Football’s Greatest Goals No.37
This week’s ‘Greatest Goal’ comes from Arsenal’s Dennis Bergkamp against Sunderland in January 1997.
The goal was the first in a 2-0 win in an FA Cup Third Round replay at Sunderland’s former Roker Park ground. It may well have been one of the greatest goals seen at the stadium where Sunderland played for 99 years.
Arsenal and Sunderland had drawn 1-1 at Highbury on 4th January before the replay eleven days later. After a goalless first half, Bergkamp broke the deadlock with a beautiful goal.
The Dutchman always tended to score great goals and played with elegance and poise. He made the difficult look ridiculously easy and this goal was no exception.
Arsenal started an attack down the left wing with left back Nigel Winterburn dribbling forward. Dennis Bergkamp stood out wide on the left wing, but Winterburn opted to play the ball inside to Paul Merson who was stood in the middle of the pitch around 30 yards from goal.
As Merson collected the ball, Bergkamp made a diagonal run from the wing to the edge of the penalty area. Merson laid the ball off to Bergkamp who hit it back first time before carrying on his run towards the ‘D’ at the edge of the penalty area.
Merson laid the ball back to Bergkamp who had now arrived at the edge of the ‘D’. The Dutchman was nudged slightly off balance by a Sunderland defender and this knocked the ball slightly away from goal.
With his back to goal, Bergkamp dragged the ball back and swivelled round to face goal in one quick movement that suddenly gave him about five yards of space. There were two defenders in front of him, one directly in front of him and blocking a direct run at goal.
After taking a couple of touches to control the ball, Bergkamp pushed the ball out to his right and curled a shot high towards the top corner with the inside of his right foot. The defender who had prevented Bergkamp from running through on goal had indirectly blocked his goalkeeper Lionel Perez from seeing the ball which had flown past him before he was able to properly react.
Perez made a dive anyway but it was purely for show as the ball crashed into the top corner of the net. The French goalkeeper would never have got near it even if he had a clear sight of Bergkamp because the amount of curl took the ball well away from the goalkeeper.
The celebration by the Dutchman was of a mock surprise reaction. He covered his mouth with one of his hands and Stephen Hughes, Nigel Winterburn and Paul Merson all joined him with their hands over their mouths too! It was a perfect act to a perfect goal.
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