cross was crap and rendered his “juke” meaningless.

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  5. You’re right, in the NFL part the player doesn’t turn the ball over and create the opportunity for a counter-attack. How could I of not thought of that.

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  6. I agree with everything except “great result” it’s not a great result if the move results in a turnover. However, beating the defender was still in itself, an nice piece of footwork.

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  7. It was very considerate of him to do it slowly enough that we could follow easily without the aid of Super SloMo.

    Or even plain ol’ Normal SloMo

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  8. BTW if a running back in the NFL makes a “Great Move” in the backfield but then runs into his Center and falls over for a 0 yard gain, was it still a “great move”? Or is it just a nice move that resulted in him falling into his own player and not making any positive gain? That’s how I see this juke. Great looking move that resulted in absolutely nothing and was totally worthless compared to a quality scoring opportunity created off a simple move.

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  9. Sorry, that wasn’t a BASIC stepover. A basic stepover is what Cristiano Ronaldo does, merrily prancing over the ball repeatedly without fooling anyone. This was a real juke, with Pearce throwing his weight back and forth and timing each change of direction/speed precisely to throw Cruz completely off balance. Great move.

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  10. As a neutral (Union til I die, with no NY or DC priors) that was siiiick. I dont care about the poor cross or the school-boy defending, you get another professional athlete to look that foolish in a rivalry match and it’s a must-see. Simple move, great result, well done.

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  11. It was really just bad defending and Pearce got away with a sloppy step over. However, the bad defending made it look really nice.

    Double however, the cross was a bag of crap and if you don’t do anything with the space you create the move is useless. Just ask the 1000 mexican kids who pulled jukes on me in SoCal Youth Tournaments just to end up as grocery baggers and Dodger Stadium event staff.

    My point is you can have all the moves in the world, but if you finish them off as poorly as Pearce did, they are basically useless. Beat the guy with a simple move or speed/strength and whip in a decent cross that makes it over the first defenders head.

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  12. He didn’t flip-flap or elastico, he just stepped over the ball and Cruz over-committed.

    I’d say its one part skill to three parts poor defending. I might also be more impressed if it had been followed up with a dangerous cross. Pearce’s problem was never pace or aggressiveness, it was always quality in the final third. Bombing forward 20 times a game is great but not if it results in 20 poor crosses.

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  13. I noticed the same thing

    Think about it.

    Doesn’t it make it even more awesome that a “former” LB who has been converted to LCB was adventurous enough to get up on the wing and pull a move that broke DC’s ankles.

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  14. “…you can’t deny that it wasn’t a sweet move” is a double negative and would be the same as saying “…you can deny that it was a sweet move”. So if you believe it was a sweet move, you should really say “…you can’t deny that it was a sweet move”

    And more importantly, it was a sweet move. The defender got abused.

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  15. Ha. “Pull such antics” like try to pass a defender and create or score a goal. Those antics must be dealt with….

    …for the record, I’d probably send a message too.

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  16. I once was schooled like that by an attacker when I was a teenager. The next time he had the ball at his feet, I clotheslined him. Straight red card.

    I have no regrets about nearly taking the guys head off. I haven’t been faked out like that since, and I’m sure that guy thinks twice before trying to pull such antics… 🙂

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  17. Nobody commented on the announcer calling him a “left winger” and “the tricky winger Pearce” ??? He was playing CB in that game…………………

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  18. I still remember the El Salvador game from 2010 where he was pulling a few moves and was completely on fire. The guy has consistency issues, but if he really got himself straight, you never know how far he could go.

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  19. Pearce’s move is cute but Cruz is doing things wrong HS and college kids would get criticized for. He’s reacting to the legs and not the ball — which is static — and then the actual dribble is across both his and Pearce’s bodies R to L and he tackles with the wrong, inside leg too late.

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  20. It wasn’t that nice! I guess for MLS, yeah. But I think he even surprised himself. He should be thanking Danny Cruz for that one!

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  21. It’s the youtube generation, Ives. Unless the juke is played out by a cat playing a keyboard, it just isn’t impressive.

    Boy, in my day…

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  22. I thought it was more “must see” than a lot of the goals that get posted under that heading (for the record, I don’t mind the “must see” heading as it’s a nice reoccuring feature regardless of the amazing-ness of some of the goals featured).
    Anyway, too bad he rushed the cross afterwards rather than take the ball into the box.

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  23. I’m sure that I MAY be a little bit biased but the Kalif Alhassan juke from yesterday was at least as good, if not better as he had two men on him.

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  24. Nice move – quite the juke.

    However, this still puts Heath Pearce at about -225 on the “juke move” scale.

    He’s way in the hole..

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  25. still whining about the loss? Pearce made cruz look like a fool… made his knees slam together… view count says alot too..

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  26. Must see??!?!?!!? give me a break

    (SBI-Some day folks will figure out that “Must-See” is just a label. Here’s to hoping you were being sarcastic. LOL)

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