Football’s Greatest Goals No.12
I could easily put twenty of Dennis Bergkamp’s goals in this series. He was a scorer of great goals as opposed to a great goalscorer and had fantastic vision, close-control and skill.
There was a deftness to his play that made everything he did on the pitch look ridiculously easy, a trait that all world-class players show.
This week’s Greatest Goal comes from Dennis Bergkamp at the 1998 World Cup.
Holland had reached the Quarter Final, having finished in their group. In the Second Road, they beat Yugoslavia 2-1, with goals from Dennis Bergkamp and an injury-time winner from Edgar Davids.
The Quarter Final looked to be a tough match though, as they faced Argentina at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille. Argentina had beaten England on penalties in the previous round in a classic encounter.
Holland took the lead after 12 minutes courtesy of a goal from Patrick Kluivert. Claudio Lopez levelled the score five minutes later.
The score stayed the same until the final minute and it looked as if the game would be going to extra-time.
Captain Frank de Boer had possession of the ball in his own half and with no Argentina players putting any pressure on him, he began dribbling forward.
The Ajax defender looked up and from about 15 yards short of the halfway line, hit a long diagonal ball downfield towards striker Dennis Bergkamp.
De Boer’s ball was inch-perfect and dropped just inside Argentina’s penalty area.
Bergkamp stretched out his right leg and stopped the ball dead. Argentine defender Roberto Ayala came rushing in from the Dutchman’s left and in an instant, Bergkamp had flicked the ball past him with his right foot.
Bergkamp had broken free from Ayala and cut in towards goal. He had a couple of yards to himself. Carlos Roa in the Argentina goal came forward to narrow the angle and Bergkamp hit the ball across him. His shot was with the outside of his right boot and went high into the top right hand corner of the net.
It was a quite brilliant goal and along with Michael Owen’s individual goal in the previous round for England, was the goal of the tournament.
Holand would go out in the next round, losing their Semi-Final to reigning world champions Brazil. It was a close match, but Brazil won 4-2 on penalties.
The video below has the commentary from Dutch television. Needless to say, the commentator was very happy with the goal!
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