Euro 2008: The Best Goal of the Third Round of Games
A thrilling group stage has gone the way of the snows of yesteryear and the car keys of late last night, but before we move on to the quarterfinals let's take a moment to name the best goal from the third round of games. Well, I'll take a moment to name one. You take a moment to nod slowly and admire my wisdom. Otherwise: comments. Videos after the jump.
Nihat Kahveci v. Czech Republic
Michael Ballack v. Austria
Robin van Persie v. Romania
And the winner is…Michael Ballack. Nihat's strike was more dramatic, and van Persie's was more fun, but Ballack's free kick didn't even have to ask; it just posed menacingly by the merry-go-round and all the kids lined up to give it their lunch money. I have the impression that if the keeper had caught it, it would have lifted him off the ground and carried him into the net.
Am I missing any worthy nominees? In general it seemed like this round was the weakest of the three, which also raises the question: what's your vote for the best goal of the group stage? Robben? Sneijder? At this point the Dutch could order pizza and it would somehow beautifully demonstrate a freewheeling commitment to total football.
You have to have more than three goals in this conversation. Wesley Sneijder's wonderstrike against Italy and C-Ron's 63rd-minute strike against the Czechs deserve consideration. So does Robben's hard-angle strike against France.
And if you want fun value, you can't top Hakan Yakin's puddle-assisted goal against Turkey. It'll be a while before we see water have that much impact on a score.
These are just from the third round of games, not the whole group stage. I already had posts about the first two rounds, including Sneijder and Robben, who are also linked to in this post. So there.
Ronaldo's strike was okay, but I can think of several I'd rank higher—Henry's little tap against Holland, Ibrahimovic's missile against Greece, the van Persie goal that started with van Nistelrooy's sideline pirouette.
For me, probably, a list of the best goals in the group stage overall would run: Robben, Sneijder, Ibrahimovic, then maybe Ballack and van Persie or Nihat. Anyway it's a decent top five!
You know how some people say that Pelé's dummying of the Uruguayan goalkeeper in 1970 was all the more beautiful for the fact that he failed to score from the ensuing shot?
Call me crazy, but I don't care so much about the best goal this time around, because none of them can match Henrik Larsson's header against Russia. Yes, the one that hit the crossbar and went over. Maybe I'm just delirious after such a wonderful couple of weeks of football, but I would watch that over and over sooner than I would most of the goals: the aerial twist; the seeming impossibilty of success when it left his head; how you swore, just for a moment as it flew over the keeper, that it would indeed drop in; the agonising kiss off the top of the crossbar.
If there was an award for 'best non-scoring shot of the tournament', this would win.
When I say "I don’t care so much about the best goal this time around", I mean for the third round of matches, of course - Robben's goal still trumps the lot.
Podolski's thunderbolt today—the one that just ducked outside the right-hand post—is a shoe-in for at least the semis in the 'best non-scoring shot of the tournament' tournament.
Let's not forget what I consider to be probably the best piece of total football to result in a goal, Arshavin's second half strike against the Swedes. That was football at its most simple and sublime best.
Here's a link to the Arshavin, in case anyone hasn't seen it.
[...] would bet that for most, this has been the most enjoyable European championship or World Cup since Euro 96 and that night we beat the Dutch. [...]
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