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Must-See Goal: Hakan Çalhanoğlu

HakanCalhanogluHamburg1 (AP)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsZDHGFQ61Y]

Comments

  1. not giving the GK a free pass but if you watch closely on the replay from directly behind the kicker: the ball starts off heading for the left side then swerves back towards the middle, notice the GK steps left (his right) at impact of the kick then comes back to the middle as the ball knuckles towards the middle again. he remains there waiting for it to drop down yet when it does reach apex and starts dropping it swerves suddenly back to the left (GK’s right) and drops in under the crossbar. every person sitting at home watching this “would have stopped that ball” but that’s not true at all. the ball changed direction twice, the GK’s momentum hurt him. from his view he thought it was going right, then saw it curve towards the middle and thought he was doing the smart thing by going back to the middle then the ball broke right again and by then his momentum had him in the middle already.

    simply a great goal. leave it at that and stop blaming the GK. the goal from a few days ago from near the sideline at mid field was worse for GK, he got a hand on it and it still went in

    Reply
    • Oh c’mon the problem is the keeper is lackidaisical, thinks it’s an old school dipper and so he’s expecting it right at him — although he already looks jittery — but it’s not only a dipper it has swerve. So he freezes initially because he realizes he’ll have to field it, stays put preparing for the dipper (jump up/ back), but is then flat footed as the curve takes hold and can’t push sideways. An American keeper parries it because he’s not planted on his heels in panic for most of the flight like Euro-keeper-boy is.

      Reply
    • It’s the ball, man. The new balls are close to perfectly round and the covers offer little drag though the air. If you hit a knuckle ball like that with a quality match ball from like 10 years ago it would probably bounce at the 18.

      Reply
      • I would say 15+ years ago perhaps… even the fever nova ball from 2002 WC moved like crazy…

        Hitting a knuckler was possible with older balls too they just did not fly as far… if you place the ball so that you strike directly on or very near the needle insert and it will wobble a ton.

  2. Apparently Jogi Low was at the game to scout both goalkeepers, Adler and Weidenfeller. Low has never liked Weidenfeller, who got his first call-up from Low, I think last November. And that one free-kick is all Jogi needs to cross Weidenfeller off the WC 2014 list. Too bad. Weidenfeller is an excellent goalkeeper and a great leader, but letting that ball into goal from that distance is unforgivable, even if you are down 2-0 in the 91st minute and looking ahead to the next Champions League game.

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  3. It is a wonderful goal — perfectly placed with bend and power. You don’t see many like that, With that said, yes, it 40-45 yards away but no Dortmund player tried to impede his shot. A one-man “wall” may or my not have helped but I think it is inexcusable that Chalhanglu had a wide open shot. It was in the 90th minute and the game was already over……………………….

    Reply
      • I said one-man “wall” which is basically a guy standing right in front of the ball. I didn’t mean 3-4 people. It’s a pretty simple concept. 95% of the time when a freekick is in that area an opposing player will stand right in front of the ball to prevent a quick free kick. At the very least it requires the ref to back the player up which usually leads to a short freekick. These guys just stood around and didn’t care. But Dortmund was already down 2-0 in the 90th minute so understandable……I guess. Nonetheless, it was a fantastic goal but it was preventable.

    • You would not set up a wall for a center circle free kick waste of manpower and perhaps even tactically unwise considering many times teams just pass out of that spot. Purpose of a wall is to divide labor of covering net as you get close enough someone could just drive a shot easy for a goal. Keeper slides over somewhat to other side cat and mouse with bent free kicks over the wall.

      I’ve scored a few from this distance over the years buy usually only when someone cheats out and you catch a rolling ball a la kickball with force where it zooms right back towards the net, catch keeper napping.

      This, I’m sorry, it’s in the air so long an American keeper would follow the flight and get it even if it knuckles. Trained at tracking baseballs and footballs and such. I would think this is more like what some sloppy Latin American keeper or technical but not athleticly gifted Euro-keeper does. He shuts off when he thinks it’s over and it’s a couple yards sideways and he seems not to react even to that quick enough. Sloppy.

      Reply
    • Inexcusable from the whole team, they were just standing around as he lined up, looked like they didn’t give a you-know-what. Nice strike, but game conditions were more like a training session at that point.

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      • What were the defenders supposed to be doing. Setting up a wall? This was the equivalent of a basketball free throw at the end of the game where the shooting team has none of its players there for a rebound. This is a guy lining up 45 yards from goal saying, “Let’s see if I can score a ridiculous goal because this game is already over.” Then he did.

    • After seeing the replay from behind the shooter, I am inclined to cut the ‘keeper a little slack. The ball appeared to take a sharp left turn just before reaching the goal. It didn’t just dip, it swerved — in the last few yards.

      But from 45 yards???

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      • Yeah that angle made the thing much more sympathetic for me… Not the kind of action you’d see on the old balls 30 years ago. Trying to track that thing well enough to beat it away as it knuckles toward you must be nightmarish… don’t know how you can anticipate it suddenly taking a hard left like that.

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