Messi’s incredible goal

May 31, 2015 • 11:31 am

In yesterday’s Copa del Rey against Bilbao, Lionel Messi scored an unwordly goal, beating four defenders and helping give Barca a 3-1 victory. It reminded me of Maradona’s incredible goal against England in the 1986 World Cup, regarded as one of the greatest goals of all time. Messi’s is up there, too! Have a look:

h/t: Randy

50 thoughts on “Messi’s incredible goal”

  1. The comment on this goal that I liked the best is, “Gracias, Messi, por existir!”

  3. O, this one of Mr Messi’s is so, so pretty.

    And quite reminiscent, indeed, of Argentine Maradona’s.

    My, my … … my, my, my!
    Blue

  5. I believe Messi is the best. That was left foot, I don’t remember if Messi is left or right but I doubt it matters.

  7. What an amazing player. Notice how he grabbed his teammate after the goal…a team player. Unlike Christiano Ronaldo.

    1. I noticed that, he went to run away from him, to the crowd, then noticed his him coming and changed his run so as to include him, pretty cool.

  9. No doubt a good goal but Brazilian Ronaldo dubbed “The Phenomenon” scored goals like these regularly. He did this at PSG, Barcelona 97′ season, Inter-Milan before the injuries.

    Introduction:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8kWfEEH2pA

    Then this!!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEHB4cpEc5Y

    Samples:
    Barcelona 97 (One Season)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dimEj_lA7J0

    His scoring rate was unheard of for that time.
    He was doing these things from his first club.
    It was several career ending knee injuries that curtailed this style of play from him.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPfLKGUI2uo&spfreload=1

    When he returned from the injuries he became a lethal centre forward. Coming back after 2 years out to lead Brazil to the 2002 World Cup.

    His World Cup goals and performances are not even mentioned.

    1. Please do not post multiple videos in the comments. There is a way to link to them without inserting the whole thing. As for Ronaldo versus Messi, I’m not going to adjudicate their merits as I’m a football neophyte, but I will say that soccer broadcaster Seamus Malin, in a post on this site, rated Messi not only the best active player, but also the best player of all time. Malin, who’s in his 70s, has seen ’em all!

      1. Apologies about the videos, I thought the links would be just the click-able URL and the videos *not* embedded. Apparently WordPress automatically embeds the videos even if it is just the links inserted in the comment.
        It was not really a versus but just to say that many of the things that Messi do, Ronaldo has done them as the videos show.

        I would love to get Mr Malin’s assessment of Brazilian Ronaldo at his peak.

        Biases 🙂
        Supporter of Brazilian national team

        1. I think that was done on this web site. You should look in the history/archive. Also, most of us are familiar with You Tube. Besides, arguing who was the best anything tends to be subjective unless it is direct play against another person and you can’t do that in team sport.

          We could argue something much more important like which is best – Cats or d*gs but we already know and it’s not close and doesn’t bark.

          1. It most certainly doesn’t bark, it is the most graceful, sleek, accomplished, athletic, poised, deadly, scary, elegant, pretty animal the world has ever seen.

            They don’t bark, they sometimes roar.

        2. Don’t wish to get involved in a he said/she said, but I’ve literally just come from watching a Brazilian Ronaldo highlights reel. He’s my favourite player of all time and at his peak, 96/97 w/ Barca and w/ Inter before he got injured he was the most phenomenal, complete attacking footballer I’ve ever seen during my time watching football. Plus, Messi’s cheating by being a foot shorter and having a lower centre of gravity 😉

          Ronnie was like a bull doing ballet, and I think he was more graceful and elegant than Messi or the Portuguese Ronaldo too. It’s pretty subjective I know but Ronaldo’s highlights reels are just…extraordinary. The speed, the strength, the balance and the overclocked intensity – he was like an over-tuned racing car working at the absolute limits of its abilities. No wonder he broke down at such a young age. He was who I copied in the playground at lunchbreak. He was a force of nature.

        3. Tip to easily get around the embedment…

          When you copy and paste the URL into the little WordPress comment box, just delete the “http://” portion before you post your comment. “http://” will show up again in the posted link minus the embedment.

      2. And don’t worry, Reader, everyone at first thinks that posting links here will work just like it does every other place on the internet. 😉

  10. Messi’s goal looks more impressive than Maradona’s, but then Messi was not being repeated fouled. So degree of difficulty goes to Maradona, making it really hard to decide which is more spectacular.

  11. makes it difficult to discuss on an atheist web site…this goal is clear proof that a deity indeed exists, or a demigod at the very least. He definitely IS the MESSIah (but not a very naughty boy).

  13. Wow. That’s like an Allen Iverson cross-over dribble, followed by a Barry Sanders broken-field run, with Barry pulling up at the 20-yard line to dropkick a field goal.

  16. Messi’s goal was fantastic but Maradona’s was still better. 🙂 Anyway, you should know that scoring goals like that is something in Argentina players learn to do. 🙂 This way of scoring has a name there but I do not remember it just know.

  17. Our football has a high number of goals scored relative to soccer. We still have the occasional brilliant goal, soccer is different.
    It is so hard to get a goal in soccer that it makes these successes all more fabulous.

