Football’s Greatest Goals No.54
Lightning doesn’t strike twice…but Tony Yeboah strikes twice!
The Ghanaian seemed to have a vendetta against crossbars, regularly trying to snap them in half with pulverising shots. In the 1995/96 season – his first in England after a move from Eintracht Frankfurt – Yeboah thumped in two wonderful goals from a very similar position. Both efforts slammed against the underside of the bar before bouncing back up off the ground and into the roof of the net.
I will be featuring the first of the two sensational goals today. The second of the two thunderbolts came a month later away to Wimbledon and I covered that goal earlier goal on in this series. You can read about it by clicking here.
Yeboah had joined the club in January 1995. He had quite a prolific spell over the remaining five months of the season, scoring 20 goals in just 27 games.
He started the 1995/96 season by scoring both of Leeds’ goals in a 2-1 win away to West Ham on the opening day of the season. Two days later, Leeds hosted Liverpool at Elland Road and Yeboah carried on his goalscoring form with a sensational volley to give Leeds a 1-0 win.
Left back Tony Dorigo hit a high ball forward towards Leeds striker Rod Wallace. It was probably not the most sensible of passes as Wallace is only five foot seven, but it worked as he won the ball and looped a header back towards Tony Yeboah, who was unmarked and in space behind him.
The Ghanaian had plenty of space around him and he watched the ball come towards him. As it dropped nicely in front of him, Yeboah caught it perfectly on the volley and sent it rocketing towards goal.
Liverpool goalkeeper David James made a dive for the ball but was much too late. The ball had already shot past him before he had left the ground! It cracked against the crossbar before bouncing high into the roof of the net, sending the Elland Road crowd wild.
It was a fantastic goal and as I’ve stated earlier, Yeboah followed this up a month later with another scorcher from distance. He left the club in September 1997 but remains a cult hero with the Leeds faithful.
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