Football’s Greatest Goals No.13
Today’s ‘Greatest Goal’ comes from Cristiano Ronaldo during his time at Manchester United. It was in a league match at home to Portsmouth on 30th January 2008.
Going in to the game with Pompey, United needed a win to go back to the top of the table. They would win this game 2-0, courtesy of two early goals from Ronaldo.
The first goal came after nine minutes and he followed this up a few minutes later with a stunning set-piece.
A free-kick was given away about 30 yards from goal and the Portuguese international placed the ball down to take the free-kick. He took four large strides backwards and away from the ball, in almost an overly-dramatic way. As he stood over the ball, he was in his trademark pose with his feet shoulder-length apart and arms locked down by his side. Ronaldo took deep breaths as he sized up the task in front of him.
His team-mate Wayne Rooney came over and whispered something to him, but Ronaldo had already worked out what he wanted to do. It almost looked as if what Rooney had said hadn’t registered.
An expectant Old Trafford crowd watched on as the referee blew his whistle to signal to Ronaldo that he could take the set-piece.
He ran up to the ball and thumped it hard at goal. It cleared the four players that made up the Portsmouth wall and suddenly dipped down under the crossbar and into the back of the net. David James, the veteran Portsmouth goalkeeper, stood and watched the ball sail past him. It had already hit the back of the net before he knew the kick had cleared the wall!
The sheer pace behind the ball was blistering, it would have caused a lot of pain to any of the Pompey players in the wall. The dip in the shot was also quite incredible as Ronaldo needed to get the ball at least eight foot into the air to clear the wall which stood exactly ten yards away. It then had to drop under the crossbar and inside the post, out of the reach of the former England goalkeeper.
This type of free-kick from Cristiano Ronaldo is now part of his repertoire and he takes a lot of free-kicks in this way now. However, back in 2008 when he scored this free-kick, it was still quite new and the technique was rarely tried by players.
The way the ball went up over the ball before dipping down was quite incredible and had not been in the Premier League before. It was ground-breaking and deserved all the praise given.
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