    On a side note, I wonder if soccer had more goals they wouldn’t go insane from the tension and not go on rampages.

  18. This soccer ball game looks pretty easy.
    All you have to do is run, in a zig zag manner, faster than anybody else can in a straight line, with a football between your legs like it is tied there with string, all while being bumped and scragged, and then kick it past, around over or through someone else, into the goal, and bobs your uncle.
    Easy.
    Amazing.

      1. You might already know this but that’s called a ‘nutmeg’, where you knock it between the defender’s legs…it’s a really effective way to beat an opponent. There are certain things you can do when you have the ball that trick the defender into parting their legs so you can nutmeg them. Also, if they’re side-on to you they’ll tend to step across to block your movement, at which point you just tap it between their legs! I say all this because until I started playing football in my early teens I always assumed it was a fluke when a player nutmegged someone. I was surprised to find that it’s a common, intentional tactic.

  19. Great goal. But I’ve never been impressed with Maradona’s legendary goal. English defense was simply shamefully lazy. Messi scores many more impressive goals every season.
    If striker scores after a long run, people often find it “amazing”. Thus, other kinds of virtuosity may go unnoticed. How about David Platt’s goal against Belgium in 1990?

    1. That was a beautiful goal, true. Marco Van Basten’s volley in the European Championships is often cited as the greatest goal of all time. Dribbled goals are usually held up as greats because they involve so much skill, over a longer period than a single shot or volley. Football seems pretty singular in that there is such a wide range of types of beautiful goals – volleys, tiki-taka pass-and-move team goals(eg. Cambiasso’s incredible goal for Argentina in the World Cup), free-kicks, dribbles, chips, lobs, flicked goals… it’s partly why I love football. It has such range and scope.

      A bit harsh on Maradona’s goal no? It’s exquisite, and he could only take on the defence in front of him. The England team wasn’t bad, they were just facing a barrel-chested tiny-genius. He made them look incompetent.

      1. I confess — I’m too harsh on Maradona. I have hated the Argentinian national team ever since that confounded 78 world cup. They did not deserve the championship.
        🙂

        1. I understand the feeling of intense dislike football’s antagonists inspire. Maradona was a bit early for me but I have an uncontrollable, visceral dislike of Jose Mourinho. Supporting a football team’s not a particularly rational, reasonable pursuit – it’s pretty ridiculous if you step back and look at it objectively – but that’s part of what makes it so wonderful.

  20. Can any body who knows something about soccer tell me if the good players can swing the ball at various times along its travel?

    I can see the ball curve from the foot, and sometimes the ball travels straight-ish and curves at the end, what I would call late swing.

    How much control do they have over this?

    1. They really do have control. Of course, it also depends on the type of the ball. When FIFA or UEFA publishes the new ball used in a major tournament, players start commenting the ball’s properties.

    2. Yes they really do. If you hit it with the outside of yr foot instead of the instep(which is easier) you can get a particularly demonic level of swerve on it – there’s a famous Roberto Carlos free kick for Brazil versus France(?) which demonstrates it in excellent fashion. I’m sure it’s on YT.

      1. It’s all about spinning the ball and its initial velocity.

        If the initial velocity is very high, the spinning effect (it causes lift; but side-ways lift — just like an airplane wing or control surface) is overcome by the momentum of the straight line action, as the ball slows (in straight line) the lift from the spinning becomes more dominant.

        It’s aerodynamics.

        1. I was going to say that when you boot the ball your foot gives it spinniness which makes it move different. I think your explanation’s probably better.

  21. Central Naples is absolutely full of churches, but in amongst all these is a “Shrine of Maradona”.

    It’s not a misprint.

  23. I just watched the Maradona goal from 1986. This is my personal opinion here (and not being a serious football/soccer fan); but I think Messi’s goal is more impressive:

    The defense was tighter (much tighter IMO), he (Messi) had to weave much more to defeat the defenders (I also loved his cheeky kicking the ball between the one defender’s feet — that defender won’t sleep well for a while!) and he hit a much more difficult target in making the goal. IMO.

    1. If you thought the Messi goal was good, there’s a goal he scored against Getafe which many consider to be his greatest. He starts off on the wing, beats five players and scores. It’s mental. I’d try and link to it but I’m an internitwit and I don’t know how. It’s worth a look though as are the Brazilian Ronaldo’s(‘Il Fenomeno’ as he was called) highlights reels.

      Watching the great players dribble is an entirely secular numinous experience – I think there was a film released about ten years ago that consisted solely of footage of ZInedine Zidane culled from a single match and people flocked to see it, simply because football can be so beautiful to watch when played by people like Zidane.

      2. I think this is it:

        Messi goal v. Getafe

        I count 7 defenders he beats (one of them twice) if you include the goalie and the defender who tries to back up the goalie.

        Yes, THAT WAS AMAZING — and at age 19!! And you are right, EVEN BETTER!

        1. Mental goal, right? He’s an extraordinary player, certainly one of the greatest ever. I still think it’s cheating to be that small though…

      3. And his raw speed is amazing too. He’s just very fast and very quick, both. As someone said above, what an athlete!

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