On Wednesday, we posted a video of Andrei Arshavin's nifty (and very offside) back-heel goal from the weekend. Apparently the play inspired some others to break out the back-heel tricks, with two back-heel beauties highlighting Wednesday's UEFA Champions League action.
FC Porto's Radamel Falcao scored this gem:
FC Zurich's Hannu Tihinen delivered this flying, ballet-like game-winning back-heel to knock off AC Milan:
What do you think of these goals? Are you one of those "I could have done that" people, are you do you acknowledge the beauty and degree of difficulty of these finishes?
Share your thoughts below.
Anyone could have done the Arshavin one. That doesn’t even compare to these. These two actually require skill. The second one – WOW. Increible – golazo
I’ll add a little trivia to this one for those interested.
In Brazil, this type of scoring is called “gol de letra”, which loosely translates to “goal on the shape of a letter, as in the alphabet letter L, which resembles the shape of the legs when the finish takes place”.
Back-heel goal would be “gol de calcanhar”. Socrates (1980s) was the master of this technique for Corinthians and the Brazilian national team.
“Son, when I was your age, I did this ballet, floating, world’s-in-slo-mo flippy thing goal in the gosh darn Champions League vs AC Milan” says Grandpa Tihinen to young Teemu.
Teemu: “Oh, come on Gramps, you never had that kind of juice. Do I really have to practice more???”
Gramps: “How about this YouTube clip in HD, sonny?”
Teemu: “I just got owned! While you’re taking a prostate potty break, I’ll be waiting out by the goal waiting”
Nice ImaGoalMan i’m really missing the special 1 these days. sad times for sure.
Hannu Tihinen’s goal is amazing. the timing and skill just amazing.
Looks like everyone wants their Arse-shavin these days 😉
back-heels… lovely. Lovely
I’m pretty sure the second guy took ballet lessons as a kid.
Seedorf is hugely at fault here. Stay on your post!
Great plays, but I don’t think those are technically backheels(they’re all the same move, or most of them are, except one is jumping). It’s more of a sidefoot pass behind the other leg. They probably have a name for that move in S. America.
(SBI-So how long have you been with the fun police?)
I can’t even imagine pulling either one of those off. Masterful.
The second one, was pure magic… On the fly?? If my little sister had lobbed it to me, i couldn’t make it look that effortless… Just one of those few moments of magic, you see in the beautiful game every once in a while a la- Robinho’s bicycle kick… Henry’s chest to volley for arsenal, some of owen’s chips back in the day for liverpool and england…
i would have taken it in the nuts if i tried what Tihinen did.
I’m honestly not too impressed by what Arshavin did. His shot wasn’t even well-aimed. Half the guys on my old master’s league team were capable of a shot like that. But what Falcao did was beatfiful; it looked purposefully aimed in the corner. Tihinen’s goal is breathtaking. The guy clearly strokes the ball as surely as if he’d kicked it on the laces. Thanks for posting these.
The second one is just amazing. Obviously you have to get a little lucky, but man, what timing and coordination. Amazing.
I see Gooch got on the pitch at the 60 minute mark. To bad it was to late to stop that nightmare in marking. There must of been 4 Milan players standing within 5 feet of that guy with their thump up their you know what. He was the only guy to make a run even. Awesome goal though can’t take that away from him but it is a nightmare in set piece defending.
And since I didn’t get to post my favorite backheel yesterday due to work, here it is now:
Ibrahimovic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDr71KzFy9c
Both these goals were WAY BETTER than arshavin’s… and they were both onsides too!
Both were great, but that second goal was simply phenomenal (and maybe a little lucky).
The first I could get lucky with.
I could jump and levetate before I could jump and do the second. Wow.
Both were excellent, though.